ABSTRACT
THE Samburu live in an area of some 11,000 square miles between Lake Rudolf and the Uaso Ngiro river. The southwestern region of this country is open savannah lying on a plateau, the Leroghi Plateau, which geographically at least is a part of the Kenya Highlands inhabited formerly by the Masai before it was taken over by European settlers earlier this century. Maralal, the administrative headquarters of ‘Samburu District’, is situated on this plateau. To the north and the east the land drops away sharply to less hospitable scrub desert with large patches of thick thorn bush and frequent rocky outcrops and it is here that most of the tribe live. This scrub desert, or low country as it is called, is broken up by intermittent hills and forested mountains. In the north-eastern parts of the country, conditions are rougher, water is scarcer and the land is strewn with lava boulders; here the Samburu live interspersed with their traditional allies, the Rendille, and they come under the administration in Marsabit. By the term Samburu, I understand all those who regard themselves as such-about 30,000 people-and not merely those who belong to the ‘Samburu District’ for administrative purposes.
