The Chairman and the Lions

As recently as forty years ago most sections of the Maasai were seminomadic and relatively independent of the nationstate However political social and economic changes in East Africa have forced many herders to adopt a sedentary lifestyle The Chairman and the Lions introduces Frank Kaipai Ikoyo a charismatic Ilparakuyo Maasai who at thirtythree is the leader of a Tanzanian village called Lesoit Ikoyo was elected to his post at the age of twentysix in part because he had completed primary school That someone so young would be accorded such authority would have been without precedent not long ago Yet this ethnography of Ikoyos duties as village chairman shows how literacy and insight into the workings of the nationstate are essential for Maasai to combat the many lions both real and figurative that beset them land grabbers bush lawyers unemployment outmigration and poverty