The Breaking Spears

A Culture at Crossroads with Modernity

The story is about Pauls life in Kenya, and how his tradition and family background shaped his resolve to acquire modern education. He takes the reader through the various stages of formal education in tandem with Maasai rites of passages that he went through. He describes how colonization influenced education in his country and how it continues to influence wealth distribution and politics. The author is from the Maasai, a pastoralist community who have been able to maintain their culture and traditions despite the pressure exerted on their lifestyle by modernization. He gives a detailed account of the struggle experienced by his cultures gradual transformation in order to conform to the new world order. Traditionally, it was considered sunrise was the beginning of a day, yet in this formal world, a day begins at midnight and ends at the same time. The author illustrates how a father saw an eminent change of his peoples culture and what he did to prepare his children for it. As the author was educated, his boundaries expanded and revealed experiences that touched about family, ethnicity, Nationality and to some degree, race.