Miss Ana, veiled girl from Rendille tribe - Kenya
Party time is over for Miss Ana
Pushed away by their neighbours, Rendille henceforth inhabit a vast
territory in one of Kenya's most arid regions: the Kaisut Desert. It
is located between Lake Turkana and the Chalbi Desert.
They are semi-nomadic, both nomad and pastoralist. Clans live in
temporary settlement called gobs. Gobs are usually near wells dug and
are given the name of the clan, subclan or the elder of the family.
They never stay long at the same place to look for water sources and
pasturing areas. They have to move 3 to 5 times a year. Villages are
typically made of two dozen houses with about 120 individuals. They
are composed of a group of semi-spherical huts made of branches and
covered with leather or canvas. Women are in charge of taking the
houses apart and putting them back in the new location. Near them, an
enclosure of crabbed branches protects camels for the night. Each kind
of livestock (camels, sheep, goats, cattle) have a separate camp that
is taken cared of by people of a different age-set. Unlike other
pastoral tribes, the Rendille favour camels rather than cattle,
because they are better suited to the environment. They depend heavily
on these animals for many of their daily needs: food, milk, clothing,
trade and transport. They are skilled craftsmen and make many
different decoration or ornaments. Rendile warriors often wear proudly
a distinctive visor-like hairstyle, dyed with red ochre. As for the
women, they wear several kilos beads. The Rendille receive empooro
engorio beaded collars for marriage, made of palm fibers, girafe or
elephant hairs. Like the Maasai with cows, camels are bled in order to
drink their blood. They are closely aligned with the Samburu, by
economic and kinship's ties. They have often adopted their language.
Marriage is not allowed within one's own clan, and is arranged by
parents as for most tribes. Each wife live in her own home with her
children, and mothers have a high status. Society is strongly bound by
family ties.
They still believe in their God, called Wak or Ngai. They also have
fortune-tellers who predict the future, and perform sacrifices for
rain. Special ceremonies take place at a child's birth. A ewe goat is
sacrificed if it is a girl, a ram if a boy. The girl is blessed 3
times while 4 for the boy. In the same way, mother drinks blood for 3
days for a babygirl, 4 days for a babyboy. The weeding ceremony takes
time. The prospective groom must give the bridewealth (gunu) to the
bride's family: 4 female and 4 male camels (half for the father, the
remaining camels for the rest of the family). One of them is eaten at
the ceremony. The bride wears jewellery made of glass and metal,
necklaces of beads and wire, headbands, and a large circular earings.
She will join her husband's family after marriage. The elders discuss
problems in a ritual circle called Nabo, in which women are allowed to
enter. They also meet there to pray, receive guests and perform
ceremonies.
© Eric Lafforgue
www.ericlafforgue.com
Comments and faves
FotoRita [Allstar maniac], flavita.valsani, davidclifford, manganite, and 136 other people added this photo to their favorites.
visithra (46 months ago | reply)
this is stunning
davidclifford (46 months ago | reply)
another beautiful portrait Eric! strong expression on her face, pride, dignity....
cafard cosmique (46 months ago | reply)
Splendide
serdelsol (46 months ago | reply)
fantastic!! as all your work.
ngari.norway (46 months ago | reply)
Great shot. Good vignetting effect that makes her stand out really nicely
Heart of Áfrika Designs (44 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Afrikan Eve - Visual Arts, Video, and Photography, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
Awnya 2012 (43 months ago | reply)
Your work is amazing, thanks for sharing.
K-Joy (42 months ago | reply)
Hi, I'm an admin for a group called Pefection, and we'd love to have this added to the group!
She's absolutely GORGEOUS!!!
MANOJ_mannu (42 months ago | reply)
beautiful shot
southern.decadence (41 months ago | reply)
She looks so regal
Nuru Kimondo [deleted] (36 months ago | reply)
Shes beautiful!
Robert O'Dowd (32 months ago | reply)
Fantastic, great photostream!!
I used this for a digital painting:
www.flickr.com/photos/31521985@N08/5056079844 /
Mexycan (29 months ago | reply)
stunningly GORGEOUS girl!
This photo was invited and added to the Áfrikan Eve group.
davidjoaquin (16 months ago | reply)
magical
Lion Mare (11 months ago | reply)
wonderful
great shot!!!!