Maasai Market

The guide to Maasai Market in Nairobi opens with a name most Saturday shoppers never hear: William Ole Ntimama, the minister who opened this car-park market in the early 1990s so Maasai women could sell their own beadwork directly. It walks through what the beads actually mean inside Maasai life, black for a newly circumcised boy under sacred protection, blue for a married woman, each pattern a private language rather than decoration. From there it turns to who is really behind the stalls in front of you today. Look closely before you haggle over any necklace here.