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Kingsley

Kingsley

Date: 2014-10-24
We reminisced about a past expedition in the footsteps of Count Teleki the first European to have discovered Lake Turkana. I remember we'd been walking in the moonlight to avoid the heat, using donkeys as pack animals, our armed guides seemed reluctant to tell us the story about the small wooden cross we had found beside the track only later did the interpreter tell us of how the missionary had been killed.

The local Turkana had repeatedly warned him not to build a road.. As cattle rustlers, they knew the road would bring the army and police. But the missionary didn't listen, so one day, as he was passing in his Land Rover, they shot him. The story goes, he didn't die instantly; whilst still alive he was made to eat a piece of his own liver. In those days most of the Turkana men were armed with spears and rifles most wore razor-shaped wrist knives worn like a bangle and even finger - ring knives that curve like a lions claw. Scarification on their bodies indicated the number of enemies killed.

It takes the better part of a day for us to reach the frontier town of Maralal, the start of the Northern Frontier district, and the halfway point of our journey to the Jade Sea. Our expedition is one of a series called 'Living Traditions' and it's all about recording and researching Africa's remaining traditional lifestyles before they change forever. 

But here in Maralal things have changed and where it used to be donkeys and camels now it is Chinese motorbikes - but fortunately a number of the Turkana and Samburu tribesman albeit with small skin pouches for their cell phones and the addition of some plastic flowers to their head-dresses, still embrace their traditional cultures, and everybody we speak to wants a lift to Loyangalani our destination on the wild shores of the Jade Sea to where, the very reason for our journey, the Lake Turkana cultural festival is about to start. We don't know quite what to expect.

Don't miss out on next week's episode in the wake of this amazing adventure in The Bugle.