The United Nations has been at the forefront in the ongoing struggle for the protection and elaboration of the rights of indigenous peoples. The creation of a Working Group on Indigenous Populations in 1982 and the adoption of the International Labor Organization Convention No. 169 in 1989 have led to an increase in the global awareness of the issues that indigenous people face as marginalized populations under threat of assimilation or extinction. The establishment of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2000 and of the UN Special Rapporteur on the rights of indigenous peoples, but especially the landmark adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples by the General Assembly in 2007 mark significant advances in the global struggle toward the equality of indigenous rights.

Being Maasai chronicles the growth and development of ‘indigeneity’ among the Tanzanian Maasai by following the growth, development, and struggles of the nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) set up to help the Maasai. The author chooses not to evaluate the claims of these NGOs nor their effectiveness as organizations, but rather to describe for readers some of the issues that the movement has experienced within the ‘political packaging’ of identity for global consumption. She displays the struggle to ‘be’ Maasai in the social world while identifying oneself as ‘indigenous’ for the sake of gaining capital in the political world. It is the political positioning of the organizations that forms the framework for the book. These positionings are not limited to African indigenous groups by any means. In the United States, for example, at the second meeting of the fledgling Native American and Indigenous Studies Association in 2008, some attendees suggested ‘Indigenous Studies Association’ as a more inclusive name for the organization, noting that Native Americans were indigenous and the distinction therefore superfluous. Native American organizers, however, retained the distinction: they are both ‘Native American’ and ‘indigenous’, but they want to maintain their specialized identities rather than getting lost in the more generalized terminology. The same appears true for the Maasai.

Chapter One provides background information into the development of Maasai support organizations and their interactions with local and global communities. There is a broad history, told through the example of Maasai activist Moringe Ole Parkipuny, which explains the origins and pathways of the NGOs in terms of structure and purpose. Chapter Two provides a more concise history of Maasai relationships with the various regimes within which they have existed, the colonial and postcolonial, as well as the impact of the World Bank neoliberal policies on contemporary Africa. By providing this history, Hodgson offers a kernel of context of use to the nonfamiliar reader. Chapter Three discusses the internal dynamics of Maasai indigenous organizations and the fractionating agents – identity, age, gender, generation, and agenda – that have led to lessened effectiveness. Looking more particularly at women's roles within these organizations, for example, forces us to recognize that gender issues are fully apparent and prevalent within African political structures, perhaps magnified within pastoralist societies such as the Maasai. Chapter Four looks at the complex issues faced by groups who struggle to maintain some semblance of ‘traditional’ livelihood in an ever-technological world. The demand for land to maintain pastoral livelihood, the need for water to maintain the herds, and the relationships with game parks and the heritage tourism industry all loom large in the restrictive environment within which the Maasai operate. The quest for external funding and the suspicion of the national prospects of the ‘indigenous peoples’ designation all play out in the discussion of politics and economy.

Chapter Five functions as a good summary of the book, bringing its major themes back together through the use of community perspectives on the issues brought about with change and development. While it focuses on the Maasai, it also speaks to the social context that the Maasai share with other small and disenfranchised groups. Hodgson's short concluding chapter leaves us with more questions than answers. What do the Maasai want to become of their movements toward contemporary identity? Do they want to remain Maasai and face the continuing assaults on identity, economy, and land or become ‘indigenous’ and fight for a place at the table where the discussion won't carry enough political weight to reverse these issues?

The Maasai, along with the San, are perhaps one of Africa's most superficially ‘known’ groups. American and European visitors to the game park areas of Tanzania and Kenya are guided to these spear-carrying pastoralists and leave most likely believing the Maasai are unchanged anachronisms in a technological world. Hodgson's book will never be a must read for game park visitors, but it should be a must read for anyone interested in the study of the construction of pan-continent indigeneity and relationships with internal and external politics.