Declare Books To The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography

Original Title:	The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography
ISBN:	0520063252 (ISBN13: 9780520063259)
Edition Language:	English

The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography Paperback | Pages: 144 pages

Define Of Books The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography

Title	:	The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography
Author	:	Tepilit Ole Saitoti
Book Format	:	Paperback
Book Edition	:	Deluxe Edition
Pages	:	Pages: 144 pages
Published	:	October 14th 1988 by University of California Press (first published 1985)
Categories	:	Cultural. Africa. Nonfiction. Anthropology. Biography. Autobiography. Memoir. Eastern Africa. Tanzania

Explanation Toward Books The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography

This is an amazing autobiography by a great author who just happens to be from a nomadic African herding tribe.

It is not an anthropological work that looks at Maasai society from the outside; it is an actual report about the Maasai told by someone who actually grew up and lived among them. In fact to describe it as a report about the Maasai probably overplays the anthropological aspects of it. The author is concerned more about conveying his own life than the mores of his people, and he does it exceedingly well. The author spends pages discussing events like the time he fell asleep while his father's cattle herd was attacked. He is able to convey the incredible struggle to defend the herd along with the intense fear of his father's punishment. Through these little stories, the reader really gets the feeling for a life lived on the Serengeti plain.

There are of course great little vignettes about Maasai society here too: the women rushing to cover their huts with cow-dung to patch leaks during a rainstorm, the tribal dance to commemorate the killing of a lion, and, above all, discussions dealing with the huge herds of cattle. How they have to be corralled with thorn bushes to protect them against predators at night, how they strain after green pastures during the dry season, how they get poisoned by volcanic ash, and so on. It is amazing to see how deeply the Maasai come understand their animals after a life lived in continual contact with them. For instance, the author learns that lions sometimes station themselves upwind of a herd to frighten the cattle with their scent and drive them into another pack of lions.

There are also great scenes here about the author's travels to the West and America, where he eventually earned a Master's degree in environmental science. He travels to Disneyland and loves the Jungleride. He is physically threatened by whites in racially-tense Boston during the busing controversy. He dates a white woman and is threatened by blacks in Harlem.

This book probably taught me more about both traditional societies and cosmopolitan life than anything else I've ever read. I recommend to everyone.

Rating Of Books The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior: An Autobiography

Ratings: 3.93 From 357 Users | 33 Reviews

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This was a really intersting book about the Maasai people. It was even more interesting when you add the HIV/AIDS prevention that we are trying to do in there with the ABC program of Abstinence Be faithful and Condom use. This is a group of people that believe that semen from the warriors aids in the growth of prepubescent girls. Additionally they are polygamous. ABC will not work on this group of people until things change within their culture.

A rare look into the life of the Maasai.

This book is an account of one man crossing the enormous chasm between the traditional Maasai way of life and contemporary Western culture. What this man accomplished is more or less time travel, because the distance that divides the world he was born into and the one he learned to navigate successfully is far more than physical distance.Saitotis descriptions of his childhood and youth enable the reader to appreciate the strengths as well as the weaknesses of his native culture. It may be

An incredible autobiography!

My safari guide gave this to me, saying the author was a friend who had lived a life similar to his own. It's a very well-written memoir style book of a man who is raised among a very proud people called the Maasai in East Africa. By modern standards they live very primitive lives: herding cattle, and living in dirt huts. But some of them are sent to school and enter the modern world, and the juxtaposition of the author's viewpoint on both worlds makes for a great read.One interesting thing I

I read Tepilit Ole Saitotis The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior because I was so impressed with several books I read on the life of pygmies. The Maasai is another proud race that is disappearing, trampled by the march of so-called civilization. How other people live in the arms of nature while Im snug and hidden in my man-made home with my store-bought food amazes me. Tepilit grew up on the African Serengeti, drinking milk for breakfast, herding cows all day, and feeling lucky to have food for

I read this right before spending 6 months in Tanzania. I was already familiar with the culture, but I enjoyed reading this book and learning more and seeing more details into the day to day life of the Maasai. While in Tanzania, I had the honor of meeting saitoti and his family.