Dub Katello

Gabra Historical Texts (1978-1982) Number: GHT016

North Horr

February 21, 1979

INTERVIEWED BY: Paul W. Robinson TRANSLATION BY: Wata Guyo Ibrae

 “If there is not enough rain, and there is enough pasture over there, they might go back to it in just that rainy season. They are governed by the animals. These animals lead people; if the animals do not have food, they cannot stay.” 

(Dub Katello) 

 

Biography

I spoke with Dub Katello at North Horr on 21 February 1979, at a time when the settlement was becoming an important administrative center while remaining firmly rooted in the pastoral life of the surrounding rangelands. From the beginning of our conversation, it was evident that Dub approached history somewhat differently from many of the other elders I was beginning to know. Rather than beginning with memorable events or personal experiences, he spoke about the customs, institutions, and everyday practices that sustained Gabra society. 

Throughout the interview, Dub carefully distinguished between what he knew personally and what had been entrusted to him by earlier generations. When he was uncertain, he simply acknowledged the limits of his knowledge. This gives his testimony credibility. Rather than claiming authority over every subject, he recognized that different people preserved different kinds of knowledge and readily acknowledged the exceptional historical expertise of elders such as Yatani Sorale. 

His interests reflected this practical orientation. He discussed birth and marriage customs, relations among the five Gabra sections, the place of the Wata, traditional medicine, pastoral movement, drought, migration, and the responsibilities that enabled pastoral society to function. For Dub, history was not simply a record of remembered events but the accumulated wisdom through which ordinary life was organized and sustained. 

Nearly half a century later, I had the privilege of meeting two of Dub’s daughters. One had become an elementary school teacher, the other an advocate for women’s rights. Their lives speak to the profound social changes that have taken place within Gabra society since that 1979 conversation with their father. Yet they also suggest a continuity with their father’s quiet commitment to knowledge, responsibility, and service to the wider community. 

Dub Katello reminds us that every society depends not only upon those who preserve historical memories, but equally upon those who safeguard the institutions, customs, and practical wisdom that make everyday life possible. 

 

Interview Summary

Dub Katello’s interview provides one of the clearest descriptions in the collection of the institutions and customary practices that shaped everyday Gabra life. The conversation moves across a wide range of at first seemingly unrelated subjects, but later revealing how pastoral society functioned through shared knowledge, customary obligation, and ecological adaptation. 

Dub began with birth customs and ceremonial practices before turning to marriage, clan relationships, and the distinctive place occupied by the Wata within Gabra society. Dub explained the responsibilities associated with different stages of life and the social relationships that connected families, clans, and sections of the Gabra. 

The conversation then turned toward practical questions of pastoral life. Dub discussed traditional medicine, responses to drought, patterns of livestock movement, and the ways herding families gathered and exchanged information about rainfall, pasture, and water. His explanations illustrate how environmental knowledge guided pastoral mobility and demonstrate that seasonal movement was based upon careful observation rather than simple reaction to crisis. 

Historical traditions also occupy an important place in the interview. Dub recounted migrations, relationships among the Gabra, Borana, Rendille, Somali, and Wata, traditions concerning the Wardai, and aspects of Gada chronology. Throughout these discussions he distinguished between knowledge confidently remembered and traditions, the details of which had become uncertain over time. 

A recurring theme throughout the conversation was the distribution of knowledge within Gabra society. Dub repeatedly acknowledged that no single individual possessed every kind of historical understanding. In doing so, he offered insight not only into Gabra history but also into the ways knowledge itself was organized, transmitted, and preserved across generations. 

Taken as a whole, this interview provides an illuminating introduction to the institutions, relationships, and ecological knowledge that formed the foundation of Gabra pastoral society. 

Conversation notes

When I first worked through this interview, I found its organization puzzling. Unlike some of the other elders, Dub Katello did not pursue a single historical narrative. Instead, he seemed to move almost effortlessly from birth customs to marriage, from traditional medicine to drought, from the Wata to ancient migrations, and then to Gada chronology. At first the conversation felt like a collection of unrelated subjects. 

Years later I realized that Dub was thinking differently; he was not primarily explaining what had happened in Gabra history; rather, he was explaining how Gabra society worked. 

Everything he described—birth, marriage, pastoral movement, customary law, ecological knowledge, ritual relationships, even historical memory itself—formed part of the social framework that enabled pastoral life to endure across generations. Historical events were present, but they remained in the background. His principal concern was with the customs and practices through which people lived together. 

Another feature of the interview has become increasingly important to me over the years. Dub consistently distinguished between different kinds of knowledge. Sometimes he spoke from personal experience. At other times he explicitly referred to what “the old men” had taught him. Just as importantly, he acknowledged when he simply did not know. His careful recognition of the limits of his own knowledge makes him a trustworthy voice within this collection. 

Dub’s repeated references to Yatani Sorale are equally revealing to me. Dub did not regard historical knowledge as something every elder possessed equally. Instead, he recognized that different people became stewards of different kinds of understanding. Some preserved chronology. Others specialized in ritual life, genealogy, customary law, or pastoral practice.  

Looking back after nearly half a century, I have come to appreciate that Dub’s contribution simply because it is so unassuming. Other elders helped me understand remarkable events; Dub helped me understand what made those events meaningful. 

Five decades later, in 2025, I met Dub’s two daughters. One now serves her community as an educator and the other is an advocate for women’s rights. I found myself thinking about their father once again. Dub’s daughters’ lives belong to a very different Gabra world, yet they continue a tradition that I believe Dub also embodied: that knowledge is valuable because it enables people to serve one another and to strengthen the life of their community. 

 

Original Transcript

Transcript (pdf.)

Interview Recording

🎧 Listen to interview part 1
🎧 Listen to interview part 2

Kenya National Archives Reference

KENYA NATIONAL ARCHIVES KNADS REFERENCE Tape Number: 4-16 Call Number: 398.2GAR Account Number: 967866 Sides: A & B