Painted Shield
Maasai (Masai, Massai), Kenya / Tanzania
Buffalo hide, goat leather, wood, paint
Early 20th century

The Maasai are East African pastoralists who live among the Bantu of southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. They organize their males into closely-knit age-grades and initiate them every 15 years. It is not unusual for young boys to travel in groups all over Maasai country between circumcision and their formal initiation as junior warriors.

Shield marks and designs were typically executed with red, white, and black pigments, and served to differentiate age groups and lineages, and showed marks of distinction in battle. Traditionally, the red was obtained by mixing earth with blood or the sap of the solanum campylae fruit, the white from clay, and the black from burnt gourd skin (Benitez & Barbier, Shields: Africa, Southeast Asia, and Oceania, 2000).

36 in :: 91 cm

InventoryID #13-2102

SOLD