The Maasai bring a little of their culture to Winchester
| Published: 30th July 2008 14:03 |
One hundred local people attended an event at All Saints Church, Highcliffe on Tuesday 22nd July 2008 when 6 Maasai warriors and 2 Maasai women from the Osiligi Maasai Warrior Troupe joined with local politicians to explore the idea of "community".
The Rector of East Winchester, Rev Paul Kennedy explained to the Hampshire Chronicle reporter present at the event that it would provide an opportunity for the local people to learn how other cultures have gone about forming communities in very different environments to our own.
The Maasai live in a harsh environment, exacerbated by the recent civil unrest in Kenya, and can help us put our own concerns and issues into perspective."
The Maasai are on a two-month tour of Britain raising funds for the improvement of their village back home and also included a business workshop on sustainable leadership and strategy, organised by Anthony Willoughby in conjunction with Chris Howe, from Changemaker International, at Butser Hill on 23rd July 2008.
Rev Paul Kennedy had been given the opportunity to host this event in Winchester by his friend Anthony Willoughby who is the originator of a unique "I Will Not Complain" philosophy of life. Anthony runs a business of the same name which helps businesses to think differently by giving them the opportunity to understand how a Warrior Culture is built and sustained. Talking to the Maasai provides a greater understanding of the Warrior values of Pride, Responsibility, Humility and Courage. They find long term solutions rather than quick, short term fixes.
Anthony Willoughby's book "In Search of Inspiration: a personal quest in words and images" is due to be re-published soon.
L-R: David Frost, Pam Peskett, Richard Tajua, Steve Brine, Paul Kennedy.
The Maasai put on a spectacular performance, including a selection of hunting and cattle raiding songs, as well as dancing and enacting stories. One of the Maasai, Richard Tajua then took part in a 'Question Time' style event in a discussion based on the theme of "community", chaired by Paul Kennedy.
He was joined by Pam Peskett, a Liberal Democrat County Councillor, Steve Brine, the Conservative prospective parliamentary candidate for Winchester, and David Scott, the Church of England priest at St Lawrence and St Swithun in Winchester.
As part of the panel discussion, Richard Tajua asked "What do English people enjoy most in their community life?"
Answers from the audience included friendship, family, mutual support, living in nice environment, singing and dancing.
Richard remarked that "Each person here has his own answer but it is different in the Maasai community.
The first thing a Maasai person will ask is ‘How are your children?'"
The Maasai love children and this was emphasized during the evening, during a dance, one of the Maasai took a delightful little boy by the hand and encouraged him and others to join in.
Pam Peskett was asked how the Youth Justice system operates in the UK and the importance she thought of parenting, in preventing youngsters going astray.
Pam said:
"The Government had now realised that locking children up for 3 months and then releasing them into the community is no solution because they very often go straight back into young offenders institutions.
However it can be the one time in their lives when they have stability, meals at normal times, plenty of activity and sport. It isn't a holiday camp but probably it is to them, compared with their family life."
She went on to say that she agreed with the Government on the need to support families from the birth of a child until 16/17.
"Whilst for several years there has been a lot of help for preschool children, there has not been much for children and their families once the children started school".
She added that "Although parenting courses do exist, a lot of parents know they aren't doing very well and they need someone to befriend them".
Pam Peskett went on to explain that there are schemes in Hampshire such as ‘The 5s to 13s Project', with which she is involved. This has been developed by the Friends of the Family to help vulnerable families, with children between the ages of 5 and 13 years. The aim is to help these families to help themselves, by giving friendly and non-judgemental support on a 1-1 basis in their own homes. It is hoped that this will give the children a more stable life and minimise the risk of them offending.
For further information about the ‘The 5s to 13s Project' or if you would like more information about volunteering, please contact Sam Hunt on 01962 864466 or send an email to friendsofthefamily@btinternet.com
Steve Brine, father of a 7 month old daughter, said that he was learning that being a parent was a process of letting go and deciding a child can go that bit further away from you. Already he had found that it wasn't easy. He felt the key was for children to learn right and wrong from their parents and this required parents to be around, although he was aware that it isn't possible for all parents. He agreed with Pam, that there was a world of the difference between understanding and simplistically blaming the parents, which he felt was the last thing they needed, Parents need support! He emphasized the importance of groups and the church supporting parents because "kids don't come with a book on how to bring them up".
When asked what he thought of our culture, Richard Tajua, said that he couldn't see any things bad about English culture, only that it is different. However he went on to say he was surprised when his English friend John Curtin had told him he only knew 1 or 2 of his neighbours.
Richard said: "When you have a problem the first people that can help you are your neighbours"
The Maasai group with their friend John Curtin
David Scott said that he felt that the evening had shown how the value of outwardly expressing your culture outwardly, when it was in "your bones, bodies and hearts". He went on to say that he believed that we don't have much sense of tradition despite being thought of as a very traditional country. He felt that our society has little understanding of what had been done for them through the centuries, before the 2nd World War. David emphasized that he did not wish to be pessimistic as there were still cultural events such as drama, poetry and music. However he felt that people didn't live through their culture and had become dissociated from it.
David Scott asked the Maasai why they are so good at jumping. "Was there something deep in their culture that made it necessary to jump?"
Richard Tajua explained that culture was very important and that of the two tribes in Kenya the Maasai were the only tribe that still had a culture and were envied because of that. He added they "start young when looking after their father's cows & sheep, jump whilst animals are grazing, when you are happy you jump!"
Another member of the Maasai explained that jumping has a meaning in Maasai culture:
"It teaches the Maasai that "life has ups and downs and you have to accept how life comes. Life is not the same, tomorrow you will be up and today you might be down. Life goes on like that."
He then asked the English members of the panel "How you balance your work and your family life?". He went on to say that he believed that if you don't spend time with your children, understanding them, talking with neighbours a lot of problems arise. He had noticed that we were very "busy people, preoccupied, always on computers!"
Steve Brine admitted that he struggled to achieve a good work/life balance and as soon as he arrived home he was immediately back online. Whilst living in Chicago in 1999 he had been able to benefit from the flexible home working which is accepted by employers in the States but unfortunately not to the same degree in the UK.
Pam Peskett has 4 children and has always worked. She had occasionally felt guilty that there had been times when she hadn't looked at something her children had brought home from school but had managed to spend time with her children. She said she had always sung with her children and they had always remembered that. She felt it was important to talk to your children and she was aware of children arriving at school rising 5 who were inarticulate because they had spent their lives sitting in front of television with no family conversation.
She added: "We live in a shallow email, 'texting' culture. Not a long conversation, ‘reading to your child' culture anymore"
David Scott said that being a Rector had given him the great privilege of being at home with his children. As a family they had walked a lot which had given them the opportunity to talk and laugh a lot together. He felt that although family life was not always easy, they had managed to give each other space and recognised each other's differences. For him there was something about the religious nature of life which held these traditions together. It is clear that there is a life and purpose beyond this present life. If one can convey that to people somehow by love, by stories, by going to church, and whether they take it on or not - at least they have been given the chance.
Richard Tajua
A woman in the audience asked Richard Tajua what he made of our celebrity culture. Rev Paul Kennedy said that in his day people wanted to do something, now they just want to be famous. Richard said personally they did not want to be famous but they wanted to teach their culture, without imposing it and share ideas.
A member of audience commented that they had been well entertained by Maasai and asked "How did Richard think the panel could entertain them in return?"
Before answering the question, Richard Tajua said:
"Young men always like to praise themselves, as you saw the warriors in the story meant to kill a lion to be praised. At other stages of life, people do not want so much to be praised so much but young men want to be seen. Often this is a problem".
Returning to the question, he said that when they return home they are asked lots of questions: "How you are?", "How you live and eat, and everything about you, how are their children". "We tell them their children are just like ours".
When people come to our community you find people want to touch you to see if you are the same, want to know about you. Tell them how things work in your country. Maybe something like a song, something like a drama, we would like to see many things about you"
Having visited Scotland last year and England this year, one of the Maasai woman commented that she had noticed that fewer people in the UK were going to church and she thought this strange as the British people had been the first people to bring Christianity to Africa.
She asked:
"Why is it that churches are dying in England. In Kenya the churches are full."
On being asked to comment on the struggles of the Church in England, David Scott said that they seemed comfortable expressing themselves in a physical way, jumping and singing.
All that had slowly drained away from our culture and we had now become a passive watching culture without depth. This could be as a result of television, loss of faith, or a loss of being in touch with the world and its actual worth.
The heart had gone from our culture and so has any sense of a deeper and a further world i.e. God."
He said this was not surprising but it was tragic and sad for those who still try and maintain a culture. However there was still a huge hunger to relate on a human level, particularly at time of sadness, crisis, death, illness, loss of work. In moments when people's lives turn back to God, the church needs to be there to allow people to express their feelings about God in any way they can. Some do it by singing and dancing and expressing real joy and others prefer to do so quietly.
Steve Brine
Steve Brine remarked that beer had featured in the Maasai story and this is of particular interest in light of the problems of young people drinking in our society. In the Maasai story which was presented, the husband went away and spent 3 weeks drinking beer, came back and it resulted in marriage.
Steve Brine said: "I can tell you that in my house if I did that it would result in the opposite of a marriage!"
When asked what role alcohol played in the Maasai culture and how they dealt with any problems it caused, Richard Tajua replied that the story was from their history and nowadays the Maasai don't like alcohol. Richard Tajua himself is married and has children and must get permission from the elders to drink. Beer is for the Elders. Alcohol is used in Maasai ceremonies and is used with milk in blessings. It is also used by the elders when discussing special matters. He said that young men when allowed to drink beer become violent, go out of their mind and have to be given permission to drink on rare occasions. In Scotland, Richard said he had seen young boys under the influence of alcohol, shouting and causing problems in the community.
Maasai children do not belong to you, they belong to the community. There is a sense of belonging; you belong to your clan, you do not belong to you".
He believed that we need to bring back the family tie and the revival of the church was important. He had noticed that there were no young people or young men in the church, only old people, but that young people too were needed by the church.
Paul Kennedy, Rector of East Winchester, concluded by saying:
"It has been a hugely moving evening, great great entertainment, more than entertainment. It spoke at a level that wasn't just entertainment but took us on a journey of the Maasai culture"
The event was free but proceeds of Maasai jewellery on sale at the event and a collection went towards helping the Maasai communities in Kenya.
For more information about the lives of members of the Osiligi Maasai Warrior Troupe and their objectives visit http://www.osiligiwarriors.co.uk/
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