In March 2008, I travelled to the village of Elaui in northern Tanzania, to begin filming my first documentary. Greenforce, a British gap year expedition company, were sponsoring six Maasai warriors to travel to the UK to run the London marathon and I wanted to document their adventure. Their aim was to raise enough money to build a much-needed fresh water well for their village.
As soon as I met the six young men, it became clear that Isaya Lukumay was going to be the main character. He was their de facto leader; he spoke English and already had a close friendship with the Greenforce project manager Paul Martin. Together they had come up with the idea of the marathon and had somehow cajoled Greenforce’s head office to stump up the cash for the flights.
The warriors were running the marathon because of the lack of water in their village, but I arrived during the rainy season, and was knee-deep in mud. Then there was the training for the marathon – or rather lack of it. Naturally fit from their days spent herding cattle and goats, not to mention chasing and killing the occasional lion, the warriors were confident they didn’t need to over-do the training.
Arriving in London was like landing on another planet – most of them had never left their village before. On the first day the Greenforce team had booked them to appear on BBC Breakfast. Within a few hours the phone at the Greenforce office was ringing off the hook.
Lukumay was excited to receive attention from the press. With each interview his stories got taller. I watched as, “I’ve chased a lion,” became, “I’ve killed many lions.” The press lapped it up. If they were going to ask inane questions and treat him like a curiosity then that’s what he would give them.
Marathon-day came and went – the guys ran in full regalia; spears and shields aloft. All six had started, and four finished. Lukumay’s exhausting press schedule had gotten the better of him and he withdrew from the race after 12 miles, exhausted.
However, the Maasai’s trip was a huge success – they had almost doubled their initial fund-raising target, and went home to Tanzania with £114,000 to spend on the water project.
Post-marathon, things changed drastically. They were stars now. They had been seen at home on CNN and BBC World. Within a few hours of touching down in Tanzania, phone calls began to pour in with offers of help.
Whereas the other warriors opted to return to their village, Lukumay was needed in town, which meant heading to Arusha. Greenforce were adamant that the water-project should be African-led, with Lukumay and the village chief choosing the drillers and organising the logistics, and Greenforce paying the chosen contractors directly.
However, things began to break down when demands from village elders were made for the water-funds to be put into a local bank account. Worried that the money might fall between the cracks, Greenforce refused. When the Maasai’s supporters in Tanzania retaliated by briefing the British press against their former friends, relations hit rock bottom.
So Martin travelled to Tanzania to make amends, and oversee the drilling process. His friendship with Lukumay had become strained, but they agreed to put it all behind them in the hope of finally getting water to the village.
After filming finished, Lukumay found a new life working amongst the western aid community. He became involved with an American student from Boston, who had seen him interviewed on CNN. Meanwhile, back in Elaui, the five other warriors went back to their normal routine of herding cattle and goats.
Back in the edit room in London I knew that somewhere in my 120 hours of footage I had blood, sweat and tears – and real drama. The kind of drama, which would lead to my first TV commission – or so I thought. The reality was few executives were willing to take a chance on an unknown filmmaker, and the project languished in development hell.
In 2012, I was accepted onto the NFTS Film Clinic sponsored by YouTube, a completion fund for first-time documentary filmmakers at the National Film and Television School. Lara Agnew, the founder, paired me up with an NFTS editing graduate – Katherine Lee – who managed to deftly craft a narrative out of my footage.
Five years on from the marathon adventure, Lukumay is happily married and living in Boston, US. He is working part-time whilst studying for an American high-school diploma, and hopes to attend university in the US. He has lectured widely on his marathon adventure and in 2010 he founded the The Warriors Organisation, a not-for-profit, created to help empower the indigenous peoples of Tanzania. In 2013 he ran the Boston Marathon to raise money to build a primary school in Elaui. He finished the race, narrowly missing the bombs that killed three and injured two hundred sixty four people.
For the remaining warriors, the marathon adventure is a distant dream from a lifetime ago. They still live in Elaui, and raise cattle, which are occasionally sold at market. A few of the guys have ventured further afield for work as “askari” or guard, but Elaui, and their families, always draws them back.
Martin left Greenforce in 2010. He is married and lives in Buckinghamshire. He hopes to visit Elaui later this year. Whether or not he’ll be allowed in the village is another story.
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