After initiation rites – including circumcision – the boys leave their families to take charge of the herds, driving them high into the mountains. It's a way of life that climate change is testing.Paris Lekuuk, 15, listens to a math lesson in the third grade classroom of his primary school in northern Kenya. Just weeks earlier, he had been living the traditional life of a Samburu"moran," or warrior — herding cattle on a mountain.
"I don't even like to look at that mountain now," says Paris, speaking in the local language of Kisamburu. But Paris says he told his father,"Look at all these other boys even younger than me who are stepping forward." All but one of them wear the customary moran adornments, along with the ultimate perk reserved for morans – hair in long braids, dyed red with ochre. A tall boy named Marketo Leseu explains that while they're on the mountain they tuck the braids under a hairnet to keep the dust out. But, he adds, come the rainy season, when they can move closer to the lowland settlements, of course he'll let his hair out."For the girls to see!" he says to raucous laughter.
He grabs a twig to sketch his favorite. It's an elephant, with some shading on the legs to make it look more three-dimensional.Paris says the older moran had also told him about the elementary school in the lowland settlement of Lkisin – how it had a dormitory for kids who live too far to walk each day. So, after Sorai's death, Paris trekked down the mountain to his father's house and asked for permission to see if the school would accept him.
This was the regalia Paris had been given the day he was made a moran. As he removed each item, Paris says he thought to himself,"These are of no use to me now. I'm becoming a different person."The third-grade teacher, Florence Lerapayo, teaches a math lesson. She says when Paris first arrived in her classroom he seemed uneasy and adrift.The third-grade teacher, Florence Lerapayo, teaches a math lesson. She says when Paris first arrived in her classroom he seemed uneasy and adrift.
That same day, Paris reached out to another moran – an outgoing 15-year-old named Saidimu Lolokile, who had sometimes herded goats at a spot not far from Paris's old campsite.Paris walks to class with fellow morans Saidimu Lolokile and Loshaki Lekiliyo . Soon after Paris started at the elementary school, he convinced the others to join him. Now the three boys are inseparable.Paris walks to class with fellow morans Saidimu Lolokile and Loshaki Lekiliyo .