Hands of a Community: Meet the Maasai Artisans
As seen through the eyes and lens of Sidai Designs and Tanzanian photographer Sam Vox.
Meet the artisans
Sidai Designs, based in Arusha, Tanzania, collaborates with Maasai women to create handmade contemporary jewelry and homewares. Their work celebrates and preserves Maasai beading techniques while elevating the traditional methods, giving them a contemporary aesthetic appeal.
Pictured here is a group of Sidai beaders who are all from one family.
Maasai Copper Bangles (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Hands hold symbolic power for their ability to show both strength and softness. Hands are used to show adoration to our loved ones and children, yet the human determination to survive enables those same hands to take a person through hours of hard physical work.
Maasai earrings (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Sidai Designs collaborated with Tanzanian photographer Sam Vox to capture the stories of the Maasai people who work with them in Arusha, Tanzania. Through the hands of their beaders, they share the stories of courage, strength, perseverance, partnership, sisterhood, motherhood, their love of home, tradition, family and animals.
Elia, a guard and a music lover
Elia is one of the guards at Sidai workshop. While Maasai men in Tanzania are typically polygamous, with a number of wives and several children with each, Elia has broken the mould. He is the only Maasai man we know with just one wife.
Elia, guard and music lover (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Elia does not seek to marry again.
Love of sisterhood
To Maasai women, having a co-wife is a good thing. It is somewhat of a sisterhood.
Love of Sisterhood (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Nemasi and Koko Sadera share a husband, but they have also shared the workload around the boma (house), supported each other in raising many children, and spent years by one another’s side.
Lengisia and his love for art
Lengisia is a guard at the workshop, and he is also an artist. Using dots, details and different coloured pens, Lengisia draws what he sees in his world - shanga (beads), livestock, and wild African animals.
Love of art (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Creativity is a quality that the Maasai show usually through traditional means - such as beading. Lengisia continually seeks different ways to express his creativity.
Meri, a farmer and a beader
Meri is a young woman, a mother of twin boys, a beader, and a farmer. Like many women in Tanzania, she spends hours a day working on her farm in addition to her other work, including parenting.
Meri, a farmer and jewellery beader (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Meri spends up to 6 hours in the early mornings pulling weeds out of her shamba (farm) so that her crops can grow and provide her family with food and extra income.
Normirihi, in harmony with the wild
Normirihi is from Ngorongoro - one of the most famous safari locations in the world. She talks of elephants eating grass just next to her village, children playing with ostriches (called ‘esidai’ in Maa - the traditional language of the Maasai), and lions and leopards being of no bother to the villagers.
In harmony with the wild (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
The Maasai have always lived in harmony with the wild animals.
Koko Maria, preserving wisdom
Koko Maria is a respected elder among the Maasai women who work for Sidai. As one of the oldest beaders at Sidai, she holds many stories of times gone past.
Preserving the Maasai knowledge (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
She is a holder of wisdom and a teacher of tradition in a community that is modernising more and more each year.
Koko Sadera, a beader and an experienced midwife
Koko Sadera has 11 children, and so many grandchildren that she says she has lost count. Aside from being a beading expert, she is also a respected and experienced midwife in the Maasai community and has birthed many of the babies of other beaders in the village.
Protecting the child (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
When a Maasai baby is born, the child is kept inside the boma for two months for protection.
Salome, a female role model and entrepreneur
Salome is one of Koko Sadera’s daughters. She is one of our best beaders, like her mother, but she is also an entrepreneurial spirit with many other streams of income.
Dawa- Traditional medicine (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
One way she makes extra money is by selling dawa, which is traditional medicine. It’s not common for the Maasai to utilise hospitals for their illnesses, as they prefer to use this bush medicine.
Edward, guard and lover of dogs
Edward is a guard at our workshop. While it’s common to see a Maasai man walking goats in northern Tanzania you will most likely see this Maasai man walking two dogs, Tamu and Pili.
Edward with Tamu (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
He walks them through town, washes them, feeds them, and treats them as though they are his own, though they are in fact Sidai’s office dogs. Edward is the only person they will listen to.
Anna, a strong woman with a beautiful voice
Anna is a strong force and has a beautiful voice. She is a natural leader, and her presence is very typical of the Maasai woman, known for their strength and humour.
Strong hold, stronger force (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
When the women gather to dance and sing - which is how the Maasai traditionally celebrate an event or welcome special visitors - it’s Anna’s voice you will hear leading the songs.
Nadupa, protector of the animals
Nadupa is from Simanjiro, a place where wild animals travel through towards the Serengeti and Maasai Mara, and can be more ‘kali’ (violent) towards villagers and their livestock. Warriors would once kill a lion for eating their livestock, but nowadays the Maasai work with the government to protect wild animals.
Cow as Wealth (2020) by Sam VoxProject FUEL
Livestock is still an important part of Maasai people’s livelihood. To determine wealth, the Maasai will ask how many cows you have.
Creative Direction and Storytelling by Sidai Designs
Sidai Designs works in collaboration with a number of Maasai women to create handmade, contemporary jewellery and accessories. Derived from the Kimaasai word, ‘Sidai’, means ‘good’ or ‘beautiful’. Their mission is to preserve age-old African beading tradition, work to create sustainable jobs and economic opportunities for Maasai women, and produce unique pieces that blend beading customs with a contemporary aesthetic. They are based in Arusha, Tanzania.
Photography by Sam Vox
Sam is a visual storyteller specializing in portrait, editorial and documentary photography. Sam often spends months in the field travelling across Tanzania documenting environmental, social and cultural issues.
