With beaming smiles, hair dyed a red ochre and ceremonial headresses of ostrich feathers, young Maasai men are busy taking selfies. They have just completed the first day of Eunoto, a ritual marking the transition from young warrior to adulthood. Aged 18 to 26, the young men came in their hundreds to the village of Entepesi Mashuuru Kenya, all from the same generation of morans (“warriors” in the Maasai language), a status they have held for a decade.
All wear red, the sacred colour of the Maasai, from their hair, which is coated in a mixture of ochre and oil, to their traditional plaid cloth shukas. This ritual unlocks the path to marriage and future fatherhood. It unfolds in a camp of forty-nine houses, with the 49th being the revered Osinkira, reserved for the Oloiboni.
This rite of passage brings together the families of the morans as well as local inhabitants and officials, in all several thousand people.
“It is one of the biggest ceremonies we have in our life. We can never meet in such multitude. It unites the Maasai community,” Wuantai says
The Eunoto ceremony features traditional guttural chants, warriors shed their ochre-stained locks single-file dances on one leg and the famous Maasai jump.Cattle are sacrificed and their blood drunk by the young men, whose hair is shaved from their heads by their mothers. Weapons are laid aside, and a burning animal horn holds a mysterious test. Bravery is tested as one warrior must remove a piece, facing a lifetime of fortune or misfortune. Refusal by all means a curse upon the age set.
Preparations include raising eight bulls, while three leaders are chosen, each with unique honors. The Olotuno, bearing the weight of his age set’s deeds, shoulders a heavy burden. Olaiguanani receives a special cow, and Oloboru is gifted a symbolic knot, to be untied upon transition to eldership.
Months later, Enkang e-kule, the milk ceremony, unfolds. Before Eunoto, warriors never eat alone, reinforcing self-reliance. The milk ceremony sees red ochre hair shaved by mothers. Warriors, for the first time, feel the awkwardness of eating before their beloveds.
Olosho le maa