Samburu Kenya lmala nklip
Pair of lmala nklip.
Nklip round base, Samburu, Kenya
Round base on nklip.
Nklip lid, Samburu, Kenya.
Long lid that serves as cup.

Pronunciation: luh-mall-uh uhn-glip
Wooden container for milk that can be used by anyone, normally for milking.

Milk containers in the nklip class have:

  • A body carved from wood
  • A round bottom
  • A long neck
  • Usually a long lid, also carved from wood
  • Leather carrying straps

Some nklip are decorated with skirai (cowry shells) as a matter of personal preference. Skirai are purchased at the local market. The use of color is also a choice. Black is created by mixing ash with animal blood. Red is from lkaria (ochre).

Nklip, Samburu, Kenya.
Nklip, with human legs for scale.

An nklip has a leather collar stitched to the top of the wooden body to secure the lid; the lid’s rim slides inside the collar when stored in place on the body. The stitching at the collar is often decorative as well as functional, and this is also a matter of personal preference.

Lids also serve as cups. They are hollow and often carved of wood in an upside-down urn shape. The njongor is an exception; it has a woven lid. 

Most households have many nklip for milking, although with the decline in the quantity and quality of herds, households have downsized their collections of milking containers.

Description

Capacity: XXX liters

A medium to small container with a lid, used for milking, storing, and drinking milk. The cylindrical hollow body is carved from wood and has long, straight sides that swell outward gently below its neck to a swollen, rounded base. The vessel’s exterior is often painted black or stained red with ochre, and has decorative stitching at the top to secure a leather collar that holds the lid. Leather carrying straps of varying widths encircle the body. Ornamentation may include cowry shells, ochre, and a black paint made of ashes mixed with blood. The separate lid is often roughly urn-shaped, with sides that slope outward below a flat top to a low, rounded waist, then taper sharply at the bottom to fit inside the body’s leather collar. The lid can also be painted black or stained with ochre. 

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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