Grow Up, Wear Pants, Tribe Told

Grow Up, Wear Pants, Tribe Told
November 15, 1967
November 1967
Arusha, Tanzania
original article

original article

Book Review

No items found.
Masai Herdsmen Can't Go Naked While in Town - The tall Masai herdsmen like to wear no more than a meager, rust-colored cape over their naked bodies. When a cow strays, they lunge at it with a pole or spear to jog it back into the herd. Their bodies dance out gracefully with each lunge, but somehow the cape seems to hang there, in the air, covering nothing, too far away from the nakedness that is springing after the cow. This is a gleeful moment for tourists incessantly clicking the snaps and dials of their cameras. But somehow it is a shameful moment for educated Africans like Aaron Mwakangata who want to see their lands and people developed and made modern. That is why Mwakangata, who is commissioner of Tanzania's Arusha region, decreed a few weeks ago that Masai and tribesmen like them must give up their traditional ways of dress when they walk in Arusha town. It is all part of Arusha's growing up...
Masai Herdsmen Can't Go Naked While in Town - The tall Masai herdsmen like to wear no more than a meager, rust-colored cape over their naked bodies. When a cow strays, they lunge at it with a pole or spear to jog it back into the herd. Their bodies dance out gracefully with each lunge, but somehow the cape seems to hang there, in the air, covering nothing, too far away from the nakedness that is springing after the cow. This is a gleeful moment for tourists incessantly clicking the snaps and dials of their cameras. But somehow it is a shameful moment for educated Africans like Aaron Mwakangata who want to see their lands and people developed and made modern. That is why Mwakangata, who is commissioner of Tanzania's Arusha region, decreed a few weeks ago that Masai and tribesmen like them must give up their traditional ways of dress when they walk in Arusha town. It is all part of Arusha's growing up...
related Stanley Meisler articles by topic:
search for Masai on Amazon.com