White Women's Most Desired Excursion: Maasai Men.

White women of all ages with their designer slides & bags flock to the beaches of Zanzibar from all over the globe. In search for their Maasai Warrior holiday love.

Ryan teaching the Maasai how to use his Insta360 camera

Maasai are one of the many tribes here in Tanzania. The Maasai are very clever, nomadic tribesmen who live one with nature. They are very captivating, typically fluent in multiple languages despite no education. Known for their beautiful bead work, their jumping and the unique traditions, like drinking the blood of a cow at celebrations. They are extremely friendly, charming, likable people. Nowadays, some Maasai have embraced the tourism and use it to their advantage to invite tour operators to their bomas to teach the tourists about their way of life. Nomadic. Polygamists. One with Nature. Most of our tours we include a tour of a Maasai boma, because it is incredibly interesting to see; especially coming from the West. With this embrace of tourism, a lot of Maasai have become more "modern" in a sense. Although they go home to their bomas and live their traditional village lives, they have cell phones and some have even become safari guides. Their multi-lingual capabilities give them an advantage to score jobs from many companies seeking guides who can speak multiple languages. Incredible, they can go from a luxury safari carting guests around the National Parks, to go home to a completely different world, living in their village.

A lot of our friends are Maasai, some of the only people we trust and know we can rely on are Maasai. We have read many books learning about their culture, history and traditions.

They are extremely impressive human beings. Probably the most clever I have ever met. I love watching them and their expressions to things they may not have seen before. Like our tiny dogs. They had even seen dogs like these before; I remember our friend Ole (Maasai) picking up Morticia (our silver/black spotted dog) and spreading apart her fur. He was checking to see if her skin was black or white. or both.

Almost every time on the beach, the Maasai are amazed how Beetlejuice and place fetch, they patiently wait their turn to throw the stick for him, amazed he always brings it back. One day on the beach while we were letting the Maasai take turns throwing the stick for Beetlejuice, I noticed some of them inspecting the leash, not understanding it and what it did. I truly love watching them and how clever minds work.

Sadly, a lot of the Maasai are being forced by the government to move off their lands and having to make money to sustain their bomas/villages and so, some of the Maasai men bring tourist souvenirs and try to sell to tourists walking the beaches in Zanzibar.

Maasai men are apparently extremely desirable to European women. They flock here specifically looking for the Maasai men. You can walk the beach and see Maasai men all over, hand and hand with white women from entirely different worlds. I was blown away by this, but quickly learned about Stefanie Fuchs a german girl who met a Maasai man here, married him, and decided to move to his village. She has a book and a huge cult following on Youtube, Instagram, Facebook. Women aspiring to be like her. I had to read her book for more understanding of this; Because from I what of the Maasai culture, the women have it pretty rough. They build the homes, fetch the water (sometimes very far), do all the chores, tend to the children, all the cooking while the men basically socialize and trade goats. These all seemed like strong, independent young females who would more than likely been a part of the "me too" movement if they were Americans; So why would they want a life of submission? I read Stefanies book; It was a great short read, but exactly what I had thought. Her life is tough, she lives in the shadows, her opinions do not count. But she is doing great things for the women in the villages (primarily for their reproductive cycles, since most of them don't even own underwear.) and she speaks Maa (the Maasai language) fluently, that is pretty dam impressive.

So I am still at a loss for this. But, women of all ages desire the Maasai. Even while in Dar, we stayed in a boutique hotel, to see a woman older than my mother coming out of the room next to us, with her Maasai boyfriend, who had to have been half our age...

The Maasai do not even have to seek out the women; the women come to them. Maasai who are used to living in the bush are treated to a nice meal, spoiled and usually end up in a nice hotel for a couple of nights.

I can't help but ask, is this for their own personal gain? Do they truly know their culture? Do they see themselves living with the Maasai? Are they truly intrigued by their culture? Or is this for the shock value of having a "Maasai Warrior" on your arm from your photos of your Zanzibar vacation?

I know some truly do find love with Maasai. But, for the majority, I feel as though this is no different than white tourists who pick up random African babies on the beach that they dont know to take photos with.