More than 400 boys aged between 6-10 years graduated in the Maa Enkipaata ceremony in the Oloikarra Village of Mashuuru subcounty in Kajiado.
The Enkipaata is part of UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage ceremonies among the Maasai community.
The rite is the first ceremony performed for adolescent boys who are ready for circumcision when an age set for morans is formed by respected Maasai elders.
There are three interrelated rites of passage Maasai boys pass together from being children to being morans (warriors), then adults, and then elders.
Enkipaata, which happened in Kajiado on Tuesday, is a circumcision rite inducting boys into the first stages of moranhood.
Enkipaata is the first, followed by Eunoto and Olng’esherr. They are interrelated male rites of passage for the Maasai community.
Enkipaata is the induction of boys leading to initiation; Eunoto is the shaving of the morans, paving the way to adulthood and Olng’esherr is the meat-eating ceremony that marks the end of moranism and the beginning of eldership.
The rites of passage were initially mainly practiced by young men of the Maasai community aged between fifteen and thirty.
In the Enkipaata ceremony, the boys are taken through a rigorous program in the bushes for several days.
They are inducted for aspects of their culture and their new and future roles defined in the community.
A top group of community elders is picked to conduct the training of the boys. Those picked in the Mashuuru induction were two elders of two age groups: Irkishumu and Oltalala.
Mzee Ole Ntayiaya (Iltalala) and Mzee Ole Kipirato (Irkishumu) were picked to induct the young boys.
Kantet Lemoshira, the chairman of the ceremony, said the boys, during induction, are taught how to be leaders of their families and how to defend the community once they are circumcised.
“On this day, we woke the boys very early in the morning and smeared onturroto (white substance) on their bodies to enhance their looks before their mothers,” Lemoshira said.
The boys were thereafter walked in a straight line by the elders to a designated Manyatta, where they were met by their singing parents.
At the entry of the manyatta, the boys were sprinkled with milk by the elders as the singing went on.
Once they were released to their parents, they were expected to be prepared for their circumcision ceremony, which would happen in April when the schools are closed for the holiday.
“By educating young people about their future role in Maasai society, the rites serve to induct them first to moranhood, then as young elders, and finally as senior elders,” said Lemoshira.
He said respect and responsibility, safeguarding of the lineage, the transfer of powers from one age set to the next, and the transmission of indigenous knowledge, such as concerning livestock rearing, conflict management, legends, traditions, and life skills, are some of the core values embedded in those rites of passage.
After the boys are circumcised, it will take about 8 years before they go through another ceremony called eunoto (shaving of hair).
The ceremony is regarded as the climax of moranism.
The eunoto ceremony, the second rite of passage, lasts for a month at a designated manyatta, which hosts people from far and wide.
During that ceremony, the leader of the group is identified and paraded before the rest of the morans.
Alex Ntaisi, a resident of Mashuuru and whose son was among those who graduated on Tuesday, said during eunoto several bulls are slaughtered, not for feasting but for administration of oaths.
Ntaisi said one of the oaths entails drinking fresh blood from a bull to bind the age set as they are prepared to be young elders.
