By Davan Maharaj
Los Angelas Times

ENOOSAEN, Kenya — News about the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and near Washington traveled slowly to the red-robed Maasai who live in this remote corner of Africa.

But once informed, the people in this tiny village responded with an outpouring of support to show the deep sorrow they felt for the United States and victims of the attacks. They decided to give their most prized possessions, their highest expression of sympathy: cattle.

Yesterday about 500 people, many bedecked in elaborate beadwork jewelry, gathered on the rolling East African savanna to formally present to the U.S. a herd of 14 cows. Schoolchildren in their uniforms gawked. Women sang mournful songs. Young men, some carrying spears, leapt into the air.

"They say Americans are wealthy, and indeed we are in many ways," said acting U.S. Ambassador to Kenya William Brencick, addressing the Maasai. "But when we count the value of these cows and ... add the value of the great spirits that gave them, we can say without doubt that you seem richer still."

Though Enoosaen is only about 20 miles from the Maasai Mara Game Reserve, where tourists from across the world flock to see lions, elephants and other wild animals, its people are virtually invisible because they are more than 15 miles away from the nearest paved road.

Most of the mud huts in Enoosaen don't have running water and electricity. Still, residents of Enoosaen wear Gap clothing and Nike shoes. Some carry cellphones and travel the 90 minutes to a nearby town to use the Internet cafes.

The Maasai are arguably Africa's most romanticized ethnic group, legendary for cattle herding, cattle raiding, lion killing and drinking cows' blood.

"A Maasai warrior is a fine sight," wrote Isak Dinesen in 1938's "Out of Africa."

"Their style is not an assumed manner, nor an imitation of a foreign perfection; it has grown from the inside and is an expression of the race and its history."

Enoosaen would not have rallied to show support for the U.S. but for the world's fascination with the Maasai. Several years ago, an American journalist wrote about how villagers had sold cows to raise $5,000 in school fees so a young man could realize his dream of becoming a doctor.

The article caught the attention of University of Oregon administrators, who offered Kimeli Naiyomah a scholarship. Naiyomah later transferred to Stanford University, where he is a pre-med student.

Naiyomah, 25, left Stanford and returned to Enoosaen last month to attend a weeklong rite-of-passage ceremony that made him a junior elder in the village. One night, when the other young men gathered under a tree to tell stories, Naiyomah recounted the horrors he witnessed last September during a visit to New York.

He told them how "buildings that almost touched the clouds" tumbled down after terrorists crashed two planes into the World Trade Center, how desperate people jumped out of the burning buildings to their deaths, and how hundreds of rescuers died trying to save people.

Some in Enoosaen knew vaguely about Sept. 11, but Naiyomah's account brought the tragedy to life. And Osama bin Laden became a household word. People who are unpopular in the village are now known simply as Osamas.

"We don't have anyone as cruel as him," said James Ngodia. "This man is a world enemy. If he comes to Maasailand, we will surely kill him with our spears and arrows."

Naiyomah said he is used to responding to emergencies as a warrior in Kenya.

"When there is a tragedy and there is a war cry, people expect that a warrior responds," he said. "Being in New York, I could not respond and I felt a little uneasy having done nothing, so I carried this pain in my heart and I wanted to do something.

"I felt that I wasn't just a foreign student. I was part of the people. It felt like home had been attacked."

"I knew my people, I knew they are merciful — they can be fierce and deadly when provoked — but they are also the type of people who can easily cry for the pain of other people."

So Naiyomah proposed to village elders that they do something to help America.

Within a week, 14 people pledged their cows. Those who donated said they wanted to express their condolences but also to show their gratitude to the United States for taking care of Naiyomah and for helping the village.

Naiyomah has used money donated by various American friends to build a three-room schoolhouse and to set up a water-purification system that could help reduce typhoid and other illnesses.

"When America is hurting, we want to share their pain," said Ngodia, 44, who donated two cows from his herd of 22. "Human lives are the same whether it's in America or Maasailand."

Ngodia trades his cows for land, food and other goods to support his three wives and 11 children. "A cow is like a bank account," he said. "You treat it well and it gives you interest."

Brencick, the acting U.S. ambassador, later told the gathering that "it is not easy to take these cows to New York across the sea."

The cows, instead, will be sold and the proceeds used to buy beadwork from the village, possibly an American flag and other items, that will hang in a public place in New York.

"The world has not been divided by this tragedy," Brencick said. "You and we are helping to bring it together."

Information from Reuters is included in this report.