Nayece – The Community Mother

Nayece by Tatu Creatives

The story begins in Karamoja with eight, young men and an engiro bull, grey in colour. The bull was a rare one, a source of wealth to the men and worth always protecting. However, the men lost the bull and scampered around to find it. To no luck. With each passing moment, the bull was possibly getting further away, or worse being devoured by a carnivore. The men could not afford to lose the bull and so they tracked its prints and set out on a journey to find the lost bull.  

They travelled eastward and trekked through hills and valleys, through serene lands, and even dangerous areas where lions and elephants roamed. They endured changes in climate, from the scorching sun to heavy rainfall, and even the scrutiny of communities whose lands they passed through, but the eight men endured. The bull was still alive, they just needed to keep searching. They trekked and eventually came upon a river that marked the entry into a new territory. It was a beautiful, serene landscape. The sand was light, the trees were few and scattered, and the winds blew freely. They could see where the sun touched the ground. They were in awe, then in love with the sunset. 

In this foreign land, they climbed a hill and found an engiro bull, grey in colour, in the care of a woman called Nayece. It became known to them that the hill they were on was called Nayece’s Mountain.  

Nayece was an old woman from Karamoja, the same place the eight, young men were from. She had come to this place to gather wild fruits, and she led the men to a lush and verdant unoccupied valley where wild berries bloomed and were in great supply. She welcomed the men and told them a lot about the area. The men were impressed. They returned to Karamoja and gathered people and livestock to move to the valley where they permanently settled.  

It is this area of this community’s settlement that became Turkana County, and Nayece became the Mother of the Turkana.