The most important information for me in The Worlds of a Maasai Warrior, the autobiography of Tepilit Ole Saitoti, has to do with the inevitability of change and the capacity of Saitoti to adapt to that change. The information is important because at times I feel that life's changes can be overwhelming and that I won't be able to deal effectively with those changes. However, reading of the radical changes which Saitoti faces gives me hope that I can deal with changes effectively after all. What gives me hope is that much of Saitoti's life, especially after he comes to the United States, is little but change from day to day, and yet he faces that change bravely. His return home brings even greater change. Now that he lives in both worlds he is, in a sense, in a constant state of change, because he is almost always conscious that he is a catalyst for change in both worlds. When he is in America he refuses to be put into a box of stereotypes and instead fights for his freedom and independence in his relations with both whites and other blacks. when he returns to Africa he is soon seen as a person with special knowledge, so that he has the added responsibility of helping his people begin to enter the modern world.
Certainly, these changes which Saitoti faces are far more radical than my own. Reading about his triumphs give me courage to face the turbulence in my own life and to put that turbulence in perspective.
In addition, Saitoti actively seeks out such changes, and refuses to become false in order to fit in with his new surroundings, as with the racial problems he faced in the United States. Not only did he remain true to himself, but, as he says, "We made black and white friends and it all turned out very well" (126).
Certainly the difficulties Saitoti faced upon return to his homeland were also confusing at times, but just as he made the best of his life in the United States, so will he make the best of his life back ...