Adam Mitchell [00:00:00]:
Welcome back to Shugyo. In this episode, I share with you where I was and why I was, away for the last several weeks. I've been in East Africa, specifically in Kenya and for a short time in Tanzania. In this time, I was over documenting a number of things in some remote parts of Kenya that organization that I work for does. But in my downtime, I wanted to check a box in my life that I've always had, which was to learn from the Maasai some of the unique methods of their spear. Now if you don't know, the Maasai are a very renowned tribe from that part of Africa, predominantly from Tanzania and Kenya. And they have quite the reputation for the way that they use their spear. And as a martial artist, it's always been a dream of mine to be among them and to learn some of those methods and some of those tactics.
Adam Mitchell [00:00:56]:
Well, in this episode, I did just that, but so much more. And I share with you a number of different stories, my own personal experience, as well as my time with a Maasai family who welcomed me into their home. The young moran or the warrior, the that's what they call the young men, as well as the elder spent time with both myself and my son, showed me everything that I wanted to learn and more. There is a lot to this journey, to these these travels in Kenya and Tanzania, and there's a lot that I share with you from my heart and from my experience outside of this time with the messiah and learning to throw a spear. That's why I went there. Part of the reason. It's something I always wanted to do. But I ended up learning and taking away so much more.
Adam Mitchell [00:01:42]:
And I hope I share that with you, and I hope you hear my feelings, and the expression of love and gratitude that I have for the people who became so important to me in Kenya. So without any further ado, welcome to this episode of Shugyo. I've been offline for several weeks. I was working over in, Kenya during the month of June. Outside of my martial arts training, I work for a large nonprofit, and I happen to be over in Kenya documenting some of the work that this organization has done over a 100 years. They've been around, and for about the last 50 years, they've been working in East Africa. I had the real privilege of traveling around to 3 different areas. 1 was the Kibweze subcounty, which is in, an area halfway between, Nairobi and Coastal Kenya.
Adam Mitchell [00:02:43]:
And it's a real, it's a it's a difficult place because there's the access to water that regular people have is very, very challenged. And I was immersed into the day to day struggle and the fight that the people of this area have with, with water. And I think one of the things that it shared with me or it it allowed me to see into is I think we can all understand, you know, how important water is. That goes without saying. And I think we can all also all relate to the fact that there are parts of the world that don't have access to clean drinking water or, easy water to be able to purify to filter and to purify. For also, I I have to apologize. There's a hurricane going on around me. So if you hear wind and trees falling and stuff, that's, that's what's that's what you're hearing.
Adam Mitchell [00:03:40]:
Anyway, this area that I was in, I traveled there, to record on video and photograph and also the voice of the people and be able to hear and interview some people out there, because the organization that I work for has been involved in helping some of rural communities, have access to water through borehole drilling and, being able to provide this resource for villages. And really one of the big things that I took away from there was this newfound understanding of the importance of water beyond what we see as the sort of the obvious. Right? One of the things that was standard there was that if you don't have access to water, easy access to water, then you don't go beyond a 2nd grade education. Because at 2nd grade, you're able to push a bicycle or hold the rope of a donkey, and you're able to the the bicycle has these they use these vegetable oil, these, like, 5 gallon vegetable oil containers that, the vegetable oil is used for cooking, of course. And then instead of discarding these yellow containers, they use them to drag water. So they'll go to a water hole or wherever they're at or whether it's a borehole. Usually, it's gonna be a water hole that they're sharing, with animals and cattle. They'll get the water.
Adam Mitchell [00:05:05]:
They'll string several of these over an old black Mamba bicycle, which is, you know, many of them are more you know, are from the seventies or eighties. But some of them go back all the ways to the British colonial times when when Kenya was a British territory, and a lot of these old bicycles still are kinda kicking around in the desert. And these 2nd grade and up children are now old enough to strap several, of these 5 gallon containers over the bicycle and push the bicycle several miles to get water and then several miles back to get the water home. It is really beyond explanation. It's kinda one of those things. If you work for a nonprofit or an NGO and you've been there, you understand what I'm saying, and you're nodding with me. If you haven't been there, it's one of those things that you don't quite understand until you have a touch point with it. And I was very, I don't wanna say I was privileged to have been able to have seen that, but it certainly changed my perspective on that and the importance of it.
Adam Mitchell [00:06:06]:
The second place that we traveled to was in the, area of Migori, which is in southwestern Kenya and, right down by the Tanzanian border. And the reason I went out there was to document a lot of the work going on with, both access to food, as well as some water programs, but more was education and specifically for young women and, the condition that young women are dealing with and have dealt with because of, 43, you know, 44, maybe 43 tribes within Kenya. But a lot of these tribes still practice female genital mutilation, and it's a or female circumcision. And it's a it's a condition that is cultural. And immediately when I talk about this, you know, a lot of people kind of consider this to be sort of a very well, this is because of a patriarchy of a tribal situation of the men taking women and taking them as a possession and then, doing the general mutilation of the circumcision. But what I found out later on, even after I returned and had deeper conversations with some of the people that have been doing a lot of work out there with these communities, actually, it's the elder women who are driving a lot of this, and it's an absolutely horrible situation that involves, intertribal warfare. It involves, human trafficking and kidnapping. And, man, it is just it is unbelievable what happens to these girls between the ages of 11 or 12 years old, up to, you know, 15, 16.
Adam Mitchell [00:07:44]:
They can they'll just get taken off the street, and then what happens to them after that inside these tribal communities is just something for us in the west to really not. We're just not able to wrap our heads around the level of, challenge. I mean, it's just horrible. I'm not gonna get into it on this podcast because that's not really what the topic is that I wanna share with you, but I do wanna share with you why I was there, what I was doing there. It wasn't believe it or not, someone told me that they're really amazing animals in Kenya, and maybe I'll get to see them next time. But it's not why I was there this time. I was able to spend time in Maggiore with both the deputy governor, of this area and, some very, very, amazing people who are doing some incredible things for young people, establishing, dormitories for girls, putting in, educational programs so that kids can have places to collaborate with one another to become more creative, to, establish themselves in the arts, and to be able to come together rather than reading, writing, and arithmetic. And the traditional method that the Kenyan young people are made to study, which is read, write, and then repeat.
Adam Mitchell [00:09:00]:
And that's basically it. And and the system has worked, but the people that I the the the the people that I was with, they were absolutely they they were changemakers, in this area, and it was, it was something it was really something else to see. I also wanna say that we were in one place, which was a women's and, orphans, center where this one room fed over a 1,000 meals a day, and this room was nothing more than a tin room with 3 rocks that they put the pots on, and they used wood fire that the widows would gather wood every day. And there was something like 215 orphans that are educated from this place and 600 widows because the Korea tribe and the Maasai have been fighting, and they're still killing each other with bows and arrows and spears and stuff, and it's still a real thing. And they're stealing each other's daughters and stealing the cattle and the goats. And, you know, I I learned that the going rate for your daughter is, 3 cows and 10 goats in some of these tribal communities. It's really a very, very, it was a very challenging thing for me to sorta wrap my head around. But to be there as a witness, not as I'm I'm not there to change anything, but I am there to witness and hear what the needs are in terms of food and water, feminine hygiene, and, things that that, you know, we can help with.
Adam Mitchell [00:10:29]:
And then the 3rd place I was at was in the slums. I spent time in the slums of, Nairobi, and I use the word slums not, by choice, but that's what, they call it. That's what that's the the the words that they use there. And, the organization I work for runs clinics that help women. It is there's in these slums, it's very much a rape culture, and women are openly raped, quite a bit. And they, HIV is a very real thing, has been. And, since the eighties, if a woman contracted HIV, especially a young woman, she was cast out of her home. She had no future.
Adam Mitchell [00:11:10]:
And if she was impregnated as a result of that, then the child, of course, was at immediate risk of being born HIV positive. The slums are, really infested with us. It is a it's a very, very horrible problem. And you have a couple of slums within Nairobi, the Kibera slum, which is, about a1000000 and a half people. And then I was in the Mathare slum, is about concentrated about 500,000 people. Now the work that I was doing was recording not just the, the the clinics that help these people, but also they work with women who have, cervical cancer as a result of, some of these conditions as well as tuberculosis, which is a real thing in these slums, and therapy and and and, traumatic recovery because of this. It it was really very much next level, very almost traumatic for myself. I brought my son along with me, my 18 year old son.
Adam Mitchell [00:12:11]:
But we went on house visits. We sat with the people. I listened to their stories. And, yeah, it was it was quite moving. Mathare was a community that actually was devastated by the recent flood. And when we went in there, just to kinda give you a perspective, much of the there was this one area that was a washout where the rivers of the flood cut right through the slum. And the government hasn't been able to get in there and access it yet, so you still have sort of if you go up into one of the high rises, you know, I say that, but there there's no electricity. There's no power, and people live in these, and it's they're just wet and filthy and moldy, and it's horrible.
Adam Mitchell [00:12:51]:
But if you look out across the slum, you see all the tin roofs, but then you see this mud path that cuts right through the middle of it. That mud path is about maybe, I don't know, 2 to somewhere 250 feet wide. And in it is just the debris of the flood, metal, ripped up metal, cars, all kind you you name it. It's ripped up, and it's it's sort of crystallized in this mud path that cuts through the slum. But there's also cadavers in there, and there's also impressions of bodies and body parts. And it's really, yeah, it's, it was was was something to be witness to. And, hopefully, I did a good job for my organization. We're able to record a lot of, content, and, hopefully, that is able to come back and help the people that I worked with.
Adam Mitchell [00:13:39]:
I do wanna say that we had a couple of young people, make friends with my son. They shared their story, their challenges, some children who lost their parents. One young man, 18 years old, same age as my son. His mother passed away because she had kidney failure due to constant dehydration, and we were able to raise some money for him while we were there to be able to put him through school, to get him a high school education, to help him get his, go to driving school to get his driver's license. So that I mean, if you have a driver's license, then you have a career. You can Uber. You can you can drive water now to your village instead of depending on 2nd to 5th graders pushing it on bicycles. You can get to school.
Adam Mitchell [00:14:19]:
I mean, it really it changes not just the trajectory of your own life, but the life of possibly even your whole village. So, this young man is, going to driver school while he's finishing up his last year of high school, And then, we were able to raise enough money to help, kick start him in his vocational training, to become an electrician. So some great things. We were also able to pay for 3 other girls to, be fed breakfast and lunch and dinner for the next 4 years, of their high school at boarding school. And, they these girls will have a complete education and hopefully be able to move on to secondary or vocational school afterwards. So I like to think that, while I wasn't there to change anything, I left Kenya with my son make, you know, a little bit better than when I arrived or at least when the universe put something in front of me. We were able to use what resources we had to create a little bit of change just a little bit. So, anyway, that's where I was.
Adam Mitchell [00:15:23]:
That that that's my story. That's what I was up to. But the reason for today's episode is I wanna share with you one of my other goals during my off time. I have always been quite fascinated in the background with the Masai tribe in Africa. And this is in East Africa, predominantly in Tanzania and in Kenya. And this is a very interesting tribe because they are considered the only tribe to have not been taken as slaves. And when I mean that, you immediately think, you know, the Dutch East India or British East India Company and and the slave trade on West Africa. And I got I got sort of a I got a a little bit of a talking to from my dear friend, and and and he was like, you know, you you Americans, you think it's about you, but we're talking about the African slaves taking Africans or the other tribes taking the tribes and enslaving them.
Adam Mitchell [00:16:21]:
And and the Maasai have never been have never been taken, and they are still, a, pastoral, people, meaning they're always walking around with their cattle. And I learned that their cattle is literally their bank account. So the more cattle that they have, the wealthier they are. And they, they they migrate about, and they're usually centralized is what the family that I ended up staying with shared with me and what I took from it. But they really are, visible, and they are part of that East African landscape, when you go there. And, once you get into the more remote areas, they become more visible. They are very visible in the tourist area because they're one of the biggest tourist attractions when you go to Kenya. If you go to any of the national parks, then there's the 9 to 5 Maasai who go down and, you know, they put their red robes on and, they do their thing.
Adam Mitchell [00:17:22]:
But when you be cut when you get out more remote where I was, and even if you know the right people and you're able to make the right contacts, then you are welcomed into you can be welcomed into some of these communities. Before I go further into that, I do want to share that while my opening to this episode may have seemed a little bit dark in the work that I was doing and the experiences I had, never in my life have I felt more welcome than in, East Africa, than in Kenya. And I was really able to, out of the 18 different, places that I visited, which could be considered among the poorest parts of Africa, of continental Africa. The poorer it got, the more welcome I felt. And what I mean by that is I saw this spirit among the Kenyan people, and I was later to understand that this is very much an African thing. Maybe not all of Africa, but it was explained to me that this is this is very much you will experience this similar, in all different parts of Africa, North Africa down towards the south central out in West, West Africa. But it is that the welcome that you receive by the communities that you visit is unlike anything that I can explain or have experienced in the West. And I've traveled.
Adam Mitchell [00:19:01]:
I've traveled quite a bit of the world. I've had that fortune, but Kenya was another level, man. Kenya, the people pulling up to places that the women were cutting bricks from the earth to build buildings for children, and they had no water and they had no money. Their churches and their places of prayer were built under the biggest tree to get out of the shade, that if you had one goat, it would change the entire life of your family. Like, when you're at that level and you show up there as some white guy from New York, you feel as though you're carrying in almost this guilt, but that is immediately pushed aside when you see that the people come out in song and love their dancing. I mean, I was getting out of cars, and the women had dressed up, and they're singing and they're dancing and they're parading. They have these entire feasts prepared. And these are people that don't really have access to water, but yet they've got 10 gallon drums filled with the most delicious stews and rice in Nogali, which is, like, the kind of the staple food there.
Adam Mitchell [00:20:32]:
And they wanna sit with you, and they wanna serve you, and they wanna sing with you. So I don't want my story to come across as one of, like, darkness and trauma, but one of being able to really witness a people in hardship still celebrating still celebrating life and still being as incredibly welcoming as I think a human can possibly be. So this was my this was really my big takeaway from Kenya. Now the Maasai, they are considered a warrior tribe. I was to learn that what they meant by warrior was more of an ability to endure and to live in communion with nature and to be able to resist the, the pressures of other tribes and to resist the pressures to change from modern society. And this was how my friend, Daniel, a Maasai elder, explained it to me. I made first made contact with, a colleague at another NGO who worked with the tribal people, and I ex I I, very sort of distant friend, was very happy to help me when I explained that in my martial arts study as a traditional Japanese martial artist, I've always had this desire to learn from, Masai Maran or a a a warrior, one of the young men who are trained and raised up from 6 years old to be able to protect the village, to be able to protect their family, to be able to, counter men who come in to take the young girls or to take, to, take cattle, and to also be able to protect the family from other wild animals, you know, nocturnal animals that may come into their village, things like that. But they have a very unique way and a very unique spear method that I've that has always fascinated me, and I was met with some very, very supportive, response, which was I know someone, who will be happy to welcome you into their family.
Adam Mitchell [00:22:59]:
Let me reach out to them. And then my friend got right back in touch with me and said, you know, I spoke to, one of the men of this, of this community, of this tribe, this community within the Maasai. It's a Maasai family, and they said that they would welcome you. I said, well, you know, of course, my mind goes to, well, how much do they want? And he was like, dude, don't like, no. That's not that no. Don't. Instead, he said, what would be the right thing to do is to bring some sugar because that is, to them, this means they'll they'll use that sugar in their tea when they have tea with you, and it is they'll add a little extra sugar to celebrate the sweetness of life with you. So I thought that that was, that was that was really cool.
Adam Mitchell [00:23:47]:
So one of the things that, we wanna we, you know, we wanna think about here is my perspective shifted was connecting with the locals to understand rather than stepping into. And this is something I know too well, and I shouldn't have made that mistake. Unfortunately, my friend is from Australia, so he kinda gets where I was coming from. But I should have come in and said, what is the what is the right cultural boundary? And I don't wanna show up empty handed, but instead, I just went straight to what can I how much how much can I pay them? How much can I give them for their time? They said, no. No. No. No. Bring some sugar.
Adam Mitchell [00:24:25]:
I spoke to my local friends who I was staying with, and they're like, listen, man. We need to go to the grocery store because you need to get some great Ugali. You need to get the best sugar. We need to get them a gallon of cooking oil. You wanna also get them some sweets, like some like some cookies and things like that that you can have with tea. You wanna show up with a bag, and you don't wanna just show up with a pound of sugar. So we went down to the grocery store, and I followed my friend's advice, And we filled up our bags in our arms with, with something to bring to this family. The next morning, we were picked up early, and, I was very, very considerate of my friend's organization to help me out with this, and he had one of his drivers come get us.
Adam Mitchell [00:25:16]:
And my son and I took a we drove for about 2 hours out of Nairobi into a more remote part of, outside of Nairobi. And we pulled over to the side of the road, and we waited and, you know, having a good time and have pouring a cup of tea at on the roadside there and just fields all around us. And we're sitting there, and then out of nowhere, we hear, someone yell, hello, and, and then this old guy comes rocking up. And his name he came over, and he held his hand out. He said, my name is Daniel, in a very, very, thick Swahili accent. And he embraced me and hugged me and introduced himself to my son. And then as proud as you can imagine a man could be, he introduced me to his, his family, his son, his son's, wife, his, sons and his, daughter in law's child, and then his wife. And then he said, come on.
Adam Mitchell [00:26:22]:
And he took us, we walked for about maybe, like, 3 quarters of a mile to a mile, towards where his home was, to where his cattle were in this big, big field there. I mean, from to from horizon to horizon, it was quite beautiful. As we walked, he shared with me a lot about the local plants, and he shared everything from the grass, to what how he would be able to tell certain things by the way the dirt was. He was able to share with me different types of tracks from little birds to his own cattle, and he'd be able to tell where the wind was blowing based on the footprints of the cattle and, what animals had brushed up against just even so gently up against, what branches. And, it was really just the walk to his home was amazing. I was really amazing because I was feeling so welcome. I had already been to Kenya now for a little while, so this wasn't a surprise to me. But for a for a community and a people who really you know, it's more of a tourist thing to interface with the Maasai, but to go into the bush and to be able to be welcomed by a family that's never met you, that doesn't know you was, was truly remarkable.
Adam Mitchell [00:27:55]:
Following that, we get to their, mud huts where they live, and we're asked to sit down, and we're my son and I are given some tea, and then they disappear. We I I don't know what like, they just kinda vanished, and my son and I are sitting there. We're drinking tea, and then all of a sudden we hear them singing. And, of course, I should have expected it. The family's coming out in their own parade, in their own this unique cultural thing where they jump very high, and they're coming out and they're dancing and they're singing the song of welcome, that you're safe here, that you're our family now, that you're with us, and we're so happy that you're here. And then we were brought up to dance with them, and you do this kinda jumping competition to show you're a man sort of thing. And it was really in in the in the most beautiful of spirits where we would jump, and then I was, of course, brought up. And this guy is, like, just launching up into the air.
Adam Mitchell [00:28:55]:
It was amazing to see. We spent our time doing that, and then, Daniel took us into his homes. He showed us the different, like, where they, you know, where they sleep and what their day to day looks like, where their food is, and and what they do. And he he told us all about sort of the Maasai family. Not necessarily going into the depth of the Maasai as a tribe, but what the day to day looks like with the family. And we got to really see the where their mud where their where there is beautiful they're not gonna say mud huts. That kinda cheapens what I'm saying, and I hope you don't get the wrong image. But there are these little homes, and if you're watching the video here, I'm I'm gonna I'm gonna be running b roll here of the images of everything, so you'll be able to see it if you're watching it, either on my website or on YouTube.
Adam Mitchell [00:29:46]:
If you're listening to it, then I would encourage you to go check out the, the video. These are actually really cool small mini homes that they build, with mud and, with weeds and with, with, with, like, saplings with with small trees. But the the entire area is surrounded by, by thorn bush, very, very thick thorn bush so animals can't get in there at night. So it creates this very safe barrier, around the homes. We then after, you know, learning about men sit here and women sit there type thing, he then, Risa, who was the moran, the young man in Daniel, took us out into the field and walked we walked out to where the cattle are, and he knew because my colleague, my friend had shared with him what my goals were and what it was that I wanted to do. And, so they began talking to me and showing me, the rugoo, which is the club. Now the rugoo is sort of a sort of kinda like a shillelagh, but it's maybe I don't know. It's maybe about arm length, and it has, an art end with a ball at the, at the very end.
Adam Mitchell [00:31:03]:
I looked it up when after I came back from Africa and I just kinda see what the Internet said about this thing, And it was, it's just pretty much referenced as a Maasai Warrior Club. But, actually, what was explained to me was that they'll use it as a hook to guide cattle to either if you're walking behind, you can use it to kinda hook behind the thigh or you can hook over its neck, and you can turn and you can steer and you can maneuver your animals, while you're walking with them, and it's sort of used as that. But it's also used as a throwing club. So if you have a wild dog or, an animal that you don't want near your cattle or your goats, These guys are brilliant at throwing them, not only distance, but accuracy. And this is the first thing that we did is we had a Rougar throwing contest, and Riso was able to nail a target. Fifty yards, he would have been able to put that club in an arcing throw high up and have it land right into a 5 gallon bucket at about 50 yards away. I would not have been that would not have surprised me at all watching this guy throw this thing. It was it was really something to behold.
Adam Mitchell [00:32:16]:
But it should be understood that if you're familiar with this, if you've been to Kenya or you've seen these online, that these aren't just clubs. These aren't like war clubs or anything. They're actually used for, for like I just said, they're used to sort of navigate your cattle as you're walking through the fields. But they're the second use of them is to actually throw at a smaller animal that may be disrupting or or, startling your cattle. Next was the the Siri, which was the Siri, which was the, the knife. It is, it's carried by every man, and they are used not to fight with, but they're used more as a tool, for shoveling things, for cutting weeds, but more of of like a utility is what they explained to me. There wasn't much of a fighting or protective component, with use of the knife. You know, Risa did kinda do, you know, this sort of thing with it, but I didn't hear from them that this was anything of, you know, there was no combat orientation to the knife at all in any way.
Adam Mitchell [00:33:28]:
A lot of the teaching on for the first half of this experience was really about walking, was really about seeing the ground and seeing the earth and looking at the horizon and being able to identify in the plains, where you were. Because really, again, as a pastoral people, they have to navigate their cattle because it is their cattle is their world. It's everything to them. And they're not on golf courses. They're in high grass. So if a cat you know, they have to be able to monitor this. So their ability to jump or to stand high and to be able to see things and monitor the cattle as they walk is very important. So a lot of our time was spent learning about that and learning how to move and walk and identify, hazards and challenge or or or other animals, predators that are low in the grass.
Adam Mitchell [00:34:22]:
And then from there, we moved on to the spear, which was my reason for being there. This was really, well, I discovered later that that was my reason for going there, but that was not what I took away from this experience. It was I, you know, I checked that box, and I learned so much, which I'm gonna share with you here now. But I really want it to be understood that when I left, the the the all the other details about my time, there there was so much more enriching than just the spear. So the Emereth, this is one of the names, that they use for the spear that the Maasai carry with them. Now this is a 3 piece spear. You have a hard wooden, sort of, heat tempered on both ends center. Then you have a long spike, which again is about any 2 and a half to 3 feet long that goes on, joins the butt end of the spear.
Adam Mitchell [00:35:16]:
And then the front end of the spear with the blade is a long, maybe about a 2 foot long to 3 foot long double edged spearhead where you have, 2 sharp edges that meet at a point. And the entire spear itself is probably about, 5 feet in height. Now there's no there's no set. I asked them about this. There's no every it's depends on the person, and the spear that Risa had was given to him by his father, and, this is what they use. And this is what he carries with him, and he has it on him at all times always. I first learned that thinking that I was gonna go in and I was gonna learn these spear fighting techniques and kind of coming in at with the lens on of a traditional Japanese martial artist and looking for the ways to fight with someone with a spear was the wrong entryway. That was the wrong way to go into this conversation, into this experience.
Adam Mitchell [00:36:14]:
Because what I quickly learned was that the threat that the Maasai face on the day to day in the remote parts of East Africa, the the threats from nature are much greater than threats from man. Almost everything that I learned was this is what happens when you find yourself in a tree and then you realize on that branch over there is a wild cat, and now that cat is about to jump on you. Or this is what you do with the spear when a water buffalo is charging you. Or when you're hunting with the spear, this is how you have to throw it. You can't throw it like this. You have to throw it like that. I quickly changed my paradigm of how I would be learning the spear and not looking at it from a combat orientation, but rather a survival, a tool of survival, a tool of protection, but not fighting an armed assailant or another soldier or the ways that we enter into these, in into this training with the martial arts. I didn't look at it as a martial art.
Adam Mitchell [00:37:23]:
The first thing that we studied was the how to throw the spear. And what was fascinating was their method of pulling the body back, pulling the shoulders back far behind the heel, and then turning the spear holding hand almost as though you're holding on to a serving tray, and the blade of the weapon comes right up against almost against their face. And when they launch and throw it, Risa explained to me that the method for throwing used for hunting with the spear is one where they don't throw into the side of the target. So let's say into the side of the neck of a buffalo or into the rib cage, but rather it comes straight down and lands into the target, from a vertical angle straight down into its back. Now this is for a number of reasons he explained. 1 was because of the high grass and the visibility, and you'll be able to see the size of the target, but you're not able to get a profile image oftentimes. The second reason really is that these animals are able to see very their field of vision and their peripheral field of vision is very wide at the horizon. But because they don't face too many threats from above, they they're less likely to see that incoming threat from above than from sideways, which I thought was fascinating.
Adam Mitchell [00:38:47]:
Risa then went on to demonstrate some of the throws, and there has not been many times in my life where I was more amazed than watching this young man hurl this spear like a javelin at that distance. And every time that spear hit perpendicular into the ground at a very, very far distance. And he would call where he's gonna throw it. He would say right next to that rock or he would say near that tree, and boom, every time, just like a bomber, that thing would hit the ground at a vertical, line, and it was really amazing to see. So then came my turn. Now for safety, he, of course, flipped the spear so that the the pointed end was facing forward. The emirate was the spear. The blade was razor sharp.
Adam Mitchell [00:39:34]:
You could shave your arm with it, and you'd one swipe and you take all the hair right off your arm. It was it was incredibly incredibly sharp, and he was concerned and for good reason. I would have been too. If I threw that and it got a little wobbly, it would have really I would have had a incredible cut on my face or on my shoulder because you go very far back. So instead, I threw it with the tip, forward, and I did horrible. Just every single time, it kinda landed on its side. And, eventually, when they worked with me on turning the thumb back, I was able to get a couple of throws where it was able to stick into the ground how they had asked me to. And it wasn't until I realized, look, I gotta really stop trying to create some distance here, and I just wanna throw it maybe 6 to 10 feet.
Adam Mitchell [00:40:24]:
Just just, you know, just very, very short. More important was that I get my form down, and I'm able to get the position of my body and my shoulder back far behind the heels. My body you know, I was watching him. And you see, they're not they're not martial artists. They're not martial arts instructors. So they don't come at it. They don't approach it with, you know, get your right foot here and turn the left foot. Make sure the knee is tracking over the foot.
Adam Mitchell [00:40:45]:
Make sure like, they don't have that language. They're just like, do it. I really watched his body and his control and agency over his movement was just phenomenal to see. It was like just watching a mat young master in action, someone who'd really who was taught the right way. Next, we went on to talk we he took us into an area that was covered with canopy trees, and he went on to explain that oftentimes, you will find yourself having to remove yourself from the herd, from the cattle because of a threat. For example, I already used a water buffalo will charge you. That is a deadly threat. Or an elephant.
Adam Mitchell [00:41:31]:
You will find yourself in a number of different situations where you may need to go up a tree. The the buffalo was one of the main examples and was probably the most common by because he used that over and over again. And when the buffalo charge you, you run up a tree, and, obviously, the buffalo can't go up the tree. The problem that they face, though, is that the buffalo, the male buffalo, will stay at the bottom of the tree if you don't do anything. Now okay. You think, alright. I'm gonna wait out the buffalo, and the buffalo eventually leave. Right? The problem there is that now you've got your herd of cattle over there, maybe, you know, 10 yards to over in that direction, and now you've got predators like cats or dog wild dogs, moving in on your cattle.
Adam Mitchell [00:42:16]:
And that's something that you absolutely don't want. Another thing that can happen is this cattle gets startled and that the herd breaks up and you're up the tree. So there's a lot of different variables that they face in this situation. And one of the methods of getting down from the tree is, first of all, the buffalo won't get startled by loud quick abrupt noises. However, the elephant will. With the buffalo, the reason why they wear these, a lot of red is because just like the, just like the the Spanish, what are their name escapes me, the matadors, the the, the bullfighters. They have the red fabric that the bull sights and goes at. Well, they carry they oftentimes wear not just their robe, but they also have a scarf or a shawl.
Adam Mitchell [00:43:17]:
Here's the one that was gifted to me. But they'll remove this. They'll throw it in one direction as they leap off the tree in the other. So they'll make sure that they get the attention from the bull, and they will throw, the red in one direction. So the bull's attention goes one way towards it, and they escape in the other direction. You know, they could also use the spear, to and use the the the not the spear end, but the sharp point to startle the bull before, they jump off the tree. He explained that that they would jab it and so that the bull would go that direction, and then they'd leap off in the other direction. Another thing he explained was that tip when they're in the tree will be used to prop up against the tree when they notice that there's a cat because the cat will pounce.
Adam Mitchell [00:44:09]:
The cat will jump at them, and they will use the spear and and the spike end will be braced into the tree facing the cat, and they'll always be able to move as the cat moves and follow the cat. So if the cat were to jump at them in any way, the cat's gonna impale itself. And this is the reason for that's one of the reasons for the pointed end of the emirate. Risa also went on to explain that this pointed end, if you realize that there's a cat above you and the cat jumps down and you're on the ground, is there's a method that they drop down onto their stomachs and they drive the spear into the ground and the cat will land on the spear. So it's kinda like the same method that I just explained in the tree. However, this is if they're going to get ambushed from an animal from above. They drive the spear into the ground and they drop and then kinda like hug the spear. This is also another method where you've seen probably seen the Masai shield.
Adam Mitchell [00:45:09]:
Now that shield, he explained to me, isn't for fighting, again, like you'd imagine, sort of like Spartans or or or Romans with their shield. That that wasn't how he explained it to me. He explained that the curvature of the shield is most of the time when a predator a predatory animal comes at them and rushes them, they will leap, pause up. That shield is to come and lift up as they drop to their knee. It opens up the front facing paws coming at them, and they use their spear again, in the ground. They use the spike to brace it in the ground, and then they cut the animal from the underbelly. And there's this whole method he showed me of coming up over the head and thrusting underneath the belly of a cat or a lion, and those are some of the methods used for, you know, with the spear in fighting these animals, and he he went on to explain a lot more. And in fact, I'm gonna be teaching some of this, and not not teaching it, but sharing what I was shown.
Adam Mitchell [00:46:18]:
I don't wanna say teaching. And if you're interested in, in that video, then just go ahead and comment down below, and I'll contact you and give you a link to that. This is I I I really wanna make sure that that's clear, that I'm not teaching any of this and that I had to make a promise to the elder Daniel that there's nothing here that I'd be selling. I don't intend to make money on any of this. He really wanted he was very happy and excited to share his culture with me and their day to day. And he he did specifically ask me, please don't sell any. Please don't make money on this. Don't and I gave him my promise that I wouldn't.
Adam Mitchell [00:46:52]:
So if you're interested in learning more about this, just go ahead and comment down below, this podcast or this video or reach out to me directly, and I will share with you the link of the all of the videos, and of me sharing with my students, some of these lessons that I was taught. So that's fundamentally the main use with the emirate or the spear. And there's a lot of different exercises that he showed me, ways to brace the spear against a tree. There was also the method of, how he stores the spear in his house, and he places it, with the spike end in the dirt and in the ground. And there's a certain place near his bed So that way when they hear a large wild animal that may have gotten into the area where their their their little, mud homes are inside the thickets. If an animal somehow got in there, he's able to, in the dark, come out of bed, grab his spear properly, and be able to move forward out the door without moving around this little room, this house that his wife and his children are all sleeping in and risk anybody getting injured or, you know, it's it's perfectly placed. So that way he rolls out of bed, grabs it, and goes right out the door with the spear. It was pretty cool to see how he did it actually.
Adam Mitchell [00:48:14]:
And, he's almost you know, he's immediately ready to confront an animal. This was something that we talked quite a bit about, the role of a man in the tribe. And this is probably something that a lot of the more progressively minded Westerners would really, really struggle with was this very apparent difference in the role of a woman and a man within these communities. Yeah. I'm I'm certainly not judging anything. I'm I'm there to witness and to, to to share. Daniel couldn't believe when I tried to explain to him about the Hudson River and New York City, and he was like, there's a city floating on the river. And I'm like, no.
Adam Mitchell [00:49:02]:
It's Manhattan Island. It's, you know, it's like we're going back. He'd never even heard of this before, and he thought it was amazing. And he was like, do you see big boats? I'm like, yeah. Yeah. We do. We sat down, and we had tea for boy, it seemed like maybe 2 hours, but the 2 hours just passed when in what felt like minutes because we had such an enjoyable time together in conversation and learning and sharing with one another. But there is a very old world feeling, among the Maasai, among these people.
Adam Mitchell [00:49:36]:
There is this very you know, his wife didn't talk to us. However, he wanted us to sit and cook ugali with her, which is, sort of this cornmeal that's a staple food in Kenya. If you've been to Kenya, you know it. If you know Ugali, then you're gonna respect this, that Daniel's wife was able to turn maybe a maybe a 2 gallon pot in one whisk of her wrist, the whole thing of. And I tried to do it, and I couldn't even move the thing 3 inches. And she was just like, boop boop. It's really amazing to see. The this is a tribal community.
Adam Mitchell [00:50:10]:
These are tribal people. And there is as I said at the beginning of this episode, there is a cultural thing at play here that I just can't identify with, that I don't understand, that's not part of my heritage, that I can choose to respect or not respect, but I certainly have to know that I'm not gonna have any control over it. I'm not gonna have any impact over it. I'm not gonna be I'm not gonna go in there and make any change. When I was a few days later in McGorry County and I was learning about the kidnapping of girls, to be taken as wives. Girls would just be walking to school, and it was quite common, that a girl would be taken off the street, and she would be brought across tribal lines. She would then undergo general mutilation or circumcision as they often call it, and then she would become someone's wife. Again, I got put in my place, and we have to understand this.
Adam Mitchell [00:51:13]:
When I was told when I was like, this is crazy. You know? As an American coming here and being in a remote part of Kenya, I'm not making any judgment. But this is a hard one for me to know that that girl right there that's walking in her school uniform down a dirt road with her backpack on could very well tomorrow not be there. Yeah. That's right. Everybody just like, yeah, as if. Like, yes. That's right.
Adam Mitchell [00:51:38]:
And then that evening, I was reminded by another friend of mine from Kenya that, Adam, how many children do you have disappearing every month at the US border as they're coming in? The United States is ahead of everyone in child exploitation. It is at an epidemic level in the United States in my own home. And that really put me in check when I thought about that because I was really projecting forward here, like, wow, this is, you know, this is some old, archaic stuff here that I just don't get. But then I was reminded, it happens everywhere. And where you're from actually, it happens the most. In a way, I looked at it as this is something that we all face and that we're all responsible for and that we're all responsible to be able to kinda speak to on our own terms. But to most importantly, be aware of it. Before I close, I wanna share, our 3rd day there.
Adam Mitchell [00:52:40]:
We were, my son and I had a down day, and I decided to crash a wedding. I figured if my son Luke got a really cool sort of African shirt and I got a nice formal collared shirt, we'd be able to slip right into this church and attend this wedding and then maybe go to the, reception afterward. Now if that kind of thing happened in New York or in New Jersey, then there would be a problem. I wasn't invited by anybody, but one of the people that I was with was one of the priests who was serving over this big wedding. So he's like, look. Come on. Just, you know, just sit in the back, kinda mix in. You sort of blend in.
Adam Mitchell [00:53:19]:
Nobody's gonna say anything, but if anybody does, just kinda cut out the you know, but don't worry. So so he leaves us, and my son and I are, you know, we're we're we're hanging out in our best attire. And we're at this wedding in Kenya. And let me tell you how we how we stood out. I decided to just go in and and sit right up front. And if you have ever been to Kenya and if you've ever been to a social event, then you know the first thing that happens is singing and dancing. And it's not just a few people, it's everybody. And the way to stand out is to not sing and to not dance.
Adam Mitchell [00:53:59]:
So, of course, I'm up, I'm singing, you know, we're dancing, we're moving, my son and I, and people are like, who are these? Who are these people? We didn't know a single person there other than this one deacon. And, after the after the wedding was over, my son and I, decided to go one step further, which was to join them at the reception. Right? Like, count your blessings and leave. No. We decided to go to the actual reception. Wouldn't you know it? In true Kenyan fashion, when we showed up, when people noticed that we were walking in, the family because the bride and groom and the wedding procession had not shown up yet at the reception. The happy hour was going on. People were being seated.
Adam Mitchell [00:54:48]:
It was an outside event. There were hundreds of people at this event. If it was smaller, I probably wouldn't have done this, but given there are so many people let me tell you. When canyons do a wedding, they do a wedding. But I didn't know that anybody could come. I I wasn't told to me yet. I thought I was just doing something cool with my son. The family invited the 2 of us over to sit with the family behind the head table where the bride and groom would be sitting.
Adam Mitchell [00:55:16]:
And my son and I were blown away. We were invited in. We were given drinks. We were given food. Then the procession happened, and the limos pulled up or their version of limos. And they got out, and the music started playing, and the people started the lines started coming in. And then the emcee comes running up to my son and I and said that the bride and groom have requested that we enter their reception with them. They were so happy that we were there.
Adam Mitchell [00:55:41]:
I want you to think about that for a minute. This is their wedding, and these two strangers showed up and crashed their wedding. And they noticed us, and they welcomed us. And I just wanna say that the act of welcoming the stranger was something that was in the fabric of the Kenyan people, and that was something, like, I had never ever ever felt before. And we got up, and we danced with the wife and the groom, the bride and the groom. And we went down the red carpet together, and everybody, the if you've ever been there, you know that. Everybody was cheering and singing and dancing, and it was just a really wonderful and amazing experience. And it was something that really balanced the darkness of poverty that I was there to capture, and I'm glad that happened.
Adam Mitchell [00:56:36]:
So I hope you enjoyed this episode of Shugyo. I know I went off on a couple different side stories there, but I wanted to sort of qualify a little bit and share with you some of the story of why I've been away for this time. Hopefully, I've maybe even inspired you to visit Kenya, on your own. And if you do, please, go off the beaten path, but, but do so carefully because it's not the safe there there are there are some areas in Kenya that that are that are unsafe. However, when you go there, you will be welcomed like you've never experienced before. And as someone told me before I left for Africa, you'll come back a different person. And I can say that I certainly have. I certainly have, and I can't wait to go back there.
Adam Mitchell [00:57:23]:
I feel as though I have a family there. I feel as though, my work there isn't done. And, I was just very blessed to be welcomed in so many places by so many people who had so little. And I also wanna take this opportunity to share my gratitude to, Risa and his father, the Maasai elder Daniel, for taking me into their family, taking my son in. They asked for nothing, and they gave me everything. They sat. They shared. They wanted to learn about my children.
Adam Mitchell [00:57:54]:
They wanted to learn about my family. They want me to come back. They want me to visit them on holidays. Risa has stayed in communication on WhatsApp with my son, and that was just a wonderful, thing. And that's what I took away. The spear, it was cool, and I learned some things, and it was neat. But the love was so much more powerful and so much more meaningful than checking the box of learning about the Masai spear. Thank you for joining me on this episode of Shugyo.
Adam Mitchell [00:58:25]:
I look forward to seeing you on the next one.
