From Library Journal
If Magor's book is any indication, the fawningly romantic view of the pastoralists of East Africa promulgated since the 19th century is still alive and well. In one caption to a photo of a slumbering herdsman, we are told how much grace and poise the Samuru have even while asleep. It is indeed fortunate, however, that the 200-plus excellent color photos coupled with the ethnographically detailed text manage to make this book a useful resource on the Samburu people of northern Kenya. Less well known than the Masai (who live further south), with whom they share many social and material cultural features-especially the importance of a military-based age grade system and the aesthetic emphasis given to the body arts-the Samburu are nonetheless a distinct culture that Magor documents in word and image. Well recommended for public and academic libraries with an interest in Africa.
Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Eugene C. Burt, Art Inst. of Seattle Lib.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
It seems that every so-called primitive tribe in the world has been documented repeatedly. But when a people are presented in prose as clear and in photos as intimate and affectionate as Magor's, it behooves libraries to add one more work of popular ethnography to their shelves. Magor is a native white Kenyan who, returning from education and a successful modeling career in England, overcame the reserve of the seminomadic Samburu (previously treated in Pavitt's Samburu [1992]), who are so xenophobic that, Magor says, they call themselves hard-hearted. She records their ways, especially their men's warriorhood, during which they are young, "at the peak of their physical prowess," and "the guardians of the community and its cattle." Ray Olson
