The Masaai Gift Stock Scheme 1940 - 1944

The following case study is recorded to exemplify how an indigenous socio-political system can function and adapt itself to a set of extraneous circumstances which it had not boon developed to handle. It concerns the contribution of the Tanzania Maasai to the war effort in the 1939 - 1944 period. The background to the scheme is drawn from the writer's own recollections, but the course of events is recorded by Verbatim extracts from the provincial Commissioner Annual Reports, which were printed year by year and are available for reference in the African section of the University Library, Dar es Salaam.. For a full understanding of the position it is necessary to start on a personal note. Joining the Colonial Service in 1931 the writer after 2 years service in the West lake area, was posted as Assistant .district Officer in charge of the Loliondo Division of the Maasai District in September 1934. He spend the period of five years which proceeded the outbreak of V/orld War II in the Maasai District, alternating between loliondo and Monduli, and spending protracted periods on safari