Product Description

When renowned photojournalist Elizabeth Gilbert first came into contact with the Maasai over ten years ago, their images were everywhere in Africa. Pictures of warriors were printed on postcards, T-shirts, safari advertisements, and hotel logos, but in reality their traditional life was disappearing. So Gilbert — whose photographs have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Men's Journal, Life, and the New York Times — set out on a four-year journey to photograph what was left of traditional Maasailand. Broken Spears is the stunning result of that remarkable journey where Gilbert intimately and poignantly captures the majesty of these people. Over 120 images capture the rituals, secret ceremonies, and landscapes of the Maasai, documenting the life of this extraordinary tribe in the most comprehensive collection of photographs ever assembled. Gilbert's intimate relationship with the Maasai allowed her to photograph centuries-old Maasai ceremonies, including male and female circumcisions, weddings, and perhaps the most dangerous of all Maasai rituals, a lion hunt. A moving photographic journey into the vanishing culture of the Maasai warriors of Kenya and Tanzania, Broken Spears is a haunting testament to a rapidly disappearing way of life.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #344233 in Books
• Published on: 2003-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 192 pages

From Publishers Weekly
An American war photographer based in Nairobi for most of the '90s, Gilbert abandoned the carnage of Rwanda, Somalia and the Sudan in 1998 and set out "to get back to the richness of the land and its heritage." For her, that meant the 5,000-square-mile tribal reserve of the Maasai in Kenya and Tanzania via a four-year sojourn sponsored by Kodak and Corbis, the photo archive owned by Bill Gates. Famous fighters who grace countless "postcards, T-shirts, safari advertisements, and hotel logos" in Africa, the Maasai and their way of life are simultaneously overexposed and subject to "[e]ducation and the demands of a modern economy" that are driving the remaining 400,000 or so members apart. In the text, Gilbert yearns after "something purely African," and her treatment of the Maasai is a mixed bag of nostalgia, understanding, incomprehension, glorification and attempts at cultural relativism that are sorely strained by the "female circumcision" (ritual removal of the clitoris) that is compulsory for Maasai women, as well as other practices. But if one takes the text as secondary, many of the 120 b&w photos and 40 historical illustrations emerge powerfully. Beyond the expected elders sitting proudly for portraits, warriors roaming the plains with spears raised and lion-hunt carnage, Gilbert, with serious reservations, manages to get inside the hut where a woman is "circumcised" (she documents the circumcision of a man as well) and reveals a few emotional chinks in the Maasai armor. While she does not succeed in making their way of life fully comprehensible to outsiders, she does set it in dramatic relief.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"A skilled, intimate, and remarkable portrayal of an enigmatic culture that goes well beyond the usual stereotypical treatment of the Maasai. Gilbert's work is a valuable contribution to the honorable photographic tradition of tribal studies."

About the Author
ELIZABETH GILBERT moved to Africa to work as a news photographer in 1991. Her pictures have appeared in Time, Newsweek, Men's Journal, Life, and The New York Times, as well as numerous major European publications. Her photographs of the Maasai have been awarded prizes for portrait and reportage by the Society of Publication Designers.

Customer Reviews

A remarkable record of a vanishing society
I read this pictorial record of the Maasai in one sitting from start to finish. Rather than being just another coffee table book with pretty pictures, Liz Gilbert intersperses her photographs with insightful essays documenting Maasai history, rituals, and traditions such as marriage, male and female circumcision, coming of age, and even a lion hunt with spears.

Gilbert has clearly done her homework regarding the Maasai, spending many years in Kenya to gain the trust of the tribesmen who allowed her to document their most intimate rituals. The black and white photographs she has assembled have a museum quality about them, especially the portraits.

The author took serious personal risks to achieve these photographs, with the lion hunt at the end representing but one example of her courage. Clearly, the book documents not only the vanishing society of the Maasai, but also a personal journey for the author. This book should be an inspiration for anyone interested in Africa.

A Passionate Portrait of a Great People
Most photographers either see the members of the noble Maasai tribe hastily when they are tourists or as photojournalists with limited time. Their images don't get far below the surface. On the other hand, photographer Elizabeth Gilbert worked many years, carefully and slowly to gain the Maasai's trust and understand who they are. The result of her efforts is abundantly clear in this moving book that documents their world in a great detail. We don't see flashy events performed for visitors but intimate milestones in their life like the passage to manhood and the rite of marriage. The book leaves us with a clear sense of who these people are and where they came from. In addition, Gilbert has given us a breathtaking view of the country in which they make their home. It is a standout in a field full of Africa books.

STUNNING AND PASSIONATE!
This is a truly awe-inspiring book. I highly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in the Maasai or African cultures. In contrast to the recent slew of "white girl in Africa" books which have deluged newstands in recent years, Gilbert's book is a refreshing take on one of Africa's least accessible and mythologized cultures. Individually and collectively the photographs serve to honor a people who are consciously facing the erosion of their societial ways. Broken Spears is a must-have for any serious family book collection