William Rubel Photographs, Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

Samburu milk cuisine: cleaning with fire

Burning stick inside lmala.
Adding a little water.
Stirring, breaking off embers from burning stick into the lmala.
The aromatic stick has been re-ignited in the fire and is now being thrust into the container to further heat it.
Continuing with burning stick.
Closing the lid.
Process is repeated many times!
With stick inside and capped. You now shake. Remember, there is some water in the container so this is developing moist heat.

Most lmala are made from wood. When you go to the region, people will translate “lmala” as “calabash.” As gourd milk containers are few in number, I think it is best to translate “lmala” as “milking container.” I have met one woman who I know for a fact sometimes uses more than one wood time in order to influence the final flavor and aroma of the milk. The fine tuning in terms of taste comes with how the lmala is cleaned after it has been sufficiently heated. Care in cleaning means everything!

William Rubel Photographs, Research, Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

Making Lmala, Samburu Milking Containers

One gourd lama, others made of wood.
The lid on this wooden lmala is very thin. On its own, an elegant piece of carving. The cap is used as a cup.
Lmala in process by a woman who specializes in wood carving.
The black interior is left by burning embers which, slowly slowly eat away at the wood facilitating fine carving.

We see here one gourd container in the upper left image, but all the others are made of wood. I took the photos of unfinished lmala in 2018 as I was walking around the manyatta in the West Gate Conservancy, where I was staying. The inside is carved out by softening the wood by burning with embers and then scraping the ash with a shallow spoon-shaped carving tool forged by a local blacksmith. Very thin walls and elegant containers are crafted using this carving system.

William Rubel Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

The Samburu Milk Storage Containers

Lmala, Lmasin (pl)

Most people translate the milking containers into the English, “calabash.” While there are a couple milking containers that are made from gourds, most are made from carved wood. There are a little more than twenty shapes for lmala the are still in common use. There may be some containers that no longer exist as the increasingly severe and frequent droughts, beginning in the early 1970s, has decimated the herds of cows. Cows are now gone from the Samburu Lowands. The land no longer supports cows, and both goats and sheep can no longer survive on the limited grasses and shrubs. Camels are the newly important herd animal.

Large swaths of Samburu land suffer sheeting erosion in which all slopes have been washed clean of all topsoil, so rainy season means more erosion rather than green grass.

I have recorded each existing shape within the Lowland community I work, including a written definition of the container including where it fit into the culture of Samburu milk consumption.

An example of a Samburu milking container.

William Rubel Culinary Terms, Types of Milk Containers - Lmalasin

Nkirrau, Nkirau

A gourd or calabash milk container. Samburu, Kenya. Nkirrai, nkirau

Note: this is a draft. Please let me know if you have comments, suggestions, or pictures.

A gourd calabash with a flat-topped cup lid similar in style to the mala enkoriong. The dried gourd is purchased from the Maasai. This is a storage, not a milking container. If you want fresh milk, kule nairobi, then you clean it first, but if you want kule nuato, you don’t clean the nkirrau. The gourd is used by anybody.