The Samburu People

Our one week anniversary. Today we stayed at the same hotel in Sambura with two game drives scheduled. Isaac explained for us yesterday that there would be the opportunity to visit a Samburu and Masai village whilst here. Becky and I are keen to visit a Masai tribe but with the plans we have already whilst in Masai Mara we are not sure that we will fit it in. So today we did decide to take advantage and drive out to a Sambura village. Because the Samburu people are nomadic and move around, Isaac picked up the tribal chief 'Aroma' who was able to guide us to the location of his village.

We visited one village which is part of a cluster housing Samburu people and Turkana tribal people. We were greeted by a few traditional dances performed by the community of young men who are working to become adult males. These are the males between 15 and 30 years old. In this culture boys practice their Spear techniques and train to become shepherds looking after the livestock. This includes training to kill a lion. The tribes are prevented from killing lions now and claim for any lost cattle but the training still forms part of the tradition here. Once the boys reach 15, they belong to a group who tend to the cattle, goats, sheep and donkeys. At the moment the livestock is being kept remotely from the village due to drought and for the animals to have water.

We were shown the Nursery where we heard the children recite their alphabet and left a donation. We saw the blacksmith and a couple of young men demonstrate their fire starting technique. Of course, I couldn’t resist having a go.