What is Lake Turkana festival? Every spring in Turkana, northern Kenya, an indigenous culture celebration known as the Tobong’u Lore, also known as the Lake Turkana Cultural Festival. The festival, which is held in several indigenous communities close to the lake, aims to advance international understanding, tourism, and peace. In June, the El Molo people hold their celebration in Loiyangalani, while in April, the Turkana people hold their festival in Lodwar. The Tobong’u Lore is one of Kenya’s biggest cultural events and has become a place to enjoy the diverse cultures of Kenya.
The festival in Loiyangalani was started in 2008 as a way to encourage harmony and cooperation between the towns that border Lake Turkana. In Lodwar, the festival first took place in 2014. The Turkana, Dassanech, Samburu, Somali, Borana, Gabbra, Rendille, Sakuye, Wata, Burji, Garee, Konso, and El Molo people are among the participating communities that go beyond international borders. The event was created with assistance from the National Museums of Kenya and the German Government, and it took place in conjunction with the town’s new museum’s opening.
Every year, thousands of people come to the celebration. Some visitors come from Kenya’s bordering nations, such as Ethiopia, Sudan, and Uganda. The cultural events have successfully become the alternative tourism attraction of kenya other than the very known and popular Kenyan safaris to various kenya wildlife protected areas. According to representatives of Turkana County, the festival’s goals include fostering growth and tourism. The Tobong’u Lore is only one of a number of programmes the Kenyan government has put out to support cultural tourism and safeguard regional culture among Kenya’s smaller ethnic groupings.
The Turkana word “Tobong’u Lore” is translated as “welcome back home” in the phrase. The statement alludes to the Turkana Basin’s rich archaeological and paleontological history. Kenya safari tours and other tour operators organise safaris during the three days cultural event.
Cultural Attire
The Tobong’u Lore celebration is distinguished for its vivid and extravagant attire. The participants arrive dressed in customary garb and jewellery. Traditional beaded necklaces, bangles, belts, and earrings are worn by the women. The males arrive dressed in colourful headgear, ethnic attire, and unique anklets. In the Turkana culture, clothing and accessories frequently have a special meaning that reinforces their cultural heritage.
The inclusion of those who are not accustomed to the culture is highly encouraged. As visitors freely interact with residents, this lends it a contemporary flavour.
Activities
Numerous intriguing and engaging events also characterise the festival. Traditional songs and dances are performed, which adds to the fun. Turkana traditional dances are typically animated, so you’re sure to have fun. As the festival progresses, you get to see a variety of performances, including musicals and sketches that amuse the audience and deliver poignant messages.
The festival also features exhibitions. People get a fantastic opportunity to promote their goods, which are available for purchase at bargain pricing. Additionally, the exhibitors use this occasion to publicise significant neighbourhood projects they have been working on, such as programmes to empower women.
The food served at a festival is among its most significant features. They will receive this instead. Visitors can sample some of the Turkana’s distinctive traditional foods. As they show you how they obtain the blood without killing the animal, the natives brew their renowned goat blood concoction.
The Festival theme
The local Turkana community, the country as a whole, and the entire world are represented by the festival. Tribal conflicts are among the tragic incidents that the residents in the area have witnessed. These fights frequently start as reprisal over livestock disputes. Security difficulties occasionally affect the area, which might make it difficult to have fun. The holiday is consequently extremely important because it is meant to promote unity, festivity, and peace.
The world’s cultures are said to have originated in Turkana. The festival’s name, “Welcome back home,” refers to its mission of reuniting people from all over the world with their roots and traditions.
Challenges
The festival is not exempt from difficulties. One of the main ones is a lack of funding to advance it. The county is frequently required to divert monies intended for the event to local emergency missions. Funds from the festival recently have to be redistributed to address the region’s starvation situation. Once these problems are resolved, hopefully the event will return.
The festival holds great potential and is essential for fostering peace and national cohesion in Kenya.
Turkana Culture
Clothing
In the past, both men and women wore rectangular wraps made of woven fabrics and animal skins. These garments are now often purchased, having been produced in Nairobi or other parts of Kenya. Men frequently carry wrist knives made of steel and goat hide and wear wraps like tunics with one end attached to the other end over the right shoulder. Men also carry stools, or ekicholong, which they use as simple chairs rather than the hot sand during the midday. These chairs serve as headrests as well, keeping one’s head out of the sand and guarding against harm to any ceremonial head adornment. Men frequently carry dual staves; one is used for walking and maintaining balance while carrying weights, while the other, typically longer and slimmer, is used to prod sheep during herding operations.
Women typically wear necklaces and totally shave their hair, which frequently has beads attached to the free hair ends. Men shave their heads. Two articles of clothing are worn by women, one covering the top and the other the waist. Women’s undergarments used to typically be leather wraps adorned with ostrich eggshell beads, but these are now uncommon in many places. The Turkana people dress and accessorise in sophisticated ways. In the Turkana culture, clothing is utilised to distinguish between age groups, developmental stages, occasions, and the status of individuals or groups.
Many Turkana people now dress in western fashion. Those who reside in Turkana’s town centres, both men and women, are particularly affected by this.
Houses
Homes are built on top of a timber structure made of saplings with a domed shape, which are then thatched and lashed with the fronds of the doum palm (Hyphaene thebaica). Six people could live in the house comfortably. Typically, they become longer and covered in cow manure during the rainy season. A brushwood pen is used to house the animals. The majority of Turkana have begun switching from the traditional practise of herding cattle to agro-pastoralism as a result of climatic changes.
Food
The Turkana depend on their livestock for milk, meat, and blood. Wild fruits are collected by women from the bushes and cooked for 12 hours. Slaughtered goats are roasted on a fire. The Turkana frequently trade with the Pokots for maize, beans, and vegetables, and with the Marakwet for tobacco. The Turkana buy tea from the towns and make milk tea. People eat maize porridge with milk in the morning and eat meat for lunch and dinner.
The Turkana mostly depend on pastoralism, but they also grow some of their own food. The cultivation of sorghum in Turkana society has been mentioned in numerous research. Sorghum farming is extremely productive, but it is constrained more by environmental variables than pastoralism, according to one of these studies, Sorghum Gardens in South Turkana: farming Among a Nomadic Pastoral People. Longtime Turkana allies the Jie have been known to give the Turkana sorghum on occasion.
