sojourn to Africa, which became far more than the painting expedition on which she originally set out. We meet Mr. Joel Ole Dapash, a man who, in the best sense of his Maasai heritage, overcame incredible adversity to achieve his goal, an education and who, with that education, returned to his people as saviour.

It was artist Diana Tetlow's chance meeting with a 31-year-old Maasai in Nairobi, Kenya, earlier this year that led to the formation of PACT (Preserve a Culture for Tomorrow).

She was back in East Africa to paint the people and wild life of Tanzania. Mr.

Joel Ole Dapash is one of only a few Maasai who have been educated and as he spoke with Mrs. Tetlow, she became convinced of the necessity of attempting to save the fast-vanishing culture of this centuries-old people.

Now, just a few months later, and following the interest and help she has already received with the project, PACT is to be registered in Bermuda as a charity. Just this week she has received a letter from the David Shepherd Conservation Foundation in the UK, offering assistance with her project.

"I hope this will inspire people in Bermuda to join in the race against time to help preserve the heritage of these unique people,'' she says.

Mrs. Tetlow says that while she was setting up the project with Mr. Dapash, he was interviewed by a woman who is writing a book on world medicine. "She was fascinated by the Maasais' knowledge of medicine, and I realised what a great spokesman Joel is for his people.'' That view is obviously shared by other writers who have met him. Joel Dapash and the remarkable story of his life has been the subject of two articles in the Los Angeles press. And Mrs. Tetlow is presently trying to whet the appetite of the TV show, 60 Minutes, with letters plying back and forth to Ed Bradley on the possibility of featuring Joel and the plight of his people on the programme.

Reading through the first transcripts that Mrs. Tetlow has now received from Kenya of conversations between Joel Dapash and his centenarian stepfather, Dapoi, it is difficult to imagine that for most of his life, Joel had been rejected by the old man and the whole village.

Mrs. Tetlow is now writing a book on her experiences with, and hopes for the Maasai people, with a section devoted to the story of Joel Dapash.

She relates that at the time when Joel's parents married, Dapoi already had eight wives and, as is still the custom, handed certain animals over to her.

Trouble erupted between the two of them when the young wife, who loved animals, refused to allow the slaughter, sale, or gift of any of this cattle to his other wives. Although the Maasai hold the rather advanced view that a husband has no control over a wife's property, her attitude did not endear her to Dapoi.

Already somewhere in his seventies when Joel was born, Dapoi was maddened with jealousy to discover that he was not the child's true father. Although local custom dictated that the baby was to be accepted as his own son, Dapoi became violent towards his wife. So she took Joel and left three other sons behind when she ran away, back to her parents in Tanzania.

At the age of nine, Joel was returned to his father's village, where he received a surly reception from his stepfather and a refusal to allow him any animals. At this point, fate stepped in, for just as his mother had decided that her son's return to his real home had been a mistake, the Kenyan government suddenly decided that one child from every Maasai family was to be educated. As the Maasai believed that children taken away to school would die, Dapoi selected the young Joel -- a most convenient solution, he thought.

Unaware of the conflict surrounding his birth and despite his mother's terror at the prospect, Joel Dapash told Mrs. Tetlow that he was strangely excited by the thought of school. It was there that he was given the name of Joel (his Maasai name is Meitamei) and where he soon became the leading student in the class. But the misery surrounding holiday periods back at his father's home brought the young boy to a breaking point and he decided to run away, back to school.

With no food and no sense of direction, the long journey became a nightmare, with nights spent in trees to avoid marauding animals on the ground. On coming face to face with a lion, he told Mrs. Tetlow: "All I could think of, was to bend right down in front of the lion with my head on the ground. Either the lion was very confused by this, or he decided I wouldn't make a very tasty meal. In any case, he left me alone.'' When, after another terrifying encounter with a water buffalo, he was finally rescued by an old village man and returned to his home, his mother wept with relief but his step-father was visibly disappointed by the boy's survival.

When the government changed its policy of free schooling, the first of several Westerners who recognised Joel's potential stepped in to help. A man who had piloted balloon flights for tourists offered to pay his fees in return for holiday work.

Elected as head boy of his school, Joel incurred the jealousy of several students who threw sulphuric acid on his leg. He became dangerously ill, with the poison threatening to spread throughout his body. Incarcerated in hospital for a year, he made one trip back to school by wheelchair in an attempt to persuade the students who had rioted in protest over the incident to return to school.

School friends and teachers brought him meals, constantly bathed his leg and supplied him with class notes on his courses. Incredibly, he passed his `O' levels with top marks.

His stubborn refusal to allow the amputation of his leg was vindicated when after an entire year the leg, which was open to the bone with severed tendons at the knee, suddenly healed of its own accord.

His patron, joined by a British painter, some of his teachers and finally, an American journalist, all helped to pay his way through the University of Kenya where he took the very un-Maasai step of studying farm management. He became the chess champion of Kenya and on graduation worked for the East African Wildlife Society.

Then, almost five years ago, he made the extraordinary decision to forsake city life and return to his roots. It was the Kenyan government's far-from-altruistic decision to allow the private ownership of land that triggered this unheard-of step. He saw clearly that the corrupt elements in the government were hastening the demise of the Maasai's very existence with this legislation.

When a syndicate of three men, including a government minister, tried to buy a portion of land on which 92 Maasai resided and grazed their life-supporting cattle, he immediately moved the villagers to the safety of his father's home.

His campaign on their behalf climaxed with a threat to go to Kenya's President and publicly commit suicide to bring media attention to his people's plight.

The sale was stopped, Joel led the people back to their grazing lands and took up the life of a Maasai warrior in his father's village.

Finally, Joel's stepfather voiced his pride in his stepson and the two became unusually close. And now, with the help of a tape recorder donated by Mrs.

Tetlow, Joel is recording as many reminiscences as possible of this ancient Maasai who still remembers his part of Africa "before the white man came''.

As Dapoi comes from a generation that has now all but disappeared, the importance of his Maasai stories, legends and beliefs is enormous. Joel Dapash believes that the political upheaval in Kenya, with increasing demands for multi-party elections, will not help the Maasai, whatever the outcome.

Mrs. Tetlow points out that the Maasais' traditional prowess as warriors, who fiercely defended their grazing land and have clung on longer than any other tribe to their traditional way of life, hardly endears them to the very tribes they once conquered who now, as the new, westernised and monied elite of Kenya, "hold all the cards''.

Joel says he hopes, that with the help of PACT, he will be able to educate his fellow Maasais to cher ish their heritage and to avoid the pitfalls that have befallen other Africans in their rush to westernisation. Part of the proceeds from Mrs. Tetlow's exhibition at Heritage House next month will be donated to the fund. Carvings and artifacts brought from Maasai villages will also be on loan exhibit, adding an authentic atmosphere to her show which is to be called Elototo -- the Maa word for "journey''.

PAINTING UNDER A PARASOL -- Artist Mrs. Diana Tetlow uses the shade of a parasol to keep her paints wet as she works in the hot sun of Tanzania. Her Maasai friends from the village of Albalbal look on.

MR. JOEL OLE DAPASH, Massai, left, and local travel agent Mr. Lloyd Webbe, who arranged Mrs. Tetlow's trip.

MR. DAPASH at his East African wildlife society office.