Maasai people in Kenya - stock photo

Maasai women dance and greet one another from different villages. Women dressed in the colorful traditional kangas. The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group of semi-nomadic people living in Kenya and northern Tanzania in the Great Rift Valley. Due to their distinctive customs and colorful dress and residence near the many game parks of east Africa, they are among the most well known of African ethnic groups. They speak the Maa language. Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitute their primary source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor. A Maasai myth relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes