Now this is a strange thing. I know the Samburu (I have lived with their neighbours) and this is a mighty strange thing. It can only be in unreal situation produced by white money coming in.
I see gourds of milk and I see cow dung. That means animals. That requires men and male protection, as that guy was trying to tell the interviewer but she did not really understand. The reason why the pastoralists are strongly patriarchal is because they depend almost entirely on animals. To herd animals on the savannah is almost impossible if you are raising small children (there is a lot of walking needed to cover enough grazing for your animals as the grassland is arid and there are competing wild creatures eating the grass), so herding is the work of men.
One must also then consider that an open range is a limited food resource with unlimited access. Raiding and tribal war have always been part of open ranges. Raiding is part of a man’s duties in life. Without men they have no hope on the open range. All I can conclude is that they are near a game park because they are selling tourist tat for their money. A game park will have armed rangers who will keep the raiders out but this will not transfer to the rest of Samburu land. Go to the plain of Marti and they would not last a month before their cattle were gone and their more attractive daughters carried off (The plain of Marti scares me and I can shoot better than their men can). The open range is a live war zone, low intensity but constantly smouldering. As a man never walk unarmed, you had better walk with your friends too and you never know what you may wake up to, even though the young warriors will have spent the night up watching your camp. This is the world of the Samburu.
The female circumcision talk will contain much bulls~~~. It is just saying what the white lady will like to hear (they will call her a mzungu because she is half white just as white folk call a half black person black). Circumcision was always a female thing. A man cannot even go near the place of circumcision or the women will chase him away with sticks. It is a female governed ritual done by women for women as initiation. Maybe these women know that by giving up circumcision they will get money from the white folk but circumcision was never a thing controlled or promoted by men. Men should not be taking the blame for that.
This whole thing is just a white folk funded project -how do they make money -by selling jewellery tat to tourists and probably begging grants from feminists.
Wait till the rangers are drawn of the game park for some reason and the Turkana or the Pokot warriors come over the hill with their AK47s (or even a few young Samburu men who don’t have enough animals to buy a wife). Without real men what will they then do? I have spent long with the desert nomads. There is a reason why men have the power -they pay for it in their blood and the women know it and are grateful.
A woman is like fire -fun to play with, can warm you through and cook your food, needs constant feeding, can burn you and consume all you own
Branched off 2 years ago.
