TomKal foto

It had never happened to me during my travels that  a group of people had made such an impression on me as the Maasai. No matter if we were on semi-desert or green territories. The Maasai people, always clad in their characteristic, often plaid, red, purple or blue tapestries, perfectly fitted into that African landscape. They live very modest lives, grazing animals which belong to their livestock. These are mainly goats and cows. Regardless of the fact there’s dirt or mud around, they always wear clean and tidy clothes, and the women necessarily have hand-made jewelry. These characteristic Maasai clothes have a relatively short history, as they date colonial times. Until the day of colonialists’ arrival, the Maasai had worn items made of animal skins. The fabrics brought by the colonialists appealed to the Maasai so much that today it’s hard to find a Maasai dressed in a different way. A Maasai man can have many wives, each of them leading a separate household (in the photographs). These homes are next to one another. Leading the household, looking after children, cooking, organizing water are all exclusively women’s activities. The Maasai people guard their herds. When you see a single herd of goats somewhere in the  bush, you might think that they graze there unattended and stray, like in Mongolia. Nothing could be further from the truth. There was always a Maasai somewhere nearby, looking after  his property. Sometimes, at the edge of a village, we could see a group of the Maasai sitting in a circle and having a discussion about problems vital for the village or particular families. An incredible impression. Several hours of flight from Europe and we travel back in time by many, many years. That’s how several thousand of the Maasai people live like. They still lead quite a traditional and simple life. The Maasai do not bury their dead. After a family member passes away, they are carried somewhere far away from the village so that lions, hyenas and vultures can take care of the funeral. It is quite problematic, as lions, once they taste the human meat, are said to become dangerous to people. There weren’t any problems with taking photos of the Maasai, though, in relation to a mini photo session, there usually was a „charge for hiring a model”. Commercialism is getting there as well, but we treated that as a form of support for them and, ultimately, everyone was satisfied. Speaking of satisfaction, going through a Maasai village we could see smiling faces, children waving their hands at us in a welcoming gesture, men standing with their arms raised, fists clenched and thumbs up. So much joy and positive energy in the surroundings of almost pure nature, as the Maasai make use of very few blessings of civilization. Their uniqueness made me create the first separate gallery devoted to these people, although the galleries on my website, in principle, are bird galleries. The remaining portraits of children and adult Maasai people have been also added to this gallery.