Long vilified as sorcerers, Kenya's Nganyi rainmakers - with meteorological equipment consisting of trees, pots and herbs - are being enlisted to mitigate the effects of climate change.
Kneeling in the dank shade of a small thicket of trees near Maseno, in western Kenya, Alexander Okonda blew through a reed into a pot embedded in a tree hollow and containing a secret mixture of sacred water and herbs.
"This contains so much information. It is something I feel from my head right down to my toes," said Mr. Okonda after completing his ritual.
The young man is a member of the Nganyi community, a clan of traditional rainmakers that for centuries has made its living disseminating precious forecasts to local farmers.
The croak of the frog, the movement of the termites, the leafing of certain trees all carry information, the interpretation of which the Nganyi have transformed into a ritual art hovering between legend and science.
"This skill is in the family, it runs in our blood. When I was a 6-year-old boy, I could already feel so many things," Mr. Okonda said.
The Nganyi's fame was sealed when his great-grandfather - "the greatest rainmaker in the family" - was detained in the 1910s by the British colonial authorities who believed he was responsible for poor rainfall.
He had 30 wives and was buried in a sitting position with a rainmaker's pot on his head in a site near the western town of Kisumu - which is now one of the main natural "shrines" used by his descendants to concoct their forecasts.
Modernization slowly eroded the community's aura but the Nganyi recently have been offered a way of reviving their traditions through a project aimed at using indigenous knowledge in disaster prevention.