When we hear of Kenya, we think of Maasai Mara, Maasai and Samburu tribes, etc. Undoubtedly, Maasai Mara is a spectacular national reserve and Maasai tribe is popular. However, up north near the Kenya-Ethiopia border, lies a completely different topography with a near-extinct tribe. Up there, the El Molo tribe is struggling to exist on the shores of Lake Turkana.
The community survives on fishing on lake Turkana using hand made harpoons from acacia roots and fishing nets made from doum palm fiber. They use fishing raft made from doum palm logs.
The El molo construct their rounded huts on the shores of lake Turkana. The huts are made from doum palm fronds and are supported using wood from the rare acacia tree. Like the Samburu, the El molo wear necklaces and bracelets made of colored beads.
They dress following Samburu custom- beads and goat or fish skins, incorporating many of the lake artifacts such as fish bones and teeth.The elder still dress traditionally, the youngest wearing the traditional ‘selah’ and the school age youth dress mostly western.
Life expectancy is short due to their diet and health problems with people usually living up to 35-45 years. Women and children have high mortality late while men engage in dangerous fishing and hunting activities. Their social customs have also contributed into their low population.
Once a baby is born, the elders of the tribe are consulted and those who have lived long and fulfilling lives are chosen to die. They accept to die in good fate because it’s deemed to be a recognition of the life cycle and respect for their ancestors who passed on the customs and beliefs to them.
According to them, the spirits and the cosmos guide them in deciding who dies next. It is unclear if the chosen people die naturally or how they give way to the new babies.Afrimax English reports that at one point, their population reached hundred (100) but it didn’t last for 24 hours because it was considered a sacrilege. It is unclear how it was quickly rectified.
Since nobody knows who will die after a child is born to keep the El Molo population in check, they are always virtually sitting on tenterhooks. Interestingly, if someone falls ill during the period of the child being born, he or she becomes restless even if he or she is not the one appointed to die.
Killing a hippo among the El Molo, is akin to killing a lion by a Maasai moran. Anyone who kills a hippo is decorated with a necklace made from the hippo’s teeth and a feast for the whole community is held. Captain Guya has earrings made from a hippo’s teeth, showing how valiant he is.
The El Molo do not suffer from bandit attacks because thy do not have livestock but in 2007, an attacks by the neighbouring pastoralists Gabra tribe sharpened fears the tribe could be wiped out altogether. Guya says that they all swam to the island.Guya says that that the last fluent El Molo speaking man passed away back year. The remaining members now have the difficult task of sustaining the traditions, customs and beliefs of this tribe.
“I am not even fluent in my language, and even if I was, who do I speak it with? The inter-marriages are finishing us,”
By Pulse