Award: First Prize

Time: October 1- 20, 2005
Place: Kenya
Nationality: Gabbra

The Gabbra, who live in the Chalbi desert of northern Kenya , are an Eastern Cushite people related to the Somali-Rendille in their historical origins in the southern Ethiopian highlands about AD 1000. Various accounts place the Gabbra primarily in Ethiopia prior to the colonial era. Then they moved into Kenya as refugees. Due to lack of water, they suffer repeated drought. They hope to migrate to a place with enough water because there are hardly rainfalls in the year.

The Gabbra are generally thought to be very good looking people, the men wearing traditional shorts and a shuka (cloth) and the women wearing a wrap-around and a head cloth. Their traditions have a close relationship to those of the Israelite people leaving Egypt . Relationships and family ties are very strong. Being Gabbra is important and anyone who gives up his Gabbra customary traditions is looked down upon.

Through religious and cultural ties, intermarriage and alliances, the Gabbra have become part of the Borana peoples in the last 200 years. The Gabbra speak the Borana language. The Borana herd cattle while the Gabbra are attached to camels, though they also have cattle.