MAASAI DESIGN GRAMMAR Anna Lewerth Program of Industrial Design, Lund University 2005/01/04
Project done in the course: Design in unfimiliar un fimiliar cultures
Summary This project was done partly in Masai Mara, a national reserve in Kenya. The home of extrordinary wildlife and the Maasai Maasai people. The Maasai are a proud and culturally strong people that today still lives very traditionally. But development is rapidly changing their society and that is affecting their way of life. I got fashinated by the colours, shapes and an d feelings in their lifes and started to investigate. How come we recognise a Maasai and what is essential in their cutural identity? What is really Maasai?
To put my new knowledge into practise I started to work with ideas for products. The result came to a Maasai inspired kanga (piece of textile worn as a skirt, dress, scarf etc) pattern. Since the Maasai women usually wears kangas similar to the ones sold all over Kenya, with patterns not associated with Maasai culture. With this my intention was to show how a ethnic identity can take new expressions and to create new items that inherits inherits the qualitys of the culture. I hope that the Maasai people also in the future, no matter how they live, will keep their pride and joy over beeing Maasai. I believe that by expressing and visualizing cultural identities is a good thing that will help us to understand our world and it’s diversity. Development can be good and/or bad, depending on what is gained and what is lost. With rapid changes we must be even more careful to make sure that the good parts are preserved.
In Kenya, my project was mostly concentrated on gathering information and gaining understanding for this new environment. Back in Sweden I wanted to develop a Maasai design grammar. To make my findings visible I created a toolkit where I with simple symbols and short texts are trying to visualize a phenomena I find important for the aestethics of the Maasai.
2
Table of content Intro
4
Aim
4
Goal Method
5 About development
Background
5
5 6 6 7
Culture in development
8
A personal reflection
Fieldstuddy Fieldst uddy and exhibition exhibit ion Imprint Exhibition
What is Maasai? Shape Colours Objects and home Clothing, looks and fashion
22 23 23 24 24 26
The sketches made by my Maasai friends
28
Design toolkit
32
Product implementation
5
What is Masai Mara? What is Basecamp? What is Talek? Life and culutre of Maasai
Senses, sounds, smells, tastes, time, tactile Symbols and communications Materials Creativity, Creativit y, inspiration and perception Pride and identity Arts
9
40
Product goals Targetgroup The textile buisness in africa Pattern development Production Designs
41 41 41 42 42 44
Result Printing and dyeing practise
45 46
11 12 13
16 16 16 18 18
Last words
49
Thank you’s
50
Sources
50
Appendix
3
Intro This report is the documentation of a project done in the course Design in unfimiliar cultures during the autum of 2004 at the Division of Architecture and Development Studies, LTH. The project had both architecture and design students participating and was held in cooperation with the University of Nairobi, Basecampexplorer, the Museum of Nairobi and Lamu museum. My fieldstuddy was done during four weeks at Basecamp Masai Mara in Kenya. I was there together with Kajsa Nilsson (architecture), Laura Ross (architecture), Steve Gitonga (interior design, Nairobi) and Winnie Kaloki (product design, Nairobi). The other students did their fieldstuddy in Lamu island on the coast of Kenya. Masai Mara is a national reserve on the border to Tanzania. The Maasai people dominate the population of the area and they live a traditional life on the savannah.
Aim To document the aspects of Maasai culture that are specific, important and central, so that these characteristics can be maintained in future product design, architecture and systems whilst allowing the Maasai people to develop and modernise without loosing the essence of the Maasai traditions.
Goal To understand the Maasai cultural heritage and document it so it can be used as a source of inspiration and preservation for exploration and expansion. To collect enough knowledge that I can create a “design grammar” that speaks Maasai. For use in local productions, within Basecamp and also globally.
My project came to be about the aestethics of the Maasai culture. I got fashinated by the strong expressions and the rythm in their lives. Also since before I have hade thaughts about identity and how different subcultures, tribes and ethnic communities uses it, how it is communicated.
4
Method By living in the environment and experiencing it. Trying to understand all aspects of Maasai life and culture by interacting with the people and the community of Talek region. Observing the everyday life of the native people that lives traditionally as well as with the more “modern” Maasai. Documenting objects, shapes, materials, arts and more to get a bank of inspiration and knowledge. Informal interviews with people within and outside Basecamp. Sketching exercise to grasp how colours and shapes are perceived.
About development The Maasai communities are in rapid changing as many other cultures has been before . By adapting to a modern life some traditions and the strong Maasai identity might get lost. Development is non stoppable and something we must allow. But by creating a way of preserving the core of Maasai in a new environment or in the rest of the world, the goal is to keep the pride and aesthetics of the Maasai. The word “Maasai” is a positive one today and hopefully still in the future.
Background What is Masai Mara?
Masai Mara national reserve is a protected wildlife reserve in the south of Kenya on the border to Tanzania where it’s continuing into Serengeti. Masai Mara is on of the most animal populated areas in the country and the wildlife brings many tourists to the camps around. As the name tells you, Mara Mara is a part of Maasai land where the Maasai people have lived traditionally for thousands of years and still are. The people lives from cattle and has their settlements just outside the reserve area. The Masai used to be nomads moving around their cattle over the savanna. Due to govermental division of land and the national park borders the Maasai are now bound to live in a more permanent settlement.
5
What is Basecamp?
Basecamp Masai Mara is a Norwegian owned ecological camp with the parole of “leaving the smallest footprints”. Their aim is that if they will will shut the camp today, in 6 months no trace that it has been there can bee seen. But not only does BC carefully deal with nature but also with the local community. BC is involved in many projects like the Cheetah project, Reforestation and the Arts and Craft centre. The camp has fifteen tents wich can support about 30 guests at a time. BC tries to do everything with concern and thoughtfulness. There is no flush toilets, no burning of wood, and waste is sorted and taken care of. The small amount of electricity comes from solar panels and the shower water is heated with the daily sunshine.
Basecamp does not ony take the nature into consideration, but they also want to contribute to the whole environment around them, to the local Maasai community. Most of the staff working at BC are Maasai. What is i s Talek? Talek?
Talek is a small village with about 30 buildings just 20 minutes by foot from Basecamp. The “centre” has several small shops where you can buy for example sugar, water, blankets, beads, sodas and soap. There’s some restaurant where you can get chai, chapatti and grilled meat. Two of the buildings are bars, the Country club and the Honey moon suite, the latter also known as the suicide bar when its the only building in town that has two floors. These two bars, together with a couple of other small cafés that has a pool table, are the only places that provide the people in Talek with any kind of day and night activities. Every Thursday is market day, a day for gathering for all people in and around Talek. The things sold there are basically the same week after week. That is pots and pans, cups and plates, beads, shells, string, and other parts for jewelry making, and groceries of different kind. The market is in the middle of Talek, in a totally open space without any protection against wind or sun. The outside area in and around Talek, is very dry and except for the area just around the River route, there are very few trees. This results in a landscape without 6
is not longer allowing their old lifestyle.
A personal reflection
Many Maasai has been forced to move to cities like Nairobi and Mombasa to work as guardsmen, to be able to support their families back home.
I’m not a Maasai. I’m not an expert on their culture. This is no attempt to claim my knowledge as “the right way”. In fact, I’m just an observer of this extraordinary culture and I have had the benefit to be welcomed as a friend. I have been trying to understand the Maasai way of life and by that getting a understanding for the whole community that is such a strong organisation. My work is not scientifically correct, nor complete in all aspects. But I do believe that I have gained lots of new knowledge that I could only have got right there on spot. I’m sure that persons before me have studied the aesthetic expressions of the Maasai. And reports have been written before. The ones I heard about are sadly enough not considered by the Maasai to tell the exact truth. My understanding and inspiration has gained so much thanks to my new Maasai friends.
Among a lot of other things changing in the culture the younger men speaks about marring for love, and only have one wife. The changes are both physical and non-physical. Old believes and values are no longer the only ones. It’s clearly visible that the younger generations will in some way choose to adapt to the new influences. But even if they do, certain things will still be the same. And the Maasai are generally happy and content by their way of living.
Trading mobile phone numbers
Many times during my fieldstudy in Kenya I just felt like I didn’t want to do anything at all to this people. I didn’t want to affect them with my thinking, my western ideas. They seemed so happy, so proud, and so content. Why should we come all the way from Sweden to improve their situation or to design for their environment? But then we realised that the Maasai community is in rapid change now. The modern development is getting reality. And in the end, this people must survive and move on as a culture. Then who are we to say that they must not develop? de velop? Maybe our impact then is more about to steer the development in a good direction and to provide a way of keeping their genuine pride even in the future. Also, the fact that product consumption and 9
production on a local level leads to improved standards simply by providing the people and region with money is of significance. The empowering of women is an important issue in these parts of the world. “After a deep reflection on my people and culture, I have painfully come to accept that the Maasai must change to protect themselves, if not their culture. They must adapt to the realities of the modern world and become part of it for the sake of their own survival. It is better to meet an enemy out in the open and to be prepared for him than for him to come upon you at home unawares. The Maasai do not yet have all the weapons necessary to confront the modern world. They must have education, land and resources to enable them to fit into a money economy.” Teplit Ole Saitoti. Maasai, 1993, Harry N Abrams Inc, New York.
10
Imprint
We were curious about how the Maasai people and mostly the women would react if we took a commonly used kanga and transformed it into something different. We saw the textile as a nice raw material for many applications while they saw it as just a piece of clothing. Me and Laura made ourselves some very basic bags. The specific textile is one of the most used ones in Talek region and many mamas mamas wear them. We made the bags by hand and by a old-fashioned sewing machine. We wore the bags daily for about 2 weeks. The reactions were all positive and even though the kanga had transformed to something different, was it still highly recognisable. Many where surprised that we had made them ourselves. And everybody liked liked them. Also the fact that the pattern was so familiar seemed to invite otherwise shy persons to take contact and start communicating. We made one bag a bit “extra Maasai” by adding a row of beads and jingles. jingles. This was also highly appreciated. Who knows, maybe some mamas have adapted our bag idea by now...
12
Maasai but not necesarily since the beadworks are often sold to tourists and others so many people wears them even they arn’t Maasai. We discussed the the possibility to spot a Maasi just because of his length and physical apperance. How time is different in Maasailand. That a white person never can be considered a Maasai. And ther was lots of laughter at some of the caracters on my poster, the figure in cowboy hat, the superman, the Maasai dressed figure with a big hair. The personal colour-coding, how you recognise a friend by the pattern and colours of his schucka became very evident when a guide at basecamp directly spotted his friend Fred on my poster. The figure was dressed in a chrecked schucka in red and blue similar to the one Fred almost always uses. My last contribution for the exhibition was a “buffetcage” I made together with Winnie. The dinner buffet at Basecamp needed a facelift. Me and Winnie wanted to make a gift for the camp as well as trying a bit of our own research in practice. The salad and cakes of the buffet had net-cages protecting them from flies, birds and monkeys. A very good thing since the food is exposed in the environment for an hour or two during dinner. But the cages looked bad, heavy, temporary and stiff. We wanted to do something more Maasai to create a better atmosphere in the dining area. We used sticks collected and bent while still fresh. We covered and decorated the joints with waste leather from the Arts and Craft centre at Basecamp. (All this with excellent help from the carpenters 14
at Basecamp). The inspiration came from how the sticks are put together with sisal in the Maasai houses. The net was assembled carefully from the inside not covering the sticks and joints. And at last we decorated the front with beads and jingles. The shape of the cage is now also more Maasai and natural then the previous bulky and square ones. The food is safe from bugs and birds and it’s easy to just fold the front part up by lifting the front stick. The cage was used and shown during our exhibition. It had good response and many persons seemed to like it (even though the candy inside might have been more appealing for that moment). Basecamp was very enthusiastic and happy about their present.
15
What is Maasai? I have been trying to look at all aestetical aspects in the Maasai culture. I have tried to structure my thoughts into categories as follows. It’s hard to explain a feeling or emotional aspect of a culture in words. In the end have I gathered a “what is Masai and what is not Maasai tollbox” where I have tried to summarize my research with simple schematic pictures.
Shapes
Visually, triangles are mostly common as a geometric figure in beadworks. Many different patterns can easily be built with various sizes of triangles. Also rows and stripes are common, by itselves or inbetween other shapes. Probably the big amount of triangles is due to the fact that they are easily done with the commonly used beading techniques. Triangles are also seen in other shapes besides patterns of beads, for example in warrior belts and long earrings. Round jingles that moves and vibrates are creativly used upon all sorts of jewellery and clothing. The jewellery are often big, noticable, delicate, free hanging and from a western point of wiev pretty unpractical. Organic and natural shapes are appreciated. The house and many objects that surround the Maasai are collected from nature and have an amount of individuality and imperfection. The slightly round corners of the Maasai house have no other meaning that that it’s created when they plaster the walls with the cow dung. Colours
First colour to think of when speaking about the Maasai is red. Red is the colour of the Maasai, and the colour of the soil. The earth provides the Maasai with life and red is a highly positive colour. The colour is very distinctive and seen from a far distance. Even the wildlife knows a Maasai person from another based on the colour of his clothing. But there are some regional differences in preferred colour also. For example, in Tanzania the Maasai prefers blue and the women 16
Different jewellery commonly worn by the Maasai around Talek.
20
Different jewellery commonly worn by the Maasai around Talek.
Fashion
Purko
Keekonyokie
21
Arts
Beadwork is strongly associated with the Maasai. The keyword is decoration. Although beadwork (with glass beads) is a rather new invention in Africa it’s so connected with Maasai identity that it’s almost impossible to imagine them without. (The beads are imported mainly from the Czech Republic or others.) Beads are used to decorate lots of things except jewellery, schuckas, rungus and calabashes. Although you could easily see more areas where it could be nicely implemented. Some more “tourist adapted” items has been made and are used common also among the Maasai, like watch bracelets and key rings. At Basecamp some things in the dining area and in the tents have been decorated with beads to get the Maasai feeling.
oriented. If something is painted of beaded on it usaually has a purpose and the Maasai appreciate the beatuiful decorations. I see the arts of the Maasai concentrated to handicraft.
The Maasai are happy people that often spontaneously burst into a song. They are used to sing and dance at all times and especially at ceremonies. The singing and dancing is an important factor in their culture and when you once experience it you can’t help but get captured in the special magical atmosphere. They show what a physical people they are with their vigour jumps and rhythmical movements. A word that is once again useful is contrasts. Contrasts between the jumping warrior and the ones on the ground, contrasts in the way of moving in the open space. The art seems to bee limited to the performance and the decoration of useful objects. No art made just for looking at it is made, evrything is very practical 26
Warrior
Different objects
27
The sketches made by my Maasai friends
Moses Tira, guide at camp. Not educated. Likes squares , reminds of house and is associated with warmth. Favorite wildlife is cheetah. Drew a bull. Drew warrior Maasai. Drew the whole layout of the manyatta.
Dee Matanta Tome, guide at camp. Educated. Likes bright colours. Mostly green because it symbolizes green land and red because that it’s the traditional Maasai colour. Favorite wildlife is giraffe. Drew the whole manyatta. Sensitive to fashion and trends, very aware.
28
Amos Sironka Ole Tininah, second manager and guide at camp. Educated. Bright colours, likes green most since it is associated with nature and health. Nature gives food for animals and maasai live on their livestock. Favorite wildlife is cheetah. Drew a Maasai warrior. Likes the circle, associated with the sun, the moon and home. Drew perspective view of manyatta.
Fredrick Lentirr, guide at camp. Educated. Likes triangles, associate with the shape of tents at camp. Likes black, the colour of human beings. Drew a bull. Drew a warrior. Favorite wildlife is lion. Drew perspective view of manyatta. All jewellery should come together.
29
Normajoli, mama working in the Arts and Craft. Not educated. Likes red. Favorite wildlife is impala. Likes squares, don’t know why. Drew the whole manyatta.
Narikunkera Lepore, mama working in the Arts and Craft. Not educated. Likes black and white because it is colours used frequently in bead work. Likes round shapes. Favorite wildlife is tortoise. Drew cow with branding. Drew one male and one female Maasai. Drew division of manyatta.
30
Rebecca Linkia, works in the reception at camp. Educated. Likes triangles, associated with houses. Likes bright colours, mostly blue. No specific reason. Drew Maasai mama. Used colours. Personalize Personalized d figures with faces. Favorite wildlife is giraffe.
Nashiluni Parmuai, mama working in the Arts and Craft. Not educated. Likes white. Prefers triangles because it reminds of a house. Favorite wildlife is Thomsons gazelle. Drew the whole manyatta.
31
Design toolkit To summarize my new knowledge and in a attempt to make it visible I created a “Maasai design toolkit”. Here I created simple symbols that explains a phenomenon phenomenon or aspect of Maasai aesthetics. By a short explanation and a illustrating picture my goal is to transfer my understanding in a easy way to any new observers or users. Also to see weather my “toolkit” could be used as a reference for creating new products with a Maasai feeling I used it as a inspirational background for creating kanga patterns. From every defined observation tried to make a kanga that communicates the aspect of the observation but still keeping the essence of a kanga.
Maasai
Not Maasai
Housing
The housing is simple, embracing embracing and natural. As a continuation and modification of the nature surrounding it.
32
Maasai
Not Maasai
Maasai
Not Maasai
Matching colours Geometric shapes
Triangles are the most common geometric shape. Used frequently in jewellery.
Continuity
There should be big contrast between two coulours put next to each other.
Fields of coulor should be divided.
33
Maasai
Not Maasai
Perfection in lines
Imperfection is not seen ugly. A line might as well be a bit crocked. Computer sketches are seen uglier than hand drawn ones.
Maasai
Not Maasai
Contrasts
High contrasts are seen as beautiful. Dark - Light High - Low War - Peace
34
Maasai
Not Maasai
Disorder / Order
Organised disorder. disorder.
35
Maasai
Not Maasai
Maasai
Not Maasai
Personal decoration Joints of wood
One is not enough. You need many.
Natural and decorative ways of joining two pieces of wood in for example the building of houses.
36
Maasai
Not Maasai
Exception- uniformity
Always an exception, something that breaks the pattern. A lonely Maasai on the savanna. savanna.
37
Maasai
Not Maasai
Maasai
Not Maasai
Decoration Physics
Shaved heads, clear profiles.
Important objects are carefully decorated.
Earloops
38
Maasai
Not Maasai
Protection
To create the feeling of embracing protection and security in a harsh environment.
Maasai
Not Maasai
The moon
Perception of things are different. The moon has a different direction.
39
Product implementation
modern Africa and not just by applying everything from the northen countries. “
After this reasearch I wanted to try to implement my new knowledge into a product. To see how that could be done, both for my own understanding and for showing my findings in a more enbodied way. Also this can set an example how my work can be used in local produtions, for a new look at Basecamp or just as a cultural source of inspiration for me in my future work.
Free translation from: Ordfront nr 11/2004
With the richness and diversity of decoration in the maasai life my thinking soon led me into textiles and patterns. The kanga the Maasai women wears are not so specificly Maasai and as the other common Kanga sold in Kenya many of them are produced in India. The kanga the Maasai women chooses to buy are often in red, orange, black and white combinations. But the patterns are not connected to the Maasai culture and the message written on them is in Kiswahili. Fashion is visible and some new patterns are right now in style, like for example a bright red or blue textile with roaring tigers on. My idea is to make a pattern for new kanga with a Maasai identity. A Maasai inspired kanga could be a way of supporting and encourage the Maasai identity.
Other ideas for products came up as well. Another approach for textile is to make a fabric that will be sold in the vestern world. This textile would benefit to our daily lifes by taking the Maasai feeling in to our homes and spaces and with that maybe also telling a message about their culture. Another product suggestion was a bead curtain to put in doorways to keep the flies out. Those kinds of curtains has become a popular decoration element in Europe now, made with beads, bamboo or wood. A product like that
“Culture is the answer to how the poor south shall survive and develop, she says. We have to create our own preferences and to build our own self esteem from our own conditions. Young peoples identities can only be strengthened by that we find our own
40
could easily be used both in a modern apartment in Stockholm as well as in the doorway of a Maasai house to keep the flies out. Product goals
A textile pattern that speaks the Maasai design language that I have defined. One or several kanga that can be produced locally. The kanga should have a strong Maasai identity and be beautiful as it is or used in new ways. Be different from the traditional kanga patterns but still keeping the traditional structure of a kanga, the frames and messages.
I want my kanga to be produced in the country. As locally as possible. By that not only will it lead to jobs but also to a closer connection to the new fabric. Also by producing a product aimed to be sold in the country supports the local economy by increasing the consumpion of domestic products. The goal woul be to make the production as environmental friendly as possible. To use dye that is not toxic. According to my targetgroup, the Maasai, appriciation and respectful caring of the nature is essential.
Targetgroup
Mainly the Maasi people. But also anyone else that appreciates the new pattern. The textile buisness in africa
Only three procentage of the african cotton is beeing refined on the continent even though the west of Africa is one of the biggest cotton producers. Countries like China, Bangladesh buys the cotton, weaves the textiles, print them and then sell them back to African countries. This has some svere effects on the African textile industry. With the result of many closed textile industries.
41
Pattern development
Keywords that circled in my head while sketching where, diversity, decoration, colours, richness, contrasts, warmth, happy, not perfect, eyecatching. I started with simple scetches where I tried to find different design elements to start experimenting with. Even though it was lots of triangular shapes the amount of combinations that could be done with just a few where striking. I looked for colours and combinations in my photos from Mara and with the reference of my design grammar. I wanted to try how my design ”toolkit” could help me to find new inspiration and how I could try to make my findings visible in the patterns. I worked through my ”tookit” one by one and tried to make one new kanga pattern for each, see previous section.
42
Production
I want the production of my new kanga to be as local as possible, close to the Maasai. But to print them would mean investments in machines and it’s probably easies to have that kind of buisness in a bigger town as nairobi. But maybe it’s feasible to make them by hand in the villages. Then the production could be even more beneficial to the Maasai people by generating job opportunities and strengthening the economics of the individuals. A smaller printingshop could be a new project to run similar to the Arts and Craft centre at Basecamp. The design of the patterns have to be adjusted to fit the printing methods. It’s a big difference from printing by machines and by hand. The method of printing/ dyeing will affect the style of the pattern.
Working with two colours.
43
Designs
There is a milion possibilities for creating new patterns. And I came up with many ideas that I think has the qualitys I was trying to reach. But the pattern I choosed to finalize has some features that made it more suitable. I wanted to see if I could create the Maasai feeling of diversity with only two colours. This due to the fact that printing with many colours is a costful process wich is maybe not suitable for a local production in Kenya. Also, many existing e xisting kanga have print in 2-3 colours. Visually I wanted the pattern to look decorative, colourfull, random, geometric, suprising and familiar. The text message on the new kanga should of course be in Maa, the language of the Maasai. And there is some old expressions that can be used in a very nice way. I want the message to say something about the culture, and the origin, about beeing proud and remembering your roots. Some examples could be: I Yioolo eningaua, nimiyiolo enilo - Know where you are coming from but not where you are going
Mepal oloitiko isirat - A zebra cannot despise his stripes
Enkong’u naipanga eng’en - It’s the eye that went far
Diffferent suggestions for new patterns. Text in Maa.
that is wise
44
Result
My Maasai pattern. With simple triangular shapes I have created a pattern that is both complex and simple, random and organized. The message written in Maa tells you to be proud over your roots and always remember where you are from. Witch goes hand in hand with my thoughts about the Maasai identity and the future. The final pattern changed over and over again along the process and finally it was a minor mistake in the first screen printing that changed it for the last time. The variations that can be done with this pattern are many and other elements can be added. This pattern is calqulated to fit on a approximately 150 x 100 cm size textile.
Know where you are coming from but not where you are going
The final pattern pattern that I choosed to print.
45
Printing and dyeing practise
I started with screenprinting four pieces of textile. I soon realised that the work would bee timeconsuming and difficult. The major problems where that the screenprinting frames are rather small for such a big textile, I didnt have time to let the colours dry between I moved the frames witch resulted in stains, it was hard to get presicion and to measure where to put the next nex t frame down and the pattern was very complex to print. My intention to make a simple but still randomly complex pattern had succeded but it was probably to complex for screenprinting by hand as I did. It took me aproximately 20 hours to print four pieces of textile. And I used 8 different frames to create the pattern. If this pattern where to be produced with screenprinting it has to be somehow industrialised with bigger frames and rulers that helps for precision. Made by hand, it would be better to have a pattern that are more random and repetative. Although the result is nice. The colours are distinct and bright. Its also easy to make colour variations and nyances. So different colour sets could be produced depending on the local preference and an d style.
Different colours
Screenprinting
46
I also wanted to try another method of colouring the textile. I used the process of wax batik. This way of dyeing textile creates a more soft and alive pattern that kind of encourages small mistakes and should look handmade. The hardest part was to be precise when painting the warm wax on the textile. But the most time conuming part was to trace the pattern to the textile with a pencil, (although in this case I had help of the already screenprinted textile underneath the new one). For some reason or another the colour in didnt come out as strong as I wished. This can be depending on many factors like the quality of the fabric, the chemicals in the colourbath, the temperature on the solution and the absorbation time. But the result was anyhow pleasing. It was fun to work with the hot wax and it feels a bit more like “handicraft” to go through this process. I spent approximately 12 hours to dye one kanga and two quarters of a kanga (test pieces).
All white fields covered with wax
First the red colour
All red fields also covered with wax
The black colour covers the red Wax batik
47
Screenprinted
If I where to choose wich metod that gave the most “Maasai” result, I would say the batik one. This method is also more suitable for a small scale production that dosn’t need much equipment. The complexity of the pattern seemed not so confusing and hard with this way of working.
Batik
48
Last words I have during this project learnt alot, not only about a different culture, but also about identity and how that is visually communicated. This is something that is seen all around us in different amounts. Subcultures, religions, tribes and others are showing their pride and belonging in specific ways. I think this is a need we all have, to express ourselves towards others, to say “This is me and what I believe and I belong to them, they are my family”. By recognising and learning about theese symbols and it’s cultural heritage I think we can be more humble to all people, and to make sure that the old believes and traditions are not forgotten.
Advertising for clothes in a magazine. Maasai earrings worn in the same way as the Maasai does, through holes in the upper part of the ear. The ones making the add must have seen how the earrings are tarditionally used. This is an example of how people p eople here far away uses inspiration from different cultures.
49
Thank you’s Thanks to Basecamp Masai Mara. Especially to Tina Frisk, Lars Lindkvist, Amos, Piers and Tiito. My new good friends in Maasai land: Dee, Fred, Patrick, Daniel, Young Moses, Patrick, Ben, Rebecca, Grace, family Tome, Karen, Dorrobo, William, Richard, David and all other amazing people we met… Thanks to our teachers and supervisors Maria Nyström and Pido Odoch, Catarina Östlund and Anna Stuermer. Thanks to my dear friends Laura, Kajsa, Winnie and Steve of with whom I share all the memories. Mom and Lina for helping me with the time consuming process of screen printing and batik dyeing of the textile. Thanks to Emma Nilsby, Charlotte Lindell and Moses Ole Nkaru that we had the opportunity to meet and discuss our projects with at the UN Nairobi.
Sources Magdalena Boman, Ordfront nr 11/2004, Bomullshandel hotar design . sid 13-16
Sultan H. Somjee, Color, song and meaning among the Maasai, 1/30/1998, Mennonite Central Committee of Kenya Teplit Ole Saitoti. Maasai , 1993, Harry N Abrams Inc, New York. Sultan H. Somjee, The Heritage Factor in the Constitution. 12-09-2001 Sven och Ingergerd Zetterlund, Masai Mara - på äventyr bland vilda djur och massajer, 2003, Zetterlund & Co, Örebro Pido Odoch, University of Nairobi, knowledge about meaning of colours in the Maasai tribe.
Appendix
/ Nashipai 1. The Heritage Factor in the Constitution. By Sultan H. Somjee 2. Time schedule
50
this earth began life in the womb, a woman’s gift of life and the gift of motherhood. The earth is the mother. In pastoralist civilizations there are different d ifferent symbols of keeping social order. The Constitution is fundamentally about keeping the social order by affirming the values of life and security that we cherish. Ethnic order among the contemporary societies of the vast northern regions of Kenya is expressed in imagery of patterns on animals and in the colours of material culture and the environment. They are the visual expressions of social protective and care giving structures that support community pro-life and justice systems.
and sense of aesthetic pleasure derived from our ancient artefacts, the environment, rituals and the earth. And for this to happen we must have time to first understand and know the yet unknown visual traditions of function and decor such as the diversity of aesthetic systems of Kenya.
The meticulously constructed and disciplined patterns of beauty are given thought and expression in ornamentation types made by mainly women consciously and mathematically calculated to compliment functions of the administrators and protectors of their rights and values. For this reason there should be no tax on importation of beads and other art material. Today beads are heavily taxed as luxury goods like diamonds and BMWs. But coloured beads are material for expression of a national aesthetic. Protect and enhance the people’s sense of beauty, the joy of life and peace. The Maasai say where there is no beauty there is no peace. And peace is the highest quality for maintenance to regulate society that the Constitution is drafted to guarantee that we have it. 5. Protect and promote the material culture of Kenya Everyday there is massive exportation of Kenya’s material culture. The previous part directly discussed the importance of beaded ornaments to the Kenyan identity and national culture. The ornaments are just one category of material culture. We have other categories such as containers and furniture. All these are important for promoting and projecting our image of who we are and where are we coming from. The Constitution must allow and facilitate appreciation of our own self-images, our art history
52
APPENDIX 2
1
53
