Kikuyu (ethnic group)
The Kikuyu (self- designation Agĩkũyũ ) are a Bantu-speaking ethnic group in East African Kenya, which comprises about eight million people and about a quarter of the population of Kenya . In the multi-ethnic state of Kenya, they are the largest population group with around 22 percent. In the 1950s they dominated the struggle for independence against the British colonial power and for many years large areas in the economy and politics of independent Kenya, which has often led to conflicts in the past decades.
History and society until around 1890
The expansion of the Kikuyu to their predominant home today in the highlands west and south of Mount Kenya probably began in the 16th century. At that time, their core area in the area of today's Murang'a became too narrow for the rapidly growing group. The Kikuyu spread to the north on the one hand, in the area around today's Nyeri , which was extremely sparsely populated. This is where the Agumba lived, a group of small hunters whose dwellings were caves and holes in the ground. It is from them that the Kikuyu probably took over the knowledge of iron development and processing. Today nothing is known about the whereabouts of the Agumba.
On the other hand, numerous Kikuyu also migrated in the wooded south in the direction around the Ngong Mountains . The Okiek , a group of Nilotic-speaking hunters and gatherers, lived there. Conquering land rightfully owned by others was forbidden to the Kikuyu. They assumed that the ancestral spirits of the conquered would continue to inhabit the land and prevent fertility and success among the conquerors. For this reason, they concluded complicated sales contracts with the Okiek. These treaties made them the legal owners of the land acquired with cattle and crops and at the same time relatives of the previous owners and their ancestors. The Okiek, for their part, benefited from the culture and technology of the Kikuyu farmers, as this way of life promised easier care for families than hunting and gathering forest fruits, honey and edible roots. Over the decades that followed, most of the Okiek adopted and mixed with the Kikuyu way of life.
Political structure
There was no central political leader among the Kikuyu. The political structure was based on the seniority principle . Political authority was thus in the hands of the kĩama , the council of elders. The councils appointed a spokesman who had more prestige and respect, but no more formally power than any other member of the council.
These councils functioned decentrally. The kĩama on the lowest level presided over the mbarĩ , an extended family association, which was understood as an ancestral group. The descendants of 5 to 6 generations belonged to him, as well as land tenants and workers who had moved in. As a person, the mũramati represented the head of the mbarĩ . His main task was to allocate and administer land. The mũramati, however, was also subject to the k demama , the council of elders.
For certain ceremonies such as circumcision, for the purpose of defense or trade, adjacent closed Mbari over a period of time to Miaka together. Various mĩaka, in turn, occasionally allied to form bũrũri . The Kikuyu saw their identity tied to an mbarĩ or to the local community rather than to the Kikuyu group as a whole.
The Kikuyu combined the principle of age groups across all small units. The age groups prevented the individual neighborhoods from isolating themselves as groups. All young men and all young women who were circumcised under the Kikuyu in the same year were linked in a riika , an age group, for life, regardless of clan or ethnic group. This connection was particularly close. It formed the basis for mutual support in work and dance groups, but also for formal matters such as military formations and legal proceedings.
religion
The religion of the Kikuyu up to the beginning of proselytizing can be divided into two spheres. As with the neighboring Kamba or Maasai , the highest superordinate power was called Ngai . According to the idea of the Kikuyu, Ngai was the creator of the world and not only the god of the Kikuyu, but of all people. However, he had a special relationship with the Kikuyu. Therefore, Mount Kenya or Kĩrĩ-Nyaga ("shining mountain") was Ngai's preferred residence along with other mountains in the Kikuyu area, otherwise it lived in heaven. It could also show itself in fig trees or in natural phenomena.
The ceremonial address Ngaio was: mwene-nyaga . The arathi ("clairvoyant and clairaudient men") acted as a medium between Ngai and the people, they conveyed Ngai's messages, sometimes against payment. However, a mũrathi (singular of arathi ) could not be equated with a mũndũ mũgo (medicine man and magician) who directed rituals, healings and judicial proceedings. To ask for rain, a mũrathi and the village elders offered a sacrifice - a sheep or a goat - to appease Ngai. The religious dignitaries had considerable political influence through their close ties to Ngai. Without them, no decision was made within the council of elders.
The second religious (and closely related) sphere was the relationship with the ancestors . As is very common in sub-Saharan Africa, the Kikuyu also communicated with their ancestors. The deceased were not viewed as dead, but as living in a different state who continued to participate in this life. Disregarded ancestors could bring suffering and misfortune to the living, while respected ancestors could ensure prosperity and satisfaction. As a rule, the deceased were taken to the forest where they were eaten by wild animals. Founders of mbarĩ or other deserving members of the community, on the other hand, were buried on the family's land and thus went into the earth. The custom of pouring some beer on the floor before consumption or of placing food in certain places serves to allow the ancestors to participate in meals. The ancestors were primarily responsible for matters at the level of the family associations.
Ngai, on the other hand, was only called when there was a threat to all or many of the Kikuyu, such as impending conflicts with neighboring peoples or major conflicts within the Kikuyu, in the event of droughts or epidemics. Ngai's blessings were also asked for at joint ceremonies such as circumcision, weddings and burials. One person alone was considered too small to bring Ngai's personal concerns to the fore.
Relations with neighboring groups
Although there were always armed conflicts with neighbors, the Kamba , Okiek and Maasai , the relationships were at the same time friendly and purposeful. There were frequent inter-group marriages, especially in the border areas. The robbery of girls also led to family relationships that were cultivated by women at an advanced age. The inhabitants of a region also allied themselves across ethnic and linguistic borders against a common enemy. The Kikuyu had particularly close relationships with the Maasai. They exchanged children with one another and linked families through marriage. It was also possible to “convert” as a Maasai to Kikuyu and vice versa. Presumably, the Kikuyu also adopted many elements of warrior culture from the Nilotic-speaking Maasai. The warriors carried the same weapons, dressed similarly, had very similar forms of body decoration, and the cult dances were similar.
In addition, the Kikuyu cultivated lively trade contacts with their neighbors, in particular with Maasai, Okiek, Meru , Embu and Kamba. Since the Kikuyu inhabited a very fertile area, they produced abundant surpluses of food, which they exchanged with neighboring groups for cattle and other goods. For this they went on longer trade trips, often organized by older women who were under the protection of a trade peace. It was not uncommon for them to be women who came from the area visited and who had come to the Kikuyu through marriage or robbery. The Kikuyu sold hides and skins, pottery, tobacco and honey, but mostly ivory and groceries. Conversely, they traded leather cloaks, cowrie shells , copper and brass wire from the Maasai, and salt , game meat and hides from wild animals from the Kamba and Okiek .
Colonial times
When the first Europeans toured the area towards the end of the 19th century, they praised the densely populated areas with fertile fields and gardens. Between the plains inhabited by the Maasai , who had been hostile to the Kikuyu for centuries , and their own residential area, the Kikuyu had left a strip of forest one to three miles wide, which was used for protection and defense. Behind and on this strip of forest were fortified Kikuyu villages, which made it difficult for the Maasai to raid.
When the British administration carried out the first land expropriations in the Kikuyu area in 1902, four serious disasters had decisively changed the living conditions among the Kikuyu. A leaf epidemic with an estimated death rate of 20 to 50% had depopulated the areas, rinderpest had drastically decimated livestock, and a drought and a locust invasion led to devastating famine.
The British presumably assumed uninhabited areas in the area they occupied. This had far-reaching consequences for the future of Kenyan society.
In the course of the division of Africa among the major European powers at the end of the 19th century, Great Britain and Germany also agreed the division of East Africa. The south, later called Tanganyika , was assigned to Germany, while the kingdom secured the north and access to the recently discovered sources of the Nile on Lake Victoria. The Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEA) was given the right to administer the area that was later called Kenya administratively. In 1896 the construction of the railway line to Port Florence on Lake Victoria began from Mombasa and was completed in 1902. With two steamers on the lake, a transport connection between the fertile and rich colony Uganda and the East African coast was created.
Colonial administration
The Kikuyu area was on the stretch between the coast and Lake Victoria and was an important supply point for passing caravans. It was therefore important for the IBEA to maintain good relations with the Kikuyu as long as the railway line was not built. The Kikuyu, for their part, had different interests. While there were chiefs who fought against administrative posts on their territory, attacked caravans and murdered couriers, another chief, Kinyanjui, allied himself with the European invaders. In the conflicts with the Maasai in particular, he hoped for protection and help from the well-armed British. After the suppression of the Kikuyu resistance, in which Kinyanjui had allied himself with the Europeans, he was therefore appointed by them as Paramount Chief , the central head of the Kikuyu in the Protectorate of Kenya. The British colonial power thus created a political position that had not previously existed under the decentralized Kikuyu.
The new capital of the protectorate, Nairobi , was established in the Kikuyu area . Kenya was administered from here. Nairobi was thus in the territory of the Kikuyu. This is one of the reasons why the Kikuyu were hit hardest and earliest by the changes brought about by the colonial power. On the one hand, administrative posts were created in the Kikuyu area, which were responsible for collecting taxes. On the other hand, large parts of their settlement area were declared "White Highlands", ie European settlement areas, and the Kikuyu living there became landless. They lived as expropriated “ squatters ” on farms that were sold to European and South African settlers, and were obliged to work a certain number of days on the foreign land. Africans were only allowed to own land in the newly established reservations.
Mission and Christianization
In addition, countless mission stations from various mission societies have been established in their area . With them came a number of schools. The Christianization of the Kikuyu thus progressed rapidly. In 1929 there was a conflict between Christian Kikuyu and Scottish missionaries over the circumcision of girls . The Church of Scotland Mission forbade schooling children whose parents supported circumcision or were actively involved in the ritual. They later relaxed the ban, but large parts of the missionary Kikuyu had already turned away from the mission. They founded their own churches and schools, for which they designed their own curriculum and in which circumcision of girls as well as polygyny were allowed. The Kikuyu soon also trained their own priests, whom they had initially ordained by a South African black priest. This made them completely independent of the missions. Until the end of the colonial era, the churches and schools of these Kikuyu formed an important area of independence for their ethnic group.
Mau Mau
The Mau Mau War , which rocked colonial rule in Kenya in the 1950s and eventually led to independence, was primarily carried out by Kikuyu.
Towards the end of the colonial era, when the first census took place in Kenya, the Kikuyu population in Kenya was around 1.5 million, around 20 percent, which is larger than that of the other large ethnic groups Kamba, Luhya and Luo , each with approx . There were a million people.
independence
After independence, the new African elite took over substantial parts of this large estate and did not distribute it back to the landless. Instead, they were resettled by President Kenyatta, who belonged to the Kikuyu himself, in the then less populated areas in the Rift Valley and other parts of Kenya, where they were given government land or the less popular former European large farms located there.
Therefore, today many Kikuyu settlements can be found outside their traditional area. This fact made them the target of riots several times in the highly ethnically polarized elections of the multi-party era, for example in 1992 and 2007. That is why there are now tens of thousands of Kikuyu who eke out their lives as displaced domestic refugees in shelters.
languages
Like the Kikuyu people, the language is known as Kikuyu . It is a Bantu language . As Jomo Kenyatta wrote in his book Facing Mount Kenya , a more appropriate term is Gĩkũyũ, which is why the subtitle of the book is The Traditional Life of the Gikuyu . In Kenya, however, the Swahilized spelling Kikuyu is common.
In addition to Kikuyu, most of the members of the Kikuyu people also have a command of Swahili , which has become widely accepted as a colloquial language and is taught in schools, as well as English, which is the language of instruction in secondary schools and is also the administrative language of Kenya.
Kikuyu today
Most of the members of the Kikuyu people live in the highlands of Kenya and practice agriculture or related crafts. The first President of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta , his son Uhuru Kenyatta , who has been the fourth President of Kenya since April 2013 , the Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Muta Maathai and the writers Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Meja Mwangi belong to this people. So far, Kikuyu have dominated politics and - alongside Indians - Kenya's economy.
Ethnography of the Kikuyu
The future President Jomo Kenyatta , a Kikuyu, studied anthropology with Bronislaw Malinowski at the famous London School of Economics in the 1930s and wrote his thesis on the Kikuyu. In 1938 the first Kikuyu ethnography appeared, the book Facing Mount Kenya , in which Kenyatta reports on the history and legends of the origins of his people and describes the myths and customs of the Kikuyu.
Almost at the same time, the British missionary's son Louis Seymour Bazett Leakey , who grew up in Kenya, spoke fluent Kikuyu and was accepted into a Kikuyu circumcision group at the age of 13, was also writing an extensive ethnography, which was published after his death.
Both works were closely related to the time they were created. Kenyatta in particular, who had been a representative in the land commission that had fought for the return of land to the Kikuyu, represented the Kikuyu from this point of view. He saw them as a self-contained, harmonious community that administered the land fairly and collectively . He also limited himself to a single creation story in his book, which suggests that the land inhabited by the Kikuyu had rightfully and exclusively belonged to them until the British colonial administration had expropriated it. Other legends of origin, such as the fact that the Okiek, Maasai and Kikuyu each descended from a brother, that is, they all have a common ancestry, were not told by Kenyatta. Kenyatta thus confirmed the European view of the Kikuyu as a tribe that harmoniously shared a language, a religion, common customs and traditions and a common culture. Since Kenyatta did not tell any historical developments either, the Kikuyu presented themselves as a tribe that had always been like that without ever changing. In fact, the Kikuyu society had never existed like this; it had always changed, moved into new settlement areas and lived in close contact and exchange with other groups.
Creation story of the Kikuyu according to Jomo Kenyatta
The mainly oral tradition of the history of the Kikuyu explains the origin of the people as follows: The Kikuyu descend from their forefather Gĩkũyũ. The first mother Mũmbi was assigned to him by Ngai after he had called him to Kĩrĩ-Nyaga or Mount Kenya. Thereafter, Mimbi (“the first woman”) gave birth to nine daughters, namely Wacera (“she wanders”), Wagacikũ, Wairimũ, Wambũi (“singer”), Wangarĩ (“leopard”), Wanjirũ, Wangũi, Waithaga and Waitherandũ. They are the mothers of the nine Kikuyu clans. These mothers initially determined their clans. After that, their husbands thought together about how they could manage to rule their clans instead of their wives. Therefore, at a predetermined time, they simultaneously impregnated their wives and shortly before giving birth to their defenseless wives.
literature
- William Scoresby Routledge, Katherine Routledge : With A Prehistoric People . London 1910. 392 pp. (PDF, 30MB)
- Jomo Kenyatta: Facing Mount Kenya, The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu. With an Introduction by Bronislaw Malinowski . Vintage Books, London 1938, ISBN 0-394-70210-7
- LSB Leakey: Mau Mau and the Kikuyu. London 1952.
- Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu, 1500-1900. Nairobi 1974
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Rifts in the Rift, The Economist, January 23, 2016
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^ Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu 1500-1900. Nairobi 1974, pp. 39-43.
Jomo Kenyatta: Facing Mount Kenya . London 1938, pp. 23-24. -
↑ Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu 1500-1900. Nairobi 1974.
Jomo Kenyatta: Facing Mount Kenya . London 1938, pp. 24-32. - ^ HE Lambert: Kikuyu Social and Political Institutions . London 1956, pp. 100-106.
- ^ Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu, 1500-1900. Nairobi 1974.
- ↑ John Mbiti : African Religion and Philosophy London 1969, p. 25
- ↑ Jomo Kenyatta: Facing Mount Kenya. The Tribal Life of the Gikuyu . London 1938.
- ↑ Murikui: History of the Kikuyu . Pp. 137-143.
- ↑ Godfrey Muriuki: A History of the Kikuyu 1500-1900. Nairobi 1974
- ↑ LSB Leakey: Mau Mau and the Kikuyu. London 1952, pp. 1-10.
- ↑ Roland Oliver (ed.): History of East Africa. Oxford 1963, pp. 352-390
- ^ Carl Rosberg, John Nottingham: The Myth of Mau Mau, pp. 5-6
- ↑ LSB Leakey: The Southern Kikuyu before 1903 , 3 volumes. London 1977-1978