Frank Coates

When baby Ole Sadera was born, his mother birthed him in the sea, and when they rose up from the ocean’s shallow surf, he had a stone clenched in each of his tiny newborn fists. For many generations African legend tells the story that at some time in the future, a boy will be born with a stone in his hand, and that he will be the greatest warrior of the land that will save his people from annihilation.

Thus lies this story of the Last Maasai Warrior by Frank Coates. It is the harrowing show more tale of a lifelong friendship of two warriors who grew up as friends, and grew to be men constantly add odds as to how to lead their people, the Maasai tribe of the Great Rift Valley near Nairobi. As the book opens, Britain is once again arrogantly invading Africa and claiming land as their own. The British government sends emissaries lacking in sympathy to negotiate land deals so that they may turn real estate property into areas of British settlement and fortune for the crown. These shady transactions swindle and mislead the Maasai people, a quiet peaceful tribe, that mistakenly entrust the British to do right by them. This sorrowful tale of deception and corruption from the British towards the Maasai is a eye-opening and disheartening story based on true events that will leave the reader questioning their faith in humanity. Coates fictionalizes this true life occurrence, vividly depicting the long struggle that the Maasai must endure as the British brutally destroy their culture, their heritage, and continually keep shuffling these people from territory to territory as they claim the Maasailand for their own, leaving the tribe without means of survival. Shifting these people to lands without water and without grazing grounds for their coveted herds of cattle, leave the proud Maasai destined for suffering and eradication.

This novel is based on a crisis in Africa’s history that took place in the early part of the last century. The book is very well written and evocative of the time and place giving the reader a true account of exactly what occurred and how events unfolded for the Maasai, as they bravely learn to mistrust the British and learn to fight for what has been their own since the beginning of mankind.

I have always been very interested in reading about Africa and have been intrigued by the Maasai for a long time. I felt that while reading this book, the author did well to introduce me to the Maasai people, their culture, and about their silent yet proud personalities. The character of Ole Sadera is someone you are at first unsure of, and that you want to love because he has so much emotion and anger inside of him. He has much pride for his people that are being lied to and misled, so much inner fear that the tribe will be removed from mother earth. You will feel deeply for his pain and his ambivalence as he strives to know who to follow. From the sidelines you will watch him turn to fellow warriors, his elders, a woman he loves that is the wife of another man, and you will cry for him as his people are not of the same mind to fight for the cause he so desperately believes in.

There are other background characters in the book, other British settlers that are on the side of the Maasai and are also fighting along with Ole Sadera. These characters are endearing and are people you will come to love and cheer on as they help Ole with the battle to the end. If you are looking for an African story that is full of action and adventure, you will not find it here. This is rather an emotionally charged moving saga of a bitter feud between two races of people. One hell-bent on bullying and betrayal to attain their greed, another floundering to stand tall and not let their people be erased from history. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and as I turned the last page, became determined to find more books about the Maasai people that I fell in love with while reading The Last Maasai Warrior. Coates is an outstanding author many have not heard of, and finding his other African sagas is high on my wish list of books to buy soon. show less

This is set in early twentieth Century East Africa, when the colonial authorities were trying to develop the Maasai traditional lands. The Maasai roamed over large areas with their herds, moving to new pastures as a way of dealing with the hard equatorial African conditions. Ole Sadera is a leader (there is no supreme tribal ruler) who tries to preserve the Maasai tradition against (often corrupt) British officials. Those British who are sympathetic and attempt to assist the Maasai (notably show more George Coll and Norman Lewis) are ruthlessly opposed. The novel is complex and long, but at times seems a bit too superficial – almost polemical - but it is a window on an interesting historical problem and, as usual, the indigenous population is the loser. show less

A brilliant story of a proud people and their battle to retain their land and cultural heritage. Historical fiction at its best.

An interesting read about the slums and political upheaval in Kenya. I particularly liked the parts where the author described the beauty of the Serengeti. I hope to see it for myself some day.