History of Kenya
Mrs.
Nardi's 9th Grade World History Class
Lenox Memorial High School, Lenox, Massachusetts
Early Kikuyu
In the examination of the Mau Mau uprising, this website will use the term "ethnic group" in order to avoid any negative connotations associated with other terms. The term "tribe" and "tribal" have changed in meaning. Now, the terms represent a more primitive, or "savage" people who are not considered equal to Western culture. Under the sway of social Darwinism, they were considered less human or "uncivilized" in comparision to Western culture. If we eleiminate the term and use "peoples", "culture" or "ethnic group", we will avoid the labeling of the Kikuyu in a negative way.
Founding Myths
The Kikuyu,
as with many other early peoples, transmitted their history from one generation
to another through the use of stories and myths. In Facing
Mt. Kenya , Jomo Kenyatta emphasizes the richness of Kikuyu
legends as a means of drawing the young into identification of life in
their ethnic group.
One of the most significant myths is the recounting of the origins of
the Kikuyu. As Kenyatta states,
…in the beginning of things, when mankind started to populate
the earth, the man Gikuyu, founder of the tribe, was called by
Mogai (the Divider of the Universe, aka Ngai), and was
given as his share
the land with ravines, the rivers, the forests, the game and all the
gifts that the Lord of Nature (Mogai) bestowed on mankind. (Kenyatta
5)
Hence, Mogai chose the man
Gikuyu to become the beneficiary of God’s blessings of fertile land.
It is not an uncommon story. Historians and anthropologists might see
a parallel with other mythological parables such as the gift of the land
of Canaan to Abraham and the Hebrews by the God Yahweh.
Kenyatta goes further regarding the gift of land as he explains Mogai’s
intent. He recounts Mogai’s creation of Mt. Kenya
(Kirinyaga,Kere-Nyaga,
Kenyatta’s spelling) and tells of Mogai’s taking Gikuyu “…to
the top of the mountain of mystery… [where he]… pointed out
to the Gikuyu a spot full of fig trees…and commanded him to…establish
his homeland on…this place…[called]…Mokorwe was Gathanga”
(Kenyatta’s spelling differs from Muriuki) (5). "Muhurue
wa Gathanga" came be identified on a present-day map
of Kenya, southeast of Kirinyaga.
Gikuyu and Mumbi, Nine Daughters
In her memoir, Unbowed, Wangari Maathai retells the story of Gikuyu and Mumbi's nine daughters "Wanjiro, Wambui, Wangari, Wanjiku, Wangui, Wangeci, Nyyambura, and Wairimu" (number ten was not of childbearing age) who had the misfortune of having no mates with which to marry. As Wangari explains, "Gikuyu prayed to God under a holy fig tree, mugumo,...to send him sons-in-law. God told him to instruct the nine daughters to go into the forest and each cut a stick as long as she was tall. When the daughters returned, Gikuyu took the sticks and with them built an altar under the mugumo tree, on which he sacrificed a lamb. As the fire was consuming the lamb's body, nine men appeared and walked out of the flames" (Maathai 5)
(Note: The term "Kikuyu" has evolved with European usage. Originally, the Kikuyu called themselves "Gikuyu" and that term is intercahngable with Kikuyu today. It can also refer to the language of the Kikuyu as well.)
Migration
During the 1500s,
early Kikuyu pioneers ventured from the northeast of Kenya, near the Ethiopian
border, onto the lower eastern plateau surrounding Kirinyaga
(Mt. Kenya). They were leaving their present area to find a more hospitable
home and favorable lifestyle. They settled in what would later be called
the Kikuyu plateau, a fertile ground that would encourage an agricultural
way of life.
It is now called the Central Province of Kenya.
Ridge System
The dominant
feature of this new land was (and still is) the volcanic snow-capped peak
of Kirinyaga which rises “to 5600 meters” above the
plateau (Muriuki 26). However, as one descends from the top of Kirinyaga,
deep ridges form around the east and southeastern sides of the mountain,
breaking the landscape into deep gorges where streams move down-slope
to join larger rivers. As Godfrey Muriuki states in the
History of the Kikuyu: 1500 to
1900, “These features of the Kikuyu plateau have
influenced the pattern of settlement and the political as well as social
organization of the Kikuyu to a considerable degree…”(26).
Muriuki notes that “The social order will develop ridge
by ridge…into family units…” and a decentralized
and acephalous society would emerge (3),
each clan taking its own ridge.
Even though archeological evidence places the Bantu ancestors of the present-day
Kikuyu at “Gatung’anga, a small village in the Mathira
division of Nyeri district” (52) as early as the 12th century
C.E., more specific and comprehensive data marks more firmly the early
ancestors of the Kikuyu in the early 1500s. These more closely related
pioneers trekked southward, around the base of Kirinyaga to a location
called Ithanga where the Thagana and Thika Rivers converge. It is from
this fertile and hospitable location that various groups fan out toward
the northwest, west, southwest and south. It is, also, about 40 miles
southeast of the mythical Kikuyu Garden of Eden called “Muhurue
wa Gathanga”(47).
Pre-Colonial Kikuyu
Acquiring Land through Labor or Marriage
A
man could acquire his own land by a variety of means. Initially, he could
claim land that he used for hunting. In most cases, he would eventually
clear this forested land for agricultural purposes. In the early part
of Kikuyu settlement, if you cleared land,
an arduous task, it would be yours for your labor. At that time, there
was plenty of land for the taking and individual males could take any
land on the edges of the frontier on a “first come /first serve”
basis (74). Another method of acquiring land would be through marriage.
Wives of the mbari (clan) would have
been given a certain amount of land for cultivation for herself and her
children. The elder would grant portions of land to each wife for her
use and the sons
…had equal rights to all the land cultivated by their respective
mothers and on marriage the sons acquired for their wives portions of
their mother’s cultivated land. But they could clear any unused
land that belonged to their father in case of need. All the uncultivated
land was reserved for grazing or as woodland and was jointly owned by
all the sons (76).
Conversely, young women who married would acquire cultivation rights through
her husband’s mbari. During
this time period(18th and 19th Century), land was readily available.
Women and Trade Networks
During the mid to late nineteenth century, foreign travelers begin writing
about the trading centers in Kenya. Intertribal trading developed and
thrived around what would later become the town of Nairobi in the southern
Kabete region. Trade was nearly the exclusive domain of women. Women dominated
local and long-distance trade networks because such activity was seen
as a natural extension of the role as agricultural laborers. Even though
women did not always control every element of trade activity, their role
as traders was a major factor in the development of relationships and
networks between diverse ethnic groups in the area (Robertson 25).
Before the 1860s, women traders in Kenya often traveled in large groups
of one hundred women or more and would go as far a-field as 200 kilometers
from home. They were known to endure hardships from weather and wild animals
but had gender immunity from attack by young warriors. However, at times
they were harassed by robbers. (Unfortunately, the general immunity began
to wane after the arrival of the Swahili and European traders.)
System of Knots
Historian Claire Robertson in her essay “Gender and Trade Relations in Central Kenya in the Late Nineteenth Century” quotes Patricia Stamp regarding the value of Kikuyu women’s trade saying, “…[they] contributed ‘substantially to the material resources of their families and to the enrichment of the web of social relations within their society and with neighboring groups’”(Robertson 25). These trading networks were organized and executed by women, sometimes in large numbers; however, they needed clearance from husbands and diviners before venturing off. Each woman participant paid a nominal fee in kind to the leader of the expedition; they were escorted by warriors at various times, and found lodging with women of other tribes. A system of tracking women’s travel and arrival was arranged by tying knots in a rope which numbered the days of travel (28). Both husband and wife would have identical rope counters. In this fashion, the husband could keep track of his wife’s travel and have young warriors meet the group as they neared home. Once returned, she would give her earnings to her husband or son who, in turn, was not allowed to dispose of them without her agreement (28-29).
Kikuyu and their Neighbors
The Kikuyu shared the ferlile land around Mt. Kenya with several other ethnic groups. Trade networks were established with the Kamba, Kalenjin, and Luo. They endured famine and drought while also engaging in conflicts over cattle and land. The presidential candidate Barak Obama's father was a Luo who came to the United States during the Kennedy Airlift (see Post-Colonial section). Sadly, even today ethnic conflict, such as the untimely death of Lucas Sang, the Olympian runner, continues to burden the state of Kenya (ESPN, Jan 2008)