Grace poise of the Samburus

Harold Ayodo

Scenes of the famous Swaziland reed dance replayed in my mind as we cruised onto Samburu by road on a Friday afternoon.

Young, bare breasted women swam while others fetched water from Ewaso Ng’iro River as we passed over the bridge at Archer’s Post. Reluctantly, we drove on ahead.

Some of the curvy women strolled home with shukas wrapped around their waists. A heap of traditional necklaces covered their chests. The bracelets, earrings and colourful beads bring out their natural beauty, a far cry from their counterparts in Nairobi who rely on heaps of make-up to appeal.

The women were neither perturbed by our stares nor the clicks of cameras. For Samburu men, it is business as usual and you will not catch them ogling unlike in urban areas where men unashamedly ogle at women in tight fitting clothes.

We stopped to talk to the young women — who speak bits of Swahili — to enquire about the source of their beads. The necklaces are souvenirs from young Samburu warriors and by the age of 16, they are enough to hold the neck up. The accumulated necklaces are symbols that the curvy young women are ready for marriage.

We checked into the Samburu Sopa Lodge, which is constructed in a traditional Samburu homestead. The lodge is nestled at the heart of Samburu National Reserve in Rift Valley Province with breathtaking sights of the Mathew Ranges and Mount Kenya.

The cottages have architectural designs of a Samburu manyatta complete with makuti roofs. The inside, however is a modern hotel room.

The evening was entertaining — no music but live traditional songs from the Samburu dancers. We ate dinner as we watched wild animals quench their thirst from a water hole barely 100 metres away.

The night was quiet save for the chirping of the assorted species of birds and occasional sounds of wild animals.

Homesteads

We were up early for a game drive and returned to the lodge at 10am for breakfast before taking a nature walk that took us to nearby Samburu homesteads.

Life is simple in a homestead in Namayana village, Lorubae sub-location. Here, guests do not just walk in. Men and women sing as they lead you into compounds encircled with makeshift manyattas made of sticks and dung. For the morans, the dancing involves jumping by dash the higher you jump the braver and stronger you are.

Gates in a traditional homestead faces north, the direction of their sacred Ololokwe Mountains.

The manyattas look small from the outside but are complete with a sitting room, kitchen and bedroom.

According to Samburu culture, children move out of their parents’ home to sleep with their grandparents the moment they turn 12.

Married men, on the other hand, spend their day playing entotoi, a board game where two players sit on opposite sides and compete to arrange stones.

Raphael Lekudere, 37, says there are occasions when winners of the traditional board game walk home with lambs.

"Entotoi helps us spend the day as women take care of the home and the young men herd cattle," Lekudere says.

Married men walk home for lunch, which is often meat and milk then stroll back for their final rounds of entotoi under a tree.

Njorai Leshubukule, 40, says a game of entotoi lasts five minutes. During competitions winners of three consecutive games win lambs.

"This (board game) is our culture and tradition inherited from our forefathers. Newly married men joins us and the cycle continues," Leshubukule says.

Most men are polygamous and it is the duty of the second wife to select successive wives for whom the man pays dowry.

Marriages here are typical traditional ceremonies where the man pays five cattle and at least ten sheep as dowry.

"The marriage is never over until the groom spears to death a fat ox and drains the oil, which the bride carries to her home for good luck," Lekudere says.

In the villages, having an affair with a married man or woman is not as easy as in urban areas given their glaring distinctive features.

"Married men put on two necklaces while married women wear copper earrings with a silver chain that hangs to their shoulders," Simon Lende, a villager, says.

Daniel Leadekey says the volumes of beads and necklaces on their necks serves to identify women ready for marriage.

"Men also strive to buy their wives several necklaces as the more she has, the more beautiful she is," Leadekey says.

He says women are held in high esteem at his Kiltamany village in Lpus-Leluai sub-location.

At the homestead, women are respected following their unrivalled roles in ending calamities.

"Women are the ones who go to the sacred Ololokwe Mountain to offer sacrifices in cases of drought, disease outbreaks or other natural calamities," Leadekey says.

Furthermore, women are emerging as economic pillars of families following their recently established businesses to sell traditional artefacts to visitors.

Interestingly, the women convert the kraals at the centre of their homestead into markets during the day. They capitalise on visitors that troop into the Samburu National Reserve and later visit the homesteads.

Meanwhile, the men occasionally drive their cattle for sale at Archer’s Post targeting customers mainly from Meru and Nairobi. They rely on what they term ‘mattress bank accounts’ to keep proceeds from the sales as the nearest bank is many kilometres away in Isiolo.

"Our mattress accounts are the cow hides we sleep on… the money is safe as there has never been a case of burglary," Lende says.

Mosquitoes are not a problem in the manyattas as they burn dry dung.

"We occasionally collect goat dung, dry them under the sun, line them around the homestead and burn them at night," Leadekey says.

Herbal treatment

Diseases are not a problem here even though public hospitals are rare, thanks to the corporate social responsibility of Samburu Sopa Lodge.

"We go for free treatment at Sopa Lodge but also use herbs whenever sickness strikes at night," Leadekey says.

For instance, the bark of acacia trees soaked in cold water helps cure stomach ailments.

To the Samburu, wild animals are not a cause to worry even though the 170 square kilometre national reserve has no fence.

"Lions, leopards, cheetahs and elephants are some of the many wild animals that stroll into our homesteads at night," Lende says.

Initially, they killed the animals until recently when they realised that conservation attracted tourists who buy traditional artefacts sold by their women.

"We use fire to chase lions at night… we are not afraid of them as we grew up with them… lions are like dogs to us," Lende says.

The simplicity of life at the homestead extends to how they light domestic fire without using matchsticks.

"We use elephant or cow dung, coarse soil and two sticks to light up fire to cook," Lende says.

Samburu National Reserve chief warden Simon Leirana says the traditional homesteads are among the tourist attractions in the area.

"The residents basically maintain the lives their forefathers lived centuries ago, which amazes domestic and foreign visitors," Leirana says.

Some of the residents who went up to Form Four are getting jobs at the lodges inside the park. Samburu Sopa Lodge Manager Fred Suiyanka says most of their employees are locals.

"They are good people as they are disciplined, honest and hard working. We encourage them to come and work with us," Suiyanka says.