In Kenya, some Maasai turn from lion-killing to Olympics

Kenya’s most identifiable community is abandoning hunting lions with spears for javelin throwing at a biannual event called the Maasai Olympics.

The Maasai people, renowned for their colorful garb, are predominantly herders and live near some of Kenya’s most visited wildlife parks. Attacks by Maasai on wildlife has often been cited as a threat to some animal populations.

The traditional rite of passage for a young Maasai man has been to kill a lion with a spear in order to prove his masculinity, earn a warrior name and admiration among young women.

But Maasai elders like Mingati Samanya, 69, are charting a new path for the community’s young warriors, also known as morans.

During his youth, Samanya killed two lions to show he was a man and that is how he received the “lion name” Mingati in the Maa language. His name at birth was Naiganya.

Samanya is now among