Maasai Migrations and Diaspora

    The Maasai people originated in Northwest Kenya where the lower Nile valley north of Lake Turkana can be found. During the fifteenth century, they started to migrate south from Northern Kenya to central Tanzania. Other ethic groups that were already settled were forced to move.
    By the nineteenth century, the Maasai people covered almost all of the Great Rift Valley. Then their population shrank when they became exposed to diseases like smallpox. There land was taken away, and now they are in Southern Kenya and Northern Tanzania.
     The Maasai people have maintained a lot of their culture. It is hard for these people to get out because they are already living in poverty. Some of them do not want to get out just because they want to keep their traditions. The chances are slim for the ones who do want to get out. I have not found any articles of someone leaving their homeland.
    There are funds to help put children in school but not a lot of them. Around seventy-five percent of the Maasai people are illiterate. School is very expensive for them. For the people who do get a chance to go to school, most of them will not make it to secondary school. A lot of them have dropped out also.