See also: Turkana (homonymy)

The Turkana form a African ethnos group whose population counts between: 250000 and: 350000 people. They live in the hot and arid area located at the west of the Lac Turkana, in the North-West of the Kenya.

They are neighborly with the ethnos groups Pokot (Pökoot), Rendille, and Samburu in the south.

Their language, also named Turkana , belongs to the group Ateker of the family Eastern Nilotique. They indicate it by the term Ng' aturk (W) ana .

Turkana practice the Pastoralisme and the Nomadisme. The cattle occupies a central place in their culture. According to their oral tradition, they qualify them-even of “people of the gray bull”. The Goat S, the Sheep S, the Dromedary S, the ass S but especially the Bovin S constitute their livestock. In this company, the cattle provides not only milk and meat but is also used as exchange value for the payment of the Dot.

Generally, an young man receives only one goat or that a sheep from which it will have to form a herd. When it accumulates sufficient cattle, it will be able to use a part of it to negotiate wives. The Polygamie is current at Turkana, insofar as the profusion of the cattle determines the number of wife whom a man can negotiate and deal with.

Programs of development assistance tried to develop the practice of the fishing at Turkana, which previously regarded it as a taboo. The Agriculture is also practiced in a marginal way.

Turkana are also famous for their control of the Vannerie.