Noun
Pronunciation: kar-dah-di’.
Milk diluted with water at a ratio of 1:5 milk to water.
Return to Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
The Culture of Milk
The concepts and actions of fermenting milk have permeated the Samburu culture in the form of common idioms, sayings, and expressions. Here are some examples; many of them pertain specifically to milk.
Aibukorei nkishu kule
Literal translation: Making the cow to pour out the milk.
Meaning: It is taboo for Samburu people to throw away milk. Rather than pour it out, if there is too much milk, they will leave it in a container for the cows to kick. “People say, ‘Put it there, where the cows will knock it over.’” [Did Longhiro say this?]
Aitong’u ake`ana ng’oto le ng’iron
Literal translation: To dirty like mama (ng’oto lke ng’iron)
Meaning: To give but not give, with an element of deception. The story of Mama ng’oto le ng’iron is about a woman who slaughters a small animal, such as a goat. Some children come over, but rather than give them some meat, she smears their mouths and hands with fat. She sends them away and everyone thinks they have eaten.
Amintaa lng’ejep loo lkujuka
Literal translation: Don’t make it like the tongue of the lkujuka clan.
Meaning: This saying is used when you are kept waiting too long for a meal. Its origin story is that Samburu came to the home of people from the lkujuka clan who were boiling a cow’s tongue. The Ikujuka people did not want to share their meal but could not eat it in front of their visitors. When the visitors eventually leave, nothing is left in the Ikujuka pot but sludge.
Antesieku amu eisiichiete kule
Literal translation: Hurry up, the milk is going sour.
Meaning: An expression indicating impatience.
Apuru ake ana ngoto lengiro
Literal translation: Power in your tongue.
Meaning: “This woman puts all these calabashes around her and pretends to have lots of milk and claims it — power in your tongue. They love her. In the end, she did get a lot. God honored that woman and gave her more cows to have milk to fill those containers. Dream big — can get big-big — but if you have no dream you get nothing. She did the work. Made the calabashes. Faith. God honors faith and faith honors God.” — Longhiro
Kakisha
Literal translation: Lovers’ song; a love song.
Meaning: A song normally sung by women or girls while collecting firewood away from the manyatta. Such a song is not sung in the presence of men, although it talks about love and lovers.
Keataa keitong yuoo nkamilak`
Literal translation: Saliva is about to drop from our mouths.
Meaning: When Samburu smell meat frying on the fire, they need to be served because they have too much saliva in their mouths. This saying is used when you don’t want to wait any longer for food to be served and can see no reason to not be eating.
Keata kule lorien
Literal translation: The milk has the preparatory wood; the milk has the taste of the lorien (a botanical used to cleanse the interior of the lmala).
Meaning: Everything is in perfect balance in the fermented milk. The milk’s wood aroma (nkuama) and taste (loishiamunoi) are in just the right proportion. This balance can be sensed at the earlier, fresher stages of development of fermented milk, before it has become sour, since the taste perception of wood’s bitterness declines as the sourness of the milk increases. This expression is an analogue of keata nkop lorien (see below), which is an idiom that refers to the whole world being in balance.
Keata nkop lorien
Literal translation: Good things are coming.
Meaning: A description of a perfect time, when all is right with the world. The animals are healthy and satisfied, and the land is green. This is an analogue of keata kule lorien (see above), which refers specifically to milk being in balance, rather than the whole world.
Keirobi osheke
Literal translation: Cold stomach.
Meaning: A phrase used to refer to particularly satisfying food, something that means you can go for a long time before you get hungry — like milk.
Keisuch nkut
Literal translation: It can rinse your mouth.
Meaning: When there is very little of the food to eat, but each bite is delicious. Said of a delicacy that is being shared, for example, liver fried in ghee. You would eat more of it if there was more. Keisuch is the final rinse when cleaning. [Is this when cleaning a lmala? Leave your remark in the Comments below.]
Kemelok ana kule enkolong
Literal translation: As sweet as the milk of the dry season.
Meaning: Milk during the dry season is sweet, because it is fatty.
Keng’ari ne sioote
Literal translation: Even as little as one lid of milk can be shared.
Meaning: As with matam neng’ige (below), this phrase encourages sharing: Even if it is too small to share, let’s share it anyway.
Ke’taakan “na’penyee” ana mala
Literal translation: [What is the exact translation of this phrase? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.]
Meaning: Clean, well-kept milk and lmala. Perfection in cleanliness. The owner of this calabash is tidy and the milk has been well-preserved by the ke’taakan lady.
Kudung’i nkiyok inyieita
Literal translation: So delicious you will not even feel your ear being cut.
Meaning: A compliment given to the host when the meal is especially good.
Kule e ngutuk
Literal translation: Milk in my mouth.
Meaning: Something precious to be savoured. A phrase commonly used by adolescent girls to refer to their best female friends. A dear name; a dear friend; a lady with white teeth.
Matam neng’ige
Literal translation: Let us share with a toothbrush.
Meaning: As with keng’ari ne sioote (above), a phrase to encourage sharing: Even if it is too small to share, let’s share it anyway.
Matitip ana njuloti ee ntare e le kirenyei
Literal translation: As if you are eating something as delicious as njuloti ee ntare e le kirenyei (milk and blood).
Meaning: Let’s share, taking little by little; sharing out. If you bring 1 kg of sugar and share it in tiny bites, everyone will get a little. When there are many people, you have enough for a sip or small piece per person.
Menya idia
Literal translation: Even a dog would not eat it.
Meaning: Very bad food. Might be used when in the bush and one roasts a dead animal whose meat is going off. Might also be used to refer to food one ate while traveling outside of one’s home area, or food served at a large ceremony. Not used to refer to the food of one’s friends or anyone identifiable.
Mincho ng’utunyi
Literal translation: Too delicious to give to your mother.
Meaning: Food that is so nice you are unwilling to share it, even with your own mother. Might be said about good milk or meat of which there is not enough to share. Less extreme than keisuch nkut (above); there is a little more, but still not enough to sate.
Modung’oi
Literal translation: [What is the literal translation? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.]
Meaning: So delicious that you just keep eating even if you have had enough. The food is so good that you just can’t stop eating it.
Naishi o kule
Literal translation: Honey and milk.
Meaning: This expression is normally used during blessings by elders who wish one a prosperous life full of good things symbolised by milk and honey.
Ndaa peidaaya
Literal translation: Food to disperse.
Meaning: Encouraging people to share without holding back and eat all the food, because it won’t keep. Might be said to someone who is complaining they have given away too much food, as a way of saying they did the right thing.
Ndaa taa kini mataa kumo
Literal translation: The food is not much and we are many.
Meaning: Although there is not much food to share with so many people in the house, the hosts would rather have more children and less food than fewer children and more food. A positive expression.
Sayiet ake
Literal translation: Like poison.
Meaning: If the animals eat the plant iodwaporo [What is the Latin binomial for this plant? Leave your remarks in Comments below], their milk becomes very bitter. When drinking this milk, you might comment that it is like tasting poison.
Sekeng’ei ringa (Nkoro ai naiputa kule lturoto)
Literal translation: [What is the literal translation for this phrase? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.]
Meaning: Story about milk in the form of a song. The story deals with stolen cattle that produce a lot of milk, enough to fill a well. The owners find the milk and drink it.
??? [What is the Samburu phrase that fits the following meaning? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.]
Literal translation: My calabash is about to explode. [Is this correct? Leave your remarks in the Comments below.]
Meaning: While shaking the lmala to clean it, the pressure causes the lid to come off. The lid explodes. This expression is used when you want to claim good things or bring good things to yourself. You are poor and have no goats, so you use this proverb to make yourself wealthy. To have faith in oneself.
More
Introduction to the Samburu Milk Project
Dictionary Methodology and Acknowledgements
Stages of Milk Fermentation
Milk Taste and Texture Terms
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
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule ntorok
Noun
Pronunciation: koo’-lay uhn-tor’-rok
Spoiled milk.
This meaning is different from kule nataroitie in that kule ntorok is already bad, while kule nataroitie, though it already tastes terrible, is only on the verge of becoming as terrible as kule ntorok.
Kule ntorok has no use. It can’t be eaten or used to make butter, it cannot be cooked with, it cannot be put into tea, so it is fed to the dogs. It is keisamis.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule sikiria
Noun
Pronunciation: koo-lay see-kee’-ree-uh
Donkey milk.
The Samburu don’t eat donkey meat. They don’t drink its milk. The Turkana do eat donkey, and there is even a butcher for donkeys in Baragoi. Like foods other cultures use to clarify their cultural identity, such as the frog legs eaten by the French, kule sikiria is called “Turkana milk.” This rejection is more akin to Jewish Kosher laws, as the reason the Samburu don’t eat donkey is that they don’t eat animals with a single hoof — thus, they would not eat horse or zebra.
Kule sikiria is used by Samburu as medicine for children with whooping cough, and topically where the skin has come into contact with millipede toxin.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule saroi
Noun
Pronunciation: koo’-lay sah-roy’
Mixture of kule naoto (perfectly fermented milk) and cow blood in a 1:1 ratio. See kule njuloti for a discussion of how the cow blood is collected.
As with njuloti, which is made with fresh milk, kule saroi is both a food and a medicine. As medicine, it is fed to boys after circumcision for a period of seven days. It is also consumed, along with kule njuloti, by anyone who has been injured, especially resulting in blood loss, as part of the healing process. As a food, however, this is milk is only consumed by boys after circumcision, but not anyone else.
This milk is also given to one’s friends in the same “age set” who have been recently circumcised who come to visit when you are recovering. An age set is a friend group of five or six men who are close in age. When they come to visit, each friend is handed a cup. The murran (warrior) pours out the milk from the lmala into its lkupuri (a lmala cap which also serves as a cup), takes a sip, says “Saroi,” and then hands the cup to his friend, who also drinks. From then on, they refer to each other as “Saroi saroi.” They use this form of address with each other for the rest of their lives.
“Kule saroi helps the boys recover the blood from when they are circumcised.” — Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, Jan. 24, 2025.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule nkubuk
Noun
Pronunciation: koo-lay uhn-guh’-book
True uncultured buttermilk.
Kule nkubuk is the whey that separates from making ngorno (butter) from ing’anayoi (the curdled mix of butter particles and whey that indicates cream breaking-point). When cooked, the buttermilk makes ranganya, the cooked whey product that shares similarities with the Norwegian cooked whey cheeses gjetost and mysost.
There is no word for this in English.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule njuloti
Noun.
Pronunciation: kool-ay uhn-juh-lott’-ee.
Both a food and a medicine, kule njuloti is the combination of kule nairewa (fresh milk still warm from the cow) mixed with cow blood in a 1:1 ratio. As a food, this strengthening mixture is reserved for the murran (warriors). As a medicine, anyone can consume it who has experienced an injury and blood loss, including women after childbirth. (Menstruating women do not consume njuloti.) Whether consumed as a food or medicine, shake after mixing. The blood collection system is described below.
Murran make njuloti when in the bush, where milk is scarce, as women make kule saroi for their children. Saroi may also be made when milk is plentiful, because it is a food that many enjoy. Because this milk is hard to digest, murran usually consume it in the evening so they can digest it when asleep. However, if it is a day when they can rest for some hours, some murran make consume njuloti in the morning.
I am told that the milk and blood mixture can make you hot and sweaty, so people do not like to consume it and then go out in the sun. In my personal experience, I did not feel hot and sweaty. But I drank and enjoyed this milk without having been advised to rest for some hours after consuming. (I suspect this was a trick was played on me by my late friend John.) After drinking two cups of it, I walked a couple of kilometers and then vomited the moment I got near where I was staying.
The herds were kept around the manyatta during the long rains. After the long rains, the main part of the herd was moved to better pasture, anticipating the drought between the long and short rains. Beginning in January and until the milk flowed more freely after the short rains, the main herds were grazing in better pasture, wherever that could be found. Only a few cows were retained at the manyatta to feed the family. Thus, in the months of January and February, this milk made from 1:1 milk and blood was fed to the children, the blood nutritionally making up for the dearth of milk.
To collect blood, cows are bled by tying a rope around the neck and then shooting an arrow into their jugular vein. The blood spurts out in an arc, and is caught in the lmala ngoiti. When this small container (capacity between 1 and 1 1/2 cups) is full, the rope is removed, and in a single gesture, the wound is rubbed with dirt. The blood is immediately stirred with a stick. The stick is removed from the milk after stirring, and in a single gesture, the clot that forms at the base of the stick is flung to the dogs.
When mixed with kule naoto (perfectly fermented milk), the milk-blood product is called saroi. It is drunk by boys who have just been circumcised.
“When you drink njuloti and saroi, you don’t eat anything. You don’t even drink water.” — Longhiro Lekudere in conversation with William Rubel, Jan. 24, 2025.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule nkirimo
Noun.
Pronunc. koo-lay uhn-kee-ree’-moh
Milk from a lactating mother, whether animal or human, who has gone one or two days without releasing milk. For a cow, this may be because the calf has died. For a human, the mother may have had to travel away from her child for a day or two.
Milk that has stayed in an udder or breast for too long changes taste. It is not fed to calves or children because it may cause diarrhea. Also, milk from the very end of the lactation period becomes sticky, salty, and undesirable. There is also less of it. This milk is never used.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
kule nataroitie
Noun
Pronunciation: XXX
Milk that has gone bad but hasn’t fully soured.
Compare kule nataroitie with kule naoto, which is milk that is fully soured and separated into curds and whey. Nataroitie is likely caused by bacteria that have been favored by a poorly cleaned lmala. This milk still looks good, but it will not taste good! A simulacrum! You discover kule nataroitie by accident. You find it out when you add to boiling tea and see the milk curdle upon contact or, if added to a cooler tea infusion, you discover the milk is off by the disappointment of the bad taste.
Kule nataroitie is a term we do not have in English. A synonym might be “rotten,” with the understanding that kule ntorok, the milk stage that follows and means absolutely intolerable and inedible rottenness, is also a vocabulary term English lacks.
When children are served kule nataroitie, they say “Papa mayeu!” (I don’t want!). Most people feed kule nataroitie to dogs, while everyone feeds kule ntorok to the dogs.
Return to the Stages of Milk Fermentation.
This is the draft manuscript of the Samburu Milk Project, © 2024 William Rubel.
Samburu Research 