The Camus (sometimes spelled Chamus or Tiamus, also known as Njemps), are a Maa people living south and southeast of Lake Baringo, Kenya. They number about 19,000 and are closely related to the Samburu living more to the north-east in the Rift Valley Province. Their language is one of the Eastern Nilotic Maa languages, closely related to the Samburu language (between 89% and 94% lexical similarity), to the point of it being considered a Samburu dialect by some. Together, Samburu and Camus form the northern division of the Maa languages.
References
- Heine, Bernd (1980) The Non-Bantu languages of Kenya. (Language and Dialect Atlas of Kenya 2.) Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
- Vossen, Rainer (1982) The Eastern Nilotes. Linguistic and historical reconstructions (Kölner Beiträge zur Afrikanistik 9). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.
