Turkana

Turkana youth wearing traditional headresses

Turkana, a people living in the arid, sandy expanse of northwestern Kenya, from Lake Rudolf (Lake Turkana) to the Ugandan border. The Turkana speak an Eastern Nilotic language of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Their language closely resembles that of the Teso. They apparently moved to their present lands about 200 years ago from an area now in northeastern Uganda where the closely related Jie and Karimojong still live.

The Turkana resisted British conquest, and a military expedition in 1918 caused considerable loss of life and cattle but did not establish effective British administration. The region was not completely occupied until 1942.

Turkana are ardent pastoralists who give names to, sing to, and diligently care for their cattle. Milk and other dairy products (butter, ghee, and yogurt) as well as blood are important to the Turkana diet; hides, horns, and bones are likewise to their material culture. Camels provide milk and meat and are used for bridewealth payments. Goats and sheep are also kept. Livestock are slaughtered and meat shared in the community. Turkana practice transhumance, visiting the same general pastures from season to season and returning to rainy season sites for millet and vegetable farming. Wild nuts, berries, game, and fish are also important foods. Their houses are temporary structures made of leafy boughs or palm fronds; a thorny, encircling fence is used for protection from predators. A father, his wives, and their sons and wives live together or in adjacent homesteads.

Turkana marry outside their clans, and upon marriage women join their husbands’ clans. Cattle are given clan brands. Turkana men belong to either of two alternating age sets, called Stones and Leopards; a man is of the set opposite to that of his father. In the past, Stones and Leopards wore different ornaments, ate apart at feasts, and raided in separate columns as warriors. The oldest men in extended families provide leadership. Turkana make many wooden containers and other useful objects that are prized by collectors of African art.