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Maasai Origins

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Ferguson | 02:18 Thu 11th Jan 2001 | People & Places
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Are the Maasai of Kenya descended from the Ancient Egyptians?
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Yes, they migrated along the Nile to reach the East African savannah in the 15th Century. The connection can be seen in the echoes of ancient Egyptian dress that appear in African adornment: clothes, jewellery and even hairstyles.
The Maasai are truly an ancient people. There is surely more than one answer AND more than one KIND OF answer to your question. All indigenous people have creatoion stories which often are tied to the land they most immediately live upon. Those kinds of creation stories are often poetic, spiritual and full of larger than ordinary life symbols (think of Joseph Campbell type symbols) Other answers my be based in linguistics, science (DNA, geology, archeology, etc.)
Some Maasai people that I met in my city, Minneapolis, several years ago told me that they have an oral tradition of stories similar to several in the Torah. The story of Jacob and Issac was one such story.
To the south of modern Egypt in an area called Meroe which is in the Sudan. There are "proto-pyramids" there much smaller with sharper angles. There is debate about the antiquity of these in relationship to the ones in Egypt. The dots may or may not connect in terms of being "proto". I was taught that the what became Egyptian Civilization moved from the headwaters of the Nile in Ethiopia toward what is now called Egypt. We surely have more information about the Egyptians than the Maasai. You may want to check out the work of Martin Bernal for relavent reasearch.
Maasai have lived in the region of the Oldavai Gorge for thousands of years where the oldest human remains have been found. That begs the question of a relationship, but exactly HOW is that relationship manifested? As far as I know the research has not been done yet. While we do know that monotheism is central to Maasai culture and that Monotheism was brought into Egyptian culture by the "heretic king", Ahkenaten who was taught by has mother, Queen Tiye. She was from further in the interior of Africa.
There is a cultural unity of Africa, but it does take some time, skill and discernment to connect the dots. I hope this helps some.

Luis

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