How Texting Wards Off Lions: Lessons from the Maasai Warriors
Back in 2002 — when cellphones were just arriving in the Maasai region — April Summitt (now a dean at La Sierra University) visited eastern Africa and observed that the Maasai people were having serious internal discussions about how to integrate modern technology into their pastoral semi-nomadic lives. The general sentiment at that time was to “accept and selectively use western technology, but not at the expense of their own traditions.”
By 2014, when Virginia Tech Geography professor Timothy Baird got to northern Tanzania, “the cell phone had become a critical tool, like the short sword, worn together on a Maasai man’s belt,” as Susan Trulove of Research magazine reported on Baird’s findings. Also as of 2014, there were 5.4 billion cellular subscriptions in developing countries.
Today, phones have become essential for things like communicating the sitings of marauding animals and, in the case of teen boys, flirting on Facebook. Men tell Baird they like to use their phones to take photos “of cows and women.” (Baird has not interviewed Maasai women and girls as yet.)
Baird also observes that, because phones make individual Maasai families more independent, they are interacting less with the larger community. “Their internal bonds with other Maasai may be becoming weaker as they build bridges with others, especially non-Maasai. Nowadays, households don’t need to rely on their neighbors.”
The Maasai readily admit phones are a godsend in terms of allowing instant communication, especially about threats. “Boys that know how to read and write [so they can text] and know how to use a phone, are extremely useful herders now,” Baird told Kaleigh Rogers of Vice.com’s Motherboard. “It’s no longer just about being cunning or brave or strategic about the landscape or wildlife or whatnot. Knowing how to use a phone is a prerequisite now. When you send herders out, they need to have a phone with them.”
Diesel generators and solar panels are mainly how people charge their phones. (Yes, Baird told me, there are solar panels on some thatched hut roofs!). Most people have simple phones they generally get from China which allow texting, access to email, and some apps, including Facebook.
But even as the Maasai delve into mobile banking, many long-held traditions persist, such as gifts or loans in the form of animals.
It seems then — as they had intended — the Maasai are thoughtfully incorporating technology. As Baird told National Geographic, which funded his research, “They’re not jumping on Epicurious for how to make a soufflé, they’re using their phones in ways that are relevant to their lives.” In other words, they are using them as tools to solve problems.
If you’d like to use technology more to your advantage, take a look at How To Be a Durable Human: Revive and Thrive in the Digital Age Through the Power of Self-Design.
