In the Dar es Salaam marketplace, not far from a garbage dump, homeless Maasai men and women sit in the shade to escape the midday heat. At night, a few of the men find work as night watchmen guarding local factories, stores and houses of the well-to-do. They hope to send money back home and return someday to their homeland. Frequently, their dreams and their famous Maasai pride are crushed by prejudice, exploitation and hopelessness.

To fight the cultural and social disaster faced by Maasai migrants, faculty and students of San Francisco State University’s Visual Anthropology program have created the Maasai Migrants Film Project. Participants will collaborate with Maasai-led NGO’s to design, produce and screen educational films in Maa, the Maasai language. These films hope to encourage dialogue and provide in this way a positive educational environment capable of producing practical solutions for some of the real social problems the Maasai experience each day.