The Maasai people are an East African pastoral people. One hundred years ago, the Maasai ruled over much of East Africa. With the coming of the modern age, the Maasai were restricted to a reservation in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania.  The Maasai people have struggled to maintain a special relationship with their land and cattle, and have strived to protect their culture against the pressures of a modern age. Some are now farmers, workers and professionals, others remain attached to their pastoral traditions and still live on the Maasai Mara, in Maasailand in a thorn-branched surrounded homestead called the Enkang. Two things are valued by the Maasai above all else;  children and cattle. The common greeting in the Maa language is "How are the children" and "How are the cattle?" Parents devote a great deal of time to caring for young children. Several Maasai families establish their homes within the circular Enkang settlement, guarded by a thorn-branch hedge erected to deter lions and other predators. Maasai women construct the low dwellings around the perimeter of the settlement, allowing space in the center for cattle to be penned at night. Cattle ownership takes center stage in the economic life of the Maasai people. After completing their daily responsibilities, Maasai women gather to thread beaded necklaces and bracelets. Both men and women wear beaded decorations. Young boys are taught to herd the cattle roaming the Maasai Mara, sometimes in view of the lofty summit of Africa's highest peak, Kilimanjaro. Although the Maasai still cling to their age-old traditions, modern influences are increasingly impacting on their culture.  

 Taken from "Maasai...A Superb Photographic Souvenir"

African Affirmation of Faith
From the Maasai of Kenya

We believe in one High God,
Who out of love created the beautiful world and everything good in it.
God created people and wanted them to be happy in the world.
God loves the world and every nation and tribe on earth.
We have known this High God in the darkness, and now we know God in the light.
God promised in the book called The Bible, the Word of God, that all nations and tribes of the world would be saved.
We believe that God made good this promise by sending Jesus Christ, the Son of God, a Jew by tribe, born poor in a little village, who left his home and was always on safari doing good, curing people by the power of God, teaching about God and people, showing that the meaning of religion is love. He was rejected by this people, tortured and nailed --- hands and feet --- to a cross and died. He lay buried, but the hyenas did not find his body, and on the third day, he rose from the grave. He ascended to the skies. He is the Lord!
We believe that all our sins are forgiven through him. All who have faith in him must be sorry for their sins, be baptized in the Holy Spirit of God, live the rules of love, and share the bread together in love, to announce the good news to others until Jesus comes again. We are waiting for him. He is alive! He lives! This we believe.
Amen!

Vincent J. Donovan, Christianity Revisited, Orbis Books, 1978, p200