While faraway tales of foreign warriors may make their way into Hollywood scripts and storytelling circles, few Americans have ever actually met a real-live African warrior. But today, visitors at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition got a chance to come face-to-face with one.
Francis Lenyakopiro, a warrior of the Samburu tribe in Kenya, is giving locals a peek into his life this afternoon at IHMC.
Lenyakopiro is in Pensacola to give a free public presentation at the center at 40 Alcaniz St. on Samburu culture and religion, as well as the wildlife challenges they face.
He is discussing a variety of aspects of Samburu culture including the way in which the people co-exist with wildlife, their diet, their wildlife tracking habits, their conservation efforts and the special challenges they face.
“I love nature,” he said before a full room of listeners this afternoon. “I was blessed to be born in a nation with a lot of wildlife.”
One of the event’s organizers, Julie Tippins Parker, said she first met Lenyakopiro while on safari a few years ago in Kenya.
“It’s just fascinating because we just take for granted that our culture is the culture of the rest of the world, but his lifestyle is entirely different,” she said today.
The Samburu people are a semi-nomadic people located primarily in the Rift Valley province of northern Kenya, who herd cattle as well as sheep, goats, camels and donkeys.-pnj.com
