Old Large Tribally Used Water Bag – Thick Hippo Skin – OLBENE – Masai (Maasai) – Kenya

Thick hippo skin, glass beads and metal elements. Cm 49,0 high x cm. 49,0 width (8.46″ x 2.95″).

Among the Maasai such bags are known as Olbene. Very often they would be embellished with glass beads forming elegant curves, vertical lines and other geometric motifs. Olbene leather bags were used by women to hold water or other valuable belongs. These bags were also passed down through generations to hold important objects that were collected by by their families.

The Maasai are a Nilotic largest group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. Most Nilotic speakers in the area, including the Maasai and the Turkana, are pastoralists, and are famous for their fearsome reputations as warriors and cattle-rustlers. The Maasai and other groups in East Africa have adopted customs and practices from neighboring Cushitic-speaking groups, including the age set system of social organization, circumcision, and vocabulary terms.

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