The Maasai are a Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern Tanzania.

They are among the best known local populations due to their residence near the many game parks of the African Great Lakes, and their distinctive customs and dress. The Maasai speak the Maa language, a member of the Nilo-Saharan family that is related to Dinka and Nuer. They are also educated in the official languages of Tanzania, Swahili and English. I wish the Maasai hadn’t reduced its population, which has been decreasing in number.

Maasai society

The central unit of Maasai society is the age-set. One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a circumcision ceremony performed without anaesthetic. In modern times, boys living close to towns with doctors may endure the ceremony in safer conditions, but still with anaesthetic because they must endure the pain that will lead them to manhood. One myth about the Maasai is that each young man is supposed to kill a lion before he is circumcised. Lion hunting was an activity of the past, but it has been banned in Southeast Africa -yet lions are still hunted and young Maasai warriors who engage in traditional lion killing do not face significant consequences. Young women also undergo excision or female circumcision as part of an elaborate rite of passage called “Emuratare”. Uncircumcised women, even those highly educated members of parliament, can be accused of not being mature enough to be taken seriously. To others the practice of female circumsicion is known as female genital mutilation, and draws a great deal of criticism from both abroad and many women who have undergone it. It has recently been replaced in some instances by a “cutting with words” ceremony involving singing and dancing in place of the mutilation.

We use the past perfect to talk about wishes for the past. Look at the word order:

I wish I had studied Swahili when I was at school.

Melvin wishes he had saved money for travelling to Tanzania.

They wish they hadn’t spent so much money last vacation.