African Legends in 60 Seconds · Episode 10

Koitalel arap Samoei

Nandi history, Nandi Hills, Kenya, 1895 to 19052:10Learn Nandi

Flat illustration inside an oval frame: a wall of Nandi warriors with tall spears behind painted shields in red, white and grey-blue, the word HELD in bold letters above them, and a column of colonial soldiers marching past below.

Words from the story, in Nandi

Read it, then say it

Say each word out loud as you read it. Pronunciation audio is coming soon.

ngotit
= spear
The spear in hand when Koitalel's warriors struck the railway by night. Hollis recorded it in 1909 as ngot (ngotit).
karnet
= iron
The iron wire the warriors carried off the telegraph line. Hollis notes that the plural, karin, also means weapons.
longet
= shield
The painted shields the Nandi held as column after column marched in. Hollis recorded them painted in white, red, black and grey-blue.

Read along

The story

For ten years, no army could beat him. Then he walked up a hill to make peace.
In the green Nandi hills, the people followed their Orkoiyot, Koitalel arap Samoei, spiritual leader and war leader.
His father had foreseen it: a serpent that would crawl along the ground, shriek, and puff smoke.
Then the railway came. And Koitalel's warriors struck, fast, by night, spear in hand, a ngotit.
They cut the telegraph wire. Again. And again.
They carried off the iron wire, the karnet, and turned it into armlets and blades.
Column after column marched in. Behind their painted shields, their longet, the Nandi held.
So in 1905 the British called a peace meeting.
The place: a hill called Ket Parak.
On the nineteenth of October, Koitalel walked out to meet them. Nearby, soldiers waited.
He held out his hand to Captain Richard Meinertzhagen. And he was shot.
Most of the men with him were killed. British inquiries cleared the officer. The Nandi have always called it a trap.
The railway ran on through Nandi land. In 2006, his staffs of office came home to Nandi Hills.
The Nandi say the sun rising from the valley is like brass wire. His name rises with it.
Koitalel arap Samoei is a Kenyan national hero. The Nandi are still asking for his remains to come home.

About this story

This episode is documented history. Koitalel arap Samoei was the Orkoiyot of the Nandi, their spiritual leader and war leader. From 1895 his warriors fought British expeditions (in 1895, 1897, 1900 and 1903) and raided the Uganda Railway and its telegraph line. His father, Kimnyole, had foreseen a serpent that would crawl along the ground, shriek, and puff smoke, and in 1909 the colonial officer A. C. Hollis wrote that the Nandi took this to mean the railway engines. On 19 October 1905 Koitalel went to a peace meeting at Ket Parak hill and held out his hand to Captain Richard Meinertzhagen. He was shot, and most of the men with him were killed. Accounts differ on who fired. British inquiries cleared the officer. The Nandi have always called it a trap. On 23 January 2006 his staffs of office came home to Nandi Hills, where his mausoleum stands. Koitalel arap Samoei is a Kenyan national hero, and the Nandi are still asking for his remains to come home.

We followed Hollis's The Nandi (1909), Kenyan and international reporting, and the published histories of the Nandi resistance, and we used nothing from the officer's own diaries, which historians consider unreliable. The three Nandi words come from Hollis's 1909 vocabulary, in his spelling. Koitalel is said koy-tah-LEL. Nandi elders, historians and speakers are the best guides to his story and his language, and their corrections to the pronunciation or the telling are welcome.

Quick quiz

How many words do you remember?

What does ngotit mean?

What did the warriors carry off from the telegraph line?

What does longet mean?

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