Samburu

East Africa affects the imagination like few other places on earth. Just north of the Equator, where the Great Rift Valley provides some of the most spectacular scenery in Kenya, lies Samburuland. Isolated and inhospitable, subject to a fierce climate, it is home to a race of proud, tough, semi-nomadic pastoralists. The Samburu, akin to the more visible and better-known Maasai to the south, are traditionalists in a world of change. The rule of the elders, the guidance of an astrologer/sage, the force of custom and--as a last resort--the power of a curse maintain law and order within the tribe. As the legendary explorer (and long-time Samburuland resident) Wilfred Thesiger puts it in the Introduction: "Even today Samburuland is a remote area, as yet spared the impact of mass tourism, such as occurs on the coast and in the Masai Mara. Conservative by nature, the Samburu still cherish and retain the customs and ceremonies of their ancestors, unlike most tribes in Kenya who today have largely abandoned theirs." Mr. Thesiger continues: "Much has been written about the Maasai, but almost nothing about the Samburu. Now fortunately we have Nigel Pavitt's book, which deals with their environment and every aspect of their lives. No other book about them has previously been published which combines meticulous and hitherto unrecorded accounts of fascinating customs and ceremonies, with such exceptional illustrations. "I was present when new age-sets [initiation rites that separate boys from warriors, warriors from elders] were introduced in 1960, in 1976 and in 1990 ... As a result I began to understand the importance to them of these rituals and ceremonies ... Until I read Nigel Pavitt's book, I had assumed that I was familiar, from personal observation, with the details of these initiation ceremonies; only then did I realize how much I had overlooked, and these are only some of the ceremonies with which he deals." On his final visit to Lesepen, the tribe's sage and astrologer, the author is told that if the customs are not rigorously preserved, in a few years "a child will have a gun instead of a spear." Then traditional Samburu life will disappear as utterly as the Bedu vanished from Arabia or the Plains Indians from North America.