reviews
Jul 22, 2008
Otis
rated it: 
My safari guide gave this to me, saying the author was a friend who had lived a life similar to his own. It's a very well-written memoir style book of a man who is raised among a very proud people called the Maasai in East Africa. By modern standards they live very primitive lives: herding cattle, and living in dirt huts. But some of them are sent to school and enter the modern world, and the juxtaposition of the author's viewpoint on both worlds makes for a great read.
One interesti More...
One interesti More...
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Feb 15, 2010
Frank
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This is an amazing autobiography by a great author who just happens to be from a nomadic African herding tribe.
It is not an anthropological work that looks at Maasai society from the outside; it is an actual report about the Maasai told by someone who actually grew up and lived among them. In fact to describe it as a report about the Maasai probably overplays the anthropological aspects of it. The author is concerned more about conveying his own life than the mores of his pe More...
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Aug 06, 2010
Jacqui
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I read Tepilit Ole Saitoti’s The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior because I was so impressed with several books I read on the life of pygmies. The Maasai is another proud race that is disappearing, trampled by the march of so-called civilization. How other people live in the arms of nature while I’m snug and hidden in my man-made home with my store-bought food amazes me.
Tepilit grew up on the African Serengeti, drinking milk for breakfast, herding cows all day, and feeling lucky to have f More...
Tepilit grew up on the African Serengeti, drinking milk for breakfast, herding cows all day, and feeling lucky to have f More...
Jul 23, 2008
Elizabeth
rated it:
This is probably my top recommendation if you are looking to read a book while on safari. For one, it's not depressing, and you really get a marvelous glimpse into a world that you see whizzing by from your jeep window. The Maasai (one of our fellows on our trip likened the group to the Amish of Africa, which I thought was a pretty good metaphor) are all over Western Tanzania and Kenya. They "try" to live the same life that they lived hundreds of years ago. Homes are made out of cattle
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Aug 23, 2011
Sophia
rated it:
Strange and compelling. One of those books that attempts to bridge a cultural gap and in doing shows you how immense it truly is. Tepilit's narrative is well written and evocative, but essentially personal and straightforward. There is no pandering, or false humility or pride, and rarely pontificates on the greater meaning of his unique life. It just tells his story as a Maasai, not not the story of the Maasai.
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Jul 07, 2008
Jessica
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Very interesting book written by someone who was raised in a traditional Maasai family on the Kenya-Tanzania border. Big herds of cattle, men with 8 wives, ritual circumcision when it's time to become a man, etc. And then with the help of a US film crew and his English skills he made it out of Africa, to Europe and the US where he went to college. Only tragedy was that the book cuts off at the end, leaving you wondering where he decided to live ultimately. Very interesting, surprisingly little h
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Aug 31, 2008
Julie
rated it: 
This was a really intersting book about the Maasai people. It was even more interesting when you add the HIV/AIDS prevention that we are trying to do in there with the ABC program of Abstinence Be faithful and Condom use. This is a group of people that believe that semen from the warriors aids in the growth of prepubescent girls. Additionally they are polygamous. ABC will not work on this group of people until things change within their culture.
Mar 02, 2010
Johanna C.
rated it:
I think everyone should read some books written by former tribesman. Their style is very unique...interesting. Tone is different. Which is mainly why I read them!
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