Category Archives: Masai

Masai Matriarch

By Ron | Published September 3, 2010
Masi Matriarch

Masi Matriarch

This dignified lady is the matriarch of a Masi village in central Tanzania.We had just finished a lunch of goat stew and rice with the village when this elegant, poised lady sat on a log under a tree for a brief visit. She thinks she is probably about ninety, and although nearly blind and a little hard of hearing she chatted patiently with us through an interrupter.

Be sure to see my gallery, African Eyes, showing additional images of  some of the people of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania.

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African Eyes

By Ron | Published March 9, 2010

African Eyes is a new photo essay featuring several portraits of people of the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. Most of the images are of Bantu people with two exceptions. Can you identify the two Masai?

Tanzania is thought to have been inhabited for over 200 million years. The Bantu speaking people began to migrate to what is now Tanzania some 2,000 years ago from western Africa, while the Masai began their migration south from the Nile Valley about 500 years ago. Swahili, a spoken Bantu language, is the “official” language of much of East Africa including Tanzania.

Mostly peasant farmers, the people pictured here are warm and friendly. Though incredibly poor, they are proud and dignified and seem resigned to their way of life and economic situation.

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