It’s early morning and the air is heavy with rain. We’ve been driving through the rainforest of the Ngorongoro Highlands in a fog as thick as any I’ve ever experienced. The rainforest, painted in countless shades of green, seems to be impenetrable and together with the incredibly dense fog it creates an almost mythical atmosphere. 

We’re on our way to the Serengeti, and as the road starts to descend from the Ngorongoro Highlands towards the Serengeti plains, the fog vanishes and the horizon widens. The rainforest is replaced by grasslands and acacia trees, and we pass several Maasai villages - fenced clusters of the characteristic circular huts made of mud, sticks, grass, and cow dung.

This is all part of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, which is different from a national park in that it allows people and livestock to live there. In the national parks in Tanzania, people are not allowed to settle.

We drive past groups of Maasai children on their way to school, all of them accompanied by a Maasai with a spear. We pass countless shepherds - some of them just small children - taking their cattle out for the day. Carrying their wooden spears. Driving through these areas brings encounters with the Maasai people living their everyday life. Often accompanied by a spear.

I find it fascinating, and I wonder how they are actually able to protect themselves and their cattle with spears. Spears have been used for hunting and for protection for ages, and I do not doubt for a second that the Maasai are brilliant warriors. However, I can’t get past the thought that these spears are not exactly formidable if you are up against a lion.

“What do they do if a lion comes by here now?” I ask my guide. 

He smiles, accompanied by a friendly laugh. 

“If a lion comes here now, they will probably just drop everything and run.”

It turns out they cannot do much. They are not allowed to harm or kill any of the wild animals, except in cases of strict self-defense. However, facing a hungry lion with a spear is probably something that you would try to avoid.

In the Ngorongoro Conservation Area, the indigenous Maasai people are permitted to live and graze their cattle alongside the wildlife, which roams freely through the same area. Somehow the people and the wildlife have found ways to coexist. The Maasai enclose their villages with wooden fences to keep the wildlife out. The fences are made of branches from acacia trees, with their long, razor-sharp thorns that create a nearly impenetrable natural barrier. They also keep village dogs as an early-warning system that will detect predators sneaking around at night. 

No guns, no electric fences. Just people and the wild sharing land and resources, as they have been doing for centuries.