FACTS.

The Samburu, just like the Maasai are a semi-nomadic people. Only the Samburu are still very traditional and have not parted with old customs as compared to the Maasai. Let us then have a look at five interesting lifestyle facts about the Samburu that you probably don’t know.

1)Diet

Cattle, as well as goats, sheep and camels, play a vital role in the Samburu way of life and culture (the camels are kept for their milk rather than their meat.). The Samburu are highly dependent on their livestock for survival.Their diet comprises mostly of milk and occasionally blood from their cows.Theblood is acquired by slightly cutting the jugular of the cow, and draining the blood into a cup. The wound is then promptly sealed with hot ash. Meat is only served on special occasions. The Samburu people’s diet is also supplemented with vegetables, roots and tubers that are made into a soup.

2) The Samburu settlements

The land habited by the Samburu is mostly dry barren land, and the Samburu tribe has to relocate to be certain their cattle have enough food. Every few weeks the tribe will change location to find fresh grazing grounds (known as ‘fora’ in the local dialect).

The Samburu have altogether smaller settlements containing typically four independent families living in six or seven huts. A settlement with as many as fifteen huts is a large one by their standards. The fact that families are essentially independent is significant. It introduces a degree of flexibility into the organization of the settlement, and as the seasons change, so individual elders may choose to migrate with other families or separately. The social advantages of large settlements are to them less important than the economic disadvantages: cattle do not go as far afield to graze as camels, consequently the land around a large settlement will be exhausted more quickly and it will be necessary to migrate more often. Even individual herds may become too large and unwieldy to manage, and under these circumstances, an elder will often divide his herds and family into two economically independent units. These may even live in different settlements and in different vicinities.

The Samburu clans tend to be scattered over much of the tribal territory in interspersed clusters of small settlements. Huts are constructed using hide, mud, and grass mats strung over poles. The roof is made of a matrix of stretched out carton boxes, animal hide and tattered clothes. Underneath these boxes, or on top of them, there may be a polythene paper to provide insulation against the rare rain. A fence is built around the mud huts for protection from wild animals. The Samburu tribe settlements are called manyattas.

3) The duties and obligations of each family member

a) The women

Samburu women are responsible for gathering firewood, vegetables and roots, caring for their children and collecting water. They actually do the bulk of the daily jobs as opposed to their male counterparts who spend their day playing a local board game or in idle chatter (the morans look after their cattle herds and the older men are left in the settlement with their wives and children from younger brides). Custom permits a woman to have discreet sexual relations with men other than her husband, in particular those of his age-set or alternation. However, from the moment that her pregnancy is established, she should only have intercourse with her husband and this too should be curtailed in time. As she loses her appetite for milk she is fed increasingly on meat, and, today, maize-meal.

b) The children

To the Samburu, children are more than a security for their parents against the coming of old age. They are a focus of interest and attention. Their presence is the only certain thing that can stabilize marriage. They enhance the status of the parents, and the more there are of them the more propitious the family is thought to be. With a number of children, especially sons, a man can hope to build up his herds and in time to lead a less active life in herding and a more active life in the gossip groups of the elders and (if he wants) in their more formal discussions. While his daughters, after their marriages into worthy families, are an asset to him and his closer kinsmen: he can look to their allotted herds for an added source of revenue. The preference for polygamy implies that wives are in more constant demand and that their inherent value is higher than among the Rendille neighbors. Consequently, there is less need for the Samburu to apply pressure on their girls in order that they should acquire the qualities ideal in a wife: their future is more assured.

c) Girls

Samburu girls usually help their mothers with the domestic chores such as fetching water and cooking. Girls train for motherhood at an early age by helping with the household chores, and caring for their siblings. When adolescent girls attend dances organized by the moran of their clan they are acutely aware of the importance of looking their best at such gatherings. They paste ochre onto their shaven heads, darken their eyebrows with charcoal, and paint intricate designs on their faces. She is then likely to earn praise from a moran, probably becoming a mistress to him and enjoying his protection. This relationship is forged by mutual physical and sexual attraction, although each knows that their relationship has no future. Since both come from the same clan, marriage is forbidden. Over the years the moran will heap beads upon his lover or bead girl (Shanga girl)  as a symbol of his love and whilst the girls may feel passionately about a certain man, they are taught from an early age that these feelings are irrelevant, for they will never be able to wed someone of their own choosing (be sure to find out more about the Samburu marriage in a later blog post). Girls are taught that the marriage bond is not based on physical attraction or emotion, but instead that it is a long term sound investment forged by her family.

d)Boys

On the other hand, boys look after livestock in close proximity to the village settlements which are needed for daily supply of milk, blood and food for the settlement, the larger heard being with the morans several kilometers away from these settlements. Sometimes they also join the morans in their nomadic journeys for short periods. They are also the ones sent to take food, medicine and other resources to the morans in ‘fora’. Tracing the exact location is really hard and requires tracking skills such as dung and hoof print extermination. It is now easy where there is cellular reception.  The boys grow up adoring the morans as they eagerly wait to themselves become morans after circumcision. They told me stories of the present morans and those of days past with such excitement and an almost godly worshipful tone. I especially remember praises heaped on one sharp shooter moran who can never miss a target using his rifle or AK (they posses guns for protection against cattle rustlers from the neighboring communities such as the Turkana and Gabras. Check previous article on the Samburu history for a better understanding of this). Once a boy has been circumcised he is now considered a Moran (a warrior). The men are placed into age sets, and as a group move from one social position to another. From child to Moran, to junior elder and finally to elder.

e) The Moran

The morans(Samburu warriors) look after the cattle and are generally responsible for the overall safety of the community. We will have an in-depth look of the Moran stage later in another blog post.

f) Samburu Elders

The senior age-set is responsible for the moral education of the junior and for inculcating a sense of respect. Among the Samburu this is known as the firestick relationship (olpiroi) and the elders responsible for the current age-set of moran are known as the firestick elders. We shall have an in-depth look at this when we study moranhood.

The Samburu are a gerontocracy, the elders rule the tribe. It is the elders that decide when ceremonies will occur, such as weddings and circumcisions. Entry into womanhood and manhood is marked with a circumcision ceremony. Men and women are only able to get married once they have been circumcised, as prior to that they are still considered as children.

4)  The Samburu Dances

Dancing is a significant part of Samburu culture. They love to sing and dance, but traditionally use no instruments. They have dances for various occasions of life. The men dance jumping and high jumping from a standing position. Most dances involve the men and the women dancing in their separate circles with particular moves for each sex, but coordinating the movements of the two groups.  They however come together in other occasions such as wedding ceremonies. A lot of their dances include elaborate movements of their head.

5) The Samburu fashion

When it comes to their dress code, the Samburu people are often recognized for their riveting beauty and decorative appearance. Their cousins- the Maasai- refer to them as the “butterfly people” because of their layers and layers of bead-covered jewelry, fascinating face painting, and colorful dress. The Samburu clothing is something that I found really interesting. Both men and women wear extremely bright colours. This may be because they want to add some life to the otherwise barren landscape or to make their dark skin glow. They adorn themselves with necklaces, bracelets and anklets. The traditional dress of the Samburu tribe is a striking red cloth wrapped like a skirt and a white sash( though there are variations of yellow and other bright colours}. This is adorned with many colorful beaded earrings, bracelets, anklets and necklaces. Each piece of jewellery worn represents the status of the wearer.

The warrior men (moran)  cover their head in red ochre. The elders (both men and women) are clean shaven but the women also have a peculiar hairstyle whereby they shave their hair in a perfect circle. The women wear numerous necklaces and bracelets and these ornaments are made from colorful beads (used to be colorful seeds a long time back). It is said that the more beads or necklaces are there on a woman, the more beautiful she is considered. Another point on the same line of thought is that, women wear more necklaces as they get richer. Therefore, the number of beads or necklaces indicates status in society, richness level and beauty.

With their necks encircled with beads, their chins painted red with ochre and massed bracelets jangling on their wrists, the Samburu women are a beauty to behold. But while the beads might look pretty, the elaborate jewellery is more than mere decoration. For not only does it denote wealth, it also reveals subtle clues about status as well.  Beads are worn mainly for their beauty, but they also tell you about relationships and special events. ‘Marnay’ bracelets are worn by everybody and are made of beads and bits of old tires. Most wear brass anklets too.  Samburu girls are given strings of beads by their fathers from a very young age.  The first layers of necklaces are usually red, as it means the girl is engaged which takes place at a very young age.

Women who are married wear elaborate brass earrings and layer of necklaces, the colours of which have different meanings and reflect her status.
Married women also wear elaborate headdresses made from entai (buttons), ntarangrang (sequins) , synthetic flowers of late (readily available from the mass producing Chinese industry)and sayen (beads) to show off their status and their husband’s wealth.

But it’s the beads that offer the most clues to a Samburu woman’s lifestyle, with different colours revealing different aspects of her personality, status and health. White stands for purity and good health because it represents milk which comes from a cow, black is hardship, yellow and orange melded signify hospitality because they are the colours of animal skins laid out on guest beds. Red signifies danger, bravery and unity.

Necklaces can even have magic powers, they believe.  If a woman is sterile, she must see a witch doctor (oloibon) who will give her a collar of pearls. She must go to the first born man in any house, tie him up with the necklace and then leave with it.  Three months later, she ought to be pregnant, while the man that she tied up with the necklace will become crazy or sick as in Samburu culture, the fortune of one will be the misfortune of the other ( again, a later article will describe the Samburu beliefs).

Beads are placed around the neck and waist of the infant after about two months. Those around the waist are discarded as the child grows up.

This then brings us to the end of the Samburu lifestyle overview. I do hope it was informative

Samburu peoples are pastoralists whose life has been revolving around the wellbeing of their goats, sheep, cattle, and in the more arid areas, camels. The Samburu are culturally related to the Maasai, and show a specifically rich and picturesque heritage of artful beadwork, songs and dances. Both women and warriors wear red dresses, but it is only the moran, the young fighters, who braid their hair as the skin is smeared with ochre, displaying an unmatched beauty of traditional Africa.

The Samburu share their Nilotic roots with the Pokots, their neighbors to the west, and the Turkana to the northwest, whereas Borana in the southeast and Rendille in the northeast are both of Cushitic lineage. Yet, culturally, the Rendille are the closest to the Samburu and practice almost identical traditions.