Firefly Imageworks

The Lyin' Lion

So I recently spent an entire month romping around Eastern Africa – specifically the country of Kenya. It’s hard to figure out how I should go about sharing stories and breaking up the many photos taken on the trip. There’s really so much to share – ranging from the inspiringly amazing to devastatingly heartbreaking. That said, I think I’ve happened upon a way to go about it.

In this first of four entires, I figure I’ll start with sharing the stories and images many people first think of when they think of the beauty of Africa – namely wild lions, zebras, the sprawling savanna, and the villages of people that oversee these wild untamed lands. In this instance, those people are called the Masai, and – at first glance – they live a quiet life in some of the most beautiful fertile lands on earth, left untouched and protected from the hand of modern development. That land is their Mara, and it is considered a National Park in Kenya, protecting it and the Masai culture from the twinge of development.

As our guide drove us through through the massive landscape of the Masai Mara, I was left in awe. I’ve been doing this photographic thing for a bit, but never have I felt so daunted as I attempted to capture what i saw. The land stretched to infinity and the sky was bigger than it’s ever been. The thrill of seeing animals like lions, zebras, and giraffes in the wild is truly remarkable, but honestly pales as you take in the scope of the surrounding scene. I have entirely too many wide shots that try in vain to capture this feeling of how huge everything is in a paltry 21 million pixels. I hope these shots give you a glimpse, but just know: the mountains you see are bigger, the elephants you see are massive, the landscape is just infinite.

Other fun facts found along the way include how a warthog in Swahili is called a pumba, and a lion is called a simba. This compelled me to switch on the Lion King soundtrack on my iPod as we explored the park. I’m twelve years old, I don’t know if you’ve noticed.

Sunrise on the Masai Mara

We spent one evening, one full day, and one morning exploring the beauty of the Mara, and at the end of the full day (day 2) we visited the local Masai village. The prince of the Masai as well as a few other of his colleagues showed us around and explained to us their culture and heritage. The Masai are polygamist people, and every time a Masai man takes on a new wife, he builds her a new hut – one of which the Prince showed me the inside of. This thing is pitch black, with only a single small hole in a wall to let a scant amount of sunlight in and smoke out. It’s tiny. I’m not a overwhelmingly wide individual, but my shoulders had trouble squeezing through the front door. Overall though, the people were very kind and color permeated their wardrobe and personality. They even washed my feet after having trudged through the mud and cow poo to get to the hut and the to buy a few gifts from them for a friend – a truly humbling experience in and of itself.

The Masai people are a protected culture within Kenya however and by no means the national norm as the grip of modernity and globalization first entered the country under British colonialism and now continues via its own self-government. Even then, the land that the Masai oversee extends not only into beautiful protected landscapes, but I learned that much the changing gradation of culture from that small village to the bustling nairobi also belonged to them as well; allowing much of their land to start to participate in the developing economy of Kenya. In tomorrow’s entry, I’ll aim to show the life and infrastructure of the country at large via more words and photography. See you soon…