Barefoot over the Serengeti

207 Pages·1979·16.695 MB·English

by  David Read

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Onhis seventh birthday David Readleft
the town of Kijabe to start a new and
unusuallife with his mother out in the
great plains of East Africa, far away
from the big cities and any semblance of
Europeancivilization.
With only a few white adults for
company young David naturally made
friends with African children with whom
he roamed through the bush and over
the Serengeti plain, trapping birds,
hunting for honey, chasing wild pigs.
Scarcely able to read or write, by the
time he was nine the boy was never-
theless perfectly capable oflooking after
himself alone in the African wilderness.
Theauthorwrites ofthealarmingadven-
turesheencounteredasachild;ofsafaris
over the greatplains, and ofthe animals
that inhabit them, describing the
extraordinary and stirring sight of a
mass migration: a vast tract of land
transformed into a seething carpet of
wildebeeste, zebra and gazelles; lion,
cheetahs and hyenas; of the migration
he himself took part in — that. of the
fortune seekers who surged to the
goldfields of the Lupa where theyled a
bizarre existence see-sawing between
millionairedom and utterpoverty.
Most of all, however, this book is
about David Read’s friendship with the
Masai people and about the customs
and life-style of this highly individual
nomadic tribe of cattle-rearing warriors.
Being a young child he was easily
assimilated into the African community
and quickly became an accepted figure
in the Masai settlements, speaking their
language fluently and joining in the
activities of the children. Sometimes
inviting themselves to the warriors’
(Continued on backflap)

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David Read
Barefoot over the Serengeti
OO Lon
Cassell
London
CASSELL LTD.
35 Red LionSquare, London WCIR4SG
and at Sydney, Auckland, Toronto, Johannesburg,
an affiliateof
Macmillan Publishing Co., Inc.,
New York.
Copyright © David Read 1979
All rights reserved. No partofthis publication
may be reproduced,stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recordingor
otherwise, without the prior permission of
Cassell Ltd.
First published 1979
ISBN 0 304 30057 8
Printed by Billing & Sons Limited,
Guildford, London and Worcester
To Pat, mywife, for herpatience andtolerance
Contents
Crossing the Siabet
Into Masatland
Sixpence fora Baboon 15
My Friend Waweru 22
The Popat Wedding 30
I Meet Matanda 38
The Masai Male 48
The Olpul 60
O The Long Walk 67
M
m© A Woman’s Place in the Tribe 75
The Laibon’s Story 82
~
™
Masai Legends 91
Y
H
N Wild Dogs and Porcupines 100
W
A Matandais Eaten bya Leopard 110
OA Rain-Making 118
W
W Masai Weapons 123
A
’ Gold Fever 127
N
W The Witch-Doctors 137
O Lenana’s Spell 146
B
QD Besieged by Lion 154
R
Q™ Shield-Making 161
R
H
ORN From Warrior to Elder 167
OW The Wells at Ngasumet 173
RR
QA The Oldorobo 179
AW
am Farewell to Loliondo 184
R
List ofIllustrations
Between pages 96 and 97
Ajunior moran
A Masaibride
A Masaihut
Masai hut under repair
Asanja calabashes.
A layoniprotecting his flock
Morans ona lion hunt
Lions mating
Married Masa! woman
Masai woman sewing moran’s belt
A Masailaigwanan
Treed by wild dogs
The tamelion ofSerengeti
(All illustrations are the author’s copyright)
Acknowledgements
I would like to express my thanks to the late Mrs E. Harvey,
to Sue Pretzlik, Susan Wood, Erika Johnston, David Frost
and Jack Block for their help and encouragement; and to
Mary Minotfor the illustrations. | would also like to thank
my Masaifriend Lollemben for his help in refreshing my
memory on Masai customs and legends, and my daughter
Penny whodrewthe original maps.
And last but not least, to Pamela Chapman whocaughtthe
words as they tumbled out and put them into order, and
without whose untiring interest and hard work this book
would never have been written.