This Samburu travel dictionary is a bi-lingual English to Samburu dictionary that travelers will find useful when visiting Kenya’s Samburu region. The Samburu and Maasai are closely related cultural groups. They share Maa as a common language, though there are some differences between Maasai and Samburu speakers. This dictionary is technically English and Northern Maa.
The Samburu tribe of Northern Kenya is a semi-nomatic pastoralist culture although the collapse of the local Savannah grassland ecosystem has largely ended pastoralism in the Samburu Lowlands.
Maa does not have a robust written tradition. Besides the bible, there are virtually no published texts in Northern Maa. I developed this dictionary to help me converse with the people I was staying with for the month I was in Kenya in the Summer of 2022. While everyone who has gone to school speaks English, many people, especially older women, but also some young men, are not school-educated. They will probably speak Swahili, but if you don’t, then you will find this dictionary to be invaluable.
People appreciate it when you use words from their language, so I encourage you to keep this dictionary handy. Researchers will find that if you use at least some Maa, even though you have a translator, that you will find more acceptance. Learning the words that prertain to your area of study is also, of course, useful.
If you are a tourist and not familiar with the area at all, the largest town in the Samburu Lowlands is Wamba, which is where I recorded this dictionary, and the biggest city is Maralal, which is located in the Samburu Highlands.
If you have any corrections or additions you’d like to see me incorporate into the dictionary, then please leave a comment. Thank you.
Carol Fabert July 2022
Samburu Research 