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Maasai honoured for 9/11 gift
10/09/2006 22:55 - (SA)
Enoosaen - The United States on Sunday formally reciprocated an extraordinary September 11 condolence offering of cattle given to the American people by isolated Maasai tribesmen in Kenya.
A day before the five-year anniversary of the September 11 2001 attacks, Washington endowed 14 scholarships - one for each of the donated cows - for Maasai students to attend high school in the country's remote southwest.
Four years after the initial gift surprised and touched many Americans with its honest simplicity, the US ambassador to Kenya and local Maasai elders also ended frustrating uncertainty over the future of the cattle, the tribe's most important possession and symbol of wealth.
At a small ceremony in this dusty speck of a village, about 245km southwest of Nairobi, custody of the Zebu cows and their offspring - now totalling 26 - was turned over in perpetuity to the Maasai, some of whom had complained the United States had never collected the valuable stock.
"Today, on the eve of the fifth anniversary on the terrible attacks, I have come to Enoosaen to conclude the donation with a reciprocal gift from the people of the United States ... and a pledge that we will never forget the generosity of this community," US envoy Michael Ranneberger said.
He lamented that climate and customs codes had prevented the cattle from actually being sent to the United States, but stressed that the Maasai gesture "had profoundly touched the heartstrings of the American people" like no other post-September 11 gift of friendship, sympathy and goodwill.
"Tomorrow, back home, Americans will be reminded that in a remote village in western Kenya that does not have sky-scrapers or fighter planes or concerns that international terrorists will disrupt (it), the Maasai of Enoosaen again expressed their solidarity," Ranneberger said.
The US scholarships, a "modest donation" in the ambassador's words, of about $3 500 over an initial four-year period, will allow seven Maasai boys and girls to attend boarding high schools in the area.
Under an agreement signed by Ranneberger and the community, the Maasai will care for the small herd of "American" cattle on their land and sell their offspring to establish a scholarship fund to keep the legacy alive.
Cattle are highly valued among the Maasai, a community of herders who live in Kenya and Tanzania, and the gift of a cow is regarded as among the most precious one can receive from a Maasai - ranking alongside a child or grazing land.
- AFP
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