hakuna matata belhaven

David arrived at Belhaven Hill swathed in colourful, elaborately embroidered blankets. He bore a spear and wore beaded bracelets and necklaces about his wrists and neck. As he moved about the floor the little bells sewn into his blue cloak caught the light and jingled softly. When asked what the purpose of the bells was he explained that his “bling” was purely for decorative purposes to catch the eye when dancing. He said that Scotland was incredibly cold but that when he flew from Nairobi to London at 35,000ft the on-board flight display had indicated the exterior temperature to be in the region of -40°C. He had therefore been pleasantly surprised to find Heathrow a relatively balmy 8°C.

 

He painted a picture of the Masai’s life as pastoralists working as one with their herds of cattle upon the plains of East Africa. He then drew gasps of astonishment from his young audience with a description of their staple diet of blood and milk and the Masai’s preferred of extracting both from the living beast. He was also keen to highlight how the tourism industry had directly impacted his personal life and the way of life of his people. There has been a recent realisation amongst the Masai that the wild animals that were once seen as competitors to their own livestock should now be seen as a resource that must in turn be nurtured. It was no longer customary for young warriors to prove their manhood by slaying a lion as the Masai’s exploding population (400% increase since 1960) had led to a shortage of lions and a surfeit of wannabe warriors.

 

 

 

David compared life in a Masai village to life in a Western community. His house was cosy like a Western home but kept warm with cow dung rather loft insulation. He explained that it was the wife’s role to build the house for her husband and that each wife would build a separate house around a common area. David asked whether this was the same in the UK. David Peek was able to inform him that it was generally the convention that wives choose houses while husbands pay for them.

 

 

He explained how as a young man he was a member of his tribe’s warriorhood and would visit the villages in the tribal area to dance for the attention of the women.

 

It is the norm for rich Maasai to take a number of wives and they attract suitable ladies by dancing for them with the characteristic leap that has made them so famous around the World. Tom Wright, Geordie Younger, Hughie Brooks and Angus Harley were invited to take to the floor to leap for the attentions of their female audience. Tom and Angus failed to score but Geordie and Hughies’ leaps were adjudged to have been worthy of three and five wives respectively.

 

 

 

 

Next it was the turn of the ladies who displayed their appreciation for the boys’ better efforts. They each did so with a display of chanting, swaying and rocking rocked as they were with waves of giggles. Your reporter can not claim to be an aficionado of the intracies of traditional East African dance and my scorecard was unfortunately lost. All were rewarded with a round of applause from their appreciative audience who were informed by their Masai host that this was all that they could expect as the betrothal of multiple spouses did not extend to the womenfolk.