Lake 'Rudolf' part 2

El-Molo Island & Nyiru Range beyond, from Porr

Having written a little about the Omo River dam and what its effect will be on the people of the Turkana area, I found myself thinking a lot about our expeditions to that area. 

I found the above photo from one of our trips, and by the late 1970's El Molo island was scarcely populated; the El Molo were a dying tribe, being absorbed into other tribes of the area.   Wikipaedia says "historians have noted that there are few "pure" El Molo left. Most group members are today admixed with adjacent Nilotic populations, primarily Samburu, with only a handful of unmixed El Molo believed to exist. Many El Molo speakers have also adopted cultural customs from these communities. In 1994, there were reportedly only eight unmixed El Molo remaining."   I had noted a few days ago that El Molo was one of the Kenyan languages now thought to be extinct.  

"The El Molo are believed to have originally migrated down into the Turkana Basin around 1000 BC from Ethiopia in the more northerly Horn region. Owing to the arid environment in which they entered, they are held to have then abandoned agricultural activities in favour of lakeside fishing"  (Wikipaedia)

We saw a few El Molo people with scrawny cows and couldn't think what the animals could possibly find to eat among all the lava boulders and gravel that covered the area for miles and miles inland from the lake shore .... until we realised that the cows were driven into the shallow lake to eat the water weeds near the shore ... aquatic cows !

It is Palm Sunday tomorrow, and if we could go to church, (covid lock-down still applies to some churches) we would be given palm crosses, to remember the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem .... when people were waving and strewing palm branches, traditionally used as a celebration of victory.   This came to mind when I was remembering our trip to the west side of Rudolf, to Ferguson's Gulf.   The 'road' up the west side of the lake was then just a rough and sandy track, and the sand had been covered (presumably where the sand was deep and hard to drive over) with palm leaves to give grip to vehicles tyres.  Memories !  

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(Added later:-)

See what I wrote in 2018 .... http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2018/06/lake-turkana-formerly-lake-rudolf.html

... and  http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2018/08/ancient-kenyan-burial-site.html

... and  http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2018/08/more-on-lothagam-burial-site.html