Masai Women

The Masai are cattle herders living in the East African rift valley they grow no crops and are proud of being a nonagricultural people Cattle are the allimportant source of wealth and social status and Masai love their cattle composing poems to them However it is the men who have exclusive control over rights to cattle and women are dependent throughout their lives on a man father husband or son for rights of access to property A womans status as daughter wife or mother is therefore crucial and this film examines with depth and sensitivity the social construction of womanhood in Masai society concentrating upon womens attitudes to their own lives