Enkipaata: The maasai journey to manhood is a photographic project that documents one of the three rites of passage that every maasai man has to pass through during their lifetime.
In a village just a few kilometers away from the Ngorongoro Crater – a top tourist destination in Tanzania – the Maasai celebrate Enkipaata – an ancient rite of passage – where boys become warriors as they transition into adulthood. The threat of forced evictions of over 100,000 Indigenous Maasai in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area now endangers this tradition.
On a cloudy morning in late June 2024, more than 4,000 Maasai warriors – their faces painted with milk and honey – descended the Ngorongoro crater as their war cries filled the volcanic caldera.
For three days and nights, the Maasai celebrated Enkipaata, the first of three rites of passage that every Maasai male must undergo in his lifetime. The event took place in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area (NCA), a territory where lush nature, spanning 8,000 square kilometers, fills every corner and coexists in a perfect symbiosis with its ancestral inhabitants – the Maasai.
These photos are the first visual record of the Enkipaata ceremony held in Tanzania.
Photogallery published in The Guardian: Milk and sacrifice: a rare glimpse into a Maasai rite of passage and in The Oakland Institute: Tourism over cultural heritage
