Where There Is No Formal Social Welfare System for an Indigenous People

This chapter on “Where There Is No Formal Social Welfare System for an Indigenous People: Entrepreneurship, Watchmen, and the Reinvention of the Maasai Warrior” addresses the transformation of the Maasai moranism (warrior society). As a marginalized indigenous group, the Maasai have not benefitted from any important social welfare or safety net programs. The chapter interrogates the evolution of an entrepreneurial spirit among young Maasai men who have joined the ranks of the massive informal sector to become watchmen (security guards) in cities and small townships in both Kenya and Tanzania. The chapter draws from ethnographic narratives about the “fierceness” of the Maasai in global capitalist expansion and their economic marginalization. The overriding question is: In what ways is the proliferation of the phenomenon of Maasai watchmen a reaction to the community’s marginalization?