My first try with interviewing went well. Njaan, the old seer, loves to talk and we got some interesting stories out of her. Just as the interview was winding up, she started to get really into the old memories and started reciting Samburu tongue twisters, telling old stories and singing songs. It was fun. Speaking of songs, I just came from my in-laws’ house where I was recording some of the songs sung on the night before a wedding. Tomorrow is one of my niece’s wedding and the bridegrooms family brought some required cow this evening and I can still hear them now across the dry river bed from my house singing with the girls. This is the last night my niece will sing as a young uncircumcised, unmarried girl. I still see her as being very young, maybe 17 or 18, but fortunately the man she is to marry is also relatively young and of the warrior age group, instead of some old man acquiring a third or fourth wife. She is the first wife of this guy and with the changes in culture these days, probably will remain the only wife. Tomorrow I hope to record some more of the wedding songs for my cultural audio history and to take some pictures. I had gotten some pictures of another niece’s wedding in May but they were both school educated and only wore the traditional clothes as a costume during the wedding. One can always tell when looking at the pictures that even though they look traditional, they aren’t really completely comfortable in what they are wearing. They have been too long in western type clothing. This couple marrying now, and both of the families, have never had modern education, though are fully ‘educated’ in the traditional ways, so their attire, surroundings and ceremonial activities will be completely Samburu. My niece has been a herder her whole life, both of goats and camels. Boys usually herd cows, unless there are none available and then girls will herd those as well. But my niece had 4 brothers that take care of the cows. And for her being married, they will get some more to add to their herd. People outside of the Samburu culture say that ‘selling’ the girls for cows just makes them property, but I think bride price like here is a much better way than if it is dowry, like in places like Nepal and India. There, dowry, the giving of wealth to the groom’s family, is the norm. Because of the bride price, Samburu families value their girls just as much, if not more, than boys. Yes, it can bring problems as well, like early marriage for the wealth and not allowing them to get educated. But that is at least better than not being wanted at all when the birth of a girl only makes a family see the expense of getting her married later on as a burden. I experienced many times during my 3 ½ years in Nepal, the birth of a girl being greeted with sorrow, even being rejected and given away or not treated for illness such that the girl might die. I have never seen that here in the 10 years of my living with the Samburu people. Except in some cases were the family has many girls and no boys and would have liked some of each, the birth of a Samburu girl is always met with joy. In the perfect world, there would be neither bride price or dowry, I assume, and all children loved equally all of the time in every place. But as this isn’t a perfect world by a long shot, and traditions are still strong in many parts of the world, I would rather see the tradition of bride price, and the cherishing of the girl child, as in the Samburu. That at least gives a base for working on bringing more equity in other areas of women’s lives like education, right to property and power sharing.

Photo by Nancy Stills