GRAND CROSSING — Students from Betty Shabazz Academy hosted visiting Maasai warriors from Kenya Monday.
Best friends Wilson Meikuaya and Jackson Ntirkana represent the last generation to complete the full Maasai warrior training. Their culture is built on the traditions, legends and prophecies of the Kenyan and Tanzanian savannah.
The pair traveled to Chicago as part of WE Day — an international celebration of efforts to improve the world. The movement is year-round, but the annual event kicks off Wednesday.
The warriors visited the neighborhood school, 7823 S. Ellis Ave., to help the students not only celebrate Black History Month, but to share with them their family history, the importance of education and what it’s like growing up in Kenya. Students led the guests on a tour showing them classrooms such as their STEM lab and visual arts room.
Massai warrior Wilson Meikuaya traveled from Kenya. [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
Meikuaya said this was his second time in Chicago, but last year he only stayed a little over a day. This time he’ll be in the U.S. for a full week.
He has noticed some similarities during his short visit already he said.
“People are very friendly,” he said. “What I’ve seen here is about leadership and that’s what the warriors do in our community. We also share a sense of culture so love of that and leadership.”
In other ways it’s also different, he said.
“We don’t have tall buildings and all these cars on the road,” he said. “We have trees and animals.”
When they arrived at the school students formed a large circle in the cafeteria and clapped along with the African drummers. The guests were asked to stand in the center and watch. Five year-old Genesis Bones gave them a special greeting in Swahili.
Genesis Bones (left) and Damia Freeman are Betty Shabazz Academy students. [DNAinfo/Andrea V. Watson]
“I said ‘Hello, my name is Genesis Bones and I asked them for their names,’” she said, adding that she wasn’t nervous.
“My teacher helped me,”she said.
Students performed a traditional African dance — a dance they learned for the warriors' visit.
Student Damia Freeman, also 5, said that she liked watching the dancers move to the beat of the drums.
The school's Chief Instructional Officer, Makita Kheperu, said the visit connects the students with others around the world.
“This is a very exciting experience for our children and it’s important for them in terms of their cultural development to be able to see the similarities between themselves and their family across the world," she said.
