Bovine Monikers

Living among the Karimajong is truly like living in an african version of the wild wild west. I will go into this in detail in an upcoming blog post but for now I want to give you some insight into how they feel about their cattle. To put it simply their whole lives revolve around these bovines. They spend most of their lives surrounded by cows, most men recieve the name of the first cow/bull they admire. They often even use cow dung as Stucco on their walls. So it would stand to reason that their understanding of Cattle is great and it is. It is however so complex that there are literally hundreds of names for different cows and their colors and horn structure. There is not enough space on this blog to go into great detail but I thought I would let you get a tast of some of the names of our bovine neighbors. Let me know which one you admire and you might just get a new nickname.

Ngolo nyang-brown male

Ngina Muki- female red/black mix

ngina kori-ngina todo anganmwar- female, white with brown spots, one horn

Ngolo pues- ngolo luk anganmwar: blue male, horns turned down

Ngolo ethe- ngolo sogol anganmwar: Male, white with brown and dark lines with standing and curved horns

Ngolo Ngole arengan-ngolo sogol anganmwar: Male, white head, with red body; horns standing and curved

ngina ngole kirioul: female, white head, black body

ngolo ngora kori: male, color going up divided 2 ways, brown with white

ngina ngora ariengan: female, divided two ways, red with white

Ngina meri: female, white and black mix & Ngina kol: female, black with white mix

Ngina kori arengan: female, spotted, red color with white

Ngina linga Pues- Ngina pe ta: female, collared blue color, with horns pointing out.

ngina ngorok: female, black with white spots

Ngina Meri pues- ngina lem: female, white with black and blue, no horns

Ngina ase: female, striped, dark, brown, black and white

Ngolo linga ngorok: male, collared, spotted black and white

Ngina kori komol: female, spotted brown, red white

Ngina gira pues-ngina logul anganmwar: female, zebra stripes, blue, horns pointing up and curved

It gets even more extensive, but you get the picture. I hope you enjoyed. If you are interested in working with these cattle people in any way please contact me and we would be happy to talk.