The Serengeti area is home to various local people, the most famous of them being the Maasai. The Maasai mostly live-in harmony, sometimes in conflict, with nature. You are bound to visit your hosts when visiting the area on your Serengeti safari in Tanzania. North of the Masai Mara National Reserve in Kenya lie the Loita Hills that are the historic lands of the Kenya Maasai people, now pursuing ranching and mechanized agriculture.
Traditional pastoralist Maasai inhabit the eastern side of the ecosystem from the Narok district in Kenya south through the Loliondo area, the Ngorongoro Conservation Area to the southern edge of the Serengeti plains where they meet the Sukuma.
Towards the southeast, the Maasai pastoralists extend into the Simanjiro plains across the Rift valley, up to Dodoma. Many Maasai people are abandoning their traditional pastoralist culture in favour of developing limited small scale agricultural settlements.
Much of the area now protected within Serengeti National Park was formerly populated by the Maasai, who grazed their cattle on the eastern plains, but had a more sporadic presence in the west because of the seasonal profusion of tsetse flies, which carry a parasite responsible for a disease that can be fatal to cows.
The Maasai are relatively recent arrivals to the region, having migrated there from the north in the 17th century, when they forcefully displaced their Datoga predecessors. The name Serengeti derives from the Maa word ‘Serengeti’, meaning ‘Endless Plain, and it most properly refers to the short-grass plains of the southeast rather than the whole park.
They are very popular among tourists, because of their rich traditions and iconic culture, including jumping dances and red clothes.
They are divided into different sections. Each one of the section is culturally different and unique, although they all speak the same language.
Their traditional way of life sees them living in harmony with wildlife and the environment. In the dry season, they live under the shelter of the woodlands and mountains slopes, and in the rainy season they move to the vast plains. They have permission to take their livestock into the Ngorongoro Crater for water and grazing, but they’re not allowed to live there or cultivate the land. Elsewhere, they can move freely around the entire conservation area.
