Maasai Asst. Chief Dickson Parmisa and Phoebe Lasoi at International Folk Art Market in Santa Fe
By
Margaretta wa Gacheru (posted 3 February 2020)
Phoebe Lasoi
had been making and selling her beadwork in Nairobi’s City Market for several
years before she got the call from her local Chief Nickson Parmisa.
The
assistant Chief for Kitengela county wanted to know if she could adapt the
traditional Maasai jewelry designs to make them more contemporary and
potentially more appealing to an international audience.
The Chief
had something specific in mind. He had heard about an invitation to show and
sell contemporary Maasai jewelry at the International Folk-Art Market in Santa
Fe, New Mexico.
The
invitation had come from the Kenya-born filmmaker Iki (aka Kenny) Mann who had
recently moved to Santa Fe but still had close ties to Kenya.
“I was born
in Athi River and my brother Oscar still lives in Kitengela,” says Iki who
started something called ‘Acacia Moyo’: Where Tradition meets Technology’
in 2017 with the idea of assisting the Maasai community in building ‘robust’
and sustainable income-generating activities. She’s been working closely with
Chief Nickson ever since.
“When I
heard about the Folk-Art Market [the largest of its kind], I immediately
thought of indigenous Maasai beadwork,” says Iki whose Acacia Moyo was
able to bring Phoebe and the Chief to the Market last July.
It turns
out, Phoebe who works with several other bead women, including the Olmakan
Womens Beading Collective, came to the Market dressed in all her Maasai
regalia. So did the Chief. “They were like the King and Queen of the event,”
Iki says.
One benefit
of their being there, apart from ensuring tremendous sales were made, was that
the Market organizers gave Phoebe a three-day training in marketing, branding,
pricing and import-export.
“Apart from
what we paid the beaders, including the Womens Collective, the rest of the
funds raised at the Market went back to the community,” says Iki, adding that
Acacia Moyo is now funding four years at Embakasi secondary school for eight
Maasai youth, seven girls and one boy. “They were all selected by Chief Nickson
who chose among the most impoverished youth in the community,” Iki says.
Phoebe in traditional Maasai jewelry
Sensitivity
to the plight of the Maasai is the main reason Iki says she founded Acacia Moyo
with Anthony Carlson whose also grew up in Kenya while his father worked for
the UN. “In recent times, the Maasai have often sold their land when they
needed cash. But if they had other means of earning money, they wouldn’t have
to sell it,” says Iki who grew up in Athi River near the Kenya Meat Commission,
where her veterinary father, Dr Igor Mann first got a job as a meat inspector
after arriving in Kenya as a refugee fleeing Nazis in the 1940s.
One of the
other projects that Acacia Moyo is about to start with the Chief’s support, is
bee-keeping. “Chief Nickson will soon select 30 young Maasai to train with a
local beekeeper. He has already allocated land where the 30 can set up hives,”
she adds.
The third
project Acacia Moyo plans to fund is in agriculture. “There’s a course at the
Santa Fe Community College that we want to take two students studying at the
Rift Valley Institute of Science and Technology to,” she says.
Contemporary Maasai jewelry
Understanding
that historically the Maasai have been nomadic people, they are constrained
today after having sold much of their land to people who generally put up
fences to keep out Maasais’ cattle.
That is why
Iki will attend the 2020 International Folk Art Market with another bead
designer. “This time it will be Naomi Teto who will go to Santa Fe in July,”
says Iki who adds that Phoebe might already be in the States. In the meantime,
all the beaders are creating new designs to sell at the Market.
Naomi Teto will represent Maasai women bead artists in Santa Fe in 2020
Apparently, many people who come to the market and appreciate folk art have been to Kenya before. “They are often the ones who know traditional Maasai jewelry and especially like our beaders’ new designs,” says Iki who adds that the beaders have not only created new styles of chokers, long necklaces and beaded sandals. They also created beaded bags that all sold out in Santa Fe in 2019.
The money
made by all the Market venders first went straight to the Santa Fe managers who
in turn kept a close tally on all the sales. “They deducted 10 percent, but
Acacia Moyo took home the rest which is being used to promote projects in the
Maasai community.
Kenyan super-model Ajuma at African Heritage Gala dressed in Maasai jewelry
“I didn’t
take a penny,” Iki adds.
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