FGD_KAMBALA_ELDERMEN_29Sept 2017
Interviewer(s): F004
Interviewee(s): P

F004: I am Hassan M. together with Julius Ntweya in Kambala village. It is 29/9/2017. I am conducting Focus Group Discussion with Elder males. There two tribes, the Maasai and pare tribes. Ok, now tell me which foods do you eat currently in your homes?

P: Currently we depend on milk during spring season and the rest of the seasons we depend on rice and stiff porridge, together with these main staple foods we eat beans and milk as relish to these foods.

We also eat meat right from our young ages to date although our staple foods include rice and stiff porridge.

Our foods include meat, stiff porridge, rice, milk, vegetables; we grow sunflower and its oil.

We also eat bananas.

We also eat cracked and cooked maize more especially we pare people.

Our staple foods used to be milk and meat, but due to life changes we started eating stiff porridge and rice as a complementary food.

F004: Which changes are you trying to talk about?

P: At our young ages we did not know stiff porridge was a complete meal, we considered it as a complementary food to staple foods, but nowadays most of us have realized that stiff porridge is a staple food and complete meal, where by milk is used as relish.

We have changed from eating milk and meat to eating grains foods such as stiff porridge, but we have not stopped eating meat, we eat meat at the market places. In the forest we used to eat meat, cow blood and herbs, we did not drink water during this time, but now we have changed and started eating other foods including stiff porridge and rice.

Other changes have been derived by social interaction and mobility among people from different tribes, so we Maasai have abandoned some of our traditions and customs and adapted new customs from other tribes. This is also a change.

At our young ages, we used to eat and drink milk as our staple food, we did not eat grain foods although maize grains were available but we did not consider it as a complete meal. Currently we are experiencing severe summer season and aridity; this causes cow deaths and reduce production of milk and meat, so we have decided to get familiar to stiff porridge.

Our main foods were milk and meat, but due to interaction with other tribes, we have changed to other foods including bananas, cassava, stiff porridge rice and many others. The production of milk has also decreased unlike it was at our young ages.

F004: Which foods have been brought by the newcomers?

P: They include bananas, tomatoes, rice, etc.

Most of the changes in Maasai life have been caused by severe sunshine and aridity which have led to deaths of cows and low production of milk, that's why we have decided to adapt new kinds of food.

At our young ages, our grandparents also used to eat honey.

F004: How has aridity caused these changes more especially little production of foods?

P: Aridity has dried pasture and water which are mainly depended on livestock for survival, so many livestock have died. Crop production has also been affected because lack of rainfall has accelerated low production of food crops.

Aridity has been very severe and abnormal, this has led to shortage of pasture and water which are mainly foods for livestock, thus livestock die.

Some changes have been caused by rapid population increase, some of the grown up people have gone to school and they know many environmental impacts due to aridity.

F004: Apart from aridity, rapid population and tribal interaction, what else has caused changes?

P: Education has also caused many changes to the current life. In the past years we did not use cars, bicycles or motorbikes for our movements, instead we moved on foot, but nowadays many people are owning cars, bicycles, motorcycles etc.

Climate change has also caused some changes in normal life, for instance cutting of trees and deforestation in general has led to loss of frola and fauna, as well as leading to shortage of moisture and rainfall.

F004: How have these changes affected the responsibilities of women and men in Kambala village?

P: There has been life difficulties because most maasai men like to marry more than a single wife, so when cows have decreased in number, then most men cannot be fully responsible to take care of his wives and children

Women used to milk cows and sell milk to other people, this enabled them to earn some money to sustain the family but nowadays due to these changes, cows have decreased in number thus leading to little production of milk, thus most women are no longer selling milk and earning some money, all domestic responsibilities are carried by the father/man.

F004: We have mentioned a lot of factors for life changes, now what is he major or first and last factor/reason? These include aridity, rapid increase in human population, education, climate change. What is the first and last factor?

P: I think aridity should be the first factor.

Yes aridity should be the first factor for life changes.

The first factor should be social interaction among tribes.

Let us agree that the first factor is aridity because it badly affects both people and livestock.

The second factor should be social interaction among tribes.

The third factor to the current changes is increased population, because the land is fixed but the population on land is increasing tremendously.

The fourth factor is education. Education has created awareness among many people. People have changed their living standards inducing settlements standards; some have become teachers, church attendants, different leaders at different levels. etc.

The last factor is climate change. Climate change has led to deforestation, shortage of rainfall and moisture as well as bare land, drying of water sources and eventually aridity.

Most of our water sources such as rivers, dams and wells have dried up because of climate change. The shortage of water has led to deaths of many livestock.

Some crop farmers do burn their farms when clearing their farms, as a result fire spreads to other areas and burns a great part of the land, this also leads to death of livestock because of shortage of pasture.

F004: What is the second factor?

P: The first factor is aridity, the second factor is social and tribal interaction, increased population, education is another factor and the last one is climate change.

F004: Ok. Now tell me how food preparation has changed?

P: There are some changes in food preparation, for instance those who did not grow crops, they used to buy grains in June when summers season comes in, but for the crop growing society, these had enough food all the time.

F004: Tell me how cooking food styles have changed, for example frying, boiling, burning, etc.

P: Yes there is change in food preparation, for instance we used to drink fresh and un-boiled milk, but nowadays we do boil milk. Honey was also taken while its raw but nowadays there is a tendency of boiling. Nowdays most people do prepare their foods by boiling. For instance at our young ages, cracked maize was mixed with honey and people ate it but nowadays cracked maize is mixed with beans and cooked.

There are great changes in food preparation because most of the people do know how to prepare and cook food.

F004: What are prices of foods?

P: Food prices seem to be low more especially when farmers are selling their crops. We spend much cost to prepare, grow and harvest our crops but we end up selling them at low prices.

F004: Does the food price determine the consumption of foods?

P: Yes, the food price determines the consumption of different foods, for instance in the last year a bucket of maize was sold at 25000-30000 thousands, so many people failed to eat stiff porridge because of maize scarcity.

F004: Which foods when eaten by someone, people or his/her friends consider him /her to be poor/at low economic status?

P: These include stiff porridge and sweet potatoes leaves, amaranth leaves, beans, etc. Because many people used to eat meat and other food stuffs

People consider you to be poor or of low status when you eat cassava flour or unhulled cracked and cooked maize.

F004: What about relish?

P: Some people do stir up maize flour and prepare porridge; they mix it with salt and eat it with stiff porridge.

In Maasai this is called "ekikorori', (this is same as kididio) it maize flour stirred up in water mixed with little salt and boiled as porridge, it is taken together with stiff porridge.

We Maasai people do not eat slippery vegetables.

F004: Which foods when eaten by someone, people or his/her friends consider him /her to be rich/at high economic status?

P: Meat

Meat, beer, soda, milk.

F004: At what moments do meat and beer are eaten?

P: These are mostly eaten at market places

Meat and beer are also eaten during different celebrations.

Other foods include meat, rice; milk

Milk tea is also considered to be taken by rich people.

F004: How has aridity contributed to these changes in diet and nutrition?

P: Aridity has contributed to changes in diet because it has led to shortage of rainfall and low production of food crops, so the food prices increased, for instance a bucket of maize was sold up to 28000 thousands, and some people have started having two or single meal per day.

F004: What is the importance of milk?

P: Milk is very important because it is one of our staple foods. Milk also acts as a poison diluting agent.

Milk is very important because it strengthen bodies more especially for the case of sick people.

Milk is also important because it is a main food and nutritious food for the delivered baby.

Milk is also a business commodity since it is sold by women and earned money is used to sustain the family.

F004: Compare the importance of milk when you were still young and the current time?

P: The importance is still the same because we do not feed our kids with normal porridge instead we feed them with milk.

Milk is important for both kids and mature people, if you have not taken milk; your body seems to lack some special nutrients.

When we have finished our meals, we have to take at least a single cup of milk so as to improve body health, the kids who always take milk, they always become intelligent.

F004: Ok, you have just little milk in your house. There is a kid and older man. Who will be given that little milk?

P: The little milk will be given to the kid because milk builds the growing body organs such as brain. The older men will have to eat other types of food as alternative to milk

F004: You claim that milk was very important to children unlike it is nowadays

P: Yes milk is very important to kids not only in the past years but also nowadays. Moreover the fact is the kids for the past years used to take enough milk and they became very intelligent but nowadays kids who do not take enough milk do not become intelligent enough.

Milk also created body immunity and prevents malnutrition such as kwashiorkor.

F004: Do you produce enough milk or little milk?

P: Milk which is produced is very little due to the alarming aridity and cow diseases.

We do not get enough cow milk because of the last year severe aridity, whereby most livestock lacked enough pasture and water, still others died, thousands and thousands of cows died.

I propose he government to help us and give us some new breeds which can produce enough milk regardless of their little number.

We should get quality cow breeds so as to produce enough milk.

I think milk production quantity depends much on the available pasture and water and other treatments.

F004: You have mentioned aridity, poor cow breeds, what else?

P: We should get enough veterinary services to our livestock, including cattle dips, sprays, etc.

F004: What is the current situation to the livestock?

P: The current situation is very bad because most people have no livestock, some do beg for maize flour and milk from their neighbors.

Another factor for little production of milk was poor health to bulls, so they failed to mate with cows and give birth to calves; this is one of the reasons for scarcity of milk.

F004: Ok, you have mentioned factors for little milk production including aridity, poor and weak bulls, cow diseases and poor cow breeds. What is the major and minor factor?

P: Aridity should be the first and major factor.

Cow diseases and poor veterinary services.

Poor quality cow breeds is another factor.

Poor and weak bulls is another factor

F004: Ok, how do you use the cow blood?

P: At our young ages, we used to tap cow blood and place it into the calabash, we mix it with salt and boil it, then we use it as food. It is called 'ngodek' in Maasai vernacular.

Instead of slaughtering the cow, you can use a special arrow to stab a certain blood vessel on the cow and tap blood in your special vessel, then you use as food.

We also use cow blood to cure a person suffering from malaria, we tap blood from the cow, we mix it with milk and give it to the malaria patient.

Cow blood is also used by the anaemic victim, if the kid has shortage of blood, we take cow blood and mix it with milk and give the kid to drink.

F004: Do all people use this blood (both pare and Maasai people?

P: Yes we all use it because we are all livestock keepers. In the past years we used to boil it and eat it as food but nowadays we simply use it in case there is sickness victim, meaning that when someone fall sick we give him/her cow blood.

Cow blood also acts as first aid, for instance when your wife delivers a baby and loses a lot of blood, then you tap cow blood and give her o drink before taking her to the hospital

We also drink blood when we are moving with cows from one place to another, when food is finished and no milk, then you will have to tap cow blood and drink it then you continue with your journey.

F004: Do you drink it fresh?

P: Yes we drink it while it is fresh, when it drops from the cow.

F004: To what extent do the current youths use this blood?

P: Drinking cow blood among the youths has rapidly decreased because most of them have gone to school

Most youths have attended secondary and college education, so they have decided to abandon some Maasai norms.

F004: What is the place of the school as far as drinking cow blood is concerned?

P: The place of school in this case plays a great role, most youths do spend much time at schools and colleges, and they interact with other Swahili people, so they forgot some of their norms and decide to abandon them.

Most of college students do no longer drink raw blood, but very few of them do drink it when they come for holidays.

F004: What are the effects to our society from these changes?

P: These changes have affected our society more especially our school and college children have been affected, for instance some of these children do no longer use herbs medicine to cure infections and diseases, still some of them tend to adapt foreign living styles and Swahili styles, they forget about their maasai norms.

Some of them do get starred when they come back and look at our natural foods which we eat, they tend to abandon some of the natural foods among the Maasai, and this is an effect.

F004: Which foods are eaten by your children when they are at schools but they do not eat them when they come back home?

P: These include chicken meat, fish, eggs, chips, etc.

F004: What are the effects of these changes to your social and tribal interactions' ?

P: Some effects to our tribal interactions is that we have learned some new things from them and they have learned new things from us, for instance we come together in different celebrations and other events, we share some food items, we marry each other, the pare can marry the maasai and the vice versa is true.

We also share some land use, for instance some of them do come and cultivate the land in our village and we use their land to graze our animals depending on the available procedures. This has created good relationship.

Yes there is good relationship between us and other tribes which are found in this area, this has enabled us to marry each other, for instance white men do marry Africans and Africans marry white men.

F004: Let us talk about conflicts between livestock keepers and crop farmers? How is the situation in this village?

P: Currently conflict status is not bad unlike it was in the few past years when the conflict situation was very worse. The main reason for conflict emergency was village boundaries, Kambala village was surveyed and planned in 1986, but as time passed many people started shifting to Kambala village and the neighboring places, this caused land conflicts because of immigrants from other places and the issue of land use between livestock keepers and crop farmers.

The other reason for conflicts was due to political propaganda more especially through parliamentary and ward councilor electoral candidates during n general elections. Some politicians do make fake promises to their voters on land use issues, as a result these propaganda causes misunderstandings among the citizens.

Currently there low conflicts in our area, so I suggest the government to implement and enforce the required laws so as to maintain peace and harmony in our area.

F004: What type of conflicts do we always experience in our area?

P: Land conflicts are the leading conflicts in our area.

The new located boundary just divided the village into half that means they abandon the former boundary which was fixed by the government in 1986. The new boundary did not involve the participation of the people in this area. When the boundary was being located we had the minister and we showed him all the fixed beacons but still they did not follow them.

F004: Which any other conflicts do happen between the livestock keepers and crop farmers?

P: Some few years there emerged a group of people known as 'mwano', there is river valley which separates the Kambala village and the neighboring village, ha kambala village is for livestock keepers while the opposite village is for the crop farmers, so this group used to invade our livestock and steal and slaughter our cows.

Currently the conflicts have been settled and become dormant due to the available government. Only that if it happens some livestock invade and consume crops in the farms, then the farm owner and livestock owner do sit together and settle the situation by compensating the farm owner.

F004: When do we always experience such conflicts?

P: We always experience such conflicts around August to December when it starts raining.

F004: How have these conflicts affected the two sides that is the livestock keepers and crop farmers?

P: Both sides have been affected because both sides have lost their lives and livestock were killed and stolen.

Some cows were cut into pieces and some slaughtered and sold to butchers

F004: How do the elder men settle these conflicts when they happen?

P: We just come together and find resolution and settlement. So the elder men from both sides do come together and discuss the issue so as to come to the consensus as a solution to the conflicts. For instance if the livestock invade crop farms, we should not send the Morans to make a follow up on the issue but rather the owner of the livestock and the owner of the farm should come together and agree to each other how they should make a compensation. So we always conduct some meetings so as to settle the disputes.

We also solve the disputes using the formed committee.

F004: How have these conflicts affected the responsibilities for women and men?

P: The responsibilities for women and men have been greatly affected because this turns to be a war, women do run and hide in the forests, they starve and still some die in case of emergency.

Some people do experience blood pressure.

F004: Which other impacts?

P: Other impacts include loss of many livestock, destruction of house properties, loss of people's lives; some people have shifted their settlements to other villages in fear of war.

One of my friends in BB in the sub-village lost almost seventy goats after they were all cut into pieces.

F004: How does this community overcome such a situation?

P: We just propagate and preach peace among the people; we also use our formed committee to settle any sign of conflicts which seem to exist. ##F004# #When did you start experiencing bad climate and weather changes?

We started experiencing bad climate changes in 2000s.

Bad climate and weather changes have affected the livestock keepers, for instance the last year summer and aridity greatly caused a lot of losses of livestock, in such a way that many people were almost running out of their mind.

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

P: We have not yet got education about diet and nutrition.

This question is a bit difficult because we do not have any new education about diet and nutrition.

We Maasai had something called 'lomoni', it is a kind of conversion and discussion among the Maasai elders, this lomoni can cover a lot of issues which happen in our community. This is a great means through which Maasai do spread news from one person to another.

Apart from lomoni, we also get some information about different issues when we attend general village meetings, traditional and ritual meetings, etc.

F004: How should do we improve these means of spreading and delivering information from one person to another about diet and nutrition?

P: To improve these means of delivering information, we should use the village and tribal leaders known as "laigwenani', we can also use individuals at the family level so as to deliver these information to the family members.

There are also educated and school graduates who can do this work of delivering information about diet and nutrition from one person to another.

We should also ask for the diet and nutrition experts to come and provide education to us in our villages.

F004: Do you have any other additional views?

P: I suggest that we should get nutrition experts to provide enough education to us so that we can understand more about diet and good health maintenance.

We also ask you to enable us get some animal husbandry experts from SUA to provide us with quality cow breeds, education and techniques on how to prepare grown grasses, how to produce much and quality milk, etc We wish to have modern and mechanized livestock keeping so as to produce quality product which will enable us to make super profits.

F004: Thank you very much for your participation and tolerance throughout this discussion. This is the end of our discussion.