NARRATIVE PROFILE
Location: The Kalenjin people can be found in the Rift Valley escarpment of Kenya. There are related people in north central Tanzania. The Sabaot extend across the Uganda border, where they are called Sebei. One of the three subgroups of the Sabaot, the Kony (Elgon) gave their name to Mt. Elgon on the Kenya-Uganda border.
History: The Kalenjin cluster of peoples of today are descendants of migrants from the Nile River area of the Sudan or the western Ethiopian highlands. One of their myths says they came originally from Misri, a name for Egypt. This name is common in origin traditions of many peoples, including some Bantu peoples in East Africa.
Much has also been learned from comparison of languages of the various peoples. It is thought the ancestors of these Highland Nilotes were moving from their Nile River areas about 3000 years ago. The ancestors of the Kalenjin were established in approximately their current areas by about A.D. 500. One group moved on south to become the Datooga in Tanzania.
Identity: The Kalenjin are called Highland Nilotes because they live in the Highlands of the Rift Valley and are related to the people in the Nile area of Sudan and Uganda.
The Kalenjin are sometimes considered as a tribe made up of many clans. The different clans are the Nandi Terik, Tugen, Keiyo, Marakwet, Pokot, Sabaot and the Kipsigis. Marakwet is actually a blanket term for the Endo groups and the Talai.
The Okiek (also called Ndorobo), though originally of Cushitic stock, now speak Kipsigis, and are sometimes classed with Kalenjin speakers. The Kalenjin arrived in Kenya from the Nile River, possibly the Blue Nile, as it appears they came into Kenya from the Ethiopian highlands.
Most of these clans acted as warriors during independence. The Kalenjin are related to the Datooga in north central Tanzania, the southernmost group of the Highland Nilote migration.
Language: The Kalenjin people speak several languages that are not mutually intelligible but are linguistically closely related. Nandi and Kipsigis are the two major dialects of what is called the Kalenjin language. The Talai and Endo speak separate languages, as do the Pokoot, Sabaot and Tugen.
The Nandi, Kipsigis and Keiyo use the same Bible and similar vocabulary while the Marakwet use about half the same vocabulary, Sabaot about 1/4. With the Pokot and Ndorobo there are very few if any linguistic similarities. The Tugen sometimes use the Kalenjin Bible, but linguists find Tugen speech so different they classify Tugen as a separate language. The Endo translation is now available.
The Kalenjin as a group are related to the Samburu and Maasai somewhat. There are linguistic as well as cultural similarities. "Subaa" (Good morning) is a word common to Kalenjin and Maasai. The Kalenjin are people of the Highland Nilote branch, while the Maasai and Samburu are Plains Nilotes.Political Situation: The Kalenjin groups actually drew together in response to British colonial domination. The British related to each group individually. The Nandi were virtually the last ethnic group to be dominated militarily by the British. It is from this colonial experience that the various Highland Nilote peoples consciously united to advocate their interests to the British colonial government.
Kalenjin relate well to most tribes, but there have been clashes between Kalenjin and the Luo and Kikuyu since even before independence. There are also recurrent violent clashes between the Nandi and the neighboring Maragoli. Kalenjin are very active politically. They were active even before their son Moi was elected to the office of President. They had a voice in government with or without Moi. Kalenjin names are heard commonly in government and all areas of Kenyan life.
Customs: The Kalenjin at one time pierced their ears, men and women alike, and then put sticks in them to stretch the lobes. They did this so that they could wear beads in their ears. Many old Kalenjin can still be recognized by their stretched earlobes. They stopped doing this for hygiene reasons.
Kalenjin love their cows and land. They grow millet, maize and now tea and sorghum. Traditionally Kalenjins built round homes of sticks and mud plaster, with pointed thatch roofs with a pole out the center. Nowadays homes are commonly wood and stone with modern facilities, though traditional homes are still common also.
The children of Kalenjin were taught to respect elders. Even now respect is very important in the Kalenjin culture. Manners are important and men are the head of the house. Girls were taught to kneel in front of men and weren't allowed to speak to men until they had been circumcised.
Girls were taught how to make gourds and pots for carrying water. They learned to carry firewood and look for wild vegetables. Boys were taught to care for the cattle and the boma. Boys were not allowed to sleep in the same house with their mother after the age of 5.
Religion: Traditionally, the Kalenjin worshipped the sun. The word for god and sun are one and the same: Asiis. This is the name of an ancient Egyptian (Cushite) god. They would go to the mountain and worship at 5:00 a.m. and pray until the sun would rise. They worshipped the sun because it gave life.
The Kalenjin are very responsive to the Gospel and are very religious people, traditionally monotheistic. Local beer and chewing tobacco are very much ingrained in the culture and seem to be two obstacles to Kalenjin growing in a deep relationship with Christ.
Christianity: Missionaries were allowed in to work with the Kipsigis where no Europeans had settled by 1933. Missionaries of the Africa Gospel Mission pioneered the work among the Kipsigis while missionaries of the Africa Inland Mission started the work among the Nandi and Tugen. Sources estimate that about 44% of the Kalenjin people are Christians.
A small percentage of Kalenjin are Catholic while a much larger percent are claimed by Africa Gospel Church and Africa Inland Church. American missions seem to have done really well among the large clans of the Kalenjin, although the Okiek, Sabaot and Pokot have hardly been touched with the Gospel.
Showing posts with label Kenyan Communities. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kenyan Communities. Show all posts
KAMBA COMMUNITY
The Kikamba (Akamba in the plural) are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the semi-arid Eastern Province of Kenya stretching east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is called Ukambani. Sources vary on whether they are the third, fourth or the fifth largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Kikamba language.
Anthropologists believe that the Akamba are a mixture of several East African people, and bear traits of the Bantu farmers (Kikuyu, Taita) as well as those of the Nilotic pastoralists (Maasai, Kalenjin, Borana, etc) and the cushite communities with whom they share borders, to the east of Tsavo. The Akamba are often found engaged in different professions: some are agriculturalists, others hunters, and a surprisingly large number are pastoralists. Barter trade with the Kikuyu, Maasai, Meru and Embu people in the interior and the Mijikenda and Arab people of the coast was also practiced by the Akamba who straddled the eastern plains of Kenya.
Over time, the Akamba extended their commercial activity and wielded economic control across the central part of the land that was later to be known as Kenya (from the Kikamba, 'Kiinyaa', meaning 'the Ostrich Country'), from the Indian Ocean in the east to Lake Victoria in the west, and all the way up to Lake Turkana on the northern frontier. The Akamba traded in locally-produced goods such as cane beer, ivory, brass amulets, tools and weapons, millet, and cattle. The food obtained from trading helped offset shortages caused by droughts and famines. They also traded in medicinal products known as 'Miti' (literally: plants), made from various parts of the numerous medicinal plants found on the East African plains. The Akamba are still known for their fine work in basketry and pottery. Their artistic inclination is evidenced in the sculpture work that is on display in many craft shops and galleries in the major cities and towns of Kenya.
In the mid-eighteenth century, a large number of Akamba pastoral groups moved eastwards from the Tsavo and Kibwezi areas to the coast. This migration was the result of extensive drought and lack of pasture for their cattle. They settled in the Mariakani, Kisauni and Kinango areas of the coast of Kenya, creating the beginnings of urban settlement. They are still found in large numbers in these towns, and have been absorbed into the cultural, economic and political life of the modern-day Coast Province. Several notable politicians, businessmen and women, as well as professional men and women are direct descendants of these itinerant pastoralists.
Contents
1 Colonialism and the 19th century
2 The Kikamba family
3 Culture and beliefs
4 Kikamba music
5 Clothing and costumery
6 List of Prominent Akamba
7 Resources
//
Colonialism and the 19th century
In the latter part of the 19th century the Arabs took over the coastal trade from the Akamba, who then acted as middlemen between the Arab and Swahili traders and the tribes further upcountry. Their trade and travel made them ideal guides for the caravans gathering slaves for the Middle Eastern and Indian markets. Early European explorers also used them as guides in their expeditions to explore East Africa due to their wide knowledge of the land and neutral standing with many of the other tribes they traded with.
Akamba resistance to colonialism was mostly non-violent in nature. Some of the best known Akamba resistance leaders to colonialism were: Syokimau, Syotune wa Kathukye, Muindi Mbingu, and later Paul Ngei, JD Kali, and Malu of Kilungu. Ngei and Kali were imprisoned by the colonial government for their anti-colonial protests. Syotune wa Kathukye led a peaceful protest to recover cattle confiscated by the British colonial government during one of their punitive expeditions on the local populations. Muindi Mbingu was arrested for leading another protest march to recover stolen land around the Mua Hills in Masaku district, which the British settlers eventually appropriated for themselves. JD Kali, along with Paul Ngei, joined the Mau Mau movement to recover Kenya for the Kenyan people. He was imprisoned in Kismayu during the fighting between the then government and the freedom fighters.
The Kikamba family
In Kikamba culture, the family plays a central role in the community. The Kamba extended family or clan is called 'mbai'. The man, who is the head of the family, is usually engaged in an economic activity popular among the community like trading, hunting, cattle-herding or farming. He is known as 'Nau', 'Tata'or 'Asa'.
The woman, whatever her husband's occupation, works on her plot of land, which she is given upon joining her husband's household. She supplies the bulk of the food consumed by her family. She grows maize, millet, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beans, pigeon peas, greens, arrow root, cassava, and in the cooler regions such as Kangundo, yam. It is the mother's role to bring up the children. Even children that have grown up into adults are expected to never contradict the mother's wishes. The mother is known as 'Mwaitu' ('our One').
Very little distinction is made between one's children and nieces and nephews. They address their maternal uncle as 'ma-ma' and their paternal aunt as 'mwendwau'. They address their paternal cousins as 'wasa', and the maternal cousins as 'mwendya'. Children often move from one household to another with ease, and are made to feel at home by their aunts and uncles who, while in charge of their nephews/nieces, are their de facto parents.
Grandparents (Susu, umau) help with the less strenuous chores around the home, such as rope-making, tanning leather, cleaning calabashes and making arrows. Older women continue to work the land, as this is seen as a source of independence and economic security. They also carry out trade in the local markets, though not exclusively. In the modern Kikamba family, the women, especially in the urban regions, practice professions such as teaching, secretarial work, management, tailoring etc in accordance with Kenya's socioeconomic evolution.
Culture and beliefs
Naming is an important aspect of the Akamba people. Children are often affectionately called Musumbi (meaning "king"), and Muthoki/Nthoki (meaning "long awaited one"). Akamba children are named for/after time or events surrounding their birth. For example, Nduku is a name given to a baby girl born at night and Mutuku to a baby boy born at night. Children born when it is raining may be named Mumbua (feminine) or Wambua (masculine).
Traditionally the Akamba did not name after living ancestors. This tradition has been heavily diluted in contemporary times due to inter ethnic marriages, most commonly those with the Kikuyu who insist on naming after living relatives in a systematic order. Historically, however, the Akamba were a very superstitious people, and to name after a living relative was thought to be a curse upon the living namesake to wish them dead and was heavily frowned upon.
Like the Maasai and the Agikuyu, the Akamba believe in a monotheistic, invisible and transcendental God, Ngai or Mulungu, who lives up in the sky ('yayayani'). Another venerable name for God is Asa, or the Father. He is also known as Mwatuangi. He is perceived as the omnipotent creator of life on earth and as a merciful, if distant, entity. The traditional Akamba perceive the spirits of their departed ones, the 'Aimu'/'Maimu', as the intercessors between themselves and Ngai Mulungu. They are remembered in family rituals and offerings / libations at individual altars.
The kamba royalty was often not talked about and the history behind the royalty is not well known although the name Mwanzwii is liked with royalty or leadership. Not much is known about this Family or mentioned in any available documentation. Royalty may not be the best term to describe these people. Their role was more of leadership and performance of certain public, social, spiritual or ceremonial functions. They refrained from any involvement in electoral politics or the actual governance of their people. Some royal families have lost their "royalty" through social changes over a long period of time.
Kikamba music
The Akamba people's love of music and dance is evidenced in their spectacular performances at many events in their daily lives or on occasions of regional and national importance. In their dances they display agility and athletic skills as they perform acrobatics and body movements. The Akamba dance techniques and style resemble those of the Batutsi of Rwanda-Burundi and the Aembu of Kenya.
The following are some of the varieties of traditional dance styles of the Akamba community:
Mwali (pl: Myali) which is a dance accompanying a song, the latter which is usually made to criticize anti-social behaviour.
Kilumi and Ngoma, religious dances, performed at healing and rain-making ceremonies;
Mwilu is a circumcision dance;
Mbalya, or Ngutha is a dance for young people who meet to entertain themselves after the day's chores are done.
Kamandiko', (Irish or Scottish Ceilidh) or the modern disco usually held after a wedding party.
Dances are usually accompanied by songs composed for the occasion (marriage, birth, nationally important occasion), and reflect the traditional structure of the Kikamba song, sung on a pentatonic scale. The singing is lively and tuneful. Songs are composed satirizing deviant behavior, anti-social activity, etc. The Akamba have famous work songs, such as 'Ngulu Mwelela', sung while work, such as digging, is going on. Herdsmen and boys have different songs, as do young people and old. During the Mbalya dances the dance leader will compose love songs and satirical numbers, to tease and entertain his / her dancers.
Clothing and costumery
The Akamba of the modern times, like most people in Kenya, dress rather conventionally in western / European clothing. The men wear trousers and shirts. Young boys will, as a rule, wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts, usually in cotton, or tee-shirts. Traditionally, Akamba men wore leather short kilts made from animal skins or tree bark. They wore copious jewelry, mainly of copper and brass. It consisted of neck-chains, bracelets, and anklets.
The women in modern Akamba society also dress in the European fashion, taking their pick from dresses, skirts, trousers, jeans and shorts, made from the wide range of fabrics available in Kenya. Primarily, however, skirts are the customary and respectable mode of dress. In the past, the women were attired in knee-length leather or bark skirts, embellished with bead work. They wore necklaces made of beads, these obtained from the Swahili and Arab traders. They shaved their heads clean, and wore a head band intensively decorated with beads. The various kilumi or dance groups wore similar colors and patterns on their bead work to distinguish themselves from other groups.
Traditionally, both men and women wore leather sandals especially when they ventured out of their neighborhoods to go to the market or on visits. While at home or working in their fields, however, they remained barefoot.
School children, male and female, shave their heads to maintain the spirit of uniformity and equality
Anthropologists believe that the Akamba are a mixture of several East African people, and bear traits of the Bantu farmers (Kikuyu, Taita) as well as those of the Nilotic pastoralists (Maasai, Kalenjin, Borana, etc) and the cushite communities with whom they share borders, to the east of Tsavo. The Akamba are often found engaged in different professions: some are agriculturalists, others hunters, and a surprisingly large number are pastoralists. Barter trade with the Kikuyu, Maasai, Meru and Embu people in the interior and the Mijikenda and Arab people of the coast was also practiced by the Akamba who straddled the eastern plains of Kenya.
Over time, the Akamba extended their commercial activity and wielded economic control across the central part of the land that was later to be known as Kenya (from the Kikamba, 'Kiinyaa', meaning 'the Ostrich Country'), from the Indian Ocean in the east to Lake Victoria in the west, and all the way up to Lake Turkana on the northern frontier. The Akamba traded in locally-produced goods such as cane beer, ivory, brass amulets, tools and weapons, millet, and cattle. The food obtained from trading helped offset shortages caused by droughts and famines. They also traded in medicinal products known as 'Miti' (literally: plants), made from various parts of the numerous medicinal plants found on the East African plains. The Akamba are still known for their fine work in basketry and pottery. Their artistic inclination is evidenced in the sculpture work that is on display in many craft shops and galleries in the major cities and towns of Kenya.
In the mid-eighteenth century, a large number of Akamba pastoral groups moved eastwards from the Tsavo and Kibwezi areas to the coast. This migration was the result of extensive drought and lack of pasture for their cattle. They settled in the Mariakani, Kisauni and Kinango areas of the coast of Kenya, creating the beginnings of urban settlement. They are still found in large numbers in these towns, and have been absorbed into the cultural, economic and political life of the modern-day Coast Province. Several notable politicians, businessmen and women, as well as professional men and women are direct descendants of these itinerant pastoralists.
Contents
1 Colonialism and the 19th century
2 The Kikamba family
3 Culture and beliefs
4 Kikamba music
5 Clothing and costumery
6 List of Prominent Akamba
7 Resources
//
Colonialism and the 19th century
In the latter part of the 19th century the Arabs took over the coastal trade from the Akamba, who then acted as middlemen between the Arab and Swahili traders and the tribes further upcountry. Their trade and travel made them ideal guides for the caravans gathering slaves for the Middle Eastern and Indian markets. Early European explorers also used them as guides in their expeditions to explore East Africa due to their wide knowledge of the land and neutral standing with many of the other tribes they traded with.
Akamba resistance to colonialism was mostly non-violent in nature. Some of the best known Akamba resistance leaders to colonialism were: Syokimau, Syotune wa Kathukye, Muindi Mbingu, and later Paul Ngei, JD Kali, and Malu of Kilungu. Ngei and Kali were imprisoned by the colonial government for their anti-colonial protests. Syotune wa Kathukye led a peaceful protest to recover cattle confiscated by the British colonial government during one of their punitive expeditions on the local populations. Muindi Mbingu was arrested for leading another protest march to recover stolen land around the Mua Hills in Masaku district, which the British settlers eventually appropriated for themselves. JD Kali, along with Paul Ngei, joined the Mau Mau movement to recover Kenya for the Kenyan people. He was imprisoned in Kismayu during the fighting between the then government and the freedom fighters.
The Kikamba family
In Kikamba culture, the family plays a central role in the community. The Kamba extended family or clan is called 'mbai'. The man, who is the head of the family, is usually engaged in an economic activity popular among the community like trading, hunting, cattle-herding or farming. He is known as 'Nau', 'Tata'or 'Asa'.
The woman, whatever her husband's occupation, works on her plot of land, which she is given upon joining her husband's household. She supplies the bulk of the food consumed by her family. She grows maize, millet, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beans, pigeon peas, greens, arrow root, cassava, and in the cooler regions such as Kangundo, yam. It is the mother's role to bring up the children. Even children that have grown up into adults are expected to never contradict the mother's wishes. The mother is known as 'Mwaitu' ('our One').
Very little distinction is made between one's children and nieces and nephews. They address their maternal uncle as 'ma-ma' and their paternal aunt as 'mwendwau'. They address their paternal cousins as 'wasa', and the maternal cousins as 'mwendya'. Children often move from one household to another with ease, and are made to feel at home by their aunts and uncles who, while in charge of their nephews/nieces, are their de facto parents.
Grandparents (Susu, umau) help with the less strenuous chores around the home, such as rope-making, tanning leather, cleaning calabashes and making arrows. Older women continue to work the land, as this is seen as a source of independence and economic security. They also carry out trade in the local markets, though not exclusively. In the modern Kikamba family, the women, especially in the urban regions, practice professions such as teaching, secretarial work, management, tailoring etc in accordance with Kenya's socioeconomic evolution.
Culture and beliefs
Naming is an important aspect of the Akamba people. Children are often affectionately called Musumbi (meaning "king"), and Muthoki/Nthoki (meaning "long awaited one"). Akamba children are named for/after time or events surrounding their birth. For example, Nduku is a name given to a baby girl born at night and Mutuku to a baby boy born at night. Children born when it is raining may be named Mumbua (feminine) or Wambua (masculine).
Traditionally the Akamba did not name after living ancestors. This tradition has been heavily diluted in contemporary times due to inter ethnic marriages, most commonly those with the Kikuyu who insist on naming after living relatives in a systematic order. Historically, however, the Akamba were a very superstitious people, and to name after a living relative was thought to be a curse upon the living namesake to wish them dead and was heavily frowned upon.
Like the Maasai and the Agikuyu, the Akamba believe in a monotheistic, invisible and transcendental God, Ngai or Mulungu, who lives up in the sky ('yayayani'). Another venerable name for God is Asa, or the Father. He is also known as Mwatuangi. He is perceived as the omnipotent creator of life on earth and as a merciful, if distant, entity. The traditional Akamba perceive the spirits of their departed ones, the 'Aimu'/'Maimu', as the intercessors between themselves and Ngai Mulungu. They are remembered in family rituals and offerings / libations at individual altars.
The kamba royalty was often not talked about and the history behind the royalty is not well known although the name Mwanzwii is liked with royalty or leadership. Not much is known about this Family or mentioned in any available documentation. Royalty may not be the best term to describe these people. Their role was more of leadership and performance of certain public, social, spiritual or ceremonial functions. They refrained from any involvement in electoral politics or the actual governance of their people. Some royal families have lost their "royalty" through social changes over a long period of time.
Kikamba music
The Akamba people's love of music and dance is evidenced in their spectacular performances at many events in their daily lives or on occasions of regional and national importance. In their dances they display agility and athletic skills as they perform acrobatics and body movements. The Akamba dance techniques and style resemble those of the Batutsi of Rwanda-Burundi and the Aembu of Kenya.
The following are some of the varieties of traditional dance styles of the Akamba community:
Mwali (pl: Myali) which is a dance accompanying a song, the latter which is usually made to criticize anti-social behaviour.
Kilumi and Ngoma, religious dances, performed at healing and rain-making ceremonies;
Mwilu is a circumcision dance;
Mbalya, or Ngutha is a dance for young people who meet to entertain themselves after the day's chores are done.
Kamandiko', (Irish or Scottish Ceilidh) or the modern disco usually held after a wedding party.
Dances are usually accompanied by songs composed for the occasion (marriage, birth, nationally important occasion), and reflect the traditional structure of the Kikamba song, sung on a pentatonic scale. The singing is lively and tuneful. Songs are composed satirizing deviant behavior, anti-social activity, etc. The Akamba have famous work songs, such as 'Ngulu Mwelela', sung while work, such as digging, is going on. Herdsmen and boys have different songs, as do young people and old. During the Mbalya dances the dance leader will compose love songs and satirical numbers, to tease and entertain his / her dancers.
Clothing and costumery
The Akamba of the modern times, like most people in Kenya, dress rather conventionally in western / European clothing. The men wear trousers and shirts. Young boys will, as a rule, wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts, usually in cotton, or tee-shirts. Traditionally, Akamba men wore leather short kilts made from animal skins or tree bark. They wore copious jewelry, mainly of copper and brass. It consisted of neck-chains, bracelets, and anklets.
The women in modern Akamba society also dress in the European fashion, taking their pick from dresses, skirts, trousers, jeans and shorts, made from the wide range of fabrics available in Kenya. Primarily, however, skirts are the customary and respectable mode of dress. In the past, the women were attired in knee-length leather or bark skirts, embellished with bead work. They wore necklaces made of beads, these obtained from the Swahili and Arab traders. They shaved their heads clean, and wore a head band intensively decorated with beads. The various kilumi or dance groups wore similar colors and patterns on their bead work to distinguish themselves from other groups.
Traditionally, both men and women wore leather sandals especially when they ventured out of their neighborhoods to go to the market or on visits. While at home or working in their fields, however, they remained barefoot.
School children, male and female, shave their heads to maintain the spirit of uniformity and equality
LUO COMMUNITY
The Luos
Introduction
Around the sixteenth century, the ancestors of the Luo began migrating from the Bahr al-Ghazal region, south of the Nile, finally settling on the eastern side of the Lake Victoria basin. They continued arriving in a steady stream until the nineteenth century. Practitioners of pastoralism, they spoke a western Nilotic language known as DhoLuo, which is distinct from the language spoken by their neighbors. Currently, the Luo are the third most populous tribe in Kenya, comprising over 13% (2.8 million) of the country's population and many of its most influential intellectual and political minds. Due to the supra-national states created during the scramble for Africa by European colonists in 1884-85, there is also a significant number of Luo people living in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
Culture
Culture permeates the daily life of the Luo. From the name one receives at birth, to the placement of one's grave at death, culture and tradition dictate movements of the society. Because of countless deaths due to the AIDS virus, there are fewer and fewer elders to pass down customs, and the cultural fabric of the Luo society is unraveling.
An example of Luo culture representative of life in Luoland is the naming process of the Luo people. Luo names refer to forces or spirits that exist beyond the immediate presence of life on earth. When individuals are deceased, they are referred to as the spirits of the ancestors. The means by which children receive spirit names is tied directly to the position of the sun in relation to the earth when they are born. Different names carry different personality characteristics. So, when meeting a stranger on a dusty crossroad, one gains insight into the character of that person simply by learning their name.
Luos name their children at the time of day that they are born, for example: Atieno is a girl born at night, Akinyi is morning, Achien'g when the sun is high. Akeyo is the name given during harvesting, and Apiyo and Adongo are twins, with Apiyo as the name of the first to be born. The first letter of a name also indicates gender: 'A' signifies a woman, and 'O' for a boy. For example, Otieno would be the name of a boy and Atieno for a girl, both of the same name.
One traditional practice of the Luo is fading, but has been the subject of controversial debates in recent years. Wife inheritance, a practice wherein a man's wife is inherited by one of his brothers after he dies, was a traditional way to insure that the family of the deceased would be cared for. Essentially meaning that the children legally belong to the homestead.
HIV/AIDS has had a significant impact on the Luo culture, particularly the sense of community responsibility for raising orphan children. In Luoland, the concept of adoption is unknown. Orphan children are simply and informally absorbed by extended family or neighbors. They are immediately considered part of their new family, giving reality to the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." The traditional familial structure of the Luo quite easily accommodated this practice, until the enormity of the AIDS crisis left villages with hundreds, even thousands, of orphans.
Food
The staple food is kuon, commonly known in Swahili as ugali, a type of bread made with maize flour. Ugali is usually accompanied by vegetables, meat, fish or stew. Maize is the main source of carbohydrates for the Luo, but rice is also common. It is inexpensive and grown in the Ahero, in the Nyando division area, which is close to Lake Victoria in the Western region of Kenya.
Another popular dish is nyoyo, which is a mixture of boiled maize and beans. Typically consumed after a hard day of work in the fields, nyoyo is often eaten with stir fried vegetables, tea, or porridge.
In Kenya, the Luo are known as the lovers of fish. Fish is plentiful in the region located around the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria, and can be purchased inexpensively from the right fishmonger.
Meat can also be purchased from a butcher at any local town market. Traditionally, the Luo were fishermen, but they have had to rear animals and work the land in order to produce an adequate food supply. There are two main planting seasons in a year, where everything from millet to maize and beans are grown.
Basic Etiquette in Kenya
The Kenyan culture as a whole is a blend of many different tribal cultures, and therefore can present quite a challenge in the area of social niceties. Cultural common courtesies vary depending on the place, but following some general Kenyan etiquette will prove to be beneficial while visiting.
When greeting a Kenyan, it is expected to say "hello" and shake hands. This formality is extended to close family members as well as strangers. It is also typical for telephone conversations to start with a polite greeting and an inquiry into one's health. By supporting your right forearm with the left hand while shaking hands with an elder, one shows respect. To casually touch an elder, however, is considered improper.
Also considered improper is to point at some one with an index finger. When pointing to someone or something, it is polite to use all fingers of the hand. Using the left hand to pass something is rude in the Kenyan culture; one must use the right hand, or both hands. When seeing a guest out, it is considered polite to walk with him or her to the car or bus stop. To say goodbye at the door is thought of as a sign of inhospitality, unless one is clearly busy or cannot leave the house for one reason or another.
Public displays of affection between the opposite sexes are frowned upon. This includes holding hands. Pants are only worn by women in more urban areas, and conservative hemlines in skirts are appreciated.
Kenyans have a different concept of personal space than Americans do. Kenyans will stand much closer together while in conversation and you may find someone almost leaning right against you while waiting in a line. They are also uncomfortable with eye contact. Another major difference between the Kenyan and American cultures is the concept of time. Expect delays of up to one hour for social invitations, and at least half an hour for official meetings.
Respect is a very important aspect of Luo culture. The idea of respect for one's elders is limitless. Not only must a child respect those that are older than him or her, but also the elders respect those who existed before them and are now in the afterlife. There are many small customs that represent ways in which one can honor those older than him or herself. One is that a young person may not sit in a chair while another senior person is present. Also, a child is not permitted to call his parents, grandparents, or those holding any of those positions, by their names. When children do converse with their elders they are much more polite in their use of language. Respect is also taught in relation to cattle. The Luo slaughter their cattle on special occasions, such as the celebration of the death of an elder.
The hierarchy that includes age and social status influences many factors within the society: the arrangement of the houses, villages, position of seating at ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. The oldest member of the family almost always leads the group, unless it has been proven that this elder is unfit in the customary fashions. The purpose of the Luo education seems to revolve around raising and cultivating brave, educated and respectful individuals.
Religion
Customary Luo religion featured a central deity, Nyasaye (translation for God), who is the creator of humanity and the universe. Today, approximately 90 percent of the Luo are Christians, but many still engage in customary rituals. Luo funerals are still extravagant affairs, reflecting the time-honored role of ancestor worship in unifying lineages. In addition, Luo have founded a number of independent Christian churches.
Traditional Homesteads (dala)
Traditionally, Luo people lived in homestead compounds in large, extended families. However, this tradition has been disappearing since the 1950's, and is only rarely seen in communities.
Traditional Luo culture allowed for polygamous marriages, and the size of a compound was generally relative to the number of wives a man could afford. It was easy to determine how many wives and children a man had by counting the number of huts in his homestead.
Traditional homestead compounds were circular and represented the center of being. A natural vegetative fence of Euphorbia trees bound the homestead, with a formal gate facing west, or toward the nearest body of water.
The husband built a home for his first wife directly opposite the main gate. The home of the second wife was located to her left, the home of the third to her right, and so on. The first-born son of each wife built a home in the northwest corner of the homestead. The location of these homes was intended to provide security from intruders or marauding animals. The second-born sons built in the southwest corner, and aided in the defense of the compound. All of the female children were married out of the homestead by dowry. The youngest son inherited his father's homestead and his brothers eventually moved out and established their own.
This homestead design embodied a social pattern devised to eliminate friction, to assign every member of the family his or her rightful place, and to ensure an orderly inheritance when the patriarch died. The system of the Luo homestead was formed in recognition of elemental conflicts between wives, their ambitions for their sons, and potential jealousies within polygamous households.
Anthropologically, this settlement pattern allowed one to peer into the homestead and garner a great deal about the family composition. Upon arriving at an unfamiliar homestead, a villager knew instinctively which house to seek.
Traditionally, when a person died, the body was buried in his or her hut. Although this is no longer practiced, the body of the deceased is still buried within the homestead and the individual's hut remains unoccupied to erode over time. If someone dies away from home (in a different town or city), large sums of money, often entire life savings, are spent in order to return their body to their homestead for burial. It is taboo to bury one away from his or her homestead, even if he or she did not live there at the time of death.
Luo Huts
The majority of homes in the village are constructed using traditional, indigenous building materials. These include rammed mud, wattle, raw timbers, cane, dung, sisal and grass thatched roofs. Traditional houses are built with raw timbers, and have earthen walls with a space between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof to provide ventilation. The roof is often extended one meter beyond the walls in order to provide shade.
Building methods are simple and basic due to a scarcity of tools. Lack of electricity prevents the use of power tools, and lack of capital prevents the acquisition of more sophisticated hand tools. Most buildings are constructed using just a hammer and machete or handsaw, with nails or sisal, an indigenous plant, as fasteners.
In recent years, people have introduced metal roofs, dimensional lumber, glass windows and wooden doors to local structures. Some of the larger buildings, for example churches and schools, are constructed of brick and concrete block walls and poured concrete slab floors.
The interior layout of the house follows a traditional plan, and the occupant of each room is predetermined. The positions of the sleeping room, sitting room, and food storage are common among all traditional Luo homes, and kitchens are typically located outside on a veranda or in a small building nearby.
The kitchen is the Luo woman's domain. In the kitchen of a traditional homestead, storage vessels line raised platforms, and food and utensils are suspended overhead by woven rope. Firewood was stored under the veranda and a grinding stone was placed to the right of the door. Rarely do you see a home that still has a grinding stone.
The sleeping area, on the left side of the house, is separated from the sitting area by a high wall. This is the most private zone of the home, to be occupied by only the husband, wife, and small children. The sitting room, located on the other side of the wall, is more public. The seating arrangements within this room are predetermined. For example, the man of the house sits opposite the front door.
Daily Routines
Observing the daily routines of different segments of Luo society is a window into the mechanics of the culture. There is a clear discrepancy in workload based on gender. The Luo female is responsible for virtually every aspect of daily life, from gardening and harvesting to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Male duties include building the home and plowing the fields.
Villagers travel considerable distances on a daily basis to obtain water. Women often travel up to two hours every day to collect this basic necessity. During the dry season, many people are forced to pay for water.
Education
Education is an important aspect of the Luo people's culture. Often considered the intellectuals in Kenya, the Luo believe that each individual is educated from the moment of birth until death. The Luo maintain the belief that the sum of all experiences moulds attitudes and determines the conduct of both the child and the adult.
When it comes to professions, some are available to all. For example, the job of a blacksmith may be passed down from generation to generation. The blacksmith would teach his son what he knows, thus continuing the cycle of knowledge.
Other professions, however, are not available to all people. The Luo believe that certain jobs require an inherent skill, one which cannot be taught. The job of the medicine man is a good example. When a person is taught the skills necessary to hold one of these positions, the Luo have specific goals in order for them to succeed in their education. They hope to provide a practical education, which is intended to enable the student to assist in the production of material wealth as a grown man. They also aim to teach the traditions, customs, and history of their ancestors. They wish to maintain the Luo way of life, respect and honor, and to maintain the identity of the group.
The Subas
The Suba, as a distinct ethnic group are extinct, courtesy of two centuries of active and passive assimilation by their more aggressive Nilo-Hamitic neighbours, the Luo.
These days Suba ancestry only exists in their mythology; the Suba are content to refer to themselves as Luo. Kenya's 1999 national census estimated their number to be 83,000, though pure Suba speakers weren't identified. Indeed, when in 1995 President Daniel arap Moi carved a new district, Suba, out of the Luo-dominated Homa Bay district, cartoonists had a field day caricaturing how a Suba looks like. They're fictitious people who couldn't be found, concluded one cartoonist.
The demise of the Suba has been a thorough one, fuelled by a pre-colonial ethnic colonialism imposed by the Luo, sustained intermarriage between the two communities, and an inconsiderate colonial policy that crafted borders that effectively cut off the Kenyan Subas from their kin in Tanzania and Uganda.
The end result are hybrid Luos - fluent in Luo, with Luo spouses and names - who cannot speak their extinct mother tongue, practice their culture, and pass their own history to youngsters.
According to locals, the intensity of the Luo onslaught has been sustained by a Luo custom that bans marriages between people from the same clan. Consequently, men from this Nilo-Hamitic society, being largely a socially conservative community, headed westwards, raiding and wooing Subaland for women so as to start families.
Ironically, the name "Suba" itself is a name that was given by the Luo to the people who fled Uganda. In actual fact, these people are called "abakunta."
The colonial government didn't help matters when, in its quest to seduce the politically versatile Luo, it set up most of the area's health centers, schools, and trading centers in Luoland, forcing ambitious Subas to head to Luoland. With their demographic insignificance, it was a matter of time before they were finally vanquished, culturally and linguistically. A century ago, they occupied the area from present day Homa Bay district in southwestern Kenya to Lake Tanganyika in neighboring Tanzania, in addition to Lake Victoria's Rusinga and Mfangano Islands. Nowadays, their remnants are only found in tiny pockets in Homa Bay, Muhuru Bay, Gwassi, Wuond, and Kaskgiri areas.
The Suba, or whatever remained of them, have stopped circumcising their sons, like what is done in most Bantu communities, and opted for the removal of the lower six teeth, as is common in most Nilotic groups. Also gone is their naming system that was based on animals, plants, and natural phenomena; in came the Luo version based on time and objects. The Subas, known to be agriculturalists, have also ditched the hoe for the rod, since fishing is the main economic occupation in Luoland.
The Suba and the Luo people are quick to break into song or dance, their children wear near-constant smiles, and even orphans find reasons to laugh. In quest of a viable future for themselves and their children, the Subas and Luos are strongly committed to an enduring and sustainable society that will preserve valuable traditions from the past.
Introduction
Around the sixteenth century, the ancestors of the Luo began migrating from the Bahr al-Ghazal region, south of the Nile, finally settling on the eastern side of the Lake Victoria basin. They continued arriving in a steady stream until the nineteenth century. Practitioners of pastoralism, they spoke a western Nilotic language known as DhoLuo, which is distinct from the language spoken by their neighbors. Currently, the Luo are the third most populous tribe in Kenya, comprising over 13% (2.8 million) of the country's population and many of its most influential intellectual and political minds. Due to the supra-national states created during the scramble for Africa by European colonists in 1884-85, there is also a significant number of Luo people living in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
Culture
Culture permeates the daily life of the Luo. From the name one receives at birth, to the placement of one's grave at death, culture and tradition dictate movements of the society. Because of countless deaths due to the AIDS virus, there are fewer and fewer elders to pass down customs, and the cultural fabric of the Luo society is unraveling.
An example of Luo culture representative of life in Luoland is the naming process of the Luo people. Luo names refer to forces or spirits that exist beyond the immediate presence of life on earth. When individuals are deceased, they are referred to as the spirits of the ancestors. The means by which children receive spirit names is tied directly to the position of the sun in relation to the earth when they are born. Different names carry different personality characteristics. So, when meeting a stranger on a dusty crossroad, one gains insight into the character of that person simply by learning their name.
Luos name their children at the time of day that they are born, for example: Atieno is a girl born at night, Akinyi is morning, Achien'g when the sun is high. Akeyo is the name given during harvesting, and Apiyo and Adongo are twins, with Apiyo as the name of the first to be born. The first letter of a name also indicates gender: 'A' signifies a woman, and 'O' for a boy. For example, Otieno would be the name of a boy and Atieno for a girl, both of the same name.
One traditional practice of the Luo is fading, but has been the subject of controversial debates in recent years. Wife inheritance, a practice wherein a man's wife is inherited by one of his brothers after he dies, was a traditional way to insure that the family of the deceased would be cared for. Essentially meaning that the children legally belong to the homestead.
HIV/AIDS has had a significant impact on the Luo culture, particularly the sense of community responsibility for raising orphan children. In Luoland, the concept of adoption is unknown. Orphan children are simply and informally absorbed by extended family or neighbors. They are immediately considered part of their new family, giving reality to the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." The traditional familial structure of the Luo quite easily accommodated this practice, until the enormity of the AIDS crisis left villages with hundreds, even thousands, of orphans.
Food
The staple food is kuon, commonly known in Swahili as ugali, a type of bread made with maize flour. Ugali is usually accompanied by vegetables, meat, fish or stew. Maize is the main source of carbohydrates for the Luo, but rice is also common. It is inexpensive and grown in the Ahero, in the Nyando division area, which is close to Lake Victoria in the Western region of Kenya.
Another popular dish is nyoyo, which is a mixture of boiled maize and beans. Typically consumed after a hard day of work in the fields, nyoyo is often eaten with stir fried vegetables, tea, or porridge.
In Kenya, the Luo are known as the lovers of fish. Fish is plentiful in the region located around the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria, and can be purchased inexpensively from the right fishmonger.
Meat can also be purchased from a butcher at any local town market. Traditionally, the Luo were fishermen, but they have had to rear animals and work the land in order to produce an adequate food supply. There are two main planting seasons in a year, where everything from millet to maize and beans are grown.
Basic Etiquette in Kenya
The Kenyan culture as a whole is a blend of many different tribal cultures, and therefore can present quite a challenge in the area of social niceties. Cultural common courtesies vary depending on the place, but following some general Kenyan etiquette will prove to be beneficial while visiting.
When greeting a Kenyan, it is expected to say "hello" and shake hands. This formality is extended to close family members as well as strangers. It is also typical for telephone conversations to start with a polite greeting and an inquiry into one's health. By supporting your right forearm with the left hand while shaking hands with an elder, one shows respect. To casually touch an elder, however, is considered improper.
Also considered improper is to point at some one with an index finger. When pointing to someone or something, it is polite to use all fingers of the hand. Using the left hand to pass something is rude in the Kenyan culture; one must use the right hand, or both hands. When seeing a guest out, it is considered polite to walk with him or her to the car or bus stop. To say goodbye at the door is thought of as a sign of inhospitality, unless one is clearly busy or cannot leave the house for one reason or another.
Public displays of affection between the opposite sexes are frowned upon. This includes holding hands. Pants are only worn by women in more urban areas, and conservative hemlines in skirts are appreciated.
Kenyans have a different concept of personal space than Americans do. Kenyans will stand much closer together while in conversation and you may find someone almost leaning right against you while waiting in a line. They are also uncomfortable with eye contact. Another major difference between the Kenyan and American cultures is the concept of time. Expect delays of up to one hour for social invitations, and at least half an hour for official meetings.
Respect is a very important aspect of Luo culture. The idea of respect for one's elders is limitless. Not only must a child respect those that are older than him or her, but also the elders respect those who existed before them and are now in the afterlife. There are many small customs that represent ways in which one can honor those older than him or herself. One is that a young person may not sit in a chair while another senior person is present. Also, a child is not permitted to call his parents, grandparents, or those holding any of those positions, by their names. When children do converse with their elders they are much more polite in their use of language. Respect is also taught in relation to cattle. The Luo slaughter their cattle on special occasions, such as the celebration of the death of an elder.
The hierarchy that includes age and social status influences many factors within the society: the arrangement of the houses, villages, position of seating at ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. The oldest member of the family almost always leads the group, unless it has been proven that this elder is unfit in the customary fashions. The purpose of the Luo education seems to revolve around raising and cultivating brave, educated and respectful individuals.
Religion
Customary Luo religion featured a central deity, Nyasaye (translation for God), who is the creator of humanity and the universe. Today, approximately 90 percent of the Luo are Christians, but many still engage in customary rituals. Luo funerals are still extravagant affairs, reflecting the time-honored role of ancestor worship in unifying lineages. In addition, Luo have founded a number of independent Christian churches.
Traditional Homesteads (dala)
Traditionally, Luo people lived in homestead compounds in large, extended families. However, this tradition has been disappearing since the 1950's, and is only rarely seen in communities.
Traditional Luo culture allowed for polygamous marriages, and the size of a compound was generally relative to the number of wives a man could afford. It was easy to determine how many wives and children a man had by counting the number of huts in his homestead.
Traditional homestead compounds were circular and represented the center of being. A natural vegetative fence of Euphorbia trees bound the homestead, with a formal gate facing west, or toward the nearest body of water.
The husband built a home for his first wife directly opposite the main gate. The home of the second wife was located to her left, the home of the third to her right, and so on. The first-born son of each wife built a home in the northwest corner of the homestead. The location of these homes was intended to provide security from intruders or marauding animals. The second-born sons built in the southwest corner, and aided in the defense of the compound. All of the female children were married out of the homestead by dowry. The youngest son inherited his father's homestead and his brothers eventually moved out and established their own.
This homestead design embodied a social pattern devised to eliminate friction, to assign every member of the family his or her rightful place, and to ensure an orderly inheritance when the patriarch died. The system of the Luo homestead was formed in recognition of elemental conflicts between wives, their ambitions for their sons, and potential jealousies within polygamous households.
Anthropologically, this settlement pattern allowed one to peer into the homestead and garner a great deal about the family composition. Upon arriving at an unfamiliar homestead, a villager knew instinctively which house to seek.
Traditionally, when a person died, the body was buried in his or her hut. Although this is no longer practiced, the body of the deceased is still buried within the homestead and the individual's hut remains unoccupied to erode over time. If someone dies away from home (in a different town or city), large sums of money, often entire life savings, are spent in order to return their body to their homestead for burial. It is taboo to bury one away from his or her homestead, even if he or she did not live there at the time of death.
Luo Huts
The majority of homes in the village are constructed using traditional, indigenous building materials. These include rammed mud, wattle, raw timbers, cane, dung, sisal and grass thatched roofs. Traditional houses are built with raw timbers, and have earthen walls with a space between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof to provide ventilation. The roof is often extended one meter beyond the walls in order to provide shade.
Building methods are simple and basic due to a scarcity of tools. Lack of electricity prevents the use of power tools, and lack of capital prevents the acquisition of more sophisticated hand tools. Most buildings are constructed using just a hammer and machete or handsaw, with nails or sisal, an indigenous plant, as fasteners.
In recent years, people have introduced metal roofs, dimensional lumber, glass windows and wooden doors to local structures. Some of the larger buildings, for example churches and schools, are constructed of brick and concrete block walls and poured concrete slab floors.
The interior layout of the house follows a traditional plan, and the occupant of each room is predetermined. The positions of the sleeping room, sitting room, and food storage are common among all traditional Luo homes, and kitchens are typically located outside on a veranda or in a small building nearby.
The kitchen is the Luo woman's domain. In the kitchen of a traditional homestead, storage vessels line raised platforms, and food and utensils are suspended overhead by woven rope. Firewood was stored under the veranda and a grinding stone was placed to the right of the door. Rarely do you see a home that still has a grinding stone.
The sleeping area, on the left side of the house, is separated from the sitting area by a high wall. This is the most private zone of the home, to be occupied by only the husband, wife, and small children. The sitting room, located on the other side of the wall, is more public. The seating arrangements within this room are predetermined. For example, the man of the house sits opposite the front door.
Daily Routines
Observing the daily routines of different segments of Luo society is a window into the mechanics of the culture. There is a clear discrepancy in workload based on gender. The Luo female is responsible for virtually every aspect of daily life, from gardening and harvesting to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Male duties include building the home and plowing the fields.
Villagers travel considerable distances on a daily basis to obtain water. Women often travel up to two hours every day to collect this basic necessity. During the dry season, many people are forced to pay for water.
Education
Education is an important aspect of the Luo people's culture. Often considered the intellectuals in Kenya, the Luo believe that each individual is educated from the moment of birth until death. The Luo maintain the belief that the sum of all experiences moulds attitudes and determines the conduct of both the child and the adult.
When it comes to professions, some are available to all. For example, the job of a blacksmith may be passed down from generation to generation. The blacksmith would teach his son what he knows, thus continuing the cycle of knowledge.
Other professions, however, are not available to all people. The Luo believe that certain jobs require an inherent skill, one which cannot be taught. The job of the medicine man is a good example. When a person is taught the skills necessary to hold one of these positions, the Luo have specific goals in order for them to succeed in their education. They hope to provide a practical education, which is intended to enable the student to assist in the production of material wealth as a grown man. They also aim to teach the traditions, customs, and history of their ancestors. They wish to maintain the Luo way of life, respect and honor, and to maintain the identity of the group.
The Subas
The Suba, as a distinct ethnic group are extinct, courtesy of two centuries of active and passive assimilation by their more aggressive Nilo-Hamitic neighbours, the Luo.
These days Suba ancestry only exists in their mythology; the Suba are content to refer to themselves as Luo. Kenya's 1999 national census estimated their number to be 83,000, though pure Suba speakers weren't identified. Indeed, when in 1995 President Daniel arap Moi carved a new district, Suba, out of the Luo-dominated Homa Bay district, cartoonists had a field day caricaturing how a Suba looks like. They're fictitious people who couldn't be found, concluded one cartoonist.
The demise of the Suba has been a thorough one, fuelled by a pre-colonial ethnic colonialism imposed by the Luo, sustained intermarriage between the two communities, and an inconsiderate colonial policy that crafted borders that effectively cut off the Kenyan Subas from their kin in Tanzania and Uganda.
The end result are hybrid Luos - fluent in Luo, with Luo spouses and names - who cannot speak their extinct mother tongue, practice their culture, and pass their own history to youngsters.
According to locals, the intensity of the Luo onslaught has been sustained by a Luo custom that bans marriages between people from the same clan. Consequently, men from this Nilo-Hamitic society, being largely a socially conservative community, headed westwards, raiding and wooing Subaland for women so as to start families.
Ironically, the name "Suba" itself is a name that was given by the Luo to the people who fled Uganda. In actual fact, these people are called "abakunta."
The colonial government didn't help matters when, in its quest to seduce the politically versatile Luo, it set up most of the area's health centers, schools, and trading centers in Luoland, forcing ambitious Subas to head to Luoland. With their demographic insignificance, it was a matter of time before they were finally vanquished, culturally and linguistically. A century ago, they occupied the area from present day Homa Bay district in southwestern Kenya to Lake Tanganyika in neighboring Tanzania, in addition to Lake Victoria's Rusinga and Mfangano Islands. Nowadays, their remnants are only found in tiny pockets in Homa Bay, Muhuru Bay, Gwassi, Wuond, and Kaskgiri areas.
The Suba, or whatever remained of them, have stopped circumcising their sons, like what is done in most Bantu communities, and opted for the removal of the lower six teeth, as is common in most Nilotic groups. Also gone is their naming system that was based on animals, plants, and natural phenomena; in came the Luo version based on time and objects. The Subas, known to be agriculturalists, have also ditched the hoe for the rod, since fishing is the main economic occupation in Luoland.
The Suba and the Luo people are quick to break into song or dance, their children wear near-constant smiles, and even orphans find reasons to laugh. In quest of a viable future for themselves and their children, the Subas and Luos are strongly committed to an enduring and sustainable society that will preserve valuable traditions from the past.
THE SUBA'S AND LUO'S
The Luos
Introduction
Around the sixteenth century, the ancestors of the Luo began migrating from the Bahr al-Ghazal region, south of the Nile, finally settling on the eastern side of the Lake Victoria basin. They continued arriving in a steady stream until the nineteenth century. Practitioners of pastoralism, they spoke a western Nilotic language known as DhoLuo, which is distinct from the language spoken by their neighbors. Currently, the Luo are the third most populous tribe in Kenya, comprising over 13% (2.8 million) of the country's population and many of its most influential intellectual and political minds. Due to the supra-national states created during the scramble for Africa by European colonists in 1884-85, there is also a significant number of Luo people living in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
Culture
Culture permeates the daily life of the Luo. From the name one receives at birth, to the placement of one's grave at death, culture and tradition dictate movements of the society. Because of countless deaths due to the AIDS virus, there are fewer and fewer elders to pass down customs, and the cultural fabric of the Luo society is unraveling.
An example of Luo culture representative of life in Luoland is the naming process of the Luo people. Luo names refer to forces or spirits that exist beyond the immediate presence of life on earth. When individuals are deceased, they are referred to as the spirits of the ancestors. The means by which children receive spirit names is tied directly to the position of the sun in relation to the earth when they are born. Different names carry different personality characteristics. So, when meeting a stranger on a dusty crossroad, one gains insight into the character of that person simply by learning their name.
Luos name their children at the time of day that they are born, for example: Atieno is a girl born at night, Akinyi is morning, Achien'g when the sun is high. Akeyo is the name given during harvesting, and Apiyo and Adongo are twins, with Apiyo as the name of the first to be born. The first letter of a name also indicates gender: 'A' signifies a woman, and 'O' for a boy. For example, Otieno would be the name of a boy and Atieno for a girl, both of the same name.
One traditional practice of the Luo is fading, but has been the subject of controversial debates in recent years. Wife inheritance, a practice wherein a man's wife is inherited by one of his brothers after he dies, was a traditional way to insure that the family of the deceased would be cared for. Essentially meaning that the children legally belong to the homestead.
HIV/AIDS has had a significant impact on the Luo culture, particularly the sense of community responsibility for raising orphan children. In Luoland, the concept of adoption is unknown. Orphan children are simply and informally absorbed by extended family or neighbors. They are immediately considered part of their new family, giving reality to the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." The traditional familial structure of the Luo quite easily accommodated this practice, until the enormity of the AIDS crisis left villages with hundreds, even thousands, of orphans.
Food
The staple food is kuon, commonly known in Swahili as ugali, a type of bread made with maize flour. Ugali is usually accompanied by vegetables, meat, fish or stew. Maize is the main source of carbohydrates for the Luo, but rice is also common. It is inexpensive and grown in the Ahero, in the Nyando division area, which is close to Lake Victoria in the Western region of Kenya.
Another popular dish is nyoyo, which is a mixture of boiled maize and beans. Typically consumed after a hard day of work in the fields, nyoyo is often eaten with stir fried vegetables, tea, or porridge.
In Kenya, the Luo are known as the lovers of fish. Fish is plentiful in the region located around the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria, and can be purchased inexpensively from the right fishmonger.
Meat can also be purchased from a butcher at any local town market. Traditionally, the Luo were fishermen, but they have had to rear animals and work the land in order to produce an adequate food supply. There are two main planting seasons in a year, where everything from millet to maize and beans are grown.
Basic Etiquette in Kenya
The Kenyan culture as a whole is a blend of many different tribal cultures, and therefore can present quite a challenge in the area of social niceties. Cultural common courtesies vary depending on the place, but following some general Kenyan etiquette will prove to be beneficial while visiting.
When greeting a Kenyan, it is expected to say "hello" and shake hands. This formality is extended to close family members as well as strangers. It is also typical for telephone conversations to start with a polite greeting and an inquiry into one's health. By supporting your right forearm with the left hand while shaking hands with an elder, one shows respect. To casually touch an elder, however, is considered improper.
Also considered improper is to point at some one with an index finger. When pointing to someone or something, it is polite to use all fingers of the hand. Using the left hand to pass something is rude in the Kenyan culture; one must use the right hand, or both hands. When seeing a guest out, it is considered polite to walk with him or her to the car or bus stop. To say goodbye at the door is thought of as a sign of inhospitality, unless one is clearly busy or cannot leave the house for one reason or another.
Public displays of affection between the opposite sexes are frowned upon. This includes holding hands. Pants are only worn by women in more urban areas, and conservative hemlines in skirts are appreciated.
Kenyans have a different concept of personal space than Americans do. Kenyans will stand much closer together while in conversation and you may find someone almost leaning right against you while waiting in a line. They are also uncomfortable with eye contact. Another major difference between the Kenyan and American cultures is the concept of time. Expect delays of up to one hour for social invitations, and at least half an hour for official meetings.
Respect is a very important aspect of Luo culture. The idea of respect for one's elders is limitless. Not only must a child respect those that are older than him or her, but also the elders respect those who existed before them and are now in the afterlife. There are many small customs that represent ways in which one can honor those older than him or herself. One is that a young person may not sit in a chair while another senior person is present. Also, a child is not permitted to call his parents, grandparents, or those holding any of those positions, by their names. When children do converse with their elders they are much more polite in their use of language. Respect is also taught in relation to cattle. The Luo slaughter their cattle on special occasions, such as the celebration of the death of an elder.
The hierarchy that includes age and social status influences many factors within the society: the arrangement of the houses, villages, position of seating at ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. The oldest member of the family almost always leads the group, unless it has been proven that this elder is unfit in the customary fashions. The purpose of the Luo education seems to revolve around raising and cultivating brave, educated and respectful individuals.
Religion
Customary Luo religion featured a central deity, Nyasaye (translation for God), who is the creator of humanity and the universe. Today, approximately 90 percent of the Luo are Christians, but many still engage in customary rituals. Luo funerals are still extravagant affairs, reflecting the time-honored role of ancestor worship in unifying lineages. In addition, Luo have founded a number of independent Christian churches.
Traditional Homesteads (dala)
Traditionally, Luo people lived in homestead compounds in large, extended families. However, this tradition has been disappearing since the 1950's, and is only rarely seen in communities.
Traditional Luo culture allowed for polygamous marriages, and the size of a compound was generally relative to the number of wives a man could afford. It was easy to determine how many wives and children a man had by counting the number of huts in his homestead.
Traditional homestead compounds were circular and represented the center of being. A natural vegetative fence of Euphorbia trees bound the homestead, with a formal gate facing west, or toward the nearest body of water.
The husband built a home for his first wife directly opposite the main gate. The home of the second wife was located to her left, the home of the third to her right, and so on. The first-born son of each wife built a home in the northwest corner of the homestead. The location of these homes was intended to provide security from intruders or marauding animals. The second-born sons built in the southwest corner, and aided in the defense of the compound. All of the female children were married out of the homestead by dowry. The youngest son inherited his father's homestead and his brothers eventually moved out and established their own.
This homestead design embodied a social pattern devised to eliminate friction, to assign every member of the family his or her rightful place, and to ensure an orderly inheritance when the patriarch died. The system of the Luo homestead was formed in recognition of elemental conflicts between wives, their ambitions for their sons, and potential jealousies within polygamous households.
Anthropologically, this settlement pattern allowed one to peer into the homestead and garner a great deal about the family composition. Upon arriving at an unfamiliar homestead, a villager knew instinctively which house to seek.
Traditionally, when a person died, the body was buried in his or her hut. Although this is no longer practiced, the body of the deceased is still buried within the homestead and the individual's hut remains unoccupied to erode over time. If someone dies away from home (in a different town or city), large sums of money, often entire life savings, are spent in order to return their body to their homestead for burial. It is taboo to bury one away from his or her homestead, even if he or she did not live there at the time of death.
Luo Huts
The majority of homes in the village are constructed using traditional, indigenous building materials. These include rammed mud, wattle, raw timbers, cane, dung, sisal and grass thatched roofs. Traditional houses are built with raw timbers, and have earthen walls with a space between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof to provide ventilation. The roof is often extended one meter beyond the walls in order to provide shade.
Building methods are simple and basic due to a scarcity of tools. Lack of electricity prevents the use of power tools, and lack of capital prevents the acquisition of more sophisticated hand tools. Most buildings are constructed using just a hammer and machete or handsaw, with nails or sisal, an indigenous plant, as fasteners.
In recent years, people have introduced metal roofs, dimensional lumber, glass windows and wooden doors to local structures. Some of the larger buildings, for example churches and schools, are constructed of brick and concrete block walls and poured concrete slab floors.
The interior layout of the house follows a traditional plan, and the occupant of each room is predetermined. The positions of the sleeping room, sitting room, and food storage are common among all traditional Luo homes, and kitchens are typically located outside on a veranda or in a small building nearby.
The kitchen is the Luo woman's domain. In the kitchen of a traditional homestead, storage vessels line raised platforms, and food and utensils are suspended overhead by woven rope. Firewood was stored under the veranda and a grinding stone was placed to the right of the door. Rarely do you see a home that still has a grinding stone.
The sleeping area, on the left side of the house, is separated from the sitting area by a high wall. This is the most private zone of the home, to be occupied by only the husband, wife, and small children. The sitting room, located on the other side of the wall, is more public. The seating arrangements within this room are predetermined. For example, the man of the house sits opposite the front door.
Daily Routines
Observing the daily routines of different segments of Luo society is a window into the mechanics of the culture. There is a clear discrepancy in workload based on gender. The Luo female is responsible for virtually every aspect of daily life, from gardening and harvesting to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Male duties include building the home and plowing the fields.
Villagers travel considerable distances on a daily basis to obtain water. Women often travel up to two hours every day to collect this basic necessity. During the dry season, many people are forced to pay for water.
Education
Education is an important aspect of the Luo people's culture. Often considered the intellectuals in Kenya, the Luo believe that each individual is educated from the moment of birth until death. The Luo maintain the belief that the sum of all experiences moulds attitudes and determines the conduct of both the child and the adult.
When it comes to professions, some are available to all. For example, the job of a blacksmith may be passed down from generation to generation. The blacksmith would teach his son what he knows, thus continuing the cycle of knowledge.
Other professions, however, are not available to all people. The Luo believe that certain jobs require an inherent skill, one which cannot be taught. The job of the medicine man is a good example. When a person is taught the skills necessary to hold one of these positions, the Luo have specific goals in order for them to succeed in their education. They hope to provide a practical education, which is intended to enable the student to assist in the production of material wealth as a grown man. They also aim to teach the traditions, customs, and history of their ancestors. They wish to maintain the Luo way of life, respect and honor, and to maintain the identity of the group.
The Subas
The Suba, as a distinct ethnic group are extinct, courtesy of two centuries of active and passive assimilation by their more aggressive Nilo-Hamitic neighbours, the Luo.
These days Suba ancestry only exists in their mythology; the Suba are content to refer to themselves as Luo. Kenya's 1999 national census estimated their number to be 83,000, though pure Suba speakers weren't identified. Indeed, when in 1995 President Daniel arap Moi carved a new district, Suba, out of the Luo-dominated Homa Bay district, cartoonists had a field day caricaturing how a Suba looks like. They're fictitious people who couldn't be found, concluded one cartoonist.
The demise of the Suba has been a thorough one, fuelled by a pre-colonial ethnic colonialism imposed by the Luo, sustained intermarriage between the two communities, and an inconsiderate colonial policy that crafted borders that effectively cut off the Kenyan Subas from their kin in Tanzania and Uganda.
The end result are hybrid Luos - fluent in Luo, with Luo spouses and names - who cannot speak their extinct mother tongue, practice their culture, and pass their own history to youngsters.
According to locals, the intensity of the Luo onslaught has been sustained by a Luo custom that bans marriages between people from the same clan. Consequently, men from this Nilo-Hamitic society, being largely a socially conservative community, headed westwards, raiding and wooing Subaland for women so as to start families.
Ironically, the name "Suba" itself is a name that was given by the Luo to the people who fled Uganda. In actual fact, these people are called "abakunta."
The colonial government didn't help matters when, in its quest to seduce the politically versatile Luo, it set up most of the area's health centers, schools, and trading centers in Luoland, forcing ambitious Subas to head to Luoland. With their demographic insignificance, it was a matter of time before they were finally vanquished, culturally and linguistically. A century ago, they occupied the area from present day Homa Bay district in southwestern Kenya to Lake Tanganyika in neighboring Tanzania, in addition to Lake Victoria's Rusinga and Mfangano Islands. Nowadays, their remnants are only found in tiny pockets in Homa Bay, Muhuru Bay, Gwassi, Wuond, and Kaskgiri areas.
The Suba, or whatever remained of them, have stopped circumcising their sons, like what is done in most Bantu communities, and opted for the removal of the lower six teeth, as is common in most Nilotic groups. Also gone is their naming system that was based on animals, plants, and natural phenomena; in came the Luo version based on time and objects. The Subas, known to be agriculturalists, have also ditched the hoe for the rod, since fishing is the main economic occupation in Luoland.
The Suba and the Luo people are quick to break into song or dance, their children wear near-constant smiles, and even orphans find reasons to laugh. In quest of a viable future for themselves and their children, the Subas and Luos are strongly committed to an enduring and sustainable society that will preserve valuable traditions from the past.
Introduction
Around the sixteenth century, the ancestors of the Luo began migrating from the Bahr al-Ghazal region, south of the Nile, finally settling on the eastern side of the Lake Victoria basin. They continued arriving in a steady stream until the nineteenth century. Practitioners of pastoralism, they spoke a western Nilotic language known as DhoLuo, which is distinct from the language spoken by their neighbors. Currently, the Luo are the third most populous tribe in Kenya, comprising over 13% (2.8 million) of the country's population and many of its most influential intellectual and political minds. Due to the supra-national states created during the scramble for Africa by European colonists in 1884-85, there is also a significant number of Luo people living in neighboring Uganda and Tanzania.
Culture
Culture permeates the daily life of the Luo. From the name one receives at birth, to the placement of one's grave at death, culture and tradition dictate movements of the society. Because of countless deaths due to the AIDS virus, there are fewer and fewer elders to pass down customs, and the cultural fabric of the Luo society is unraveling.
An example of Luo culture representative of life in Luoland is the naming process of the Luo people. Luo names refer to forces or spirits that exist beyond the immediate presence of life on earth. When individuals are deceased, they are referred to as the spirits of the ancestors. The means by which children receive spirit names is tied directly to the position of the sun in relation to the earth when they are born. Different names carry different personality characteristics. So, when meeting a stranger on a dusty crossroad, one gains insight into the character of that person simply by learning their name.
Luos name their children at the time of day that they are born, for example: Atieno is a girl born at night, Akinyi is morning, Achien'g when the sun is high. Akeyo is the name given during harvesting, and Apiyo and Adongo are twins, with Apiyo as the name of the first to be born. The first letter of a name also indicates gender: 'A' signifies a woman, and 'O' for a boy. For example, Otieno would be the name of a boy and Atieno for a girl, both of the same name.
One traditional practice of the Luo is fading, but has been the subject of controversial debates in recent years. Wife inheritance, a practice wherein a man's wife is inherited by one of his brothers after he dies, was a traditional way to insure that the family of the deceased would be cared for. Essentially meaning that the children legally belong to the homestead.
HIV/AIDS has had a significant impact on the Luo culture, particularly the sense of community responsibility for raising orphan children. In Luoland, the concept of adoption is unknown. Orphan children are simply and informally absorbed by extended family or neighbors. They are immediately considered part of their new family, giving reality to the phrase, "It takes a village to raise a child." The traditional familial structure of the Luo quite easily accommodated this practice, until the enormity of the AIDS crisis left villages with hundreds, even thousands, of orphans.
Food
The staple food is kuon, commonly known in Swahili as ugali, a type of bread made with maize flour. Ugali is usually accompanied by vegetables, meat, fish or stew. Maize is the main source of carbohydrates for the Luo, but rice is also common. It is inexpensive and grown in the Ahero, in the Nyando division area, which is close to Lake Victoria in the Western region of Kenya.
Another popular dish is nyoyo, which is a mixture of boiled maize and beans. Typically consumed after a hard day of work in the fields, nyoyo is often eaten with stir fried vegetables, tea, or porridge.
In Kenya, the Luo are known as the lovers of fish. Fish is plentiful in the region located around the second largest fresh water lake in the world, Lake Victoria, and can be purchased inexpensively from the right fishmonger.
Meat can also be purchased from a butcher at any local town market. Traditionally, the Luo were fishermen, but they have had to rear animals and work the land in order to produce an adequate food supply. There are two main planting seasons in a year, where everything from millet to maize and beans are grown.
Basic Etiquette in Kenya
The Kenyan culture as a whole is a blend of many different tribal cultures, and therefore can present quite a challenge in the area of social niceties. Cultural common courtesies vary depending on the place, but following some general Kenyan etiquette will prove to be beneficial while visiting.
When greeting a Kenyan, it is expected to say "hello" and shake hands. This formality is extended to close family members as well as strangers. It is also typical for telephone conversations to start with a polite greeting and an inquiry into one's health. By supporting your right forearm with the left hand while shaking hands with an elder, one shows respect. To casually touch an elder, however, is considered improper.
Also considered improper is to point at some one with an index finger. When pointing to someone or something, it is polite to use all fingers of the hand. Using the left hand to pass something is rude in the Kenyan culture; one must use the right hand, or both hands. When seeing a guest out, it is considered polite to walk with him or her to the car or bus stop. To say goodbye at the door is thought of as a sign of inhospitality, unless one is clearly busy or cannot leave the house for one reason or another.
Public displays of affection between the opposite sexes are frowned upon. This includes holding hands. Pants are only worn by women in more urban areas, and conservative hemlines in skirts are appreciated.
Kenyans have a different concept of personal space than Americans do. Kenyans will stand much closer together while in conversation and you may find someone almost leaning right against you while waiting in a line. They are also uncomfortable with eye contact. Another major difference between the Kenyan and American cultures is the concept of time. Expect delays of up to one hour for social invitations, and at least half an hour for official meetings.
Respect is a very important aspect of Luo culture. The idea of respect for one's elders is limitless. Not only must a child respect those that are older than him or her, but also the elders respect those who existed before them and are now in the afterlife. There are many small customs that represent ways in which one can honor those older than him or herself. One is that a young person may not sit in a chair while another senior person is present. Also, a child is not permitted to call his parents, grandparents, or those holding any of those positions, by their names. When children do converse with their elders they are much more polite in their use of language. Respect is also taught in relation to cattle. The Luo slaughter their cattle on special occasions, such as the celebration of the death of an elder.
The hierarchy that includes age and social status influences many factors within the society: the arrangement of the houses, villages, position of seating at ritual ceremonies and sacrifices. The oldest member of the family almost always leads the group, unless it has been proven that this elder is unfit in the customary fashions. The purpose of the Luo education seems to revolve around raising and cultivating brave, educated and respectful individuals.
Religion
Customary Luo religion featured a central deity, Nyasaye (translation for God), who is the creator of humanity and the universe. Today, approximately 90 percent of the Luo are Christians, but many still engage in customary rituals. Luo funerals are still extravagant affairs, reflecting the time-honored role of ancestor worship in unifying lineages. In addition, Luo have founded a number of independent Christian churches.
Traditional Homesteads (dala)
Traditionally, Luo people lived in homestead compounds in large, extended families. However, this tradition has been disappearing since the 1950's, and is only rarely seen in communities.
Traditional Luo culture allowed for polygamous marriages, and the size of a compound was generally relative to the number of wives a man could afford. It was easy to determine how many wives and children a man had by counting the number of huts in his homestead.
Traditional homestead compounds were circular and represented the center of being. A natural vegetative fence of Euphorbia trees bound the homestead, with a formal gate facing west, or toward the nearest body of water.
The husband built a home for his first wife directly opposite the main gate. The home of the second wife was located to her left, the home of the third to her right, and so on. The first-born son of each wife built a home in the northwest corner of the homestead. The location of these homes was intended to provide security from intruders or marauding animals. The second-born sons built in the southwest corner, and aided in the defense of the compound. All of the female children were married out of the homestead by dowry. The youngest son inherited his father's homestead and his brothers eventually moved out and established their own.
This homestead design embodied a social pattern devised to eliminate friction, to assign every member of the family his or her rightful place, and to ensure an orderly inheritance when the patriarch died. The system of the Luo homestead was formed in recognition of elemental conflicts between wives, their ambitions for their sons, and potential jealousies within polygamous households.
Anthropologically, this settlement pattern allowed one to peer into the homestead and garner a great deal about the family composition. Upon arriving at an unfamiliar homestead, a villager knew instinctively which house to seek.
Traditionally, when a person died, the body was buried in his or her hut. Although this is no longer practiced, the body of the deceased is still buried within the homestead and the individual's hut remains unoccupied to erode over time. If someone dies away from home (in a different town or city), large sums of money, often entire life savings, are spent in order to return their body to their homestead for burial. It is taboo to bury one away from his or her homestead, even if he or she did not live there at the time of death.
Luo Huts
The majority of homes in the village are constructed using traditional, indigenous building materials. These include rammed mud, wattle, raw timbers, cane, dung, sisal and grass thatched roofs. Traditional houses are built with raw timbers, and have earthen walls with a space between the top of the wall and the bottom of the roof to provide ventilation. The roof is often extended one meter beyond the walls in order to provide shade.
Building methods are simple and basic due to a scarcity of tools. Lack of electricity prevents the use of power tools, and lack of capital prevents the acquisition of more sophisticated hand tools. Most buildings are constructed using just a hammer and machete or handsaw, with nails or sisal, an indigenous plant, as fasteners.
In recent years, people have introduced metal roofs, dimensional lumber, glass windows and wooden doors to local structures. Some of the larger buildings, for example churches and schools, are constructed of brick and concrete block walls and poured concrete slab floors.
The interior layout of the house follows a traditional plan, and the occupant of each room is predetermined. The positions of the sleeping room, sitting room, and food storage are common among all traditional Luo homes, and kitchens are typically located outside on a veranda or in a small building nearby.
The kitchen is the Luo woman's domain. In the kitchen of a traditional homestead, storage vessels line raised platforms, and food and utensils are suspended overhead by woven rope. Firewood was stored under the veranda and a grinding stone was placed to the right of the door. Rarely do you see a home that still has a grinding stone.
The sleeping area, on the left side of the house, is separated from the sitting area by a high wall. This is the most private zone of the home, to be occupied by only the husband, wife, and small children. The sitting room, located on the other side of the wall, is more public. The seating arrangements within this room are predetermined. For example, the man of the house sits opposite the front door.
Daily Routines
Observing the daily routines of different segments of Luo society is a window into the mechanics of the culture. There is a clear discrepancy in workload based on gender. The Luo female is responsible for virtually every aspect of daily life, from gardening and harvesting to cooking, cleaning, and childcare. Male duties include building the home and plowing the fields.
Villagers travel considerable distances on a daily basis to obtain water. Women often travel up to two hours every day to collect this basic necessity. During the dry season, many people are forced to pay for water.
Education
Education is an important aspect of the Luo people's culture. Often considered the intellectuals in Kenya, the Luo believe that each individual is educated from the moment of birth until death. The Luo maintain the belief that the sum of all experiences moulds attitudes and determines the conduct of both the child and the adult.
When it comes to professions, some are available to all. For example, the job of a blacksmith may be passed down from generation to generation. The blacksmith would teach his son what he knows, thus continuing the cycle of knowledge.
Other professions, however, are not available to all people. The Luo believe that certain jobs require an inherent skill, one which cannot be taught. The job of the medicine man is a good example. When a person is taught the skills necessary to hold one of these positions, the Luo have specific goals in order for them to succeed in their education. They hope to provide a practical education, which is intended to enable the student to assist in the production of material wealth as a grown man. They also aim to teach the traditions, customs, and history of their ancestors. They wish to maintain the Luo way of life, respect and honor, and to maintain the identity of the group.
The Subas
The Suba, as a distinct ethnic group are extinct, courtesy of two centuries of active and passive assimilation by their more aggressive Nilo-Hamitic neighbours, the Luo.
These days Suba ancestry only exists in their mythology; the Suba are content to refer to themselves as Luo. Kenya's 1999 national census estimated their number to be 83,000, though pure Suba speakers weren't identified. Indeed, when in 1995 President Daniel arap Moi carved a new district, Suba, out of the Luo-dominated Homa Bay district, cartoonists had a field day caricaturing how a Suba looks like. They're fictitious people who couldn't be found, concluded one cartoonist.
The demise of the Suba has been a thorough one, fuelled by a pre-colonial ethnic colonialism imposed by the Luo, sustained intermarriage between the two communities, and an inconsiderate colonial policy that crafted borders that effectively cut off the Kenyan Subas from their kin in Tanzania and Uganda.
The end result are hybrid Luos - fluent in Luo, with Luo spouses and names - who cannot speak their extinct mother tongue, practice their culture, and pass their own history to youngsters.
According to locals, the intensity of the Luo onslaught has been sustained by a Luo custom that bans marriages between people from the same clan. Consequently, men from this Nilo-Hamitic society, being largely a socially conservative community, headed westwards, raiding and wooing Subaland for women so as to start families.
Ironically, the name "Suba" itself is a name that was given by the Luo to the people who fled Uganda. In actual fact, these people are called "abakunta."
The colonial government didn't help matters when, in its quest to seduce the politically versatile Luo, it set up most of the area's health centers, schools, and trading centers in Luoland, forcing ambitious Subas to head to Luoland. With their demographic insignificance, it was a matter of time before they were finally vanquished, culturally and linguistically. A century ago, they occupied the area from present day Homa Bay district in southwestern Kenya to Lake Tanganyika in neighboring Tanzania, in addition to Lake Victoria's Rusinga and Mfangano Islands. Nowadays, their remnants are only found in tiny pockets in Homa Bay, Muhuru Bay, Gwassi, Wuond, and Kaskgiri areas.
The Suba, or whatever remained of them, have stopped circumcising their sons, like what is done in most Bantu communities, and opted for the removal of the lower six teeth, as is common in most Nilotic groups. Also gone is their naming system that was based on animals, plants, and natural phenomena; in came the Luo version based on time and objects. The Subas, known to be agriculturalists, have also ditched the hoe for the rod, since fishing is the main economic occupation in Luoland.
The Suba and the Luo people are quick to break into song or dance, their children wear near-constant smiles, and even orphans find reasons to laugh. In quest of a viable future for themselves and their children, the Subas and Luos are strongly committed to an enduring and sustainable society that will preserve valuable traditions from the past.
Maasai Culture
Culture
Maasai people and huts with Enkang barrier in foreground - eastern Serengeti, 2006
Maasai's society is strongly patriarchal in nature with elder men, sometimes joined by retired elders, deciding most major matters for each Maasai group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behaviour. Formal execution is unknown, and normally payment in cattle will settle matters. An out of court process called 'amitu', 'to make peace', or 'arop', which involves a substantial apology, is also practiced.[6]
The Maasai are monotheistic, and their God is named Enkai or Engai. Engai is a single deity with a dual nature: Engai Narok (Black God) is benevolent, and Engai Nanyokie (Red God) is vengeful.[7] The "Mountain of God", Ol Doinyo Lengai, is located in northernmost Tanzania. The central human figure in the Maasai religious system is the laibon who may be involved in: shamanistic healing, divination and prophecy, insuring success in war or adequate rainfall. Whatever power an individual laibon had was a function of personality rather than position.[8] Many Maasai have become Christian, and to a lesser extent, Muslim.
A high infant mortality rate among the Maasai has led to babies not truly being recognized until they reach an age of 3 moons.[9] For Maasai living a traditional life, the end of life is virtually without ceremony, and the dead are left out for scavengers. [10] Burial has in the past been reserved for great chiefs, since it is believed to be harmful to the soil.[11]
Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitutes the primary source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor.[12] A Maasai myth relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs, a practice that has become much less common.[13]
Shelter
Maasai women repairing a house in Masai Mara (1996)
As a historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the Maasai have traditionally relied on local, readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their housing. The traditional Maasai house was in the first instance designed for people on the move and was thus very impermanent in nature. The Inkajijik (houses) are either loaf-shaped or circular, and are constructed by women. The structural framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a lattice of smaller branches, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and urine, and ash. The enkaji is small, measuring about 3m x 5m and standing only 1.5m high. Within this space the family cooks, eats, sleeps, socializes and stores food, fuel and other household possessions. Small livestock are also often accommodated within the enkaji.[1][2] Villages are enclosed in a circular fence (Enkang) built by the men, usually of thorned acacia. At night all cows, goats and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the center, safe from wild animals.
Social organization
The central unit of Maasai society is the age-set. Although young boys are sent out with the calves and lambs as soon as they can toddle, childhood for boys is mostly playtime. Girls are responsible for chores such as cooking and milking.[14] Every 15 years or so, a new and individually named generation of Morans or Il-murran (warriors) will be initiated. This involves most boys between 12 and 25, who have reached puberty and are not part of the previous age-set. One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is performed without anaesthetic. The Maa word for circumcision is emorata.[15] The boy must endure the operation in silence. Expressions of pain bring dishonor, albeit temporarily. The healing process will take 3-4 months, and boys must remain in black cloths for a period of 4-8 months.[16]
A junior Moran with head-dress and markings.
During this period, the newly circumcised young men will live in a "manyatta", a "village" built by their mothers. The manyatta has no encircling barricade for protection, emphasizing the warrior role of protecting the community. No inner krall is built, since warriors neither own cattle or undertake stock duties. Further rites of passage are required before achieving the status of senior warrior, culminating in the eunoto ceremony, the "coming of age".[17]
Maasai Flag
When a new generation of warriors is initiated, the existing ilmoran will graduate to become junior elders, who are responsible for political decisions until they in turn become senior elders.[18][19]
The warriors are in charge of society's security, and spend most of their time now on walkabouts throughout Maasai lands, beyond the confines of their sectional boundaries. They are also much more involved in cattle trading than they used to be, developing and improving basic stock through trades and bartering rather than stealing as in the past.[20] Boys are responsible for herding small livestock. During the drought season, both warriors and boys assume responsibility for herding livestock. Elders are directors and advisors for day-to-day activities. Women are responsible for making the houses as well as supplying water, collecting firewood, milking cattle and cooking for the family.[21]
A Maasai traditional dance, Adumu.
One myth about the Maasai is that each young man is supposed to kill a lion before they are circumcised. Although lion hunting was an activity of the past, and lion hunting has been banned in East Africa, lions are still hunted when they maul Maasai livestock,[22] and young warriors who engage in traditional lion killing do not face significant consequences.[23] Increasing concern regarding lion populations has given rise to at least one program which promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, rather than hunting and killing the predator.[24] Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value and celebrity status in the community.
Young women also undergo excision ("female circumcision" or emorata) as part of an elaborate rite of passage ritual in which they are given instructions and advice pertaining to their new role, as they are then said to have come of age and become women, ready for marriage. In Kenya female circumcision is practiced by 38% of the population. The most common form is clitorectomy.[25] These circumcisions are usually performed by an invited 'practitioner' who is often not Maasai, usually from a Dorobo group. The knives and blades which make the cut are fashioned by blacksmiths, il-kunono, who are avoided by the Maasai because they make weapons of death (knives, short swords (ol alem), spears, etc). Similar to the young men, women who will be circumcised women wear dark clothing, paint their faces with markings, and then cover their faces on completion of the ceremony.[26]
To others the practice of female circumcision is known as female genital cutting, and draws a great deal of criticism from both abroad and many women who have undergone it, and in some cases has recently been replaced by a "cutting with words" ceremony involving singing and dancing in place of the mutilation. However, the practice remains deeply ingrained and valued by the culture, as well as being held as necessary, since Maasai men typically reject any woman who has not undergone it as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride price.[27] FGC is illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania.[28][29]
Married women who become pregnant are excused from all heavy work such as milking and gathering firewood. Sexual relations are also banned.[30]
The Maasai are polygamous by necessity: a long standing and practical adaptation to high infant and warrior mortality rates. Polyandry is also practiced. A woman marries not just her husband, but the entire age group. Men are expected to give up their bed to a visiting age-mate guest. The woman decides strictly on her own if she will join the visiting male. Any child which may result is the husband's child and his descendant in the patrilineal order of Maasai society. "Kitala", a kind of divorce or refuge, is possible in the house of a wife's father, usually for gross mistreatment of the wife. Repayment of the bride price, custody of children, etc, are mutually agreed upon.[31
Music and dance
Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. The olaranyani is usually the singer who can best sing that song, although several individuals may lead a song. The olaranyani begins by singing a line or title (namba) of a song. The group will respond with one unanimous call in acknowledgment, and the olaranyani will sing a verse over the group's rhythmic throat singing. Each song has its specific namba structure based on call-and-response. Common rhythms are variations of 5/4, 6/4 and 3/4 time signatures. Lyrics follow a typical theme and are often repeated verbatim over time. Neck movements accompany singing. When breathing out the head is leaned forward. The head is tilted back for an inward breath. Overall the effect is one of polyphonic syncopation.[32][33][34]
Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. Nambas, the call-and-response pattern, repetition of nonsense phrases, monophonic melodies[35][36] repeated phrases following each verse being sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to their own verses are characteristic of singing by females.[37][38]
One exception to the vocal nature of Maasai music is the use of the horn of the Greater Kudu to summon morans for the Eunoto ceremony.[39]
Both singing and dancing sometimes occur around manyattas, and involve flirting. Young men will form a line and chant rhythmically, “Oooooh-yah”, with a growl and stacatto cough along with the thrust and withdrawal of their lower bodies. Girls stand in front of the men and make the same pelvis lunges while singing a high dying fall of “Oiiiyo..yo” in counterpoint to the men. Although bodies come in close proximity, they do not touch.[40]
Maasai dance.
Eunoto, the coming of age ceremony of the warrior, can involve ten or more days of singing, dancing and ritual. The warriors of the Il-Oodokilani perform a kind of march-past as well as the adumu, or aigus, sometimes referred as “the jumping dance” by non-Maasai. (both adumu and aigus are Maa verbs meaning "to jump" with adumu meaning "To jump up and down in a dance"[3]) Warriors are well known for, and often photographed during, this competitive jumping. A circle is formed by the warriors, and one or two at a time will enter the center to begin jumping while maintaining a narrow posture, never letting their heels touch the ground. Members of the group may raise the pitch of their voices based on the height of the jump.[4]
Maasai women with necklet ruff, earrings, etc
The girlfriends of the moran (intoyie) parade themselves in their most spectacular costumes as part of the eunoto. The mothers of the moran sing and dance in tribute to the courage and daring of their sons.[41]
Contemporary Hip Hop musicians X Plastaz from northern Tanzania are incorporating traditional Maasai rhythms, beats and chants into their music.
ence of the modern world
Government policies such as the preservation of parks and reserves, with the exclusion of the Maasai, along with increasing populations, etc, have made the traditional Maasai way of life increasingly difficult to maintain.
With increasing poverty and migration, the traditional authority of Maasai elders appears to be lessening.[42]
Over the years, many projects have begun to help Maasai tribal leaders find ways to preserve their traditions while also balancing the education needs of their children for the modern world. The emerging forms of employment among the Maasai people include farming, business (selling of traditional medicine,running of restaurants/shops, buying and selling of minerals, selling milk and milk products by women, embroideries), and wage employment (as security guards/ watchmen, waiters, tourist guides), and others who are engaged in the public and private sectors.[5]
Many Maasai have moved away from the nomadic life to responsible positions in commerce and government.[6] Yet despite the sophisticated urban lifestyle they may lead, many will happily head homewards dressed in designer clothes, only to emerge from the traditional family homestead wearing a shuka (colourful piece of cloth), cow hide sandals and carrying a wooden club (o-rinka) - at ease with themselves and the world.[43]
Body modification
Maasai elder with stretched earlobes
The piercing and stretching of earlobes is common among the Maasai. Various materials have been used to both pierce and stretch the lobes, including thorns for piercing, twigs, bundles of twigs, stones, the cross section of elephant tusks and empty film canisters. Fewer and fewer Maasai, particularly boys, follow this custom.[44] [45] Women wear various forms of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe, and smaller piercings at the top of the ear.[46] [47] The removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in early childhood is a practice that has been documented in the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. There exists a strong belief among the Maasai that diarrhoea, vomiting and other febrile illnesses of early childhood are caused by the gingival swelling over the canine region, which is thought to contain 'worms' or 'nylon' teeth. This belief and practice is not unique to the Maasai. In rural Kenya a group of 95 children aged between six months and two years were examined in 1991/92. 87% were found to have undergone the removal of one or more deciduous canine tooth buds. In an older age group (3-7 years of age), 72% of the 111 children examined exhibited missing mandibular or maxillary deciduous canines. diagram
[48] [49]
Diet
Traditionally, the Maasai diet consisted of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. An ILCA study (Nestel 1989) states: “Today, the staple diet of the Maasai consists of cow's milk and maize-meal. The former is largely drunk fresh or in sweet tea and the latter is used to make a liquid or solid porridge. The solid porridge is known as uoali and is eaten with milk; unlike the liquid porridge, uoali is not prepared with milk. Meat, although an important food, is consumed irregularly and cannot be classified as a staple food. Animal fats or butter are used in cooking, primarily of porridge, maize, and beans. Butter is also an important infant food. Blood is rarely drunk.”
Studies by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (Bekure et al. 1991) shows a very great change in the diet of the Maasai towards non-livestock products with maize comprising 12 – 39 percent and sugar 8 – 13 percent; about one litre of milk is consumed per person daily. Most of the milk is consumed as fermented milk or buttermilk - a by-product of butter making. Milk consumption figures are very high by any standards. The needs for protein and essential amino acids are more than adequately satisfied. However, the supply of iron, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamine and energy are never fully met by a purely milk diet. Due to changing circumstances, especially the seasonal nature of the milk supply and frequent droughts, most pastoralists, including the Maasai, now include substantial amounts of grain in their diets [7][8]
The Maasai herd goats and sheep, including the Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more prized cattle.[50] Electrocardiogram tests applied to 400 young adult male Maasai found no evidence whatsoever of heart disease, abnormalities or malfunction. Further study with carbon-14 tracers showed that the average cholesterol level was about 50 percent of that of an average American. These findings were ascribed to the amazing fitness of morans, which was evaluated as "Olympic standard".[51]
Soups are probably the most important use of plants for food by Maasai. Acacia nilotica is the most frequently used soup plant. The root or stem bark is boiled in water and the decoction drunk alone or added to soup. The Maasai are fond of taking this as a drug, and is known to make them energetic, aggressive and fearless. Maasai eat soup laced with bitter bark and roots containing cholesterol-lowering saponins; those urban Massai who don't have access to the bitter plants develop heart disease.[52] Although consumed as snacks, fruits constitute a major part of the food ingested by children and women looking after cattle as well as morans in the wilderness.[53]
The mixing of cattle blood, obtained by nicking the jugular vein, and milk is done to prepare a ritual drink for special celebrations and as nourishment for the sick.[54] However, the inclusion of blood in the traditional diet is waning due to the reduction of livestock numbers. More recently, the Maasai have grown dependent on food produced in other areas such as maize meal, rice, potatoes, cabbage (known to the Maasai as goat leaves), etc. The Maasai who live near crop farmers have engaged in cultivation as their primary mode of subsistence. In these areas, plot sizes are generally not large enough to accommodate herds of animals; thus the Maasai are forced to farm. [9]
Clothing
Maasai woman.
Clothing varies by age, sex, and place. Young men, for instance, wear black for several months following their circumcision. However, red is a favored color. Blue, black, striped, and checkered cloth are also worn, as are multicolored African designs. The Maasai began to replace animal-skin, calf hides and sheep skin, with commercial cotton cloth in the 1960s.[55]
Shúkà is the Maa word for sheets traditionally worn wrapped around the body, one over each shoulder, then a third over the top of them. These are typically red, though with some other colors (e.g. blue) and patterns (e.g. plaid.) Pink, even with flowers, is not shunned by warriors.[56] One piece garments known as kanga, a Swahilli term, are common. Maasai near the coast may wear kikoi, a type of sarong that comes in many different colors and textiles. However, the preferred style is stripes.
Many Maasai in Tanzania wear simple sandals, which were until recently made from cowhides. They are now soled with tire strips or plastic. Both men and women wear wooden bracelets. The Maasai women regularly weave and bead jewellery. This bead work plays an essential part in the ornamentation of their body. Although there are variations in the meaning of the color of the beads, some general meanings for a few colors are: white, peace; blue, water; red, warrior/blood/bravery.[59]
Beadworking, done by women, has a long history among the Maasai, who articulate their identity and position in society through body ornaments and body painting. Before contact with Europeans beads were produced mostly from local raw materials. White beads were made from clay, shells, ivory, or bone. Black and blue beads were made from iron, charcoal, seeds, clay, or horn. Red beads came from seeds, woods, gourds, bone, ivory, copper, or brass. When late in the nineteenth century, great quantities of brightly colored European glass beads arrived in East Africa, beadworkers replaced the older beads with the new materials and began to use more elaborate color schemes. Currently, dense, opaque glass beads with no surface decoration and a naturally smooth finish are preferred
Maasai people and huts with Enkang barrier in foreground - eastern Serengeti, 2006
Maasai's society is strongly patriarchal in nature with elder men, sometimes joined by retired elders, deciding most major matters for each Maasai group. A full body of oral law covers many aspects of behaviour. Formal execution is unknown, and normally payment in cattle will settle matters. An out of court process called 'amitu', 'to make peace', or 'arop', which involves a substantial apology, is also practiced.[6]
The Maasai are monotheistic, and their God is named Enkai or Engai. Engai is a single deity with a dual nature: Engai Narok (Black God) is benevolent, and Engai Nanyokie (Red God) is vengeful.[7] The "Mountain of God", Ol Doinyo Lengai, is located in northernmost Tanzania. The central human figure in the Maasai religious system is the laibon who may be involved in: shamanistic healing, divination and prophecy, insuring success in war or adequate rainfall. Whatever power an individual laibon had was a function of personality rather than position.[8] Many Maasai have become Christian, and to a lesser extent, Muslim.
A high infant mortality rate among the Maasai has led to babies not truly being recognized until they reach an age of 3 moons.[9] For Maasai living a traditional life, the end of life is virtually without ceremony, and the dead are left out for scavengers. [10] Burial has in the past been reserved for great chiefs, since it is believed to be harmful to the soil.[11]
Traditional Maasai lifestyle centers around their cattle which constitutes the primary source of food. The measure of a man's wealth is in terms of cattle and children. A herd of 50 cattle is respectable, and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor.[12] A Maasai myth relates that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs, a practice that has become much less common.[13]
Shelter
Maasai women repairing a house in Masai Mara (1996)
As a historically nomadic and then semi-nomadic people, the Maasai have traditionally relied on local, readily available materials and indigenous technology to construct their housing. The traditional Maasai house was in the first instance designed for people on the move and was thus very impermanent in nature. The Inkajijik (houses) are either loaf-shaped or circular, and are constructed by women. The structural framework is formed of timber poles fixed directly into the ground and interwoven with a lattice of smaller branches, which is then plastered with a mix of mud, sticks, grass, cow dung and urine, and ash. The enkaji is small, measuring about 3m x 5m and standing only 1.5m high. Within this space the family cooks, eats, sleeps, socializes and stores food, fuel and other household possessions. Small livestock are also often accommodated within the enkaji.[1][2] Villages are enclosed in a circular fence (Enkang) built by the men, usually of thorned acacia. At night all cows, goats and sheep are placed in an enclosure in the center, safe from wild animals.
Social organization
The central unit of Maasai society is the age-set. Although young boys are sent out with the calves and lambs as soon as they can toddle, childhood for boys is mostly playtime. Girls are responsible for chores such as cooking and milking.[14] Every 15 years or so, a new and individually named generation of Morans or Il-murran (warriors) will be initiated. This involves most boys between 12 and 25, who have reached puberty and are not part of the previous age-set. One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is performed without anaesthetic. The Maa word for circumcision is emorata.[15] The boy must endure the operation in silence. Expressions of pain bring dishonor, albeit temporarily. The healing process will take 3-4 months, and boys must remain in black cloths for a period of 4-8 months.[16]
A junior Moran with head-dress and markings.
During this period, the newly circumcised young men will live in a "manyatta", a "village" built by their mothers. The manyatta has no encircling barricade for protection, emphasizing the warrior role of protecting the community. No inner krall is built, since warriors neither own cattle or undertake stock duties. Further rites of passage are required before achieving the status of senior warrior, culminating in the eunoto ceremony, the "coming of age".[17]
Maasai Flag
When a new generation of warriors is initiated, the existing ilmoran will graduate to become junior elders, who are responsible for political decisions until they in turn become senior elders.[18][19]
The warriors are in charge of society's security, and spend most of their time now on walkabouts throughout Maasai lands, beyond the confines of their sectional boundaries. They are also much more involved in cattle trading than they used to be, developing and improving basic stock through trades and bartering rather than stealing as in the past.[20] Boys are responsible for herding small livestock. During the drought season, both warriors and boys assume responsibility for herding livestock. Elders are directors and advisors for day-to-day activities. Women are responsible for making the houses as well as supplying water, collecting firewood, milking cattle and cooking for the family.[21]
A Maasai traditional dance, Adumu.
One myth about the Maasai is that each young man is supposed to kill a lion before they are circumcised. Although lion hunting was an activity of the past, and lion hunting has been banned in East Africa, lions are still hunted when they maul Maasai livestock,[22] and young warriors who engage in traditional lion killing do not face significant consequences.[23] Increasing concern regarding lion populations has given rise to at least one program which promotes accepting compensation when a lion kills livestock, rather than hunting and killing the predator.[24] Nevertheless, killing a lion gives one great value and celebrity status in the community.
Young women also undergo excision ("female circumcision" or emorata) as part of an elaborate rite of passage ritual in which they are given instructions and advice pertaining to their new role, as they are then said to have come of age and become women, ready for marriage. In Kenya female circumcision is practiced by 38% of the population. The most common form is clitorectomy.[25] These circumcisions are usually performed by an invited 'practitioner' who is often not Maasai, usually from a Dorobo group. The knives and blades which make the cut are fashioned by blacksmiths, il-kunono, who are avoided by the Maasai because they make weapons of death (knives, short swords (ol alem), spears, etc). Similar to the young men, women who will be circumcised women wear dark clothing, paint their faces with markings, and then cover their faces on completion of the ceremony.[26]
To others the practice of female circumcision is known as female genital cutting, and draws a great deal of criticism from both abroad and many women who have undergone it, and in some cases has recently been replaced by a "cutting with words" ceremony involving singing and dancing in place of the mutilation. However, the practice remains deeply ingrained and valued by the culture, as well as being held as necessary, since Maasai men typically reject any woman who has not undergone it as either not marriageable or worthy of a much-reduced bride price.[27] FGC is illegal in both Kenya and Tanzania.[28][29]
Married women who become pregnant are excused from all heavy work such as milking and gathering firewood. Sexual relations are also banned.[30]
The Maasai are polygamous by necessity: a long standing and practical adaptation to high infant and warrior mortality rates. Polyandry is also practiced. A woman marries not just her husband, but the entire age group. Men are expected to give up their bed to a visiting age-mate guest. The woman decides strictly on her own if she will join the visiting male. Any child which may result is the husband's child and his descendant in the patrilineal order of Maasai society. "Kitala", a kind of divorce or refuge, is possible in the house of a wife's father, usually for gross mistreatment of the wife. Repayment of the bride price, custody of children, etc, are mutually agreed upon.[31
Music and dance
Maasai music traditionally consists of rhythms provided by a chorus of vocalists singing harmonies while a song leader, or olaranyani, sings the melody. The olaranyani is usually the singer who can best sing that song, although several individuals may lead a song. The olaranyani begins by singing a line or title (namba) of a song. The group will respond with one unanimous call in acknowledgment, and the olaranyani will sing a verse over the group's rhythmic throat singing. Each song has its specific namba structure based on call-and-response. Common rhythms are variations of 5/4, 6/4 and 3/4 time signatures. Lyrics follow a typical theme and are often repeated verbatim over time. Neck movements accompany singing. When breathing out the head is leaned forward. The head is tilted back for an inward breath. Overall the effect is one of polyphonic syncopation.[32][33][34]
Women chant lullabies, humming songs, and songs praising their sons. Nambas, the call-and-response pattern, repetition of nonsense phrases, monophonic melodies[35][36] repeated phrases following each verse being sung on a descending scale, and singers responding to their own verses are characteristic of singing by females.[37][38]
One exception to the vocal nature of Maasai music is the use of the horn of the Greater Kudu to summon morans for the Eunoto ceremony.[39]
Both singing and dancing sometimes occur around manyattas, and involve flirting. Young men will form a line and chant rhythmically, “Oooooh-yah”, with a growl and stacatto cough along with the thrust and withdrawal of their lower bodies. Girls stand in front of the men and make the same pelvis lunges while singing a high dying fall of “Oiiiyo..yo” in counterpoint to the men. Although bodies come in close proximity, they do not touch.[40]
Maasai dance.
Eunoto, the coming of age ceremony of the warrior, can involve ten or more days of singing, dancing and ritual. The warriors of the Il-Oodokilani perform a kind of march-past as well as the adumu, or aigus, sometimes referred as “the jumping dance” by non-Maasai. (both adumu and aigus are Maa verbs meaning "to jump" with adumu meaning "To jump up and down in a dance"[3]) Warriors are well known for, and often photographed during, this competitive jumping. A circle is formed by the warriors, and one or two at a time will enter the center to begin jumping while maintaining a narrow posture, never letting their heels touch the ground. Members of the group may raise the pitch of their voices based on the height of the jump.[4]
Maasai women with necklet ruff, earrings, etc
The girlfriends of the moran (intoyie) parade themselves in their most spectacular costumes as part of the eunoto. The mothers of the moran sing and dance in tribute to the courage and daring of their sons.[41]
Contemporary Hip Hop musicians X Plastaz from northern Tanzania are incorporating traditional Maasai rhythms, beats and chants into their music.
ence of the modern world
Government policies such as the preservation of parks and reserves, with the exclusion of the Maasai, along with increasing populations, etc, have made the traditional Maasai way of life increasingly difficult to maintain.
With increasing poverty and migration, the traditional authority of Maasai elders appears to be lessening.[42]
Over the years, many projects have begun to help Maasai tribal leaders find ways to preserve their traditions while also balancing the education needs of their children for the modern world. The emerging forms of employment among the Maasai people include farming, business (selling of traditional medicine,running of restaurants/shops, buying and selling of minerals, selling milk and milk products by women, embroideries), and wage employment (as security guards/ watchmen, waiters, tourist guides), and others who are engaged in the public and private sectors.[5]
Many Maasai have moved away from the nomadic life to responsible positions in commerce and government.[6] Yet despite the sophisticated urban lifestyle they may lead, many will happily head homewards dressed in designer clothes, only to emerge from the traditional family homestead wearing a shuka (colourful piece of cloth), cow hide sandals and carrying a wooden club (o-rinka) - at ease with themselves and the world.[43]
Body modification
Maasai elder with stretched earlobes
The piercing and stretching of earlobes is common among the Maasai. Various materials have been used to both pierce and stretch the lobes, including thorns for piercing, twigs, bundles of twigs, stones, the cross section of elephant tusks and empty film canisters. Fewer and fewer Maasai, particularly boys, follow this custom.[44] [45] Women wear various forms of beaded ornaments in both the ear lobe, and smaller piercings at the top of the ear.[46] [47] The removal of deciduous canine tooth buds in early childhood is a practice that has been documented in the Maasai of Kenya and Tanzania. There exists a strong belief among the Maasai that diarrhoea, vomiting and other febrile illnesses of early childhood are caused by the gingival swelling over the canine region, which is thought to contain 'worms' or 'nylon' teeth. This belief and practice is not unique to the Maasai. In rural Kenya a group of 95 children aged between six months and two years were examined in 1991/92. 87% were found to have undergone the removal of one or more deciduous canine tooth buds. In an older age group (3-7 years of age), 72% of the 111 children examined exhibited missing mandibular or maxillary deciduous canines. diagram
[48] [49]
Diet
Traditionally, the Maasai diet consisted of meat, milk, and blood from cattle. An ILCA study (Nestel 1989) states: “Today, the staple diet of the Maasai consists of cow's milk and maize-meal. The former is largely drunk fresh or in sweet tea and the latter is used to make a liquid or solid porridge. The solid porridge is known as uoali and is eaten with milk; unlike the liquid porridge, uoali is not prepared with milk. Meat, although an important food, is consumed irregularly and cannot be classified as a staple food. Animal fats or butter are used in cooking, primarily of porridge, maize, and beans. Butter is also an important infant food. Blood is rarely drunk.”
Studies by the International Livestock Centre for Africa (Bekure et al. 1991) shows a very great change in the diet of the Maasai towards non-livestock products with maize comprising 12 – 39 percent and sugar 8 – 13 percent; about one litre of milk is consumed per person daily. Most of the milk is consumed as fermented milk or buttermilk - a by-product of butter making. Milk consumption figures are very high by any standards. The needs for protein and essential amino acids are more than adequately satisfied. However, the supply of iron, niacin, vitamin C, vitamin A, thiamine and energy are never fully met by a purely milk diet. Due to changing circumstances, especially the seasonal nature of the milk supply and frequent droughts, most pastoralists, including the Maasai, now include substantial amounts of grain in their diets [7][8]
The Maasai herd goats and sheep, including the Red Maasai sheep, as well as the more prized cattle.[50] Electrocardiogram tests applied to 400 young adult male Maasai found no evidence whatsoever of heart disease, abnormalities or malfunction. Further study with carbon-14 tracers showed that the average cholesterol level was about 50 percent of that of an average American. These findings were ascribed to the amazing fitness of morans, which was evaluated as "Olympic standard".[51]
Soups are probably the most important use of plants for food by Maasai. Acacia nilotica is the most frequently used soup plant. The root or stem bark is boiled in water and the decoction drunk alone or added to soup. The Maasai are fond of taking this as a drug, and is known to make them energetic, aggressive and fearless. Maasai eat soup laced with bitter bark and roots containing cholesterol-lowering saponins; those urban Massai who don't have access to the bitter plants develop heart disease.[52] Although consumed as snacks, fruits constitute a major part of the food ingested by children and women looking after cattle as well as morans in the wilderness.[53]
The mixing of cattle blood, obtained by nicking the jugular vein, and milk is done to prepare a ritual drink for special celebrations and as nourishment for the sick.[54] However, the inclusion of blood in the traditional diet is waning due to the reduction of livestock numbers. More recently, the Maasai have grown dependent on food produced in other areas such as maize meal, rice, potatoes, cabbage (known to the Maasai as goat leaves), etc. The Maasai who live near crop farmers have engaged in cultivation as their primary mode of subsistence. In these areas, plot sizes are generally not large enough to accommodate herds of animals; thus the Maasai are forced to farm. [9]
Clothing
Maasai woman.
Clothing varies by age, sex, and place. Young men, for instance, wear black for several months following their circumcision. However, red is a favored color. Blue, black, striped, and checkered cloth are also worn, as are multicolored African designs. The Maasai began to replace animal-skin, calf hides and sheep skin, with commercial cotton cloth in the 1960s.[55]
Shúkà is the Maa word for sheets traditionally worn wrapped around the body, one over each shoulder, then a third over the top of them. These are typically red, though with some other colors (e.g. blue) and patterns (e.g. plaid.) Pink, even with flowers, is not shunned by warriors.[56] One piece garments known as kanga, a Swahilli term, are common. Maasai near the coast may wear kikoi, a type of sarong that comes in many different colors and textiles. However, the preferred style is stripes.
Many Maasai in Tanzania wear simple sandals, which were until recently made from cowhides. They are now soled with tire strips or plastic. Both men and women wear wooden bracelets. The Maasai women regularly weave and bead jewellery. This bead work plays an essential part in the ornamentation of their body. Although there are variations in the meaning of the color of the beads, some general meanings for a few colors are: white, peace; blue, water; red, warrior/blood/bravery.[59]
Beadworking, done by women, has a long history among the Maasai, who articulate their identity and position in society through body ornaments and body painting. Before contact with Europeans beads were produced mostly from local raw materials. White beads were made from clay, shells, ivory, or bone. Black and blue beads were made from iron, charcoal, seeds, clay, or horn. Red beads came from seeds, woods, gourds, bone, ivory, copper, or brass. When late in the nineteenth century, great quantities of brightly colored European glass beads arrived in East Africa, beadworkers replaced the older beads with the new materials and began to use more elaborate color schemes. Currently, dense, opaque glass beads with no surface decoration and a naturally smooth finish are preferred
The Agikuyu
Clans and Social Structure
Although much has changed since the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, Kikuyu society is still characterised by its strong unity on all levels. Historically, this was crucial in defensive arrangements against persistent enemies such as the Maasai, and therefore one finds that society was strictly structured all the way up from family and home to the nine or ten clans which included everyone, and the councils of elders who presided over all the issues concerning the Kikuyu as a whole. This sense of unity was exemplified by the idea of the wider Kikuyu community called Mbari ya Mumbi, the 'Family of Mumbi'.
The Kikuyu Creation Myth, which has God apportioning land for the nine (or ten) daughters of Mumbi and Gikuyu, neatly explains the coming into existence of the clan system, and indeed, it seems that before the Kikuyu arrived in their present area, they either had no clans, or the clan system which may have existed before broke down completely to be replaced with another one. I should say immediately that the clan system no longer exists; at least not in any practical sense - it, along with so many other traditions, was swept away by the British, especially during the Mau Mau 'Emergency' of the 1950s when the Kikuyu were herded into 'protected villages', which were nothing other than concentration camps.
Nowadays, the most important social unit of the Kikuyu remain the family groups (nyumba or nyomba), which were traditionally self-sufficient and independent units, each with relatively clearly-defined territorial areas. Some people speak of these areas as 'ridges', alluding to the mountain ridges of Nyandarua and Kirinyaga, and the term 'ridge' is still occasionally used to describe both families and clans.
As the Kikuyu population expanded from the sixteenth century onwards and their land became more populated, broader social structures began to emerge. The homestead (mucii) comprised of several families, not necessarily related by blood, but who lived and worked together for everyone's benefit. It was a purely communal arrangement, and one which survives to this present day. Several mucii formed a patrilineal sub-group or 'community unit' called mbari, comprising of males and their wives and children ranging from a few dozen to several hundred persons. These in turn were gathered into the nine (or ten) clans called moherega or muhiriga, who were united by their shared matrilineal descent from one of the nine (or ten) daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi, and hence by their names. The main nine clans were the Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu. Oddly enough, although the clans were determined by matrilineal descent from one of the nine (or ten) founding daughters, all other social structures were patrilineal: that Kikuyu culture was originally matriarchal (around five centuries ago), though, seems to be beyond doubt.
Families
Until the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, the most important Kikuyu social distinction was the family and the homestead. It was in the home that children were first introduced to the culture of their people, and where their mothers and grandmothers would tell tales and riddles both to amuse and educate their children. But the state of emergency with which the British responded to the Mau Mau uprising also saw the forced removal of the majority of Kikuyu into large 'protected villages', ostensibly for their own security, but actually only so that the colonial oppressors could more easily control the population, which was of course largely supportive or sympathetic to Mau Mau and independence. Despite the insanitary and overcrowded conditions in the 'protected villages', come independence many Kikuyu remained where they were, and the villages soon became towns, with their own economic and social impetus.
Traditionally, however, the Kikuyu lived in separate domestic family homesteads, each of which was surrounded by a hedge or stockade and contained a hut for each of the man's wives. The houses were made of thatch, sticks and baked mud, often raised on poles. Nowadays, the majority live in breeze-block homes with corrugated metal roofs. Before independence, boys and girls were raised differently: girls would help out their mothers by taking care of household chores, tend shamba (farm) crops and younger children, while boys were expected to help out by herding the animals. Nowadays, formal education has become of paramount importance, with an estimated 95% of Kikuyu children - both boys and girls - attending school. As a result, both men and women are now found in virtually every area of business and professional life in Kenya. The Kikuyu, for all the problems and upheavals they faced during the colonial period, have also been the best able to adapt to the new realities.
Life Stages - Mariika
We've seen that Kikuyu society was divided from the nine clans downward into various sections. What united the clans themselves, in fact what united everyone regardless of their clan, sub-group, kin or family affiliation, was the highly organised Kikuyu system of age-sets or age grades, which was called mariika.
The age-sets formed under mariika served as the primary political institutions in traditional Kikuyu life, for they united everyone of similar age, who together who held a set number of responsibilities and social duties for the Kikuyu as a whole, such as its defence (the role of the warrior age set) and its judgement (exercised by the elders). Groups of boys were initiated each year, and were ultimately grouped into generation sets that traditionally ruled for anything between five and thirty years. In fact, the age-sets can be seen as part of a broader picture, involving the entirety of one's life, from birth to death. Initiation into each of the steps was ritually sealed by the slaughtering of goats and by copious, prescribed consultation with all persons concerned: Kikuyu society was, within the stricture of mariika, highly democratic, at least for men.
The whitened bodies
Kikuyu warriors
Despite the wholesale changes in Kikuyu society nowadays, most of the essential elements of the age-sets remain in place: from birth celebrations, childhood ceremonies, circumcision of both sexes, marriage and childbirth. However, the warrior system has disappeared (the traditional enemies are now fellow Kenyans, with their own modern political interests), and the system of elders - who were traditionally appointed on the basis of community consensus to judge and govern - have been replaced by the centralised Kenyan government based in Nairobi, and its own District Commissioners (DCs). Formerly, the elders were the ones who carried out the legal functions of judgement and punishment. Nowadays, their function has been eclipsed by the modern (but woefully corrupt, it has to be said) Kenyan judiciary. The Kikuyu thus no longer have any central leadership, at least not on any traditional lines. Ironically, this was what the British had attempted but failed to do over their seventy years of hegemony.
Birth
Much of the following sections on birth and childhood have been adapted from John S. Mbiti's "African Religions and philosophy" (1969: East African Educational Publishers, PO Box 45314 Nairobi)
Shortly after having given birth, the mother announces the child by screaming: four times if the child is a girl, and five times if it is a boy. The numbers are no coincidence, for they total nine, which is the sacred number of the Kikuyu, and they appear again in the preparations made immediately after birth, when the father of the child cuts four sugar canes if the child is a girl, or five if it is a boy. The juice from these sugar-canes is given to the mother and child; and the waste scraps from the sugar-cane are placed on the right-hand side of the house if the child is a boy, or left-hand side if it is a girl. Right is the symbol of man, and left of woman. The placenta and umbilical cord are powerful symbols of the child's attachment to the mother, and are therefore the object of special treatment in most African societies. The Kikuyu deposit the placenta in an uncultivated field and cover it with grain and grass, symbolizing fertility. The uncultivated field itself is also a symbol of fertility, strength and freshness; and using it is like a silent prayer that the mother's womb should remain fertile and strong for the birth of more children. After the birth, the child is then washed and oiled. If the birth has been difficult, the father sacrifices a goat and a medicine-man is called to purify the house. The mother and child are kept in seclusion for four days if the child is a girl, or five days if it is a boy. During seclusion only close women relatives and attendants may visit the house, and for the duration of seclusion no member of the family is allowed to wash himself in the river, no house is swept, and no fire may be fetched from one house to another. Seclusion symbolizes the concept of death and resurrection: death to one state of life, and resurrection to a fuller state of living. It is as if the mother and child 'die' and 'rise again' on behalf of everyone else in the family. When the period of seclusion is over, the mother is shaved on the head, and the husband sacrifices a sheep in thanksgiving to God and the living-dead: this ceremony was called Kumathithia mwana. The shaving of the mother's hair is another act symbolizing and dramatizing the death of one state and the rising of another. The hair represents her pregnancy, but now that this is over, old hair must be shaved off to make way for new hair, the symbol of new life. She is now a new person, ready for another child to come into her womb, and thus allow the stream of life to continue flowing. The hair also has the symbolic connection between the mother and child, so that shaving it indicates that the child now belongs not only to her but to the entire body of relatives, neighbours and other members of the society. She has no more claims over the child as exclusively her own: the child is now 'scattered' like her shaven hair... When seclusion is over, the mother pays a symbolic visit to the fields and gathers sweet potatoes. Thereafter normal life is resumed by everybody in the village, renewed, it is revived and revitalized.
Child naming
This is not however the end of the rituals concerned with childbirth. While the child is still small, they perform other rites which they consider necessary before the child can be a full member of their society.
The Kikuyu observe a unique ritual pattern of naming children, still followed strongly today. The family identity is carried on in each generation by naming children in the following pattern: the first boy is named after the father's father, the second boy after the mother's father. The first girl is named after the father's mother, the second after the mother's mother. Subsequent children are named similarly after the brothers and sisters of the grandmother and grandfather, from eldest to youngest, alternating from father's to mother's family. This pattern also serves to incorporate new lineages as refugees are accepted into a clan or as young people now more commonly marry spouses from other tribes. The naming ritual intimately involves the father, whose status is enhanced by proper naming of the child. The father would place a small wristlet made of goatskin on the child's arm, which symbolized the bond between the child and the entire nation: the wristlet is a link in the long chain of life, linking the child with both the living and the departed. It is a sacred link which must never be broken.
Ear-piercing and the second birth
Around the age of five or six years, another rite is performed, gutonywo matu, which involved piercing the child's ears, which were subsequently fitted with decorations in a ceremony called gutonywo ndurgira. This entitled the child to start looking after goats.
A few years later, generally between the ages of six and ten but before the child is initiated into adulthood through circumcision, another rite was performed. Known as 'the second birth' (kuciaruo keri, literally 'to be born twice'), or 'to be born again' (kuciaruo ringi), or 'to be born of a goat' (kuciareiruo mbori), the child metaphorically returns to the womb to be born again. Unless the child has gone through this 'second birth', he or she cannot participate fully in the life of the community. They will be forbidden to assist in the burial of their own father, to be initiated, to get married, to inherit property and to take part in any ritual. During the rite, the child is placed between the legs of its mother, and is bound to her by a goat intestine. If the mother is deceased, another woman is substituted, and will henceforth be regarded as the child's mother. Then, the intestine is cut through, and the child imitates the cry of a baby. The mother is shaved, her house is swept and she visits the fields to collect food, just as she did after the period of seclusion that followed the physical birth. The rite brings with it a conscious awareness in the child of its own birth, and ends the child's 'babyhood'. Now the child is ready to enter the stage of initiation: it has passed from a state of ignorance to one of knowledge, from the state of being a passive member of society to being an active and responsible member.
The idea of 'rebirth' appears to be similar to the Turkana practice of ratifying marriages when when the first child reaches walking age (see under Turkana Marriage). The idea that a child is not quite alive until then is prevalent throughout Africa, and seems to stem from the fact that fatal diseases were much more likely to claim a child at an early age than later. The rebirth ceremony appears to be a similar passage. 'Rebirth' is now condemned by the church, who of course prefer their own versions of the rite (whether baptism, or being 'born again' by evangelical Christians).
Circumcision
See the page dedicated to circumcision among the Kikuyu.
Marriage
Marriage renders a man an elder. Kikuyu men may take as many wives as they wish, but must pay a bride price to the family of each bride. Each wife is given her own dwelling and plot. Surplus crops are stored in granaries. See also Kiriro - a lament for newly-wed women.
Woman with child, and warrior
Kikuyu elders
Elderhood
After their period of warriorhood, men became eligible to become members of the council of elders (kiama), to which women could also be admitted. Traditionally, the elders served as the custodians of ancestral land and, by extension, as the keepers of social cohesion within the community. The kiama also deliberated over judicial, religious and political matters, although their rule was limited to the length of their respective age-sets. Their eligibility was dependent on their having raised children, and on at least one of their children having successfully married. The council settled disputes, and with those that it could not resolve the outcome was determined by the "ordeal of the hot knife", the extent of blistering on the tongue being used to determine guilt or innocence. Alternatively, an oath was taken on the githathi stone (this appears to be similar to the 'white stone' in this article about an Mbeere sacred grove), although nowadays the entire concept of oathing is treated with grave suspicion by the government, which is keen to avoid a re-run of Mau Mau in post-independence Kenya (see the article about the Mungiki sect for a modern parallel). A further stage to their membership was to become a member of a secret council called njama (a word deriving from the Kiswahili, and in turn from the Arabic word jamma). For these purposes, the candidate would be approached by community leaders and other regional elders who had polled community opinion as a basis for his eventual appointment to the role of 'regional elder', virtually the highest level of Kikuyu elderhood today. An ideal elder was known as a muthamaki, derived from the word guthamaka, meaning to choose, to reign and rule distinctively. His qualities would include the ability to listen, the ability to keep secrets, and the ability to make decisions on behalf of the people in a manner reflecting consensus and serving the well being of all. In the past, a paramount or senior Kikuyu Council of Elders was formed on the basis of representation from the nine (or ten) clans. This no longer functions today, and today's "council of elders" functions as an informal collectivity of regional elders who confer with each other on issues of broad concern. "Governorship" is no longer permitted by the post-independence constitution of Kenya, and the role of the Kikuyu elder is perceived to have been restricted. Nonetheless, it has been estimated that 90 percent of Kikuyu Catholic priests in the Nairobi Diocese, for example, have been consecrated as Kikuyu elders: the system of elderhood may have changed, but it seems that aspects of their leadership - and the respect in which they were held - still survives.
See also A White Man's Initiation into the Kiama, which recounts Richard St. Barbe Baker's initiation into the Council of Elders in the 1920s in his own words.
Although much has changed since the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, Kikuyu society is still characterised by its strong unity on all levels. Historically, this was crucial in defensive arrangements against persistent enemies such as the Maasai, and therefore one finds that society was strictly structured all the way up from family and home to the nine or ten clans which included everyone, and the councils of elders who presided over all the issues concerning the Kikuyu as a whole. This sense of unity was exemplified by the idea of the wider Kikuyu community called Mbari ya Mumbi, the 'Family of Mumbi'.
The Kikuyu Creation Myth, which has God apportioning land for the nine (or ten) daughters of Mumbi and Gikuyu, neatly explains the coming into existence of the clan system, and indeed, it seems that before the Kikuyu arrived in their present area, they either had no clans, or the clan system which may have existed before broke down completely to be replaced with another one. I should say immediately that the clan system no longer exists; at least not in any practical sense - it, along with so many other traditions, was swept away by the British, especially during the Mau Mau 'Emergency' of the 1950s when the Kikuyu were herded into 'protected villages', which were nothing other than concentration camps.
Nowadays, the most important social unit of the Kikuyu remain the family groups (nyumba or nyomba), which were traditionally self-sufficient and independent units, each with relatively clearly-defined territorial areas. Some people speak of these areas as 'ridges', alluding to the mountain ridges of Nyandarua and Kirinyaga, and the term 'ridge' is still occasionally used to describe both families and clans.
As the Kikuyu population expanded from the sixteenth century onwards and their land became more populated, broader social structures began to emerge. The homestead (mucii) comprised of several families, not necessarily related by blood, but who lived and worked together for everyone's benefit. It was a purely communal arrangement, and one which survives to this present day. Several mucii formed a patrilineal sub-group or 'community unit' called mbari, comprising of males and their wives and children ranging from a few dozen to several hundred persons. These in turn were gathered into the nine (or ten) clans called moherega or muhiriga, who were united by their shared matrilineal descent from one of the nine (or ten) daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi, and hence by their names. The main nine clans were the Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu. Oddly enough, although the clans were determined by matrilineal descent from one of the nine (or ten) founding daughters, all other social structures were patrilineal: that Kikuyu culture was originally matriarchal (around five centuries ago), though, seems to be beyond doubt.
Families
Until the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, the most important Kikuyu social distinction was the family and the homestead. It was in the home that children were first introduced to the culture of their people, and where their mothers and grandmothers would tell tales and riddles both to amuse and educate their children. But the state of emergency with which the British responded to the Mau Mau uprising also saw the forced removal of the majority of Kikuyu into large 'protected villages', ostensibly for their own security, but actually only so that the colonial oppressors could more easily control the population, which was of course largely supportive or sympathetic to Mau Mau and independence. Despite the insanitary and overcrowded conditions in the 'protected villages', come independence many Kikuyu remained where they were, and the villages soon became towns, with their own economic and social impetus.
Traditionally, however, the Kikuyu lived in separate domestic family homesteads, each of which was surrounded by a hedge or stockade and contained a hut for each of the man's wives. The houses were made of thatch, sticks and baked mud, often raised on poles. Nowadays, the majority live in breeze-block homes with corrugated metal roofs. Before independence, boys and girls were raised differently: girls would help out their mothers by taking care of household chores, tend shamba (farm) crops and younger children, while boys were expected to help out by herding the animals. Nowadays, formal education has become of paramount importance, with an estimated 95% of Kikuyu children - both boys and girls - attending school. As a result, both men and women are now found in virtually every area of business and professional life in Kenya. The Kikuyu, for all the problems and upheavals they faced during the colonial period, have also been the best able to adapt to the new realities.
Life Stages - Mariika
We've seen that Kikuyu society was divided from the nine clans downward into various sections. What united the clans themselves, in fact what united everyone regardless of their clan, sub-group, kin or family affiliation, was the highly organised Kikuyu system of age-sets or age grades, which was called mariika.
The age-sets formed under mariika served as the primary political institutions in traditional Kikuyu life, for they united everyone of similar age, who together who held a set number of responsibilities and social duties for the Kikuyu as a whole, such as its defence (the role of the warrior age set) and its judgement (exercised by the elders). Groups of boys were initiated each year, and were ultimately grouped into generation sets that traditionally ruled for anything between five and thirty years. In fact, the age-sets can be seen as part of a broader picture, involving the entirety of one's life, from birth to death. Initiation into each of the steps was ritually sealed by the slaughtering of goats and by copious, prescribed consultation with all persons concerned: Kikuyu society was, within the stricture of mariika, highly democratic, at least for men.
The whitened bodies
Kikuyu warriors
Despite the wholesale changes in Kikuyu society nowadays, most of the essential elements of the age-sets remain in place: from birth celebrations, childhood ceremonies, circumcision of both sexes, marriage and childbirth. However, the warrior system has disappeared (the traditional enemies are now fellow Kenyans, with their own modern political interests), and the system of elders - who were traditionally appointed on the basis of community consensus to judge and govern - have been replaced by the centralised Kenyan government based in Nairobi, and its own District Commissioners (DCs). Formerly, the elders were the ones who carried out the legal functions of judgement and punishment. Nowadays, their function has been eclipsed by the modern (but woefully corrupt, it has to be said) Kenyan judiciary. The Kikuyu thus no longer have any central leadership, at least not on any traditional lines. Ironically, this was what the British had attempted but failed to do over their seventy years of hegemony.
Birth
Much of the following sections on birth and childhood have been adapted from John S. Mbiti's "African Religions and philosophy" (1969: East African Educational Publishers, PO Box 45314 Nairobi)
Shortly after having given birth, the mother announces the child by screaming: four times if the child is a girl, and five times if it is a boy. The numbers are no coincidence, for they total nine, which is the sacred number of the Kikuyu, and they appear again in the preparations made immediately after birth, when the father of the child cuts four sugar canes if the child is a girl, or five if it is a boy. The juice from these sugar-canes is given to the mother and child; and the waste scraps from the sugar-cane are placed on the right-hand side of the house if the child is a boy, or left-hand side if it is a girl. Right is the symbol of man, and left of woman. The placenta and umbilical cord are powerful symbols of the child's attachment to the mother, and are therefore the object of special treatment in most African societies. The Kikuyu deposit the placenta in an uncultivated field and cover it with grain and grass, symbolizing fertility. The uncultivated field itself is also a symbol of fertility, strength and freshness; and using it is like a silent prayer that the mother's womb should remain fertile and strong for the birth of more children. After the birth, the child is then washed and oiled. If the birth has been difficult, the father sacrifices a goat and a medicine-man is called to purify the house. The mother and child are kept in seclusion for four days if the child is a girl, or five days if it is a boy. During seclusion only close women relatives and attendants may visit the house, and for the duration of seclusion no member of the family is allowed to wash himself in the river, no house is swept, and no fire may be fetched from one house to another. Seclusion symbolizes the concept of death and resurrection: death to one state of life, and resurrection to a fuller state of living. It is as if the mother and child 'die' and 'rise again' on behalf of everyone else in the family. When the period of seclusion is over, the mother is shaved on the head, and the husband sacrifices a sheep in thanksgiving to God and the living-dead: this ceremony was called Kumathithia mwana. The shaving of the mother's hair is another act symbolizing and dramatizing the death of one state and the rising of another. The hair represents her pregnancy, but now that this is over, old hair must be shaved off to make way for new hair, the symbol of new life. She is now a new person, ready for another child to come into her womb, and thus allow the stream of life to continue flowing. The hair also has the symbolic connection between the mother and child, so that shaving it indicates that the child now belongs not only to her but to the entire body of relatives, neighbours and other members of the society. She has no more claims over the child as exclusively her own: the child is now 'scattered' like her shaven hair... When seclusion is over, the mother pays a symbolic visit to the fields and gathers sweet potatoes. Thereafter normal life is resumed by everybody in the village, renewed, it is revived and revitalized.
Child naming
This is not however the end of the rituals concerned with childbirth. While the child is still small, they perform other rites which they consider necessary before the child can be a full member of their society.
The Kikuyu observe a unique ritual pattern of naming children, still followed strongly today. The family identity is carried on in each generation by naming children in the following pattern: the first boy is named after the father's father, the second boy after the mother's father. The first girl is named after the father's mother, the second after the mother's mother. Subsequent children are named similarly after the brothers and sisters of the grandmother and grandfather, from eldest to youngest, alternating from father's to mother's family. This pattern also serves to incorporate new lineages as refugees are accepted into a clan or as young people now more commonly marry spouses from other tribes. The naming ritual intimately involves the father, whose status is enhanced by proper naming of the child. The father would place a small wristlet made of goatskin on the child's arm, which symbolized the bond between the child and the entire nation: the wristlet is a link in the long chain of life, linking the child with both the living and the departed. It is a sacred link which must never be broken.
Ear-piercing and the second birth
Around the age of five or six years, another rite is performed, gutonywo matu, which involved piercing the child's ears, which were subsequently fitted with decorations in a ceremony called gutonywo ndurgira. This entitled the child to start looking after goats.
A few years later, generally between the ages of six and ten but before the child is initiated into adulthood through circumcision, another rite was performed. Known as 'the second birth' (kuciaruo keri, literally 'to be born twice'), or 'to be born again' (kuciaruo ringi), or 'to be born of a goat' (kuciareiruo mbori), the child metaphorically returns to the womb to be born again. Unless the child has gone through this 'second birth', he or she cannot participate fully in the life of the community. They will be forbidden to assist in the burial of their own father, to be initiated, to get married, to inherit property and to take part in any ritual. During the rite, the child is placed between the legs of its mother, and is bound to her by a goat intestine. If the mother is deceased, another woman is substituted, and will henceforth be regarded as the child's mother. Then, the intestine is cut through, and the child imitates the cry of a baby. The mother is shaved, her house is swept and she visits the fields to collect food, just as she did after the period of seclusion that followed the physical birth. The rite brings with it a conscious awareness in the child of its own birth, and ends the child's 'babyhood'. Now the child is ready to enter the stage of initiation: it has passed from a state of ignorance to one of knowledge, from the state of being a passive member of society to being an active and responsible member.
The idea of 'rebirth' appears to be similar to the Turkana practice of ratifying marriages when when the first child reaches walking age (see under Turkana Marriage). The idea that a child is not quite alive until then is prevalent throughout Africa, and seems to stem from the fact that fatal diseases were much more likely to claim a child at an early age than later. The rebirth ceremony appears to be a similar passage. 'Rebirth' is now condemned by the church, who of course prefer their own versions of the rite (whether baptism, or being 'born again' by evangelical Christians).
Circumcision
See the page dedicated to circumcision among the Kikuyu.
Marriage
Marriage renders a man an elder. Kikuyu men may take as many wives as they wish, but must pay a bride price to the family of each bride. Each wife is given her own dwelling and plot. Surplus crops are stored in granaries. See also Kiriro - a lament for newly-wed women.
Woman with child, and warrior
Kikuyu elders
Elderhood
After their period of warriorhood, men became eligible to become members of the council of elders (kiama), to which women could also be admitted. Traditionally, the elders served as the custodians of ancestral land and, by extension, as the keepers of social cohesion within the community. The kiama also deliberated over judicial, religious and political matters, although their rule was limited to the length of their respective age-sets. Their eligibility was dependent on their having raised children, and on at least one of their children having successfully married. The council settled disputes, and with those that it could not resolve the outcome was determined by the "ordeal of the hot knife", the extent of blistering on the tongue being used to determine guilt or innocence. Alternatively, an oath was taken on the githathi stone (this appears to be similar to the 'white stone' in this article about an Mbeere sacred grove), although nowadays the entire concept of oathing is treated with grave suspicion by the government, which is keen to avoid a re-run of Mau Mau in post-independence Kenya (see the article about the Mungiki sect for a modern parallel). A further stage to their membership was to become a member of a secret council called njama (a word deriving from the Kiswahili, and in turn from the Arabic word jamma). For these purposes, the candidate would be approached by community leaders and other regional elders who had polled community opinion as a basis for his eventual appointment to the role of 'regional elder', virtually the highest level of Kikuyu elderhood today. An ideal elder was known as a muthamaki, derived from the word guthamaka, meaning to choose, to reign and rule distinctively. His qualities would include the ability to listen, the ability to keep secrets, and the ability to make decisions on behalf of the people in a manner reflecting consensus and serving the well being of all. In the past, a paramount or senior Kikuyu Council of Elders was formed on the basis of representation from the nine (or ten) clans. This no longer functions today, and today's "council of elders" functions as an informal collectivity of regional elders who confer with each other on issues of broad concern. "Governorship" is no longer permitted by the post-independence constitution of Kenya, and the role of the Kikuyu elder is perceived to have been restricted. Nonetheless, it has been estimated that 90 percent of Kikuyu Catholic priests in the Nairobi Diocese, for example, have been consecrated as Kikuyu elders: the system of elderhood may have changed, but it seems that aspects of their leadership - and the respect in which they were held - still survives.
See also A White Man's Initiation into the Kiama, which recounts Richard St. Barbe Baker's initiation into the Council of Elders in the 1920s in his own words.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
.jpg){kind=link}
