Samburu people

The Samburu are a nilotisches people in northern Kenya. They are mostly farmers and keep herds of cattle. Is your language, like that of their close relatives Maasai, Maa The name of the people is supposed to be from the Maa word "o - sampurumpuri " which means butterfly, derived. However, others say that it is derived from the word Samburr, the traditional leather bag which is carried to the transport of meat and honey from the Samburu on the back.

Territory

The Samburu have immigrated in the 16th century from the north into what is now Kenya. There they live primarily in the Central Kenyan plateau in Laikipia District. Interrupted by some rocky hills, the landscape is dominated by open grass and thorn bush savannah. The lifeline of the area is the Ewaso Nyiro River.

On the tribal territory of the Samburu lies the 165 square kilometer National Reserve Samburu National Reserve.

Economy & Nutrition

Previously lived nomadic Samburu to adapt at any time as a pastoral people, the needs of their animals. For this purpose, but you need enough space, but the people are deprived of more and more of their home. First settled in the 20s and 30s, white farmers of today they are fighting directly against the government for their land rights. Most now live in small settlements, consisting of 4 to 10 cattle owners and their families. There they live in small huts made of a rod braid, covered with mud, animal skins or grass mats. The huts of the few nomadic Samburu living consist of mud and manure and skins and grass mats, which are supported by piles.

Your livelihood is livestock: cattle, goats and sheep as well as some of camels and dromedaries. The most important food is mixed with the milk of their animals blood, the so-called Saroi. Only on special occasions sheep, goats or cattle are slaughtered. As a result of the shrinking habitat of the livestock industry to preserve often no longer sufficient, many have begun to grow crops and vegetables.

Boil rice, potatoes and kidney beans. Tomatoes, carrots and onions are also used for cooking. In addition, roots and bark are boiled into soups. Be completely disdains pork and fish. Chance of chickens are kept, even though hardly anyone eats eggs. The chickens are almost exclusively intended for sale. Salad does not know you and probably would not even eat it because all food has to be cooked. The Samburu do not go on a hunt of wild animals, which is why, in contrast to the fields of neighboring peoples in their habitat even more wild lives. On the whole, the Samburu live in harmony with nature and its creatures, as long as they or their herds are not seriously attacked by wild animals. As they surround their settlements with fences of thorn bushes, it is, however, very rarely attacks.

Chai ( black tea with lots of milk and sugar) is drunk several times a day and serves every visitor. Coffee or other drinks, however, are less consumed.

Culture

Central in their culture is respect for the elders. The older you get, the more power one attains, but this is mainly just for men. Each age group also gets assigned to specific tasks. Children take care of the goats and sheep, circumcised young men 12-19 at the herds of cattle and married men to the community. The women are responsible for the cabins, the dairy cows and also for collecting wood and water. Men usually have several wives, so polygamous. However, each woman has her own hut mostly. Girls are married to them, unknown men at the age of about 15 years. The elders decide it, who should it be but a man must be from a clan. The girl then pulls to the family of the man. Female genital mutilation heard it mandatory for marriage ceremony.

Their traditional garment consists of red capes. Both men and women wear their hair braided. Women wear sometimes up to 10 kilograms heavy necklaces and her head is often decorated with strings of beads and a cross-shaped forehead jewelry. These chains they gifted by men and it is said that as soon as they reach to the chin, they are old enough to get married.

Current Problems

2011, many Samburu were evicted from their settlements after two environmental organizations, the U.S. organization The Nature Conservancy and the African Wildlife Foundation, about 70 square kilometers had bought to build a nature reserve. Many families are still living today on the edge of the area in makeshift huts, others were completely driven out of the area. The country was shortly thereafter given by the two organizations in the government who see tourism as a profitable and important than the land rights of the Samburu. The state requires that they pass on to a sedentary lifestyle and no longer move with their herds of cattle through the nature park. This call, however, is illegal.

The area is increasingly afflicted by climate change from long -lasting and recurring droughts that destroy the crops and dry up the rivers. This leads also increasingly to death by starvation of cattle and at the Samburu themselves In the great famine of 2011, most Samburu were simply forgotten, it hit a no promised relief.

Since women are partly less respected, it always comes back to abuse and rape. To protect 1990 15 Samburu women have built a village that is growing steadily until the present date - the Umoja village woman