THE ILOMON PROJECT: Preserving Maasai Remedies

Seven million acres of land have been stolen from the Maasai tribe in the last 100 years. Foreign game reserve and trophy hunting companies have pressured millions of Maasai to leave behind their ancestral homelands and migrate to completely unfamiliar lands in a forced mass exodus the media doesn't cover.

Behind them, along with their homes, Maasai tribespeople leave over 700 years of knowledge gained through living as sustainable cattle herders across their vast lands. Many of their traditions orbit around the 300 medicinal plants they use in the ceremonies and remedies that define their culture. Without the land to find their medicine, many of these traditions are at risk of dying out.

The Ilomon Project was founded in 2022 by Max Bloom, a high school student living in California who was deeply affected by a year-long trip to Africa he had taken. Connecting his love of African culture and his desire to make a change in the world, Max hopes to use the Ilomon Project to help protect the valuable cultural knowledge of the Maasai people.

A Maasai warrior shows the medicinal uses of the acacia bush

For millennia the Maasai have relied on word of mouth to transfer the stories and knowledge they have gathered from centuries in the savannah. But as the elderly die and less land is left on which the Maasai might practice their skills, their medical knowledge is at risk of disappearing, much like their lands. Therefore, they would greatly benefit from a book that records their remedies in their own language, Maa. To gather this information and produce the book, Max will be partnering with two organizations that share his interest in preserving Maasai language, land, and culture: Adumu Impact (adumuimpact.org) in the United States and the Future Warriors Project (futurewarriorsproject.org) in Tanzania.

Funds raised will allow for the documentation of Maasai oral heritage, leading to the publication of a book in Maa with facing-page translations in English. Once the book is distributed for free across Tanzania, it will become a resource for future generations of Maasai and their friends across the world.