Charlie met this last week with an old man (and his son) who gave us come cultural information and background on the Samburu. Perhaps others might be interested to read this. Incorporate it into the website however you think best. I have typed it just as the son wrote it, so the composition is not the best. The old man is about 83 and he goes to the town near his home every day and preaches to the other old men. He was saved in 1971. I’m hoping we’ll have some more contact with this old man and be able to get some more information. Charlie told the son to write down anything he could think of or anything that his father told him. It is unusual for an old man to be willing to share so much of what he knows. Generally, they keep it to themselves, only telling the next generation as they feel a need to. They rarely share freely with those outside their age set. Here is what the son wrote for us:

Origin
The Samburu society is a branch of the larger Maasai tribe, who now live in the southern part of Kenya. This society immigrated from the north. According to word of mouth, the Samburu are a branch of the Israelites. The older generations remember to have passed Ethiopia and entered Kenya near Lake Turkana in the north. They fought their way down up to Lake Baringo and back ghrough Laikipia to Samburu district.

Religion
The Samburu believe in one God whom they call Nkai. They also believe that this one God has a child but could not divine the exact name of the child or the mother of this child. They also believe that they had brothers left behind long ago somewhere to the northern parts where they crossed a big river where the waters were separated by God to give them a passage. The Samburu also still have a term used up to now, but which has lost it’s meaning in the passing of time, that when they get into hardships you hear them saying “oi apa Sinai”. This, translated, means “we miss Sinai”. Sinai here must be the Mt. Sinai where God (Yahweh) used to talk to the Israelites through Moses.

In most of their religious ceremonies, every Samburu family (before the coming of the white missionaries) used to slaughter a spotless lamb and roasted as a sacrifice to God. These sacrifices are very similar to what we read in the Old Testament.

The first white man’s contact with the Samburu was in 1905 on Mt. Marsabit, and hence the beginning of the current modern civilization and the weakening of the traditional way of life among the Samburu. They also believed that there was a link between them and God.he Samburu people are a semi-nomadic people group living in the central Rift Valley area of Kenya. Population is estimated to be around 150,000. Their livelihood is dependent upon the cattle, sheep and goats they raise. Living in a semi-arrid climate, they do very little farming and the search for water and grazing land leads out from their homes during dry seasons.