Mursik Gourd
A large dark red gourd for mursik, a drink made with milk and often blood. The exterior is smooth, polished/stained for saturated color, and etched with illustrations of elephants and geometric bands. There is a wide strip of leather that runs up one side and wraps slightly over the bottom. The upper part is fashioned into a handle, with a small thin strip that attached to the leather cap. The portion fixed flush to the gourd is beaded.
- Object: Mursik Gourd
- Artist: unknown
- Circa: unknown
- Dimensions: 21.5"
- Culture Area: Africa / Kenya
- Cultural Group: Kalenjin
- Cultural Context: Mursik is a traditional fermented milk variant of the Kalenjin people of Kenya. It can be made from cow or goat milk and is fermented in a specially made calabash gourd locally known as a sotet. The gourd is lined with soot from specific trees, such as the African senna, which add flavor to the fermented milk. In traditional communities mursik is still occasionally made with the addition of cow's blood, collected in a manner that does not kill or injure the cow. Mursik has strong cultural significance for the Kalenjin both in terms of identity as well as socially. It is a common drink in the Rift Valley region and is available in urban areas of Kenya. It has over time become synonymous with Kenyan athletics. A significant majority of Kenyan athletic heroes are Kalenjin and scenes of them receiving a sip of mursik at the airport having returned from international duty form part of Kenya's cultural tapestry. When a couple gets married, dowry negotiations are held as part of the koito ceremony. At the end of the negotiations, mursik is served and drunk together by those present as a symbol of agreement and unity; it is considered crucial to the process.
- Donor: Sharon Koch
- Catalog #: 2025.5.3