However even up to now they still refer to the tribe as “House of Mumbi”. La tribù Kikuyu è divisa in 10 grandi clan (muhìrìga, pl. 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. The sense of a single Nationhood is slowly taking shape though the tribe seems to have the stronger mental hold to date. b] ‘Ngoma cia Muhiriga’ (Clan Spirits), which had an interest in the welfare and prosperity of the clan. "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. 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. The word 'Muhiriga' comes from the Kikuyu language and when translated means 'Clan'. Muciari wao Etagwo WANJERI kana WACEERA. Although much has changed since the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, Kikuyu society is still characterised by its strong unity on all levels. 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 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. The Kikuyu are clustered by age-sets.Like many tribes, the Kikuyu base their organization on the family unit (nyumbaSeveral). During the rite, the child is placed between the legs of its mother, and is bound to her by a goat intestine. 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. One begins to trace the needs of the individual from the center and incorporates a widening sphere of needs all interlinked and held together as a whole much like a spiders web. MERAGWO “ Muceera ndaceraga na ungi”-Ni andu a mawaara maingi, Aceera eri matirumagia thiriti tondu ni andu eri ogi na matirumagia thiriti tondu ni andu eri ogi “MATINGIKIIGUITHANIA” They are good in bed. Contact Admin at muiniwagicandi@gmail.com. Kenya is in this study used to imply the area stretching from the present Kirinyaga region to the Muranga region known as Mukuruwe wa Nyagathanga. See this documentary video. 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. I doubt there exists a people anywhere on earth without such a map or worldview. A Kikuyu woman is a type of lady whom, when a man has money and he doesn't know the kind of business he can open using the amount of money that he has, she chips in fast and gives out an idea on the kind of business that is suitable and profitable. The Mwangi generation started around the beginning of the 20th century and lasted for about 30 years. 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. A reconstruction of Borobudur in an artist’s mind’s eye. The naming ritual intimately involves the father, whose status is enhanced by proper naming of the child. Kikuyu cultural practices did not allow for them to fully count people, children and livestock. Clan/Muhiriga: The most important classification in terms of a sense of identity for the Gikuyu was the clan which was associated with distinct characteristics and common rules governing such important rituals as marriage, circumcision, etc. Kikuyu Traditional architecture: In search of new direction by Karuri Gituto & Response of Kikuyu pre-colonial architecture to the enviroment by J.G. The 105 is the first Bus that goes to muthiga in Kikuyu. Kikuyu men may take as many wives as they wish, but must pay a bride price to the family of each bride. The stages also marked the path of life from birth (navel) to death (gutiriha) which will be discussed in detail in another post. The Kiondo as a spiral weave construction is a happy marriage between the feminine weft (rurigi), holding the uprights masculine warp (mirugamo), into a firm singular shape symbolizing the wholeness of the web of life. It was a purely communal arrangement, and one which survives to this present day. Surplus crops are stored in granaries. It is a sacred link which must never be broken. 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. Although agriculture remains of paramount importance, many Kikuyu are involved in business, and work in towns and cities throughout the country. 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. How “cleanliness in the home” was sold to the Kikuyu, Three Women, Three Regions – Gaki, Metumi, Kabete, Sin and Atonement among the Gikuyu – Thahu, Gikuyu traditional architecture documented, Colonial Perceptions of Gikuyu Architecture. Wamuyu aka Warigia aka Wanjugu was the Gikuyu daughter of Mumbi who according to legend did't marry. 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. Ugurani wa ugikuyu muiritu endagio ni Nyumba na Muhiriga wao nake mwanake akaguranirwo ni Nyumba na Muhiriga wao. This is what I call, “The Gikuyu Kiondo Kosmology” or “The Architecture of Gikuyu Thought”. 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. Nowadays, the majority live in breeze-block homes with corrugated metal roofs. Then, the intestine is cut through, and the child imitates the cry of a baby. They believe to be the descendants of Gikuyu (father) and Mumbi (Mother) whose origin was in Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga (meaning a certain tree-mukurwe, with a certain species of birds-nyagathanga). Nation/Ruriri: The Gikuyu could only conceptualise the others outside their tribe as belonging to another ‘world’ or system of ideas. 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. 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. This sense of unity was exemplified by the idea of the wider Kikuyu community called Mbari ya Mumbi, the 'Family of Mumbi'. The slopes of Mt. Wachira. Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga is the mythical garden of Eden of the Gikuyu tribe of central Kenya. In the I-Ching the masculine Yang is denoted as a continuous line and the feminine Yin as a line with a gap in the middle. Their eligibility was dependent on their having raised children, and on at least one of their children having successfully married. When seclusion is over, the mother pays a symbolic visit to the fields and gathers sweet potatoes. MERAGWO “ Muceera ndaceraga na ungi” -Ni andu a mawaara maingi, Aceera eri … 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. According to the existing myths of the tribe, Gikuyu and Mumbi the first parents of the tribe bore nine plus one daughters and no sons. 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. NJERI f Eastern African, Kikuyu Means "travelling one" in Kikuyu. The Gikuyu tribal organization is based on three factors: family group ['mbari/nyumba'], clan ['muhiriga'], and age-grading system ['riika']. Weird things about the name Kikuyu: The name spelled backwards is Uyukik. They also shared a common totem. 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 kiondo is also much more powerful symbolically because traditionally it was arranged as stages, (matiina) which were clearly marked and divided with stripes. Mugo Wa Kibiru the Great Sage of the Gikuyu Mugo wa Kibiru or Chege (Cege) wa Kibiru is a famous Gikuyu healer and prophet man who lived in the 18th and early 19th centuries in … Traditionally, the elders served as the custodians of ancestral land and, by extension, as the keepers of social cohesion within the community. After their period of warriorhood, men became eligible to become members of the council of elders (kiama), to which women could also be admitted. The nine clans in Kikuyu culture were the Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu. The duet is strikingly different than the normal singing of the Kikuyu performed by a soloist and a chorus. 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 three stones must uphold all the levels of “Adequatio” (food, health and shelter), and are summarised thus in Gikuyu Organization: If we look at the picture on the right we will see that the woman is making her porridge on a hearth of three stones and the man is sitting on a three legged stool representing the three basic needs. Kenya in the Central Province. Is the Nation masculine or feminine? It is possible the name you are searching has less than five occurrences per year. The main nine clans were the Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu. 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. 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. It stops nearby at 9:18 AM. The mucii, a part of a subgroup mbari formed a muhiriga which is a clan. According to research, Kikuyu women are among the top in bed. Each wife is given her own dwelling and plot. Unless the child has gone through this 'second birth', he or she cannot participate fully in the life of the community. It is sung in a duet and the players are in a competition. 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. 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. Kikuyu males were traditionally organized into age sets or generations. If the man is polygamous as most of them were, each person in the homestead identified with a mother’s Nyumba. The entire spiral construction starts from a navel and continues to infinity. See the page dedicated to circumcision among the Kikuyu. The Kikuyu are traditionally agriculturalists and keep livestock– they are well-favored by the fertile soils and climate to the south and west of Mt Kenya, Africa’s second highest mountain. 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. Nowadays, their function has been eclipsed by the modern (but woefully corrupt, it has to be said) Kenyan judiciary. Groups of boys were initiated each year, and were ultimately grouped into generation sets that traditionally ruled for anything between five and thirty years. His name "Mugo" means "a healer". 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). Mugo wa Kibiru was born in Kariara, Murang'a, near Thika, but his exact dates of birth and death are unknown. The kiama also deliberated over judicial, religious and political matters, although their rule was limited to the length of their respective age-sets. The Kikuyu are found in Kenya and live mainly around Mt. After the Colonial experience and independence in 1963, the country’s different tribal nations, all 42 or so in number were brought together to form one Nation, Kenya. of the Agikuyu of Kikuyu Division. The Yam and it’s Support – Gīkwa na Mūkūngūgū, Gīkūyū Documentation Centre – Mūkūrwe-inī, How the Gīkūyū People Were Sold into the Money, Gīkūyū Marriage Ceremonies. One World/Thi Yothe: This is the forging together of all nations to build one shared consciousness. This post speculates on the reasons she did not marry. Examined closely, it is seen that the quintessential spiral of the Gikuyu is their basket, the ‘kiondo’ which is basically a spiral woven together with radiating strings from a navel and forming into a self supporting container basket. Here I conceptualize the ideal Gikuyu map supporting at all levels the three basic needs of man. 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 Mambura… 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. How unique is the name Kikuyu? 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. 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. Post was not sent - check your email addresses! 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. Such trees are like the Gikuyu Mugumo, the Norse Yggdrasill, the Christian Tree of Knowledge of good and evil etc. Mugo wa Kibiru or Chege (Cege) wa Kibiru was a Kenyan sage from the Gikuyu tribe (Kikuyu, in Swahili) who lived in the 18th and early 19th centuries. 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. 3. This is not however the end of the rituals concerned with childbirth. The rebirth ceremony appears to be a similar passage. 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. This is the three legged stool (masculine) or the fireplace with three stones supporting the “pot of wholeness” (feminine)or . Ironically, this was what the British had attempted but failed to do over their seventy years of hegemony. Ground Plan of Borobudur showing the successive stages (Matiina) of spiritual development. Therefore the clans were ten but only nine were mentioned. 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. The Maya Calendar Stone. 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. The main nine clans were the Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui, Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu. The great traditional Gikuyu initiation ceremonies, Mambura, that ushered a new generation of youth into adulthood ready for marriage involved many processes of which the circumcision of the genital organs is the most famous. 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. They also shared a common totem. In the past, a paramount or senior Kikuyu Council of Elders was formed on the basis of representation from the nine (or ten) clans. The houses were made of thatch, sticks and baked mud, often raised on poles. The homestead (mucii) comprised of several families, not necessarily related by blood, but who lived and worked together for everyone's benefit. According to myth it had not always been so and the Gikuyu speak of a time when women ran the affairs of the tribe. This entitled the child to start looking after goats. Kikuyu elders at a Beer Festival (Tuthu Village,Muranga in 1908)According to Kikuyu tales, God, Ngai, created the first man Gikuyu and placed him at a place near Mount Kenya at a place called Mukurwe wa Gathaga in present day Muranga County. The Kikuyu observe a unique ritual pattern of naming children, still followed strongly today. families are combined to form a homestead (mucii), which is part of a sub-group (mbari). It is also the central point of dispersal of the Gikuyu after arrival into the Mt. Borobudur combines the ideas of the spiral as in the Gikuyu kiondo, the sacred mountain of God like Mt. Kiama Kia Ma is the cultural pillar of the Kikuyu Council of Elders, whose other pillars include economy, politics and social welfare. In this platform, you’ll learn and share a lot on Culture, Traditions, Way of life and the Heritage of the Agikuyu people. An ideal elder was known as a muthamaki, derived from the word guthamaka, meaning to choose, to reign and rule distinctively. further belonged to … Thereafter normal life is resumed by everybody in the village, renewed, it is revived and revitalized. Many people today have focused on the circumcision ceremony, irua, reducing it to a discussion of the surgical cut. 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. It is as if the mother and child 'die' and 'rise again' on behalf of everyone else in the 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 Kikuyu are known for… 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. MUHIRIGA WA ACEERA NA MAUNDU MAO. Some of the physical … The rite brings with it a conscious awareness in the child of its own birth, and ends the child's 'babyhood'. The first girl is named after the father's mother, the second after the mother's mother. "The Kikuyu had a very elaborate sung riddle game, a duet called the enigma poem or gicandia set text poem of riddles. 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