Wild life | 25 July 2019

Laikipia

  All across the north the ritual bulls have already been slaughtered. I am waiting for the invitation from our Samburu neighbours to set off on a walk into the forested hills with my boy Rider to visit the great thorn enclosures where thousands of youths are to be circumcised. Drought in the low country may delay the ceremonies, but with any luck some clans will go ahead as planned with this great rite of passage that happens every 15 years or so. It is an immensely exciting cycle of events to observe an entire generation become initiated into the warrior age set, a process that is esoteric to us, yet makes complete sense in the passage of a man’s life in this modern world. Around the time that boys become warriors — who roam with cattle, defend the clan’s honour, gorge on meat and adorn themselves like peacocks — the next age set enters elderhood, at around 30 or so, when men at last are permitted to marry and acquire cattle wealth.