The Maasai are an indigenous African ethnic group of semi-nomadic people located in Kenya and northern Tanzania. Due to their distinctive customs and dress and residence near the many game parks of East Africa, they are among the most well-known African ethnic groups internationally. They speak Kimaasai, also known as Maa.
Despite their reputation as fierce warriors, Maasai culture revolves around their cattle. Maasai are not farmers but nomad pastoralists. The Maasai rely heavily on their cattle and goat herds for survival. These animals provide them with milk (and sometimes meat, though they rarely slaughter their herds as buying and selling cattle is the tribe's form of currency). One of their spiritual beliefs is that their rain god Enkai gave all cattle to the Maasai people, and therefore anyone else who possesses cattle must have stolen them from the Maasai. This has led to some fatal altercations with other tribes of the regions. The huts of the Maasai are built from dried cattle dung; cattle milk and blood are among the prime components of the Maasai diet.
Maasai women and girls are responsible for the building of the family hut or boma, taking care of the children, fetching firewood and water, washing clothes and preparing the family meals. The men do quite little in the way of physical labor. Maasai women are easily identified by their bright clothing and beads.