Noun
Pronunciation: ehn-eye’-too
Small- or medium-sized multi-purpose lmala used for milking, drinking, holding blood harvested from the cow, by women and by children.

What makes a naitu different from an nklip, but related? The naitu is made of wood, has a bulbous base and straight neck like nkelip, though the base may less bulbous and may be flat bottomed. As the plastic, woven, or leather lid fits directly over the neck, there is no stichking or leather collar. Ocre and cowery shells are associated with some naitu, but not with all naitu.

The naitu has a leather or woven cup. The body’s neck is narrower than those lmala in the nklip group, and the ratio of neck to bulb-shaped base is reduced. When the container’s shape is the same but its cup is plastic, then the lmala is known as an nkerai.

Women use this type of lmala for their entire lives. Children begin to use the naitu when their appetite grows, usually at about the age of six. The naitu is also used to fetch the circumcision water on the morning of that ceremony. Circumcision takes place when a new Age Set is declared. At that point, boys are initiated into the murran (warrior) stage of life and they shift to using the lmala loolmuran. 

Three different types of naitu exist:
1) Naitu elpayan – a husband’s naitu made by his wife when they are first married.
2) Naitu nang’orchiereki – a smaller naitu for the measure of one collection of blood bled from a cow for mixing with milk to make kule njuloti and kule saroi.
3) Naitu elayiok – a boy’s lmala that he carries with him when the cattle move away from the manyatta.

Description

Capacity: XXX liters

Cylindrical wooden vessel with a detachable leather lid. The hollow body’s straight sides swell outward gently below its rim to a slightly swollen, rounded base with a flat bottom. The vessel’s exterior is painted black. Leather carrying straps of varying widths encircle its sides at the waist and support the base. Unlike some other lmalasin types, the naitu‘s body has no leather collar, so the lid rests on top of the container. The lid, which also serves as a cup, can be made of leather or woven of grass and plastic sacks. The lid is often painted black. 

Return to Types of Milk Containers.

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

Unknown's avatar

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.

Leave a comment