"My name is Immanuel Tan jo Ole-Kwai Orkiraniway.
Immanuel is my Christian name,
Tan jo, my Masai name,
Ole-Kwai means, that I am the son of Kwai and
Orkiraniway is my clan."

"Hello Immanuel.
I think you are maybe, 13 years old.
Your earrings of little white, red and blue beads are very beautiful Your bead necklace, bracelet and anklet are like your earrings. Did you do that yourself?"

"Ndiyo Bwana, Yes Sir, I make all bracelets myself."
Immanuel shows me all his bracelets, with colored triangles, stripes and spirals.
He is very proud when I take his picture.

Then he tells me about himself.
"I live with my brothers and sisters, my aunts and uncles, and all my cousins, and my father, and his father and his mother, and with my mother in one large house that looks like a large ring, with many little rooms. The walls are made out of red mud and the roof is of banana leaves.

Our house is very close to the crater of the big volcano, Ngorongoro, in Tanzania, and also very close to the Mountain with a white peak, the roof of Africa, the Kilimanjaro.
After school, I shepard many of my father’s cattle and take them to the places where
the grass is green. Mostly, I go to this canyon.
The canyon is full with Olduvai, those spear-like long leaves you see everywhere.
That is why we call the canyon Olduvai Gorge. In the spring, all animals come to Olduvai Gorge to drop their young. This is the cradle for all animals in the world, for as long as people know."

We climb over the rocks and Immanuel, without shoes, is much faster than I am with boots. He uses a staff as long as himself. The staff is also his spear. He needs a spear
to protect himself and his cattle. In the neighborhood are always lions, leopards, and sometimes cheetahs, and many wolves.
In his red-checkered blanket, and with his tall spear, Immanuel already looks like a real warrior. He has put grease in his hair to make a nice pointed pattern and he also has some red and white bangles knotted onto the points.

"Bwana, you are a Mazungu, a white man. There is another Mazungu, who works here
for many years with his wife and with his father and with his mother. They call their clan, the Leakey clan.

They say to our fathers that all men in the world were born in Olduvai Gorge. They say that they found the bones of all the people of the world here, near the Olduvai plants. These people are very, very old, the oldest of the oldest. You see, all the stones in Olduvai Gorge are not really stones, they are the bones of all the animals and all the people."

When we look at the stones on the ground, we find that they are all like pieces of bones, but made of stone. "Those are called fossils, Immanuel. Because they are so old, that these bones turned into stones.".

Immanuel shrugs his shoulders and continues to tell about his cattle.
"All cows and bulls in the world come from Olduvai Gorge.
Baba Yetu, Our Father, has given us all the cattle in the world. That is why all cattle in
the world belongs to the Masai. I am a Masai.

Many people steal our cattle. Our Walimu, our Teacher, tells us that Mazungu, like you, are from America. In America are many cattle, our cattle. One day, I will go to America and take back all the cattle that belongs to us."
Immanuel stamps his spear on the hard rock, and I can see that he is certain that one day, he will go to America.

Standing on top of the hill, Immanuel points with his spear to the mountains in the west. In soft whispering rap-song, he tells me his big plans to become a man and a warrior.

"Soon I will go with my friends to the other side.
The side where the sun sets every evening.
The side where the Wakurya live.

The Wakurya have stolen our cattle.
We go with ny’eusi-ny’epe (black-and-white) mask faces.
We go with the face of the cow god.
We go in the night.
We go when the moon is behind the clouds.

We take back our cattle from the Wakurya.
We take sixteen cows each.
Sixteen cows is the price, we pay to the father of the woman we want to buy.
Sixteen cows is the price for the best woman in the world.

If the woman is no good, she will go back to her father.
We take back our sixteen cows.
Father of women be prepared that we are warriors!
Father of women do not cheat us!
Father of women be warned!"

Immanuel looks very serious; women-talk is very serious business.
I think, he is also a little bit scared. Many young warriors who go to the Wakurya to rustle cattle have to fight and many get killed. The Wakurya have spears but also AK-47 automatic riffles.

Immanuel looks at me as if he can read my thoughts. He is angry that I think he is afraid and he yells with a high pitch:
"Bwana Mazungu, I will first kill a Simba (a lion).
Then I go to take our cattle from the Wakurya.
Ooooiiieeee!!!!

Bwana Mazungu, you tell America, I come to America.
I take all our cattle back to Olduvai Gorge.
Then I buy all American women!
Bwana Mazungu, I am coming soon!!
Ooooiiieeee!!!!"