Samburu Milk Project – Page 12

December 5, 2024January 29, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

keisamis

Adjective
Pronunciation: kay-sahm’-ihs
Rotten smell; very stinky.

Milk left too long in the lmala to ferment becomes kule torok — keisamis (stinky) — while milk in a plastic container becomes stinkier still — kong’u. People in the countryside consider this to be rotten, and won’t drink it, but some people in town will. Keisamis milk is dog food, not fit for humans. Nobody drinks kule torok because it is keisamis. When something is keisimis it can trigger a sense of disgust. It can trigger the gag reflex.

Food giving off this smell is inedible, for example, green and maggoty meat is keisamis. Keisamis meat is only fed to dogs. A public toilet in Nairobi can be keisamis.

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December 5, 2024February 21, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

keirucha

Adjective
Pronunciation: kay-ruh’-sha
Thick, when applied to milk; also rich mouthfeel. The opposite of kebebek.

Keirucha is used to compare the texture of goat, cow, sheep, and camel milk with each other, or to compare the changes in texture, because milk from a given animal becomes more or less fatty depending on the seasonal condition of the forage and time from lactation. Goat milk is the most naturally keirucha, as is dry-season cow milk. Keirucha chai (tea, milk, water, and sugar) contains more milk and is less dilute (1.5:2 milk to water) than the standard recipe (1:2). Some people, especially the young, may request tea made to this ratio.

The term is also used for other thick/thin comparisons. For example, cloth with a rich hand can be termed keirucha, as can a chubby person.

“Used only for fresh milk, when it is the texture of thick porridge almost at the ugali stage. Also used to refer to very heavy rain with big drops.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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December 5, 2024February 21, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

keirapirap

Adjective
Pronunciation: kihr-ahp’-ihr-rap
Astringent; the aftertaste that remains in the back of the throat after swallowing smoke-cured and fermented milk.

Keirapirap is appreciated when mild, but not when it produces a harsh sensation in the back of one’s throat. It is one of the culturally attractive flavor and sensory components of lmala-prepared milk. The astringency might come from forage, for example, when the goats have eaten loisuk; from the process of preparing the lmala interior with burning botanicals; or from an unusually long period of storing milk in the lmala before consumption. In the latter case, the astringency can become overpowering and unbalance the milk’s flavor profile. Kerirapirap astringency is analogous to the heat of pili pili (chili pepper), or the skin of orange that burns the tongue and can be felt in the back of the throat near the tonsils. It is like many small thorns hitting the throat, such as when one ingests loisug and other medicinal plants.

Samburu tend to translate this word as “bitter,” but bitter is also kodua, one of the five fundamental tastes along with sweet kemelok, sour keisiicho, salty makakai, and umami (a term the Samburu do not have in the northern Maa language) that are experienced in our tongue and mouth taste receptors. Keirapirap is more sensation than taste. It is especially pronounced when bitter woods, like serai — a wood esteemed by many — are used to clean the lmala, but which overpowers the taste balance if the lmala is not wiped well after the ash is poured out.

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December 5, 2024February 19, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

keidukulan

Adjective
Pronunciation: kay-doo-kuh’-lahn
Tasteless with a hint of bitterness. No strong sensations from the tongue; no one taste is dominant. Reflects a small difference in taste perception. Compare this with the concept of meishiamu (“taste that lacks its essence”).

Keidukulan can be translated as “tasteless,” but it is more the tastelessness of a well-made, neutrally flavored white bread than of water. The term applies to fluids that are relatively neutral in taste. Manyatta milk is always suffused with the complex tastes of fermentation, fused with the flavors and aromas of the burnt botanicals used to sterilize the lmala (milk container). If you are used to milk with a complex taste interplay between stages of fermentation and burnt botanicals, then milk without this will be perceived as keidukulan, lacking taste, or as being “raw.”

Camel milk is perceived by many Samburu to be keidukulan by nature. The milk has a salty taste Samburu perceive to be “inside” the milk. Fresh camel milk, with its rich, sweet, and smooth flavor and texture, tastes flat to the Samburu but, to outsiders like me, it is the most delicious milk I’ve ever tasted. The next most keidukulan milk is cow. It does not have the salt within the taste. Cow milk becomes more keidukalan as the milk’s mouthfeel becomes thinner, as the milk becomes increasingly less fatty in the months following lactation. Goat and sheep milk have stronger, more distinctive tastes.

All fresh milk, kule nairewa and kule nairobi, is, by definition, relatively keidukulan, because, while the milk may pick something up from even a short stay in a prepared lmala, the flavor is subtle compared with what the milk will become as it ferments. All store-bought kule is considered keidukulan. Tea lacking enough tea and sugar, thus lacking a rich taste, is keidukulan (tasteless).

Milk is keidukulan when stored in a lmala “prepared” by rinsing in cow urine rather than with burning sticks, which is the urine shortcut used by murran (warriors) when they have milk-producing cows but are too far from a manyatta to get the communal milk that was traditionally left out for them in the lmala loolmuran in each manyatta ngaji. As today there are no longer large cow herds in the Samburu Lowlands, the custom of leaving out milk for the murran is no longer practiced. Fresh urine is understood to be sterilizing, so, besides being used to “clean” the lmala by murran, it is also used to clean wounds. Keidukulan is also used to describe the taste of cow urine; when young boys look after the cows, they sometimes drink cow urine where there is no water.

Keidukulan may contain an astringent or bitter component. For example, alkaline water, which is fed to camels — although it may have kodua (bitter) and keisiicho (astringent like a lemon) components — is perceived as tasteless in the sense of keidukalan.

“Some of these words, like kebebek and this one, keidukulan, you will find a very small difference. Keidukulan is no longer edible.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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December 5, 2024March 6, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms, Uncategorized

kong’u

Adjective
Pronunciation: kohng’-oo
Stinky; bad smelling. Negative term. The opposite of koropili (smelling nice).

Kong’u foods may be unpleasant to consume, but they are still consumable, unlike foods that are so rotten they are keisamis.

Kong’u is used to describe an uncleaned lmala, one that is due for cleaning and thus quickly causes milk to sour and clot. You can see the lmala is due for cleaning because the milk inside is clotting. [Is the following statement correct?] When an nkalani (dirty) woman’s lmala is cleaned and then used, the interior (instead of returning to black) is coated with a white-ish-yellowish film, somewhat analogous to the ring that forms in a bathtub, but likely biologically active. This film gives the milk of the nkalani woman a bad taste.

The lmalasin of most murran (warriors) living on their own in the bush tend to be poorly prepared or haven’t been cleaned properly for a long time, and thus become kong’u. (The murran tend to clean the lmala with cow urine.)

Milk kept in plastic containers quickly becomes kong’u, often in as little as one day. This milk tastes even worse than that from a dirty lmala.

More generally, kong’u can be used to describe the smell of rotting meat, fruit, or cabbage, and can also be applied to meat from a very old animal that has a strong smell, for example, from an old he-goat.

Pasteurized milk from shops becomes keisamis (totally inedible), rather than kong’u.

“When you use the urine to clean the calabash, the milk becomes bad, bitter, like a lemon (kodua). The murran do it in the bush because they don’t have time to clean the calabash, so they’re usually using the cow urine just for the day. But the milk becomes kodua. We use the urine to wash our hands in the manyatta. The calabash is not cleaned with urine in the manyatta, only by the men in the bush.” — Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, January 15, 2025.

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December 5, 2024February 21, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

kelili

Adjective
Pronunciation: XXX
A disgusting bad smell or taste so extreme it makes you gag or want to vomit.

Examples of things that are kelili are rotten food, donkey’s milk, and the smell of rancid fat and sweat emanating from women’s bead necklaces that have been polished with butter or rubbed with sheep fat or ghee to protect against lice. Beads cleaned with cow or goat fat tend not to get as stinky.

Kelili can be the taste of milk fermented in a poorly prepared lmala. This milk tends to be super keirapirap (astringent) and is usually attributed to the careless work of a woman who is nkalani (sloppy, slovenly, and dirty).

“That is alani but still developed to kule nawato, with flies or cockroaches in it.” — Robin Leparsanti, Longhiro Lekudere, in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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December 5, 2024March 12, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms

Milk Taste and Texture Terms

The Samburu people’s dialect features very specific words describing the taste and texture of milk. These expressions are elegant, detailed, and unique.

Explore Samburu words about milk taste and texture.

Each link below will take you to an in-depth description of the term, including a pronunciation guide, and how the word relates to milk taste and texture.

loishiamunoi – taste, especially of milk
kebebek – thin mouthfeel
kelili – disgusting smell or taste
keidukulan – tasteless; neutral
keirapirap – astringent
keirucha – thick
keisamis – rotten smell
keisiicho – sour; hint of bitter
keisukut – mild sour
kemelok – sweet
kemelok nesiicho – sweet-sour
kemelok nodua – sweet-bitter
kodua – bitter
kong’u – bad smell
koropili – nice smelling
lata – creamy
lkiraeu – smell of milk; negative
lngusul – strong, unpleasant smell and taste
meishiamu – taste that lacks its essence
nkuama – wood aroma in fermented milk
ulaash – tasteless like water

More

Use the following links to explore additional content collected through the Samburu Milk Project.

Introduction to the Samburu Milk Project
Dictionary Methodology and Acknowledgements
Stages of Milk Fermentation
Types of Milk Containers (Lmalasin)
Botanicals for Lmala Preparation
The Culture of Milk — Idioms and Expressions
Other Samburu Words
Milk, Music, and Religion — scheduled completion in late 2025
Milking Songs — scheduled completion in late 2025

December 5, 2024February 19, 2025 William Rubel Milk Taste and Texture Terms, Uncategorized

kebebek

Adjective
Pronunciation: keh-beh-bek’
Used to describe a thin mouthfeel, or milk diluted with water. The opposite of keirucha.

By nature, this is a relative term. Comparing milk textures, camel is the most kebekek, followed by cow, sheep, and goat.

Milk texture changes seasonally. For example, cow milk, typically less kebekek than camel milk, is seasonally perceived as kebekek when rainy season fodder naturally dilutes its texture. The strongest diluting effect is felt from the spring “little rain” that fosters strong growth of tender leaves in shrubs, rather than from the “big rain” in late autumn and early winter, which has a more immediate effect on the grasses.

When new growth supports lots of milk, then that milk will be kebebek. Elders monitor the condition of forage from their manyatta in part through changes in milk texture, as plants adjust to the natural wet and dry cycles of the Northern Kenyan interior climate.

The first white milk from the cow that follows the manang (colostrum) is kebebek compared with the more keirucha (thick milk) that follows in two to three weeks. Goat milk becomes more kebebek for one or two milkings when, after one week on the lkees (lowland savannah range), the animals are finally taken to water. The diluted milk of unscrupulous market women is kebebek.

Chai (tea, milk, water, and sugar) that is more dilute (1:4 milk to water) than the standard recipe (1:2) is kebebek. You can tell this by looking, as it is not dark. Ill people may ask for their tea kebebek, as would people who simply prefer it that way. Increased dilution is referenced by two further words: kardadai, which might be as much as 1:5 milk to water, and ulaash, which is so diluted that the underlying ingredient is an “ingredient.” In general terms, ulaash is tasteless.

“Milk is said to be kebebek during the green season, like now. The milk doesn’t have the fat in it. So when there is plenty of milk, they are kebebek. Also, when the calves are young, the milk is kebebek. Cow which has given birth the first time and one that has given birth several times — milk of the multiple-birth cow gets thick faster. In terms of time, it turns from kebebek to keirucha, takes one or two weeks for the first-time mother to one week at most for multiple births mother. Sheep and cow milk is thinner than goat milk. Sheep and cow can be kebebek. Kebebek cow and sheep, only.” — Longhiro Lekudere, Robin Leparsanti in conversation with William Rubel, April 1, 2016.

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