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A modest gift, a magnificent message
©Los Angeles Times ENOOSAEN, Kenya -- In this remote corner of Africa, news about the Sept. 11 attacks traveled slowly to the red-robed Maasai people. And now, people in this tiny village have responded with an outpouring of support to show the deep sorrow they felt for the United States. They decided to give their most prized possessions, what Maasai regard as the highest expression of sympathy: cattle. On Sunday, the Maasai in this southwestern Kenya community put on a ceremony to express their condolences. About 500 people, many bedecked in elaborate beadwork jewelry, gathered on the rolling East African savanna for the ceremony. Maasai women sang mournful songs. Young warriors, some carrying spears, leapt into the air. And village elders presented to the United States a herd of 14 cows. "They say Americans are wealthy, and indeed we are in many ways," said acting U.S. Ambassador to Kenya William Brencick, who accepted the cattle. "But when we count the value of these cows and . . . add the value of the great spirits that gave them, we can say without doubt that you seem richer still." The gifts by the Maasai villagers demonstrate how the events of Sept. 11 have touched the remotest corners of the globe. Enoosaen is a village about 20 miles from the Masai Mara Game Reserve, where tourists from across the world flock to see lions, elephants and other wild animals. But the people of Enoosaen are virtually invisible to these game gawkers. The villagers are Maasai, arguably Africa's most romanticized ethnic group -- legendary for cattle herding, cattle-raiding, lion-killing and drinking cows' blood. "A Maasai warrior is a fine sight," wrote Isak Dinesen in Out of Africa. "Their style is not an assumed manner, nor an imitation of a foreign perfection; it has grown from the inside and is an expression of the race and its history." The nearly 300,000 Maasai pastoralists who straddle the border between Kenya and Tanzania shun modern conveniences. Most mud huts in Enoosaen don't have running water and electricity. There are no telephones and the only paved road is a 100-yard stretch of tarmac about 15 miles away. Despite the legend, many Maasai these days wear Gap clothing and Nike shoes. Some residents of Enoosaen carry cell phones and travel to a nearby town 90 minutes away to use Internet cafes. Enoosaen would not have rallied to show support for the United States but for the world's fascination with the Maasai. Several years ago, an American journalist wrote about how villagers had sold cows to raise $5,000 in school fees so a young warrior could realize his dream of becoming a doctor. The article caught the attention of University of Oregon administrators, who offered Kimeli Naiyomah a scholarship. Naiyomah, a pre-med student, later transferred to Stanford University. On the Stanford campus, Naiyomah, 25, recounted how elders in the village had raised him because he didn't know his biological father, and how he planned to repay them by returning after graduation and building the first hospital in Maasailand. Last year, Stanford president John Hennessy saluted Naiyomah in his commencement address. Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., who were on campus for their daughter's graduation, asked to meet Naiyomah. Naiyomah, many said, could be the poster child for the senator's famous book, It Takes a Village to Raise a Child. Naiyomah returned to Enoosaen last month to attend a weeklong rite-of-passage ceremony that made him a junior elder in the village. One night, when the other young men gathered under a tree to tell stories, Naiyomah recounted the horrors he witnessed last September during a visit to New York. He told them how "buildings that almost touched the clouds" tumbled down after terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, how desperate people jumped out of the burning buildings to their deaths and how hundreds of rescuers died trying to save people. "Everybody was shocked," said William Oltetia, the 20-year-old chief of Enoosaen's warriors. Oltetia said that until Naiyomah's story, he had not heard about the attacks. Others in Enoosaen said they knew vaguely about Sept. 11 but Naiyomah's account brought the tragedy to life. And Osama bin Laden became a household word. People who are unpopular in the village are now known simply as Osamas. "We don't have anyone as cruel as him," said James Ngodia, 44. "This man is a world enemy. If he comes to Maasailand, we will surely kill him with our spears and arrows." Naiyomah proposed to village elders that they do something to help America. Within a week, 14 people pledged their cows. Those who donated said they wanted to express their condolences and to show their gratitude to the United States for taking care of Naiyomah and for helping the village. Naiyomah has used money donated by various American friends to build a three-room schoolhouse and to set up a water-purification system that could help reduce typhoid and other illnesses. "When America is hurting, we want to share their pain," said Ngodia, who donated two cows from his herd of 22. "Human lives are the same whether it's in America or Maasailand." Ngodia trades his cows for land, food and other goods to support his three wives and 11 children. "A cow is like a bank account," he said. "You treat it well and it gives you interest." On Sunday, the 500 people, some of them from nearby villages, gathered on a hillside here to present the cows to Brencick. Children came dressed in their school uniforms, while elders wore their traditional garb. After songs and speeches from local leaders, the cows were driven into an area enclosed by the crowd. The warriors surrounded them and began a throaty hum that Maasai say calms cattle. Within minutes, the animals were a bovine whirlpool, pressed together and rotating in a tight circle. In the crowd, Naiyomah used his rungu, or fighting stick, like a conductor's baton, directing people to hold up signs that said: "September 11 tragedy," "We are touched by your loss" and "We give these cows to help you." Brencick later told the gathering that "it is not easy to take these cows to New York across the sea." The cows, instead, will be sold and the proceeds used to buy beadwork from the village, possibly an American flag and other items, that will hang in a public place in New York. "The world has not been divided by this tragedy," Brencick said. "You and we are helping to bring it together."
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From the Times wire desk Sara Fritz
From the AP |
