AHHHHHH!!!!! Can you spell "obnoxious"?! "Where judgment doesn't exist"... Wow... She really doesn't know anything about the Maasai then. Gender roles e.g. Sexuality. The female genital mutilation she mentions perhaps?! How the f can she mention this and still say "where judgment doesn't exist"?!
"opportunity is not by chance, it is a choice"... WT flying f? So the people experiencing drought and poverty simply chose... differently? And what kind of choice do the genitally mutilated girls have in this? And did all Kenyans chose colonialism? Boy, that REALLY was a stupid choice right there.

Wow, she needs a punch in the face.

Yes, it is annoying when white, angsty people use impoverished coloured people as a pathway to 'realizing oneself' and then go on tours to spouse middle-class mythology about how you can do what you want with your life (uhm, no, not true. And not true for the 'inspiring' poor people you left in Africa. Sorry.)

But why are you judging her experience as to whether she did something 'useful'? I mean, would you also judge a woman talking about how life-changing it was to move to, I don't know, rural Wisconsin in the same manner? I believe your whole 'at least she worked in a school' remark is perpetuating another irritating and sometimes very hurtful stereotype about Africans being people who should be 'helped' by white peoples' voulenteer work.

BTW: How did the Maasai become the Lakota of Sub-Saharan Africa?

"Opportunity is not a chance, it's a choice" WTF? By definition, opportunity *is* chance. Merrium-Webster's definitions:
"1 : a favorable juncture of circumstances
2 : a good chance for advancement or progress"
____

She would irk me a little less if she didn't blame underprivileged people for their misfortunes. Instead of running off to Africa, she could have gotten away from the people "who didn't understand her" by moving to a small town (giving her a sense of community), getting a job doing some sort of social work (which is always underpaid, thus allowing her to dabble in poverty), volunteering, and making friends who weren't so shallow.

Wow, what a self aggrandizing piece of work. She went to Africa and now she wants us all to hear about it and to laud her for being such a great white person. Ugh.

Hmm... I see where Robin was coming from (as naive as she might come off at points)and it was wrong of Gwen to phrase her article like she did. I don't think it was her place to pretty much TELL others how to react to Robin. In cases like this I think objectivity rules. Robin may have come from a far more financially "priviledged" spot than her new maasai brothers and sisters, but she wanted that, and in that CHOSE to see the best in the given situation. Yes, poverty and drought is still poverty and drought...but dang, whats wrong in talking about the other stuff, the GOOD that is surrounded by the poverty and drought? As an african myself, of course I know about the negatives. Hell, we AAALLLLL know about the negatives. But to once-in-a-while have a westerner come back with positive, head-in-the-cloud tales...whats so wrong with that?

Remarkable how white people are still the only ones that can grant "us" views and "open windows" into worlds abroad "that many of us will never experience". Instead of just giving the people who are actually living there -wherever "there" is- room to voice their own view. It is still like you need the occasional reckless and idealistic astrounaut venturing into foreign space, contacting aliens whom no one else could understand, so you need people who speak for them. And yes, she sounds quite a bit in love with herself.
By the way, many native NGO professionals tell you, behind their hands, that often, those fresh-out-of-school Europen and North American volunteers without any profession yet (medic, teacher) pose more work than they are capapble of doing, due to them being in need of schooling, organization, etc, and are taken in as a favour to the European and American branches of those NGOs. So, if you don't have any useful profession, be it medic or carpenter, are fresh from school, and go to another continent to experience the world, fine. Great. Too many people never leave their country. But be aware that the world is not waiting for you to educate them and spread your inbred wiseness, that maybe, you are being the one who is being done a favour and given opportunity to give it back if it works out well, and not God's gift to the world because you are who you are and you are from where you are from.

Ugh, this reminds me of Eat, Pray, Love. I wish I could unread that book.

It was painful for me to watch the entire clip, it was so cringe-inducing. I think part of the reason was because I heard echoes of myself after my first international trip in high school to a South American country where I lived with a host family. I probably said some version of the terrible cliches she did, and it doesn't feel good to remember that. I'd rather focus on how "evolved" my thinking has, never mind that it came after many years of education, workshops, and challenging conversations with people whose voices I was guilty of appropriating.

So to me what's most sad and telling about this woman's point of view is that somewhere along the line, she was not challenged, or challenged enough, about the condescending and racist assumptions she holds. Rather, she's been able to land a book deal, score a contract with a speakers' bureau, and is basically congratulated for her point of view by a large segment of the population. I'm not letting her off the hook, but I think she's an easy target that represents a great many people who have yet to get a clue.

whereas i do think it's interesting to hear a voice saying positive things about the maasai (i don't like how africa is not seen as a diverse set of many countries and cultures... never been there, but there must be huge differences between cultures and countries), i like how gwen puts it: it's either really negative or really positive.

i guess the excerpt is too short to understand what her point is. (seriously, what IS her point?) and she definetely "uses" these people to get a point across about herself or middle-class white people...

instead of perpetuating certain stereoptypes, though, isn't she downtalking a foreign culture in general? i think she could have gone anywhere in the world where there are poor people and "learned" the same lesson.

so, the question is: how do we talk about different cultures in truth AND respect?

Not to take away from the many valid criticisms here, but she does not seem to fall into the category of describing Africa as either/or awesome/terrible given that she mentions such things as community spirit, being non-judgmental, drought, and female mutilation.

yeah but the way she just states these "negative things" in passing does not mean she has a balanced view.

I think y'all need to read her book first before basing the entirety of your opinions on this one video of 3:27.
Then, put away your cynic hat for a few moments and give her the benefit of the doubt...that Robin is actually sincere, not condescending. That her "experience" wasn't a one-time thing....see the African people and go home to tell all about it (she lives and works in Kenya full-time). That perhaps the video tried to contrast the good and bad she saw in both cultures and the changes she, as one person, just went through. She doesn't make assumptions that "every African girl is circumcised" or that drought is or isn't a certain way. How could she in three minutes!!? Racist? Because she's white and took an opportunity MANY people take in schools and grow and learn from! How do you know that she hasn't evolved from the thinking of her first trip? Do you think maybe the video was meant to inspire others like her in NA to not necessarily go to Africa, but to leave some of their apathy behind? "Opportunity is not a chance, it's a choice"....it's a nice statement, about herself...not about the Maasai or anyone else.
I'm offended reading your accusations, all of them. Making claims about her "unbalanced views", that she's "racist", "perpetuating stereotypes", she "uses" people to get her point across, that she thinks she's "gods gift to the world", "self aggrandizing", "blaming underpriveleged for their position"...all of these claims are made when you know nothing about her at all. You're doing what you accuse her of in three minutes. Read her book, hear her speak, hell, send her an email. Ask her the questions you think you have all the answers to yourself. Then, base your judgements on facts you found yourself.

This is the same attitude a lot of (middle class, white) teenagers have in the UK. It's really popular to take a gap year after school and go and teach English or help build a school in Kenya, Peru or Thailand (insert safe developing country of your choice). These teenagers spend thousands of pounds to go with an agency specifically set up to provide them with a voluntary experience. Meanwhile these kids straight out of high school have no skills or qualifications which will contribute anything at all. And it just perpetuates this idea that people in the developing world need (and want) their help. It doesnt the change the attitude of the teenagers either because, unless they've done some real introspection (which some of them may do) they go home with the feeling that they've helped and contributed something and that the people they've helped live simple, carefree lives and have little notion of the social, economic and political circumstances which leave them in situations of poverty etc in the first place. Doesn't this woman know about the socio-economic circumstances of the Maasai? that they are giving up their 'traditional' livelihoods in order to become migrate to the city to work in poor conditions? or that they have to 'prostitute' themselves to tourists??

I am very taken aback about these comments and agree with "Erin". That people who are writing about disrespect and lack of cultural understanding are the same ones feeding the ugly stereotypes given to the privileged trying to give back. Without having read Robin's book, or even asked her one question, are you that self-righteous to believe your judgments of her are valid? If you even took one look into her biography, you can see that she has spent 7 years living on the ground in rural Kenya, CHOOSING to reach beyond what most armchair-cynics would ever do. Yes, she was angry when she was a student, but the point is that she not only chose to escape the perverted culture of North America by leaving it, but - most importantly - she chose to evolve, herself. As we mature and travel, of course we would regret certain philosophies of our past (after traveling to over 25 countries, I certainly regret my outlook when i started), but Robin has continued to learn, and dedicate herself to increasing the capacity of many cultures in Kenya by ensuring there is proper education for the children, healthcare for the families, projects for mamas to make an income (to empower them with a sense of pride and independence). I am offended that people are accusing her of 'racism'...why, because she is white and wanted to help? Does that mean any white person who wanted to help others who are non-whites, ... what... would be racist? Maybe you can ask yourself if you are not just being exactly what you accuse her of? So before you decide to judge someone's character on a 3+min video, maybe you can all just pause, use the privilege you have (of the internet) to do even 10minutes of research on another human being before you go trampling on their name. Wouldn't you want the same decency bestowed upon you?

of course i COULD read her book, but the video is PROMOTING that same book, and from the promotion of the book through the video, i don't want to read it! because they could have promoted it differently and choose different clips for it.

plus, if you say she went to kenya for seven years -- on the youtube video information, it says this: "Robin spent a year in Kenya where she lived with a family in a Maasai village, adapting to a rural Kenyan lifestyle."

the video, being as it is, WANTS us to think like what most commenters have expressed here. if the "true intentions" are all different, then i feel sorry but this video doesn't do a good job at all to make me see this.

it's also an interesting example of the process how places like Maasai are "translated" by entrepreneurial itinerants to metropolitan/western audiences.

Thank you. That was my oversight. But it is also an interesting one for someone to make on the basis of this video alone. For the geographically illiterate, what in this promotional video tells us that "Maasai" indicates a people, rather than a place? I grant that her use of the article "the" as in "the Maasai" should have alerted me to this. But the tropes that predominate in Wiszowaty's discussion of the Maasai (technologically backwards, pastoral, simple) render them indistinct as a specific tribe. Using the language of the video "In this Maasai village, in this simple life, I found the most generosity I had ever witnessed before...How in the world did I end up here?" one could easily swap out Maasai for Kenya or Tanzania. This is part of the process of translating: a distinctive tribe becomes a metonym for a broader place, whose inhabitants-- thus collapsed into the category of simple peoples at the hands of translators-- galvanize the interest of developed world audiences because they seem to represent an unadulterated stage of development in the timeline of human civilization.

Robin's example is modeling how cross cultural bridges are being built between different communities within the world, to create peace and solidarity. And with all due respect, all of these various comments and opinions are examples of how cross cultural BARRIERS are built. Robin has dedicated her life and heart to living in Kenya, which is much more then anything I've read in these string of comments. Truly when there is so much hatred and discrimination in the world as it is, I suppose it will take many more Robin's to shift the mentality that has been exhibited today. I suppose none of us should be judging a book by it's cover!

She says she was adopted and had 7 new brothers and sisters. I'm gonna go ahead and guess that she was contributing to the family's income, or increasing their prestige by her presence in their home. I'll venture to say that if she brought nothing with her, or if she wasn't white, the family of 9 would not have been willing to add another mouth to feed. Not to say that the family is necessarily opportunistic, but all over the world some people are mean, some people are not. It irks me that she sees her "adoption" as an example of the generous non-judgmental Noble Savage.

Um, not being a native speaker and all: Did she really say she lived 'in a mudhole' with that family, or did I mishear that? Because that really made me cringe, same as the over-enthusiastic (to my ears) speaking style.

Honestly, I found it hard to really gather anything from the clip in terms of new information other than 'this girl is great and so enlightened through having lived 'in a mudhole''. The redeeming lessons of this great opportunity/choice of poverty, I guess. Frankly, I have to agree with some of the commenters above: After this video, I feel absolutely no incentive to go read her book. (And no, I feel perfectly comfortable judging the video on the video's terms without needing to read her whole oeuvre first.)

Even though I can understand Emma's view that its probably not a bad thing at all to have someone to return to their country with the view that "[Insert African country/region here] can be a great place and it's not all poverty and disease", I didn't really get that feeling from the video – it was more like "It's a place of poverty but it made me a great person". But maybe I'm being too judgmental and it's really just the 'over-enthusiasm' that I find so grating.

First of all, the short video serves as a promotion for the book, and it is a medium of its own - it's perfectly okay to analyse and critisise what is expressed through the video, for even though the book perhaps is more nuanced, Robin still has a responsibility as to what portrayal she gives of the Maasai here. Instead of being all 'read the book', try to adress the specific concernes rasied on basis on the actual footage, like her framing of the Maasai as a big happy family - the stereotype of the happy African is very common and very hurtful.

Secondly, Lisa specifically adressed that the fact she went to Kenya and did some social work, does not in any invalidate her problematic choices about how to present the Maasai to the North American public, or her choice to frame as a very specific upper-middle class issues of 'choices' and 'opportunities'. As far as her statements in the video goes, her experience is seemingly steeped in racist narratives, including the one about the need of inexperienced white people helping all the poor, brown people. She has not given me much reason to believe she has reflected upon the nature of privilege, mobility and hierarchy, so why should I read her book?

her going to kenya in this manner does not make her a bad person, of course - but it does not make her excempt from critisism either.

i wonder what 'adopted' means -- lots of my friends were 'adopted' into an american family when they were exchange students, too, except they don't call it that. because they basically paid the family for it.

Wow, amazing to see so many comments from people who haven't read the book. I am astonished people are so ready to judge without even a read. Would be great if all their comments could be deleted so we don't have to read shit based on absolutely nothing but assumptions.

I can't stand it when people don't take a moment to think before they speak.

I found Robin's speaking style to be so incredibly grating and opportunistic that I couldn't get through 3 minutes of video, sorry to everyone who says you don't get an opinion if you haven't read the book that isn't actually under discussion.
To give this annoying rich white girl the benefit of the doubt, the cover of her book and the marketing that goes into it is probably not under her control. Books that ask Americans to wrestle with hard questions about identity and privilege don't sell, so if this is that kind of book, no promo video is going to even suggest that (nor is the cover). The publishers are going to make it seem as "feel good" as they can so that people will actually buy the thing, and from the comments I can see that a lot of people have read the book and were moved by it, so depending on who produced the video it's possible that the book isn't as bad as I (and others) expect it is. It could just be a case of unsuccessful marketing.
I have other reasons for hating this sort of thing: My main argument with the work Robin undertook is not that she left suburban Chicago to go live among the noble savages of Africa, but that she thought the rest of us cared. Of course lots of people do care, but a lot of the people who care choose for their own reasons to stay home. Personally I think it's a shame that there are people living without heat or running water in the US and we think we have the necessary skills and compassion to bring anything to people in the "developing world", but more than that, I'm tired of having my awareness raised. I have yet to see anyone "raise awareness" of a serious issue without drawing disproportionate attention to themselves. The UN cares about the living conditions in the Masai territory in Kenya, Kenyan government officials probably care, the locals care, International NGOs care, international charitable organizations care. Upper-middle class white high school students don't care, and trying to seduce them with artificial sentimental earnestness about leaving "must-see TV" behind and making "choices" to "help others" is probably going to amount to a distraction at best. This kind of outreach engenders a kind of hopeless guilt about the world's problems and a sense that making any contribution to the betterment of others requires a sacrifice as significant as going to live in a mud hole without electricity. This kind of story-telling implies that inequality is a remote and unsolvable problem. This seems especially true since Robin's original decision to move to Kenya by her account in the video sounds like it came out of nowhere, she makes no mention of a mentor, professor, organization or article that inspired her to do this, her words make it seem more like she longed for an extreme vacation. If her adopted family and community are so important to her, why did she take the time away from teaching and drawing water to write a book for people back home who were unlikely to do more than give her their attention for a week or two, and possibly send money? Why is she wasting time trying to convince others of the significance of the work she is doing, instead of continuing to do it? I am already "aware" that most people who want to help others can't resist drawing attention to themselves, and I am already "aware" that life in middle-class suburbs is shallow and remote from the business of survival.
Meanwhile, there is no telling what additional contributions to her community and personal insights Robin could be making if she quit exploiting her liminal status as a "white Masai" to sell books to the rich westerners who she claims never understood her anyway.

I haven't read Robin's book so I can't comment on it. But I understand her wish to convey her feelings about her stay with the Masai. My husband and I left our perfect life in Sweden to go and live in the middle of nowhere in Luhya-land, in Western Kenya in a rural village. We wanted to help the people but corruption, witchcraft, violence, cultural differences etc spoilt every project we came up with. Heart-broken we had to give up after five years of striving and leave our home and friends to go back to Sweden. We had so much to tell people - positive as well as negative things - but the main message is "don't be naive or blue-eyed" (something we had been). My book will in a near future be on Amazon.co.uk. (Blue-eyed in Luhya-land)

No, this comment is not to advertise it. It is simply to tell that it is tough to get to know people really deep inside if you come from different cultures. And in Kenya there are lots of different tribal cultures. If you get to know things about them, it is rather natural that you will want to tell others about them.

It's very clear that the poster has not actually read the book

I have lived in Kenya for 8 months. I have read Robin’s book 3 times and each time I love it more. I have spent time in Maasai land in south kenya with the Maasai people that I know and dearly love. Life is tough for the Maasai people who work hard everyday to provide for their family. Robin’s story of Maasai life is absolutely the way it is. My time spent with the Maasai was an incredible journey that I will always cherish. I hope I can communicate directly with Robin soon. Criticism or judgement are not positive actions directed at anyone!

Who are these self righteous cynical people above? No doubt young and feeling very superior. I hope that almost 10 years later they have reconsidered their comments based on a short video. Are they not ashamed to make such bold judgements on no knowledge whatsoever? Firstly, I want to point out to the Swedish couple that Robin did not go to Kenya to “help” the people. Maybe that was the problem for you. Anyone who knows and has been with the Maasai know that they are a very proud people. In many of the above posts I detect such racism in your assumptions. Robin’s book captures Maasai society now going through a shift between their traditional ways and accepting more modern ways. But she presents many of the day-to-day complexities of this journey. Respectfully.
You might all put your hubris aside and read her book finally. But open your mind first.

To those who took the critics to task - it was a relief to read your posts.

I read Robin’s book, My Maasai Life, our of interest, and partially to get a view of Kenya, in advance of our trip there in a few months. I thoroughly enjoyed the book. I did not think it was too ‘rosy’, and there were times that the author enjoyed life there but also the frustrations. I don’t think it’s really a fair comment to criticize the author and what may or may not be her motives for writing the book. It’s just a book, based on her experiences and perspectives. Don’t be too deep about it! I don’t know the ages of the people that wrote these negative comments, and don’t take this the wrong way, but, when you get to be as old as me (!) you just don’t take things that seriously 😊!