Samburu National Reserve
Kenya
Elephant Bedroom Camp
Samburu Tribe Image
Click on image to enlarge.
I decided to upload this non wildlife image to show another aspect of my visit to Africa. Besides this visit to a village, I also took a hot balloon ride over the Masai Mara.
The times I have been to Africa with a tour group, you are given a chance to visit a local tribe to meet the people, to see how they live, and to help their economy. On this trip, the group visited a Samburu village where we were met by the local chief, shown thru the village, and given the opportunity to buy their local merchandise usually handmade jewelry and masks.
At the beginning, the men and women divide up into groups, and show you their local dances. You are asked to join and dance with them. The men and the women are not together, but dance separately. I was invited to dance with the women, and I did for a couple of dances, and the men are asked the same thing. Our tour leader, Daniel Cox takes pictures of us, so we can see ourselves participating, and he lets us use these photos, as proof to ourselves and others we were there. The tour consisted of men showing how to light fires without matches, taking you into one of the homes to see inside, and meeting the local doctor and local blacksmith. Finally, before you leave, you can decide whether you want to purchase something or not.
Per Wikipedia -
The Samburu are a Nilotic people of north-central Kenya that are related to but distinct from the Maasai. The Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists who herd mainly cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels. The name they use for themselves is Lokop or Loikop, meaning "owners of the land" ("lo" refers to ownership, "nkop" is land). The Samburu speak Samburu, which is a Nilo-Saharan language. There are many game parks in the area, one of the most well known is Samburu National Reserve.
They live north of the equator in Samburu District, an area roughly 21,000 square kilometres (8,108 sq mi). Its landscape is one of great diversity and beauty. It includes landscapes ranging from forest at high altitudes, to open plains to desert or near desert. The main highland area is the Leroghi plateau (known in Samburu as Ldonyo, the Mountain), at about 1,600–2,400 metres (5,200–7,900 ft) above sea level. The lowlands (Lpurkel)are hot and dry, with acacia scrub the primary vegetation.
The Samburu are a gerontocracy. The power of elders is linked to the belief in their curse, underpinning their monopoly over arranging marriages and taking on further wives. This is at the expense of unmarried younger men, whose development up to the age of thirty is in a state of social suspension, prolonging their adolescent status. The paradox of Samburu gerontocracy is that popular attention focuses on the glamour and deviant activities of these footloose bachelors, which extend to a form of gang feuding between clans, widespread suspicions of covert adultery with the wives of older men, and theft of their stock.
The Samburu developed from one of the later Nilotic migrations from the Sudan, as part of the Plains Nilotic movement. The broader grouping of the Maa-speaking people continued moving south. Maa-speaking peoples have lived and fought from Mt. Elgon to Malindi and down the Rift Valley into Tanzania. The Samburu are in an early settlement area of the Maa group.
Those who moved on south, however (called Maasai), have retained a more purely nomadic lifestyle until recently when they have also begun farming. The expanding Turkana ran into the Samburu around 1700 when they began expanding north and east.
The language of the Samburu people is also called Samburu. It is a Maa language very close to the Maasai dialects.
(Sorry for the length of the description)