Fafi Member of Parliament Aden Sugow will never forget that hot day in mid July last year.
Sugow had gone back to his constituency in the humid North Eastern province of Kenya, to hold his homecoming party, celebrating his election to Parliament. He received the greatest shock of his life when he found his constituency ‘empty’. His constituents had immigrated to the war-ravaged neighboring country of Somalia, due to famine. Sugow had no option but to host his party in Fafi’s bordering constituency of Dujis.

Though Sugow was puzzled to find his constituency bare of people, this was no surprise. Kenya’s northern frontier district, adjoining Ethiopia’s Southern province, Somalia’s Western side, Uganda’s North-Eastern and Sudan’s southern tip is an area peopled by an exceptional people whose lifestyle has confounded many for eons.

These are pastoralists. Who owing to climatic changes move from one place to the next as circumstances dictate. The Turkana, Merille, Gabbra, Borana, Karamojong, Pokot, Rendille, Samburu, Oromo and Somalis among others maintain a matchless nomadic standard of living. Scientists have now discovered that this inimitable mode of living is much more than meets the eye.

Adjacent to the road from Lodwar to Kalokol, near the pristine shores of Lake Turkana on the western side, is a small and neat cluster of cylindrical stones that once served as an ancient stellar observatory. And this is where the secret of their lifestyle is finally explained.
Sounds unbelievable! Fact is its true. Ancient Africans knew astronomy. The ways of the stars and the moon were not uncommon to Africans.

Namoratunga II (or poetically referred to as the “Dancing Stones of Namoratunga”) or Kalokol Pillar Site happens to be one of East Africa’s most captivating archaeological spots of our time. Namoratunga is Turkana for ‘any standing stone site’.

Almost two centuries before the Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, commissioned the Alexandrian astronomer, Sosigenes in 46BC, to compile a convenient calendar to be used for regulating both the civic and religious activities in his empire – an improvisation of the Egyptian lunar calendar - an ancient Cushitic tribe living on the shores of Lake Turkana in Kenya and Ethiopia, had for hundreds of years used a complex cosmic based 12-month calendrical system. The ‘ancient’ Cushitic tribe is of course, the Borana, who inhabit both Kenya and Ethiopia (thanks to colonial boundaries).
“Studying the alignment of nineteen megaliths near Kenya’s Lake Turkana in the Rift Valley, a region inhabited by the ancient Cushites, archaeologists have concluded that, among other things, these basalt columns functioned as astronomical observation tools and that they were key to the plotting of the Borana calendar circa 300BC. This stellar-lunar calendar is still used today by the pastoral Borana people of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya. And, although acquisition of knowledge of the existence of the Sirius star system by the Dogon people of Mali has been the topic of heated debate, pitting Afrocentric proponents against Eurocentric skeptics, the point that is usually overlooked is the vital importance of examining the heavens to pre-industrial societies from one end of the continent to the other who relied on the stars to determine seasonal cycles, timing of festivals and rituals, crop planting and harvesting, and mating intervals.” Robert Fikes of San Diego State University notes in his piece, published in the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education’.

In his paper “Astronomy in East Africa: The Borana-Cushitic Calendar and Namoratunga” published in Anthroquest Dr Laurance Reeve Doyle of the Space Sciences Division at the widely respected US space agency, the National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) and who has written extensively on Borana astronomy. He writes:

“While Western thought has always prided itself on scientific objectivity, it has often been found unprepared for such surprises as an intellectually advanced yet seemingly illiterate society. In the face of apparent primitiveness, the possibility of significant intellectual development may not be fully investigated. This was certainly the case when, in the early 1970’s Dr Asmaron Legesse first found that the Borana people of Southern Ethiopia were indeed using a sophisticated calendrical system based on the conjunction of seven stars with certain lunar faces. Previous calendrical investigations in the area up to this time had superficially stated that the Borana ‘attach magical significance to the stars and constellations,’ incorrectly concluding that their calendar was based, as ours is on Solar motion. What Dr Legesse found was an amazing cyclical; calendar similar to those of the Mayans Chinese, Hindu, but unique in that it seemed to ignore the sun completely (except indirectly by way of the phases of the moon). The workings were described to him by the Borana ayyantu (timekeepers).”

Whereas the site Namoratunga II found in the vast and inhospitable North-Eastern Province of Kenya, might not have been (or even be) as world famous and as colossal as the politically correct Stonehenge in Wiltshire, England it is a phenomenon that has baffled modern day astronomers and archaeologists alike.

“The 300BC Megalithic site in North-Western Kenya, with an alignment of 19 basalt pillars that are non-randomly oriented towards certain stars and constellation (are still in use today by a modern people, arguably, the descendants of that ancient race) suggest s that a prehistoric calendar based on detailed astronomical knowledge was in use in Eastern Africa.” Dr B M Lynch and Dr. L H Robbins who carried out extensive studies on the site and cross-referred their findings with those of other scientists note.

The two anthropologists from Michigan State University, while examining the possibility that the arrangement of these megaliths correlated with certain astronomical events, established that the Cushites must have had a sophisticated calendrical system based on the rising of the seven stars in conjunction with the various phases of the moon, and therefore accurately calculating their 12-month 354-day a year.

And as such they concluded:
“The archeoastronomical information gathered from a Namoratunga II site adds significantly to the growing body of evidence attesting to the complexity of the prehistoric cultural developments in Sub-Saharan Africa. It strongly suggests that an accurate and complex calendar system was developed by 1st Millennium BC in Eastern Africa.”

The findings of these two scholars on what was seen as a confirmation of the scientific and cultural development of a hitherto believed to-be a ‘primitive people’, wasn’t taken lightly by those in the establishment. Their findings were not only sneered at, but also condemned by those who viewed the two scientists as pariahs.

Robert Soper, then working with the National Museums of Kenya (NMK) came out as their strongest opponent. His three pronged objections, questioned not only the validity as to why the Cushites would have needed stone pillars at all to determine a calendar since it was based on conjunction of certain stars with the moon, but also the magnetic deviations induced by the magnetite in the pillars, thus creating compass errors.

Soper thus concluded that Namoratunga was not an archeoastronomical site in nature.
With these divergent views a middle ground position on Namoratunga’s archeoastronomical importance was sought. A study excursion was organised and co-sponsored by both Adventure Study Africa and the Department of Physics and Astronomy, California State University. This expedition was made up of sixteen professionals in the different areas concerned.
Their findings presented before a panel of scientists during a conference at the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, confirmed the conclusions of Lynch and Robbins, that indeed, Namoratunga, “was the first subject of archaeastronomy research in sub-Saharan Africa.”
According to Doyle:

“The Borana Calendar (sometime called the Galla calendar) is a lunar-stellar calendrical system, relying on astronomical observations of the moon in conjunction with seven particular stars (or star groups). At no time (except indirectly by way of lunar phase) does it rely upon solar observations. The Borana year is twelve lunar synodic months (each 29.5 days long) 354 days. While it will not correspond to the seasons, this may not be of primary importance for people this close to the equator There are twenty-seven day names (no weeks), and since each month is either 29 or 30 days long, the first two (or three) day names are used twice in the same month starts on a new day name.”

Doyle freely admits that the Borana “…first opened up our recognition of the East Africa’s native astronomical abilities.”
According to Professor Legesse, the Borana calendar, a 354-day year has twelve months namely Bittottessa (Triangulum) Camsa (Pleiades), Bufa (Aldebarran), Wacabajjii (Belletrix), Obora Gudda (Central Orion-Saiph) Obora Dikka (Sirius), Birra (full moon), Cikawa (gibbous moon) Sadasaa (quarter moon), Abrasaa (large crescent) Ammaji (medium crescent) and Gurandalla (small crescent).

Commenting about the Borana days, a scholar at the Department of Ethnography, at NMK Hassan Wario, says,
“Each day according to the Ayanttu – the Borana timekeeper – had a spirit that governed it. Those who were married during areri, were not allowed to work without drinking a concoction of milk and water, whereas those born on the day called luumassa – or the day of the lion – were never allowed to hunt lions and could not undertake any vigorous duty without biting a piece of meat.
“The Borana days were as follows; Areri dura, Areri ballo, Adura dura, Adulla balla, Garba dura: Garba balla and Garba dullacha, Bita quara, Bita balla, Sonsa, Arba walla, Basaa quara and Bassa ball, followed by Chara maganati, Sadasa, Abrasa, Amaji and finally Quarandala.” Wario intimates.
Responding to Soper’s misgivings, Doyle reveals:

“That if the calendar depends on the new moon and the reference star rising together, what need was there for the pillars in the first place – a keen observer would only be needed to look into the sky and see the conjunction. We found from our analysis of the Borana calendar that alignment of pillars of some type would have been necessary for the astronomical observation required in the derivation of that time-keeping system, as we understood it

“The results (of the analysis thus) established the validity of the suggestions by Lynch and Robbins that astronomical alignment pillars may have existed in the area, stone pillars being the most permanent form available…preliminary analysis of the statistical probability of finding (as we did) 12 Eastern Horizon alignments with the 300BC position of the seven random star positions on the Cray Computers at the Ames center, and counting the number of alignments found for each set with the Namoratunga pillars, we have been able to determine the number of times (out of 10,000) one may be expected to find a number of alignments as high as twenty-five or more. Our result was that the chance of accidentally getting twenty-five or more alignments with such a configuration was less than 0.5%, indicating strongly that the site may, indeed have been built for the purpose of indicating the 300BC rising position of these seven stars.”
And therefore, Doyle concludes:

“Concerning the site at Namoratunga, and considering that the use of pillars is apparently necessary to the derivation of the calendar, such horizon markers as are found there may, indeed, have been an ancient observatory. Petroglyphs on the pillars at Namoratunga may also hold the possibility of being ancient and, if Cushitic, may represent the alignment stars or moon. Cushitic script has never been deciphered and any hints as to the meaning of tits symbols could be significant clues with very exciting prospects indeed!”

“One can feel that like the rest of the world, Africa too had its share of brilliant astronomers .We have found here that archaeological evidence without the applied astronomical knowledge, may not be sufficient to understand the calendrical thoughts of these ancient observers of the heavens.
“These observers regardless of culture or birth, were at least to some extents astronomers by profession, and similarly looked to the stars for enlightenment on timekeeping.”
Doyle has not forgotten the lesson he learnt from the humble pastoral people of East Africa. He fitfully reckons with much appreciation:

“Archaeoastronomy in East Africa is still quite new and many discoveries await. From coming to understand, even in a small way, the calendrical reckoning and observational abilities of the ancient and modern astronomer-timekeepers of this region, Western thought should certainly not again underestimate the ingenuity and intellect present there. A welcome lesson in perspective and humility, taught to him by his astronomical colleagues of long ago.”
It is this truth, long stifled by the West and other Eurocentrics in general that made it finally to the big screen three years ago. Aland Pictures of South Africa in collaboration with Cosmos Studios and South African astronomer Thebe Medupe made a film “Cosmic Africa”, a 72-minute feature length documentary exploring and at the same time shedding new light on traditional African astronomy, and its contribution to the world’s oldest science.

“Cosmic Africa” is a panoramic odyssey of discovery traversing the continent’s oldest civilizations found in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Mali, Egypt, South Africa, Swaziland, Mozambique, Namibia, Botswana and Kenya’s Namoratunga.

The meek pastoral people of Borana accompanied with their vast herds of livestock across the arid and semi-arid lands that is their home in Eastern Africa are silently proud of their contribution to the world’s body of knowledge.

Inspite of the scholarly debates surrounding Namoratunga, they are only aware of one thing, the location assists them in their peripatetic life. The Borana are a neat illustration of the Psalmist’s words in Psalms 19:1-2:

“The heavens declare the glory of God;
The skies proclaim the work of his hands,
Day after day they pour forth speech;
Night after night they display knowledge.”

Sugow may have been bewildered to find his constituents away. The truth is that he had been in Nairobi (Kenya’s capital city) for too long and ‘forgot’ his people’s way of life.