A group of Maasai men showing their traditional jumping dance

A group of Maasai men showing their traditional jumping dance

With their distinctive customs and dress, and proximity to the major game parks of Tanzania and Kenya, the Maasai are globally recognisable. Their image has inspired the catwalks of Louis Vuitton, Land Rover accessories, barefoot running shoes and One Direction’s latest music video.

The reality is not so glamorous. The Maasai, a semi-nomadic people predominantly reliant on livestock herding, face a number of challenges. They are socially and economically marginalised, vulnerable to drought and displacement from historic rangelands, affected by ongoing land-grabbing, and threatened by the expansion of the ecotourism industry. They also face external pressure to abandon their traditional semi-nomadic way of life.

Yet until recently, a lack of appropriate data has left a question mark over the extent to which the Maasai are disadvantaged. This evidence gap forms a barrier to productive discourse and to support for initiatives addressing their specific needs. It is also representative of a broader issue of invisibility when it comes to pastoralists and other marginalised groups who are frequently under-sampled or hidden within aggregated national surveys.

We recently published the first large and systematic comparative study of child health in the Maasai of Tanzania. The results are striking. Nearly 60% of Maasai children under five years were physically stunted, indicating chronic malnutrition. This compared to between 20-40% of children in neighbouring ethnic groups. Maasai children were also more likely to report illnesses such as pneumonia and diarrhea, major contributors to infant and child mortality.

Our data was collected by Savannas Forever Tanzania, a Tanzanian-run research organisation based in Arusha specialising in the evaluation of rural development projects. The data is one component of the Whole Village Project, an initiative providing multi-sector data on 3,500 households across more than 50 villages across northern Tanzania. Data collection took place over a two-year period, capturing the aftermath of a major drought in 2009 that led to high levels of pasture depletion for many Maasai herders.

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Our findings suggest food insecurity was the main cause of the differences observed. Answering questions about dietary restriction, 80% of Maasai herders were categorised as severely food insecure. In neighbouring ethnic groups, food insecurity was also high, but this figure never reached more than 50%. Maasai children drank more milk, one of the perks of livestock herding, but consumption of all other foods was relatively low, including carbohydrate-rich foods like ugali, nutritious vegetables and fruit, and animal-sourced foods such as meat, eggs and fish.

We also tackled the question of how the transition from herding to agriculture impacts wellbeing. Previous research has reached mixed conclusions, most likely reflecting differences in agricultural productivity and disease exposure in more permanent homesteads. We found Maasai herders were more malnourished when compared to Maasai who have more recently taken up farming. But our findings also highlight the complexity of the situation, since herders lived in the driest villages, where productive farming may not even be possible. Longitudinal studies tracking subsistence transitions in real time are badly needed.

We also revealed some unexpected advantages for the Maasai, despite overall poorer health. Maasai children had fewer self-reported cases of malaria, most likely because their relatively dry villages have less standing water to attract mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite. Maasai also reported fewer cases of worm infections, perhaps because less permanent and more sparsely populated settlements reduce opportunities for pathogen transmission.

Promoting greater awareness of the Maasai’s disadvantages could leverage support for the many organisations working to improve their situation. In some respects Maasai disadvantage is surprising, given their exceptional visibility to NGOs and donor organisations. Our findings underscore the need for more responsible forms of both ecotourism and cultural tourism, so that the Maasai may reap some profits from the recurrent use of their name and image in commercial products.

David W Lawson is a research fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Follow @DavidWLawson on Twitter. Susan James is founder of Savannas Forever Tanzania.