How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie

How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie
Buy How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie at Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com (Paid links)
Category: Children's Non-Fiction
Reviewer: Jill Murphy
Summary: A beautiful preservation of an oral tradition and a wonderful education resource.
Buy? Yes	Borrow? Yes
Pages: 36	Date: December 2025
Publisher: Stephanie Zabriskie
External links: Author's website
ISBN: 978--8218895761
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How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows is a children’s nonfiction book drawn from the oral traditions of Maasai elders in Ngorongoro, Tanzania.

The Maasai are a cattle-herding people and this story writes down its oral tradition explaining how they came to be so. Cattle are status and wealth in Maasai culture but this doesn't tell the whole story of the intimate and symbiotic connection its people, and especially its women, have with their cows and for the natural world. The oral tradition retelling the many conversations Maasai women have had with their cows does.

There's a lot to say about this gorgeous book - too many for a review, really. Let's start with the illustrations, which splice between the English and Swahili texts, joining them together. They are in rich, jewel tones and burst from the page. You want to touch them. It's a lovely page design, bringing the narrative to life and encouraging the language exploration ambitions of the book. I admire the care taken to make a profound whole from separate elements, all working together to represent an oral, not a written, tradition.

The English text is beautifully written, with short sentences and some vocabulary extension so that it is suitable for a very wide range of children from pre-schoolers wanting to share a story with parents to primary-aged children who want to learn about culture and myth and the ways in which people understand themselves and their relationships with the natural world and spirituality. Teachers could have a wide range of discussions using this book. 

The story is told in both English and Swahili, encouraging children to take an interest in languages and to stretch and progress literacy and language skills generally. I read the story to a young relative before writing this review and she has subsequently spent hours tracing the words: "Kitabu means book!" - what more could you want for stimulation and curiosity? I could write pages and pages but a child's reaction and joy in new knowledge says so much more. And most importantly of all, it provides an educational resource for Maasai children that centres their own culture.

It would be a tragedy if oral traditions like this were lost. They are precious. How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows treats its precious source material with great respect and honour, as it should, and it gives due deference to Maasai elder Paulo Makutian Mollel, who collaborated in its creation. I loved everything about it. 

Highly recommended. 

If you'd like to explore oral traditions further, look no further than another in this series: How the Sky and the Earth Made People: From the Oral Stories of Malagasy Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie.

You can read more about Stephanie Zabriskie here.

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You can read more book reviews or buy How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie at Amazon.co.uk Amazon currently charges £2.99 for standard delivery for orders under £20, over which delivery is free. (Paid link)

You can read more book reviews or buy How Maasai Women Spoke to Cows: From the Oral Stories of Maasai Elders by Stephanie Zabriskie at Amazon.com. (Paid link)

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