Samburu lmala lkantir, Wamba, Kenya
Cap, strap, and neck detail for the Lkantir

Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Big, round, and squat-bottomed lmala with a bulbous base and a bulbous, flat-topped lid, used to store milk inside the hut. A smaller version of the lkantir is called nkantir e ruat kini.

An lkantir container is carved of wood and has stitching at the top to attach the leather flange for the lid. The container’s neck is drilled with small holes, which are then stitched with multiple woven bands of colorful thread. The stitching design typically has woven triangles that point downwards. As with all lmalasin, the lkantir has leather carrying straps that may still retain some animal hair, and may be decorated with skirai (cowry shells). The exterior of both container and lid are usually painted red (ochre) or black (ash mixed with animal blood). 

This lmala stays inside the house. As it is not taken out of the house for milking into, it must be filled from another lmala. Its primary function is to store milk for the murran (warriors). They drink the milk while sitting in the men’s section of the nkang (the manyatta house). When warriors come into the manyatta, they check the lmala loomuran (the container that is dedicated to their use). If the loolmuran is empty, they will pour milk from the lkantir into it. 

As herd sizes have collapsed, Samburu room plans are changing. In 2022, it was possible to enter an nkang and not find a communal male sleeping area or section for communal feeding. Today (2024), this system has collapsed. Not only don’t the Samburu have milk from their own animals, but they now fear the murran (warriors). As we were editing this entry with our translator, Longhiro Lekudere, in February, 2025, at one point he had to run to a safer spot because of stray bullets from a quarrel between murrans. One person was injured. It was too dangerous to walk home, so Longhiro stayed in lodging in the town. 

The flat top of an lkantir lid.
Lkantir lid, with bulbous base of the container in the background.
Is this a nkantir e ruat kini (small version of an lkantir)?

Description

Capacity: XXX liters

Cylindrical wooden container with urn-shaped wooden lid. The vessel’s sides swell outward below its neck to bulbous shoulders, then taper to a rounded base. Part of the exterior is often stained with ochre. Decorative leather stitching at the top of the container is used to secure a projecting leather collar that serves as a flange to support the lid. Leather carrying straps of varying widths encircle the container’s sides at the waist and support the base. The straps may retain some animal hair. The detached carved wooden lid is roughly urn-shaped, with sides that slope outward below a projecting top to a swollen rounded base, and then taper sharply inward again to fit inside the container’s leather flange. The lid is typically undecorated except for black or red paint — blood mixed with ash for the former, and ochre for the latter. 

Return to Types of Milk Containers.

This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel. 

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Published by William Rubel

I am an author who writes about traditional food and foodways. My book, The Magic of Fire (2002) is about hearth cooking. I have written an introductory history of bread, Bread, a global history (2011) and am currently writing a history of bread for the University of California Press. Other areas of interest include wild mushrooms, and specifically the treatment of Amanita muscaria in the historic record. I also write about Early Modern British Gardens, and for a more general audience, I write for Mother Earth News on bread, gardening, and more. I have an ongoing research project into the smoke-cured fermented milk of the Kenyan Samburu tribe. I am a co-director of the Samburu Lowlands Research Station, Lengusaka. I am the founding editor (1972) of Stone Soup, the magazine of writing and art by young people.

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