The Women
Females do not have age-sets like men. They have two stages in life: Girlhood and Womanhood. Women are entirely responsible for building and maintaining the houses of the Samburu. There is a lot of maintenance in the rainy season. The houses are rectangular in shape, and about five feet tall. There is one doorway, and no doors, windows, or lights. Inside it is dark as you push past the passage with storage for firewood and newborn calves. Then you reach the hearth with its eternal fire. On one side is a raised area with sleeping accommodation for the Morans of the house and his friends. On the other side the woman sleeps with her children. Women own herds as well as men, but a woman's herds may be exploited by her husband.
Married Woman
Note the long ear decoration, typical of a married woman.
Women are much younger than their husbands, and this sets-up tension. A woman may have discreet affairs with other members of her husband's age-set, but must stay away from the moran (who are much closer to her own age, and with whom she may have had sexual relations before puberty).
There is no divorce. A widow does not remarry, but is allocated a part-time consort to look after her and help her bear more children in her dead husband's name.
There is no birth control among the Samburu, and they often have ten or more children. Traditionally a high proportion died in the hard life of the Samburu, and the clans stayed in equilibrium, but with recent great reductions in infant mortality numbers are rising steeply.
A marriagable girl
Marriage is the turning point in a girl's life. She is circumcised (clitorectimised) on the morning she leaves home at about fifteen to join her husband who will be an elder from a different clan. She may not see her parents again for years, and cannot look to them for any support. Her life is now with her husband.
Samburu are polygamous, and girls hope to be chosen for a single husband. Wives in polygamous marriages are subject to the orders of the senior wife, but all wives gang-up against their husband.
A younger girl
The red ochre decorates her throat. Girls also blacken thir eyebrows with a mixture of charcoal and fat. Her first beads will have been given to her by her father, and later ones by moran lovers. She will accumulate them throughout her life, and feel naked without them.
A girl may be circumcised without betting married, if for instance she gets pregnant. Then she will dress as a girl, but wear copper ear rings and a seed headband to denote her status.