The Women's cattle, Maasai Folktale

Long ago wild animals used to be women’s cattle. One morning, a cow was butchered, before she took her cattle to the field. Soon the cattles themselves moved away to graze in pasture and walked away a little too far. A woman told a kid to go and check on them. When the mother of the child knew, she said, “oh no, my child is not going until he has eaten the kidney.” His mother forbade him to go until the child had a bite of the meat. It followed until all the livestock moved away and got lost into the bush. After eating meat, the children tried to bring the cattle back, but to their dismay, they had all gone wild. This incident explains how women lost their cattles. Then they went and lived with men who took good care of their cattles. This is why upto this day, all the cattle owned by the men and women simply wait for the men to look after them.

Advithi Emmi is an Indian artist and art educator. For her art is a reflection of self and the society, it's an inexplicable journey that aids introspection. She believes in collaboration over competence, and have had several stints with different community-based projects and organizations, where she has contributed creatively to their growth while working hand-in-glove with the best in the field. In recent times, her work is mostly based on visual documentation of traditional knowledge and culture. As an art educator, she works towards sharing and instilling her experience with young minds.

In the third edition of the Wise Wall Project, we are collaborating with the culturally rich and one of the oldest communitys in the world, the Maasai community, in Arusha, Tanzania, in partnership with Vikram Solar Ltd., Vijana Inspiring Foundation, Lions Club of Dar es Salaam and Arusha City, and Google Arts and Culture. Along with building an on-ground community centre and museum for the community, we are bringing an exclusive insight into the life, lifestyle and learnings from this inspiring community.

The Wise Wall Project is an initiative of Project FUEL that aims to document, design and strengthen the wisdom of rural communities and marginalised villages using art and community outreach programmes. The arts lead the way to raise support for the challenges these villages face today like migration, quality education and access to basic amenities like water and roads.