ENEMIES Samburu / Turkana, North Kenya II

Going into the middle of the Samburu-Turkana conflict was difficult, but in the end it was a positive experience.  This was different from my first shoot in the slums of Kibera.  There I met two people who never really considered themselves enemies to begin with.  The conflicts had risen and fallen like a fire flashing across a skim of gasoline – fast and furious and then mostly gone. The Samburu-Turkana conflict has been going on for generations, so it is a very, very different story.
The funny thing is that when I really talked in depth with people on both sides, they said that the conflict was not that big a deal – it almost seemed like they considered it more like a family feud. The Turkana said that their actual serious enemies are another tribe that lives nomadically in the area and raids both the Samburu and Turkana.  In this video I talk about my impressions talking with and meeting people from each side.
If you can’t see the video below, you can view it on youtube here.

Here is a first sketch I did for one of the photographs of two Grevy’s Zebra Trust Ambassadors – Lmantros Lenagetai on the right is Samburu and Lojore Loputhiki on the left is Turkana. This is just an idea. I know the final product is going to be very different, but I thought people might like to see some of my visual thinking process.
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