Chamus (people)

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The Chamus ( Il Chamus , also Camus , Tiamus or Njemps ) are a Maa -speaking ethnic group with about 7,000, according to other information 19,000 members, who live south and south-east of Lake Baringo in Kenya . They are closely related to the Samburu and speak a language that is so similar to the Maa of the Samburu that it is sometimes viewed as their dialect.

history

The Chamus were also referred to as "peasant Maasai". In the 19th century, their economy was based on agriculture with irrigation and the sale of grain to trade caravans towards Uganda, as well as ivory trade . The Chamus, on the other hand, kept cattle very little, as these were often stolen by the neighboring Turkana and Maasai herdsmen . In times of drought, their area provided refuge for impoverished Samburu and Uasin-Gishu and Laikipiak Maasai shepherds. Numerous Chamus clans can be traced back to Samburu and Laikipiak.

At the beginning of the 20th century, British colonial rule made it possible for the Chamus to change their economy with the "pacification" of the neighboring peoples. They severely restricted agriculture and began to move as cattle breeders between the hills by the hill in the Laikipia District and the swamps on Lake Baringo. They bought grain from the farmers of the Tugen , from traveling traders or in shops. This change had progressed so far by the end of the 1920s that the colonial authorities assumed that the Chamus had always been cattle breeders and could at best be persuaded to farm.

Livestock farming reached its peak in the 1940s and 1950s. More recently (1966–1982), however, the Chamus have resumed arable farming, also because the prices for consumer goods such as corn and finger millet have risen faster than the proceeds they could achieve for animals, hides and skins. They rebuilt irrigation systems, and when there is enough rain they also operate dry fields, especially with maize. Chamus in areas where irrigation is technically not possible continue to live mainly from cattle breeding and wage labor; they have been most susceptible to drought and disease in recent times.

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  1. ^ A b c d Peter D. Litle: Social Differentiation and Pastoralist Sedentarization in Northern Kenya . In: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute , 55/3, 1985, pp. 243-261.
  2. ↑ Bernd Heine: The Non-Bantu languages ​​of Kenya (= Language and Dialect Atlas of Kenya 2). Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1980, ISBN 978-3-496-00172-0 .
    Rainer Vossen: The Eastern Nilotes. Linguistic and historical reconstructions (= Cologne contributions to African studies 9). Dietrich Reimer, Berlin, 1982, ISBN 978-3-496-00698-5 .
    Gary F. Simons, Charles D. Fennig (Eds.): Samburu. In: Ethnologue.com . 2018, accessed on September 1, 2018 (English, Chamus as a dialect of Samburu).