Akuj

Akuj is the traditional religion of the Turkana, semi-nomadic camel and zebu herders around Lake Turkana. For the Turkana religion and culture are one, and the aim of each day is to win the blessings of life: water, food, livestock and children.

Akuj is the single Supreme Being, who created the world and controls these blessings. Ancestors, the ngipean, are seen as dangerous, and an angered ancestor may possess a family member and demand an animal sacrifice.

The key figures are the diviners, the ngimurok, the most respected of whom receive revelations from Akuj in dreams and say which animal must be sacrificed. Turkana tradition holds that zebu cattle brought them the wealth and power that let them beat other Ateker peoples and, by the end of the eighteenth century, press into the Siger highlands.