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Scenes from a Kenya Safari
Text and photographs by George W. Stone
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One doesn't merely travel to Africa. One travels to a specific and exact place, at a specific time, with specific people. I traveled to Kenya's Rift Valley province, north of the equator, where the foothills of Mount Kenya merge with the semi-arid plains south of Lake Turkana. I traveled to the Samburu National Reserve, so named for its people, semi-nomadic pastoralists who have called this region home for centuries. Most specifically, I traveled to a bend in the Ewaso Ng'iro river (meaning "brown water"), which separated my campsite from a traditional Samburu manyatta, or village.
Here I am with two Samburu villagers, James Lamalan (left) and Joseph Lekoyo (right). These men attended to our campsite, and were exceptionally good company. They shared stories about village life and aspirations about their futures. James is preparing to marry, having already selected his wife, and is working hard to save money to buy goats, which will help provide for his family. Joseph, meanwhile, seems to be enjoying his bachelorhood to the utmost.
The Samburu tribe is closely related to the Masai, but due to drought, famine, and consequent migration is now separated geographically from its southern-dwelling relatives. My intrepid Africa Expeditions guide, Bernard Ole Koikai, is of the Masai tribe, a group of some 200,000 pastoralists whose lives now revolve around the Rift Valley of southern Kenya and Tanzania. Partly because Bernard shares a deep cultural connection with the Samburu, including the common Maa language, he was the ideal guide to help unlock the mysteries of these people.
What am I holding? It's a colorfully beaded, carved tourists' facsimile of a genuine tribal club. Samburu and Masai tribesmen watch over their flocks armed with a well-worn two-foot-long wooden club, which they traditionally carry under their arm. A brave herder might chase away a jackal or even a lion with his weapon, but I would barely frighten a kitten with mine—a fact that James clearly finds amusing.
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