Diary of Maasai Warrior in London: "The marathon is easy. There are no lions"
Six Maasai warriors ran in the London Marathon today. 24-year-old Isaya Maasai, is their chief, and you can read his diary at the Guardian website.
The horses that go around were amazing and we couldn't believe how fast. We rode a real horse for the first time too. It is amazing that people can talk to them, tell them where to go and they do it.
I miss meat and blood very much. Not vegetables because they are food for a woman. There is milk here but blood is better because it gives energy. English tea with sugar is good and we tried Coco Pops, but the nicest food is croissants.
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"...I miss meat and blood very much..."
Greetings
So I'm guessing a PETA sponsorship is pretty much out of the question...
Enjoy the journey
WarLord
"The marathon is easy. There are no lions"
A very memorable sentence. I wonder if it will stick into pop culture to the extent of inspiring a t-shirt, sticker, song, or meme.
It's a great sentence; as far as I can tell, it appears only in the headline, and not in the diary, so I wonder if Isaya wrote it, or an editor.
"We have a dam that we share with wild animals so every morning the children go to get water, it's dangerous for them. Some have lost their lives."
How's that for some 'free-range' parenting... :-S
There's something fishy about this whole diary. It's a little too cutesy/naive. I mean if this were The Onion I wouldn't blink. Just seems contrived.
@Ployntabs - Sounds legit to me. Naive, perhaps, but consider he's coming from Northern Tanzania. That really is a different world. Would you prefer an AP article? http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/wire?section=trackandfield&id=3341770
Yeah, something smells fishy about this whole story - like half of the information is made-up to create a better story. Another article states: "Six Masai warriors, who are so fierce they kill male lions with their bare hands". http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/02/nmasai102.xml
Uh - right. This isn't still April 1st, is it? "They may be tempted to engage in their natural sport of hunting in England, particularly if they spot a cow, sheep or pig in a field." This sounds like sensationalist writing from a couple hundred years ago: see the wild men of Africa, untouched by civilization!
By the way, the article you link to is a few days old. The winner of the race (a Kenyan) finished in 2 hours, 5 minutes. The Maasai finished in under 5 hours 30 minutes.
Sources:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2008/04/14/do1402.xml
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/14/nmarathon114.xml
@brit - The Telegraph is a tabloid.
The Guardian and AP, however, are more or less serious news organizations.
"The marathon is easy. There are no lions."
Wow, this is great stuff. I don't know about the blood drinking, but there you go. We don't get enough outside culture in the "free world." It almost feels like we live in some sort of "cultural iron curtain" in that we just feed off of American pop culture, which rocks, but without the richness that we could get from afar. Sometimes I feel like I understand the U.S. much better when I travel internationally.
I guess this is analogous to the mountain being more visible from a distance. I am overdue for a trip south of the border or across the pond. But for now I will make due by roaming these Internet(s) with more abandon.
Sounds pretty accurate to me- I have friends who've spent a great deal of time in northern Tanzania. The Maasai do indeed drink a mixture of milk and blood as a dietary staple- protein without having to slaughter your precious cows.
@7/8 Brit/Eli
I wouldn't say that the Telegraph is a tabloid, it's a broadsheet paper that provides a wide range of serious reporting.
Where it does fall down however, is in its conservative, white, religious bent and its deliberate plays to this audience - see the sensationalist story of the school orgy that was on Boing Boing a while ago, or this faintly racist story.
This story plays to white, middle class, 'small c' conservative views of what African tribesmen are like.
Five hours and 30 minutes? I've beaten that!
I'm off to kill a lion, then! I'll report back! Lincoln Park Zoo, LOOK OUT!
:)
My little sister went on a gap year to Tanzania with Greenforce, the charity that organised the Maasai visit, and actually knows some of the warriors that were taking part. I can't speak for journalistic license that might have plaid a part in the articles, but the visit and the run were certainly real. Anyone who wants to help the warriors get clean water for their village can make a donation here.
The Maasai are also very savvy folks. When we visited a Maasai boma near Ngorongoro, they all wanted to give us their cell phone numbers.
they ran it in old rubber tire sandals, as I understand it
Croissants ARE the nicest food.
Okay, he's tried my favourite food; I'm off to try some blood and milk.
do enjoy. The very best blood is to be got from Congressmen and Members of Parliament (avoid Politiburo specimens, they are invariably infected)
It is best to have a compatriot firmly hold the representative and gently bend the head to reveal the prominent neck vein. Use your smallest bow with a small game point on the arrow and at about quarter draw or less, loose and let the arrow fall free after penetrating the politco's tough hide. Flow is usually free after that so do have a calabash ready.
I always imagine how a person from the far past would describe today. Since we don't have time machines, I guess this is as close as it gets. Accurate or not, it was an entertaining read.
I don't get why some people thought it was mildly racist. I guess pointing out differences in races or cultures now is considered racism? That's sad.
P.S. I also noticed the naivety but immediately figured it sounded that way due to the translation.
Yes, there is something fishy about this story, and it's "How can a person who can run for 3 days straight not finish a marathon under 5 hours?"
The whole "running for 3 days" thing just took a big hit as a test of running skill.
There's endurance, and then there's speed. Two different things.
These are people, just like any other. Every time they tell the story, it gets bigger.
Cellphones and supermarkets didn't make people less honest. People lied just as much a thousand years ago as they did today, and the handful who still live in the old style are no different.
Maasai runners were on last Friday's BBC Global News podcast, FYI.
"The horses that go around were amazing and we couldn't believe how fast. We rode a real horse for the first time too. It is amazing that people can talk to them, tell them where to go and they do it."
That's a quote about riding a carousel: Totally BOGUS. They were probably put up to say things straight out of The God's Must Be Crazy. Or the translation was inexact at least.
I can't remember where/when, but there was some great story about some anthropologist getting put on (about sex traditions, I think) for years (or months) by some South Pacific barbarians. The anthropologist published, then someone else showed it was all false. The natives said "Oh, we just thought it was funny to pull his leg."
These guys are perfectly capable of playing up the part, and the journalists and editors are more than happy to show off the freaks who - ho, ho - are confused by metal horses.
The native Americans have been doing that to the invaders for centuries.
I'm not sure it is translated, actually - IIRC, Isaya does speak English, and this reads fairly convincingly as a written account by an ESL speaker (thus "horses that go around" instead of "carousel horses," etc). I sure hope it's his words instead of a translation, anyway, otherwise it's very condescending!