Interviewer(s): F004
Interviewee(s): P

F004: I am Hassan M. (facilitator) together with my fellow Julius Ntwenya (note taker) in Kibaya village. It is 26/9/2017. I am conducting Focus Group Discussion with Maasai Elder males. Ok, now tell me which foods do you currently eat in your homes?

P: Our current food stuffs include maize, beans, tomatoes, vegetables, cabbage, etc. We have also milk to some extent.

We also eat meat sometimes.

We eat milk, maize, beans, and meat for some days.

T he most eaten food stuffs include maize, beans, and milk and sometimes we eat meat, vegetables, pigeon peas, cabbage, and

F004: Do you drink fermented or fresh milk?

P: We always drink fresh milk.

We use beans, pigeon peas, maize, tomatoes, green grams, fruits, spinach, kale leaves, bananas,

We also use 'gwala' which is mixed with maize and grounded.

F004: How do you prepare and cook the mixed of maize and ngwala?

P: Maize is well cleaned and placed in the cooking pan, it is a strong food.

F004: Which other foods do you eat?

P: Another food stuff is known as 'losholoo', it is a mixture of milk and cracked maize.

F004: Which food varieties did you eat at your young age?

P: At our young ages, our parents depended much on eating meat, milk and cow blood.

We also ate 'losholoo'

We also used to eat bulrush millet flour; it was much used by breastfeeding mothers and by circumcision ceremony attendants

F004: Which foods were eaten by breastfeeding mothers?

P: They used to eat meat, animal oil, milk, bulrush millet, sauce and later Irish and sweet potatoes around the 1960s.

F004: Do you still eat the same foods?

P: At our young ages most, youths used to eat meat in the jungle. They did not eat other types of food.

They youths in most cases used to eat cow products that is meat and milk, but now other foods have become dominant and replaced our traditional and natural foods. Women were not allowed to see Morans eating other types of foods apart from milk and meat.

F004: Why women were not allowed to see Morans eating other types of food stuffs apart from milk and meat?

P: They were not allowed to see them because Morans are the society soldiers and quads so they were to eat meat and milk which were considered to be foods for strong bodies, other foods were considered light foods for light bodies such as women bodies.

F004: What do the Morans eat currently?

P: Currently the Morans do eat the available grain foods such as maize, rice etc, nowadays they do not eat meat in the jungle because there is much scarcity of cows to produce enough meat.

F004: Why have they changed from eating milk and meat to eating other grain foods?

P: Most youths have changed their behaviors due to general development in most life aspects.

Some youths have stopped eating meat in the jungle because cows have become very few, so it is difficult to have enough cows to slaughter and eat meat in the jungle.

In the past youths used to go in the jungle, slaughter cows and eat meat while in the jungle, they also ate cow blood which was mixed with herbs.

F004: Which foreign and modern food stuffs do the Maasai youths eat?

P: Our Maasai youths do eat stiff porridge and milk, in our Maasai society the Morans do not eat fat foods, and they only eat meat and milk. If it happens that beans are cooked and mixed with some cooking oil, then young women and girls will not be allowed to prepare such beans, instead old women will be responsible to prepare beans mixed with cooking oil. The reason behind is that old women do keep secret about youths and Morans. Moreover, youths are not yet allowed to eat meat even if it is available in the house, they only eat meat in the jungle.

F004: Which foreign and modern food stuffs do the Maasai youths eat, either when there are at schools and colleges or away from your homes?

P: When they go to market, they do buy rice, irish potatoes, they cook them and eat.

F004: Do youths eat other food stuffs when they go to the market?

P: They do eat some foods, they enter in restaurants and order some foods. They order and eat any kind of food availability in the restaurant, they eat pilaf, rice and foods which are taboos in maasai society.

F004: What about chips and eggs?

P: They eat chips and eggs because they have gone to school and got exposed to different issues in different areas,

F004: To what extent are these food taboos?

P: Yes these foods are taboos, because those Morans are soldiers and security guards for our society, there are some who have not reached the stage of elders, for example if a cow is stolen, we elders just show them cow hoof prints, then they start looking for the cow even if it takes them a months to get it.

The youths who go against the maasai morals, when they take livestock to the jungle, they always become weak and tired as they are walking to the jungle

F004: What are the factors for changes in diet system?

P: Changes in diet system has been caused by aridity, starvation and some other problems. Some people have gone to school and become educated, still some people have known religion and decided to change their way of living, so we cannot stop these people from changing their living styles.

Another factor for these changes is scarcity of grazing land, that's why many people have reduced their livestock so as to match with the available grazing land.

F004: What other factors have led to these changes?

P: The most leading factor is aridity, because it has led to shortage of pasture and water, thus reduction of livestock.

F004: You have mentioned aridity, starvation, education, religion, etc. Tell us which factor is the first and the last one?

P: Aridity is the major factor because it has caused shortage of pasture and water, thus leading to low production of milk and meat.

Another factor is social and tribal interaction that means coming of together of people from different tribes and places.

Social and tribal interaction, that means coming of together of people from different tribes and places. Each tribe has its own traditions and customs, for that case it is very difficult to have common goals and interests.

Education should be the second factor because it has been a cause for many youths to forget and abandon some maasai traditions and norms

The third factor is due to general development. Development in general has enabled us to eat some new varieties of food, which we did not eat before. We decided to eat new varieties of food because our natural and traditional foods have become very scarce.

Another factor for diet change is modern education to our children, because when children go to school, they adapt to eat new varieties of foods.

The fifth factor for diet change is religion/christianity . After some people have decided to join the new religion, they have decided to abandon some maasai foods.

The other factor for diet changes is scarcity of land because it has led to shortage of grazing land, thus many livestock do not have enough pasture and water, thus leading to low production of milk and meat which are some staple foods for maasai, for that case the maasai decided to eat other food varieties so as to cover the gap left by milk and meat.

The other factor for diet change is social and tribal interaction, because we used to eat milk and meat, maize and beans, but when we came to interact with other people from other tribes, we found ourselves adapting to eat other food varieties such as fish, bananas, potatoes, sardines, etc

Let us now state the first factor for diet change up to the last factor based on the above factors we have discussed.

The first factor is education.

The second factor is religion

The third factor is scarcity of land

The fourth factor is aridity.

The fifth factor is social and tribal interaction

The last factor is understanding, awareness and knowledge among the people.

F004: Let us talk about the importance of milk when we compare the time when we were young and the current time.

P: Milk was very important in young ages because it protected kids from malnutrition cases. Most children had good healthy growth because of drinking milk.

Milk was very important because it protected kids and mature people from different diseases, it improved their body growth and immunity and it increased body weights.

Milk was used to produce ghee after fermentation.

F004: What about the importance of milk nowadays?

P: Milk is also very important nowadays only that it is very scarce, but we really need enough milk to improve our body health.

Milk has become very scarce because of population increase at family level.

F004: Why has this situation changed?

P: The situation has changed because of unemployment, education and decrease of livestock.

F004: Thanks. Is milk available and accessible to everybody?

P: The availability of milk can be traced from the zero grazing cows and not the grazing cows.

The cow breeds which we keep do not produce enough milk.

Another reason for scarcity of milk is shortage of pasture and water.

F004: Let us talk about uses of cow blood. How do you utilize the cow blood?

P: We always use the short arrow to stab the cow skin and obtain blood, which is mixed with milk and taken by people. We always do this exercise in the morning and evening hours. For example we Maasai used to fight, so if someone has been stabbed by the machete and bleeds for long time, then we replace that blood by using cow blood. So cow blood was used as a medicine to bleeding people or sick people as well as circumcised youths.

F004: Do people still believe this?

P: They still believe it

They really believe it because it is our custom.

People do believe because if a person falls sick or suffers from malaria and is found to have shortage of blood, we just give him/her cow blood to drink and replace his lost blood, this also works out.

F004: Apart from using cow blood as a medicine, in which other events do you use cow blood?

P: We use cow blood when a mother delivers a baby, during circumcision ceremonies, when shifting cows to far places where there is no milk or food, Morans drink blood during rainy season, they mix blood with other herbs to kill stomach worms and clean it.

F004: How do the circumcised youths use the cow blood?

P: We take fresh milk and mix it with blood, then we drill milk, after then we mix it with fermented milk. This is known as 'osaloin'

When a mother delivers a baby, she loses much blood, so we give her cow blood mixed with milk so as to strengthen her body. Only that some new Christianity converts have abandoned this custom.

Some herbs are mixed with cow blood to cure and strengthen the mother's body. It is known as ' kibeletema" in maasai vernacular.

F004: Do you use cow blood all the time through or during dry season?

P: We use it all the time. When a mother delivers a baby, then after taking cow blood mixed with milk, we slaughter a goat for her, she first eats goat fats and later she eats the remaining meat.

F004: You have mentioned several changes. How have these changes affected your maasai society?

P: The above changes have created several problems, because we maasai do miss cow blood and meat due to their scarcity, so we have decided to eat other types of foods.

We have decided to eat other types of food because we have experiences severe shortage of our traditional foods such as milk and meat.

F004: Do you still have common gatherings to eat meat or share milk or have common slaughtering?

P: Nowadays we have common gathering to eat meat but it is only during celebrations,

We have also stopped going to the jungle to eat meat because nowadays when you slaughter a cow, the meat takes only two to three days before getting rotten, the climate has also changed. Moreover, many people have become very economic because a person cannot offer his bull with a value of one million or one and half million to be eaten by his society members while he has few cows remaining.

We have nowadays changed the use of our cows, instead of taking our bulls to be slaughtered in the jungle, we sell them, earn some money to take children to school, buy some food to sustain the family and obtain other basic needs such as calves to replace the sold cows.

F004: What is your relationship to other tribes in terms of diet changes?

P: When our Morans visit other people of different tribes, they do eat whatever food they find there, even if it is a food taboo in our society, for example some people do eat sweet potato leaves, mlenda' which are typically eaten by other tribes, otherwise we eat normal foods such as rice, stiff porridge, etc. Our fellows from other tribes do not even eat foods in maasai society, for instance cow blood.

F004: How is conflict situation in this society?

P: We do not have any conflict in our society, God is with us.

Some little misunderstandings do happen between individuals, for instance when it comes to the issue of grazing land, everybody is advised to graze his livestock on his land, but it is a difficult issue to graze livestock within a limited small area. Most of these misunderstandings are always calmly settled among us.

We do not have serious conflicts, but just little misunderstandings.

F004: Where do you get education on diet and nutrition?

P: We have no such kind of education.

We always eat the food which is available, if there is rice or stiff porridge, porridge or cracked and cooked maize, we just eat.

F004: Getting education about diet and nutrition does not mean that you should get it from schools, even from your fellows or neighbors.

P: When we come together, we always advise each other to care our health. We should eat balanced diet but we end up eating meat.

An old man who cares for his health, she slaughters a goat and cooks soup; we are always educated by our school and college students. We also know how fruits help us and strengthen our body's immunity. School and college students do educate us about balanced diet.

F004: How should we make this diet and nutrition be important?

P: The government should try to provide education about diet and nutrition either through village approach.

F004: How should this information should be provided?

P: They should be provided through radio programs, seminars and trainings. I think we all own radios in our homes.

They should also run and provide education to the elder people even through their village approach.

F004: How do you solve the conflicts which happen in your society?

P: When minor conflicts occur, we present the complaints to the ten-cell leader or the sub village chairperson, the sub village chairperson will refer you to the ward level, if the ward level fails, they will refer you to the police station and finally to the court.

F004: To what extent have these conflicts affected the crop farmers?

P: Crop farmers have not been affected at all because nobody's livestock invade crop farms, everybody understands the importance of crop farms.

F004: To what extent have these conflicts affected the responsibilities for women and men in this community?

P: We always cooperate and help each other in case of anything.

Both women and men do help and collaborate together in most activities, so if one of them does something wrong, they come together to settle the misunderstandings.

F004: Which methods or procedures do you have to solve these mild conflicts?

P: It depends on the weight of the conflict, it involves two victims, the farm owner and livestock owner. If the two victims do not come to the consensus, then the agriculture technician will come and evaluate the destroyed crops and the cow owner will compensate the farm owner and the conflict will be solved like that. All in all, there is no killing of livestock or people when they invade crop farms.

F004: What is the position of the school and college students as far as diet and health are concerned?

P: If it is primary pupil, we give them tea in the morning because they always come back late.

They help to cross check exercise books if they are correct and to ensure that they attend at school.

F004: How do they help to educate you on diet and health issues?

P: They always help us and educate us about different issues such as work, etc.

We always call and converse with our secondary school students, they tell us about their studies at school and they teach us and educate us new and modern way of life, they advise us to practice mechanized and modern livestock keeping, we always work on our children's advice and opinions.

Most of the maasai own cows and goats, but they do not construct modern houses, they really like and feel complete concern to their livestock, but when our school kids come back, they no longer like many cows, they advise us to sell some cows and construct modern houses, we also work on their advice.

They have also educated about diets, for instance boiling milk. If you take milk from the cow drink it without boiling, they tell us to boil it because we do not know the health status of the cow at the moment. We have also known the importance of different foods to our bodies.

They always tell us to boil milk, because if you drink without boiling milk you may suffer from any diseases if the cow where you took that was suffering or it had infections.

Most school children have educated us about the importance of boiled milk.

F004: How is the current situation status?

P: The current situation has really changed.

We have also known how to obtain ghee from the milk without even drilling it, we just collect the top layer of the fermented milk.

F004: What else have the school students educate you about?

P: Our school students educate us about the importance of eating fruits to our body, they tell us that fruits do improve our body health. They also tell us how Fanta orange can increase blood content in our bodies.

They also educate us about general environment cleanliness. When they come back from school they clean our environment and its surroundings, they also keep their clothes and bodies clean, this is always a pleasure to us.

F004: Do schools students get Maasai traditional education?

P: Yes, we teach them traditions and customs among maasai tribe, so we make sure they do not lose or abandon maasai traditions and customs.

F004: We mentioned some factors which have created scarcity of milk, these include aridity, poor cow breeds, shortage of pasture and water, scarcity of grazing land and shortage of water. What is the first and major factor?

P: The first factor is shortage of pasture.

The second factor is poor cow breeds

The third factor is shortage of water

The fourth factor is aridity

F004: Thank you for your participation, we had a very important discussion. Do you have any other additional views?

P: I request the government to provide us and allocate grazing land for us.

I would also request you to share with us the feedback and report about this research

I request the government to help us and solve our problems and available challenges.

F004: Thank you for your participation; we had a very important discussion.