The Maasai

Across the open plains and highland plateaus of Kenya, the Maasai have long shaped their lives around movement—following rain, grass, and the signals of the landscape. Cattle, which are god-given, are the center of everything: nourishment, wealth, status, spirituality. To be Maasai is to live in step with the land, to understand its silences as well as its abundance.

Maasai life is organized through age-sets, each with its own role and rites. Young warriors train in discipline and courage, watching over the herds and the safety of the manyatta. Elders advise by memory and experience—keepers of stories, pasture cycles, and relationships with neighbors. Women build the homes, raise children, milk the cows, and carry knowledge in the rhythm of their daily work.

Adornment is a language among the Maasai. Beadwork—bright collars, cuffs, earrings, and headpieces—marks moments and identities. Colors and patterns shift with time, forming a visual archive of lineage, status, and belonging. Though the Maasai are widely recognized for this intricate artistry, certain communities hold traditions that carry both Maasai identity and older, more localized histories.

One of these is the Mokogodo Maasai, who live around the edge of the Mukogodo Forest in northern Kenya. Their ancestors were forest-dwellers—expert beekeepers, foragers, and custodians of the highland woodlands. Over generations, they adopted Maa language and many Maasai cultural practices, yet maintained a distinct thread of craftsmanship and ecological knowledge.

Today, the Mokogodo Maasai women’s artistry comes to life through our partnership with Antassia, a craft collective founded by Antonia Stogdale. More than 100 women bead from their manyattas—often by solar light after long days walking for water, gathering firewood, tending goats, and raising children. What began in 2008 with a handful of women at the remote eco-lodge Tassia has grown into a network of extraordinary artisans. Every one-of-a-kind clutch bag is slowly crafted through a distinctive, tightly woven beading technique—each one a step toward supporting a woman’s financial independence, stability in the home, and a future for generations to come.

Their artistry is inseparable from the land that surrounds them: the women of Antassia live in an area crossed by several elephant migration routes, where hundreds of elephants descend into the valleys of Lekurruki after the rains. Navigating daily life alongside these herds shapes everything—from how the women move between homesteads to how deeply they understand the rhythms of their ecosystem. They are, in every sense, guardians of the land.

Through this fair-wage partnership, the Mokogodo Maasai women are enabled to preserve ancestral skills while expanding economic independence—without leaving their homes or altering the structure of village life. What emerges is a model of community-led empowerment and conservation, rooted in dignity, artistry, and place.

100% of profits from the sale of the bags are then returned to support Kenyan communities and regional anti-poaching efforts through our non-profit partners.