Place:Woto
Woto (sometimes Otto,[1] *Do, To and Do) is a location which the Samburu people of Kenya consider to be their homeland.
Etymology
Woto means north in Samburu.[2]
Location
The exact location is unknown. It has generally been identified as being north of Lake Turkana and has been postulated to be somewhere in southern Ethiopia.[1]
Cultural transfer point
The Nandi have a tradition that the first man who practiced circumcision in Nandi is said to have been one Kipkenyo who came from a country called Do[3] (other accounts To, indicating the intervocalic Kalenjin *d sound – closest pronunciation Tto).
The story goes that Kipkenyo had a number of brothers and sisters who all died when they reached puberty, so Kipkenyo decided when he had a number of children of his own to 'change' them all at this age. He therefore circumcised them, and as none of his children died, the Nandi followed his example, with the result that circumcision became general.—Hollis, A. C., The Nandi - Their Language and Folklore, 1909
This corresponds with linguistic studies which indicate significant cultural transfer between Southern Nilotes and Eastern Cushites during a time of intensive interaction prior to the Southern Nilotic settlement in western Kenya.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Where is The Samburu’s Original Home? “GARDEN OF EDEN”
- ↑ Our Samburu, Samburu La online
- ↑ Hollis, A. C., The Nandi - Their Language and Folklore, Oxford, 1909
- ↑ Ehret, Christopher. An African Classical Age: Eastern & Southern Africa in World History 1000 B.C. to A.D.400. University of Virginia, 1998, p.179
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