Homeland and Landscape

    The Maasai people live in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania. They used to cover a lot more land until the Europeans came and started colonizing. Much of their land was taken away during the nineteenth century. The Europeans brought diseases to the Maasai people to make them weaker, so it would be easier to take their land.
     During the twentieth century more land was taken away for parks and nature reserves. This made it difficult for Maasai people, because now a lot of their resource were taken away. They do not have enough land to rely on grazing, and are now loosing their traditions. They had to resort to trading with other people surrounding them for other resources.
    After all of the land being taken away, they still live around part of the Great Rift Valley. It is a rift that contains several lakes along it. The Great Rift Valley divides there landscape. On the western side there are forests, and grasslands and salt lakes on the eastern side.
    These people go through many dry spells. Since most of the Great Rift Valley was taken away, it is harder for the men to find water for the cattle and other animals herded. The average rain fall is between twenty-two to thirty inches every year.

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