NANANA SIAMPALA, July 15, 2020
****
Lydia Nashami - Kiitok "SKIZA 7639231" (Official HD Video)
Lydia Nashami, July 29. 2020
****
Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents three videos of contemporary Kenyan Gospel music.
This post is part of an ongoing pancocojams series that documents the changes that appear to have occurred in the ways that contemporary Maasai people wear their hair.
The content of this post is presented for socio-cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are showcased in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
****
PANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I'm an African American woman who has watched a number of
YouTube videos of Maasai culture and has read a number of online articles and
offline books about Maasai culture. I've done so as part of my general interest
in Black cultures around the world.
By no means am I suggesting that I am an expert on Maasi culture.
As a result of perusing numerous YouTube videos of secular and religious Maasai music -especially videos published after 2017 - it appears that many if not most Maasai women don't adhere to the traditional custom of shaving their hair. This contradicts the descriptions of Maasai women that are found in most internet articles. I decided to search for and then post information and videos on this subject to help correct what appears to me to be outdated and erroneous information about this African culture.
In the religious and secular YouTube videos of Maasai culture that I've watched, the Maasai women (particularly those who wouldn't be categorized as "older women") wear their hair in very similar (if not the same) hairstyles as most of the hairstyles that are worn by African American females.
Although women are the focus of these pancocojams posts about changes in Maasai hairstyles, these showcased videos (and some other YouTube videos) also document changes in the ways that some Maasai men wear their hair (including some men having facial hair) and the ways that some Maasai children wear their hair.
**
The pancocojams posts in this series aren't meant to suggest
any positive or negative valuation about the changes in hair shaving and hair
styling customs among the Maasai people. However, it seems likely that such
significant cultural changes as the ways that women-and men- wear their hair
has had and may continue to have societal ramifications for Maasai people.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2017/12/youtube-videos-that-showcase- multiple.html for a 2017 pancocojams post on this subject.
That post, entitled "YouTube Videos That Showcase Multiple Hairstyles Worn
By Contemporary Maasai Women", showcases some older YouTube videos of
Maasai women with shaven heads, and links to more contemporary videos of Maasai
women with various hairstyles. These with hyperlinked videos replace videos
that had been embedded in that post are no longer available.
Also, click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2020/12/changes-in-ways-that-maasai-wear-their.html
for a pancocojams on this subject that is entitled "Changes In The Ways
That Maasai Wear Their Hair (And Other Changes To Some Maasai Customs Related
To Physical Adornment)". And click the "Maasai shaven heads and hairstyles"
tag below for other pancocojams posts on this subject.
****
Thanks for visiting pancocojams.
Visitor comments are welcome.
I also attempted to add this video to this same pancocojams post, but for some reason, it didn't work:
ReplyDeleteAAKUETIKIA BY BETTY SANKALE To get skiza SMS Skiza 5431304 to 811
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMLmmT7qknE
Betty Sankale Music, Nov. 13, 2020
Here's my editor's statement that I attempted to add to this pancocojams post:
ReplyDeletePANCOCOJAMS EDITOR'S NOTE
I'm an African American woman who has watched a number of YouTube videos of Maasai culture and has read a number of online articles and offline books about Maasai culture. I've done so as part of my general interest in Black cultures around the world.
By no means am I suggesting that I am an expert on Maasi culture.
As a result of perusing numerous YouTube videos of secular and religious Maasai music -especially videos published after 2017 - it appears that many if not most Maasai women don't adhere to the traditional custom of shaving their hair. This contradicts the descriptions of Maasai women that are found in most internet articles. I decided to search for and then post information and videos on this subject to help correct what appears to me to be outdated and erroneous information about this African culture.
In the religious and secular YouTube videos of Maasai culture that I've watched, the Maasai women (particularly those who wouldn't be categorized as "older women") wear their hair in very similar (if not the same) hairstyles as most of the hairstyles that are worn by African American females.
Although women are the focus of these pancocojams posts about changes in Maasai hairstyles, these showcased videos (and some other YouTube videos) also document changes in the ways that some Maasai men wear their hair (including some men having facial hair) and the ways that some Maasai children wear their hair.
**
The pancocojams posts in this series aren't meant to suggest any positive or negative valuation about the changes in hair shaving and hair styling customs among the Maasai people. However, it seems likely that such significant cultural changes as the ways that women-and men- wear their hair has had and may continue to have societal ramifications for Maasai people.
Click the "Maasai shaven heads and hairstyles" tag for other pancocojams posts on this subject.
I adding these descriptions of hairstyles to this editorial note:
DeleteIn the religious and secular YouTube videos of Maasai culture that I've watched, the Maasai women (particularly those who wouldn't be categorized as "older women") wear their hair in very similar (if not the same) hairstyles as some of the hairstyles that are worn by African American females, although the percentage of these hairstyles that are worn by Maasai females and the percentage of these hairstyles that are worn by African American women vary.
In most of the YouTube wedding videos that I watched, the Maasai women who were part of the wedding party have hairstyles that consist of multiple long braids (probably made with extensions of fake hair). In these videos the long braids are usually worn in one ponytail, sometimes the hair in the ponytail and/or other strands of that hair are dyed a "pop up" color such as one woman with her ponytail braids dyed blue, another with her ponytail braids dyed red. Sometimes the entire hair is dyed red. Choosing that particular color links back to Maasai traditions. However, hair coloring is also commonly done among contemporary African Americans and other non-Maasai cultures.
Other Maasai hairstyles for women that I saw in contemporary Maasai wedding and non wedding videos were "medium" length hair (not down to the shoulders or below the shoulders) that is straightened (by a perm). These hairstyles may include some strands with curls or coils. (My sense is that the hair lengths that are worn by African American females who wear these straightened hairstyles is often much longer than the hairstyles that are worn by the Maasai women in the YouTube videos that I watched).
[continued in the next comment]
[my editorial comment continued]
DeleteIn some Maasai wedding videos, some women who were part of some Maasai bridal parties had natural hair that was braided on the sides with one big puff on the top of their head. In the Maasai wedding video that is embedded in this post, one of the bridesmaids has a two toned light brown medium length (not shoulder length) curly hair style that might have been created from a "twist out" or "braid out" hair style or might have been a wig. Some Maasai women in the videos that I watched (other than the wedding videos) could have worn a hair piece in a bun on top of their straightened hair.
Some other Maasai women (particularly younger and middle age women) who watched the wedding processions/services also wore their hair in those braided styles or in short afros, but not in the straightened hair styles. In one video of a Maasai wedding, I recall seeing a woman with a medium length gray dreadlock.
In some other YouTube videos of Maasai women, some young women wear their hair in fuller "twist out", "braid out" natural styles. However, it appears to me that far fewer Maasai women wore these hairstyles than the percentage of African American women who wear these styles, particularly the styles where you unbraid or untwist the hair and leave it "as is" (without combing the strands out) or in "blow out"/flat ironed" hairstyles (where the natural hair is somewhat straightened without chemicals or a hot iron.)
In the contemporary YouTube Maasai videos that I watched, I don't recall seeing Maasai women wearing natural hair where one or both of the sides and the back of the hair is completely shaved. Since at least 2018 those hairstyles have been popular with some young African American women.
Although women are the focus of these pancocojams posts about changes in Maasai hairstyles, these showcased videos (and some other YouTube videos) also document changes in the ways that some Maasai men wear their hair (including young men with tapered hair and other barbered hair, and young men with closely shaven moustaches and hair on their chin.)
Some of the videos that I watched also showed young girls with shorter braided hair that was worn in various hairstyles.
thanks
ReplyDeleteYou're welcome, Anonymous.
Delete