Their long hair braided by their girlfriends and dyed with ochre, several Samburu warrior pose at a wedding. Long hair is considered a very desirable trait on a man and with the numerous beaded necklaces and bracelets conveys a highly masculine image of the lmurran. The long braided hair and the beaded accoutrements all speak to the relationships warriors are allowed to have with girlfriends and the highly sexualized image of bachelor warriors. Young men poised on the verge of marraige and starting a family, body image and decoration provide visual flags that signal a warrior's desirability as brave, strong and socially connected.

Clasping the spears of their friends and age-set mates, warriors jump in perfect unison at a wedding. Singing songs which explicitly speak of the bravery of lmurran and raiding neighboring tribes, the spears are emblematic of the masculine militarism crucial to the identity of a Samburu warrior. Traditionally the security and first line of defence against raiding parties from different tribes, warriors still embody a romantic, masculine ideal, that of the bachelor warrior, popular with the young women and strong in both their defence of the community and aggression in raiding excursions against neighboring tribes.

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Samburu Raiding and Neighboring Tribes

East Africa, with its instability resulting from its porous borders as well as being awash in illegal firearms (mostly AK-47s) exacerbates traditional intertribal raiding and counter-raiding. With their enemies, the Turkana to the North, as well as the heavily armed Turkana and Karimojong, to the East and West respectively, Samburu are in a precarious position. On top of this, drought intensifies competition for grazing land and water and makes the prospect of stealing another tribe's cattle extremely tempting. Increasingly, successful raiding involves heavier weaponry, organization, sophisticated communication and the crossing of national borders. Unfortunately, this escalation in what was traditionally low-level cattle rustling has now resulted in more and more innocent women and children being caught in the crossfire.