Ewaso Village Poems and Stories from Laikipia County, Kenya

The Maasai people of East Africa comprise one of the most intriguing and resourceful cultures on Earth. For more than a thousand years, the Maasai and their Samburu neighbors have survived and thrived as pastoralists on the savannah near Mt. Kenya and the Maasai Mara borderlands of Kenya and Tanzania. Photojournalist Chip Duncan exuberantly combines prose, poetry, and beautiful photographs to celebrate the stories, songs, rituals, and dreams of people who live in Ewaso Village, one of his favorite places to visit.

Salim Amin is Chairman of Camerapix, Founder and Chairman of The Mohamed Amin Foundation, and Founder of A24 Media. A lifelong Midwesterner and native of western Iowa, Chip Duncan has produced more than fifty non-fiction films for international broadcast and distribution. His work as a photographer and filmmaker has taken him to ice fields, war zones, slums, shipyards, museums, palaces, vineyards, beaches, deserts, rainforests, savannahs, and farmlands. He counts Peru, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, and rural Kenya among his favorite places.

C O N T E N T S Foreword viii Introduction 1 Mingati, the Nomad 11 Lions Hunting Water 16 Ewaso Ngiro, The River Is Road 20 Naeku, Born in the Dawn 27 Chui Mamas 33 Dik-Dik 40 Leboo, Born in the Bush 45 Letoluai, Leopard Hunter 50 By Certain Magic 59 Fire on Kirinyaga 62 Esiankiki, Star Science 69 At the Airstrip 77 Circle of Fire 81 Water, Earth, Sky 87 Kandari, The Beekeeper 97 Afterword 101