As yet, however, modern gadgets have not uprooted the strong sense of tradition among Merille's inhabitants. The north is home to a number of tribes — the Rendille, Samburu, Turkana, Burana and Gabra — who are proud, fierce and belligerent and do not take kindly to interference in their affairs. They are warriors and, like the Nuer of Sudan, will kill and die for their herds. But they are also welcoming and curious about those who come in peace. Richard Dowden, in his 2008 book Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles (Portobello, £5.29), wrote of the Somalis: "From grief to laughter, from love to hate, Somalis seem turbo-charged, hyper-driven with life force." The same can be said of the closely-related Rendille, who share many customs and a similar language with the Somalis. Their ways parted early in medieval times when the Somalis adopted Islam. The Rendille are also monotheistic but they have remained faithful to their ancient God, Waakh. The Somalis, too, use the word "Waakh" to mean God, if they don't use "Allah". Out of 20,000 Rendille living in the area around the villages of Merille and Kor, only about 200 are Muslim and 30 Christian.

Rendille are also faithful to their traditions. These regulate their daily lives — dress code, architecture, family ties, division of labour — but are at their most prominent and spectacular during festivals and celebrations. Death has no ceremony among the Rendille: the dead are left for the hyenas in the bush and speaking of them is taboo. So celebrations of two important rites of passage, circumcision and marriage, are the occasions when Rendille culture can be observed at its best. I was fortunate to be allowed to witness a Rendille wedding, which is a joyful, colourful but also very complicated affair.

The wedding day starts at daybreak. The fleeting night is chased away by the shouts, shots and stick drumming of charging warriors who accompany the groom on his way to the bride's home. 

The groom's face is intricately painted with ochre — red is the favourite Rendille colour. Near the huts, the groom's party meets his clan's elders (mzee) who are leading a bull and a goat needed for the sacrifice. Nine bulls will have to be paid by one clan to the other as the price of the bride's hand. Her brother is already seated outside the hut in which she had been locked. She will not come out until all the necessary rites have been completed and the brother decides to hand her over. Normally, this function would be performed by her father, but as he is dead, her brother takes his place after a ceremony that temporarily changes him into an elder.