The Kikuyu are a Bantu ethnic group inhabiting 3 countries: (Peoplegroups.org, 2023)
The term Kikuyu is derived from the Swahili form of the word Gĩkũyũ. Gĩkũyũ means "large sycamore (mũkũyũ) tree". Hence Agĩkũyũ in the Kikuyu language translates to "children of the huge sycamore". The alternative name Nyũmba ya Mũmbi translates to House of the Potter or Creator. Agĩkũyũ can also be a shortened form of Mũũgĩ (wise) kũrĩ (than) ũyũ (him/her), hence "one who is wise to others".
“Gikuyu” or “Agikuyu” is the name the people give themselves. “Kikuyu” is the language spoken by the Agikuyu. It also is the name the British colonial administration and its anthropologists gave to this group. The Gikuyu historically lived in central Kenya, between the Aberdare Mountain Range and Mt. Kenya, which they called, and still refer to, as Kirinyaga (literally “white ostrich’) for the snow on its twin peaks resembling the white feathers of a male ostrich.
“Kikuyu is a land of great natural fertility, although soil deterioration has caused serious problems. The soil is usually deep and rich, derived from soft volcanic tuffs that supported dense forest down to the time of the incoming Kikuyu. It is retentive of moisture on account of its fine-grained texture, and remains moist even in time of drought: it is also light to work.” “Before the Kikuyu spread over their present lands the area was densely forested, but today almost the only forest left is an almost continuous fringe, eight to fifteen miles in width, on the lower slopes of Mount Kenya…Most of the country of the Kikuyu is deforested.”
As different Gikuyu settled in different areas, a clan structure emerged. Each clan traced its descent back to a specific female ancestor. According to Gikuyu oral tradition, there were nine (or nine plus one) original clans. Two clans, the Acera and Agaciku, are thought to have formed through contact with neighboring Kamba. The largest clan is the Anjiru; its members were formerly renowned as great warriors and medicine men. The Aithaga clan was known for its ironworks, and its members were also thought to have the power to control rain. Other clans include the Ambui, Angari, Aithiegeni, Aithirandu, and Aithanga. According to Gikuyu legend myths, Gikuyu and Mumbi were the male and female progenitors of the nine clan ancestors.
The Gikuyu share common historical roots with the Kamba, Embu, Mbere, Tharaka, and Meru. All of these groups date back to a prototype population known as the Thagicu which settled in the Mt. Kenya region from the northeast sometime between the 12th and 14th centuries. From the Thagicu, splinter groups formed. One migrated south. Subsequent migrations, followed by periods of settlement, intermarriage with other groups, and further splintering in the 15th and 16th centuries led one of the groups to settle at the convergence of the Thagana (Tana) and Thika rivers. It is from this splinter group that Gikuyu trace their descent.
The Gikuyu are linguistically related to other Bantu-speaking groups (described as “tribes” in British ethnographic accounts). These include the Kamba, Embu, Mbere, Tharaka and Meru, who share common roots that date back to a proto-type population known as the “Thagicu.”
Gĩkũyũs speak the Gĩkũyũ language as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger–Congo language family. Additionally, many speak Swahili and English as lingua franca, the two official languages of Kenya.
The Gĩkũyũ are closely related to some bantu communities due to intermarriages prior to colonization. These communities are the Embu, Meru, and Akamba people who also live around Mt. Kenya. Members of the Gĩkũyũ family from the greater Kiambu (commonly referred to as the Kabete) and Nyeri districts are closely related to the Maasai people also due to intermarriage prior to colonization. The Gĩkũyũ people between Thika and Mbeere are closely related to the Kamba people who speak a language similar to Gĩkũyũ. As a result, the Gĩkũyũ people that retain much of the original Gĩkũyũ heritage reside around Kirinyaga and Murang'a regions of Kenya. The Murang'a district is considered by many to be the cradle of the Gĩkũyũ people and as such, Gĩkũyũ's from the Murang'a area are considered to be of a purer breed.
From the original settlement at Ithanga, it appears from archeological evidence that over the next two centuries subgroups migrated in several directions, some north to Nyeri, others northeast to Kirinyaga, and some south to Murang’a. Those who migrated still further south toward Kiambu in the 18th century came into contact with a hunting people they called Aathi from whom they acquired land in exchange for goats and with whom they intermarried. Similar migrations followed and the Gikuyu began to identify themselves as distinct lineages or clans, mbari identified with particular geographic locations. They spread to neighboring regions, eventually becoming the largest ethnic group in Kenya.
Pre-colonial Gikuyu were foragers, hunters, and gatherers who, over time, adopted horticultural practices, beginning with the cultivation of cocoyams, sweet potatoes, bananas, and millet. Women gathered a variety of wild spinach-like greens, tubers such as arrowroot (taro), berries and nuts. They grew sugarcane and men collected honey from hives in the forest for the production of a local beer, njohi. They also hunted animals such as waterbuck, deer, monkeys, and other forest game. Men grew yams and bananas, and helped with millet and sorghum, but women exclusively cultivated sweet potatoes. Maize was introduced from Latin America early in the 19th century and continues to be a major staple. In addition, cassava, Irish potatoes, green beans and, later, rice were cultivated. The Gikuyu also planted legumes such as dwarf beans, cowpeas, pigeon peas, kidney beans and lentils. Meat of domesticated animals such as sheep and goats, historically used for sacrificial purposes, became part of their diet, though Gikuyu, especially in rural areas, tend to be primarily vegetarians who subsist primarily on githeri, a mixture of maize kernels and kidney beans boiled together for several hours, and preserved in a cool place for up to three days.
The Gikuyu were one of the first indigenous groups to come in contact with Europeans in central Kenya. British colonialists introduced commoditized agriculture in the early 20th century. In particular, maize was needed to feed British troops during the First World War (1914-1918). The colonial government urged Gikuyu farmers to plant it so they might use the proceeds to pay the hut tax imposed on African groups beginning in 1920. The hut tax, along with the government’s continuing alienation of Gikuyu land, led to a protest movement initiated by Harry Thuku, who was later captured and detained, giving rise to riots led by Gikuyu women farmers who descended on the colonial capital of Nairobi. Gikuyu did not grow cash-value export crops such as tea and coffee until the 1940s when the government first allowed Africans to cultivate them. Prior to this time, colonial farmers feared that growing such crops would compete with settler production. After independence from the British in 1963, the new government under President Jomo Kenyatta, a Gikuyu, encouraged local production of tea and coffee by establishing the Kenya Coffee Cooperative (KCC) for coffee producers, and the Kenya Tea Development Authority (KTDA) for tea growers with smallholdings (less than 15 hectares). Both parastatals were, and still are, responsible for setting the prices Gikuyu producers (and others) earn for their crops. Gikuyu living in Central Province began clearing land for expanded production of coffee beginning in the 1960s and those living in the highlands and on ridges adjacent to the Mt. Kenya forest and elsewhere started clearing land for tea production in the late 1950s and early 1960s, a trend that intensified after independence. In the 1990s, the government under Daniel arap Moi (1978-2002) began to chip away at land in the Mt. Kenya Forest Reserve for expanded production of tea under state control, an initiative that undercut Gikuyu smallholder production. Factories for the processing and drying of coffee berries, and grading, processing, and roasting tea were first set up under the aegis of colonial agents. After independence, they were taken over by Kenyans, many of them Gikuyu. The factories have grown in numbers, manufacturing capacity, and efficiency over time. In addition to growing coffee and tea for export, Gikuyu in Sargana grow rice. They were encouraged, along with others, to produce the crop when British agricultural agents set up the Mwea Irrigation Settlement Scheme in the 1950s. Gikuyu in lowland Mwea continue to produce rice for local, regional and national markets. Gikuyu farmers also grow a variety of vegetables, legumes, and fruits for sale in local and regional markets and, in some cases, for export to Europe. For example, in the 1990s, Gikuyu producers began growing green beans for export to Europe, and by 2003, they were also producing passion fruit, mangoes, and other tropical fruits demanded by European markets.
Gikuyu male youth were among the first educated in colonial Kenya. The purpose was to fulfill the colonial state’s need for local civil servants. Gikuyu males, in particular, were sought for training in mathematics, English, and other subjects that gave them an advantage in learning administrative and managerial skills. They also learned practical skills in carpentry, metal work, and construction. Such education gave them access to jobs in the growing employment sector in Nairobi, Nyeri, Kiambu, and Thika, beginning in the 1940s and 1950s up to the period of the liberation struggle beginning in 1952. Once the Gikuyu became identified with the independence movement and its armed wing, the Land and Freedom Fighters, many lost their jobs and were targeted as insurrectionists. Nonetheless, the earlier training positioned Gikuyu not only to assume key roles in the new, independent government, but gave them entrepreneurial skills that enabled them to open shops and start businesses. This entrepreneurial spirit spread to women, who set up mabati savings groups to purchase corrugated iron sheets for their houses, water tanks, and to raise cash for other improvements in their homes and communities. Wangari Maathai, the Gikuyu woman who won the 2004 Nobel Peace Prize for her Greenbelt Movement in protecting and replanting trees and her efforts to encourage democratic change in Kenya, is one example of Gikuyu women’s accomplishments. Younger generations of Gikuyu are equally ambitious, whether launching automotive repair shops, manufacturing firms, banks and telecommunications firms, or computer centers
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Prior to colonial contact, Gikuyu traded with neighboring groups and cattle-herding nomads, such as the Maasai, for leather goods, gourds, and foods they did not grow in exchange for millet, honey, yams and bananas. Pre-colonial trade occurred in homesteads, local markets, and more distant regional markets. In all cases, it was based on barter and exchange. Yams became a medium of exchange later. Gikuyu have long dominated market activities in Central Province, and as their numbers have grown in the Rift Valley and elsewhere, they continue to be significant players in trade at all levels.
Historically, women were gatherers of wild roots, greens, edible leaves, and fruits. With the adoption of horticulture, they began planting, hoeing and harvesting sweet potatoes and millet and, eventually, other staple crops such as maize and Irish potatoes. They also grew a wide variety of vegetables planted in different ecological niches, depending on soil quality and access to water. Men hunted game, collected honey for beer brewing by women, controlled the cultivation of cocoyams and helped with other crops. Women assisted one another with planting, hoeing, and harvesting grain crops, sweet potatoes, and vegetables across homesteads through an arrangement known at ngwatio, which emphasized communal labor. Later, when maize was grown as a food crop, it was the responsibility of women, but when it was sold as a commodity, men took over.
Tasks such as gathering wood and hauling water from a river, stream or borehole that were once identified with girls and women, in the late 1980s and 1990s began to be more equally shared between girls and boys, and youth of both sexes. Where collecting water is identified with the use of draft animals or mechanical devices it tends to be identified with men, but not always. Similarly, tasks such as washing clothes, sweeping the compound, cooking and cleaning pots and utensils, once considered women and girls’ work, gradually have become less gender specific. When no woman or girl is present, a Gikuyu male will cook his own meal, and young men tend to wash his own clothes. Childcare was, and still is, handled initially by the mother or grandmother, but as a child becomes a toddler, older siblings of both sexes become actively involved. Childrearing is diffused among multiple members of an extended family. This social pattern persists, except in urban areas where fully employed parents may have a live-in nanny who is often a younger member of the extended family or lineage.
The gender division of labor in the production of maize is no longer clear, nor is it apparent for the production of export crops such as coffee and tea that were once controlled by male family heads, who also controlled the allocation of family labor. Increasingly, these crops are grown and managed by female heads of families who, together with their children and/or hired labor, cultivate and harvest these export crops. Children, of both sexes, contribute their labor to family production on Saturdays when they are not in school and during holidays. The state of Kenya’s economy affects Gikuyu labor allocation in rural areas. During periods of recession and reduced income from export crops, rural families, who depend on these crops to finance their children’s education, are often forced to withdraw their children from school to pick coffee or tea.
Prior to colonization, land was communally held by a mbari, or patrilineage, and was administered by a muramati, the guardian of the mbari land. He allocated portions to male heads of families for settlement and cultivation, according to their needs and land availability. Men with a number of wives required more land as male heads were obligated to provide each wife with sufficient land to raise food crops for herself, her family, and visitors. Gikuyu women gained access to land for cultivation when they moved to a husband’s homestead upon marriage, where they were guaranteed usufruct rights to arable plots called migunda (mugunda, s.). These [n]migunda[n] were often located in different ecological niches. Tracts of land were passed down from a father to his sons at marriage or just before the father’s death, and the transfers were confirmed by the muramati. These tenure arrangements continued in the Gikuyu Native Reserves set up by the colonial government in the 1920s. In some areas, such as Mu’ranga, Gikuyu women were cultivating eight to ten different plots in the 1950s while in Kirinyaga they cultivated fewer plots (two to seven) in the same period. In 1954, when many Gikuyu were interned in prison camps or fighting in the liberation struggle, the colonial government initiated a land and agricultural reform package, the Swynnerton Plan, to encourage Africans, including Gikuyu, to grow export crops. In order to participate, an African landholder had to accept consolidation of his land and individual entitlement. However, it was not until the advent of independence that many Gikuyu were willing to consider such a reform. Since the early 1960s, the trend toward entitlement of individual lands has escalated. It also has led to competition and, in some cases, altercations between brothers (including half-brothers) as heritable parcels continue to shrink with land fragmentation and rapid population growth, beginning in the 1980s. Land tenure is still contested terrain in rural areas. In 1991, the Kenyan Parliament passed a property law that gave women equal inheritance and tenure rights with men. For the first time, Gikuyu daughters, as well as sons, could inherit their father’s land. The law also gave wives the right to titled land in their own names. Some holdings remain communal, others are individually held by a father, or eldest grown son or daughter. In an increasing number of cases, however, family heads in rural areas are dividing their properties equally between wives, sons and daughters. Land owned in urban areas is held in the name of an individual or a couple.
Buying and Selling Land: “After land was bought from Ndorobo, any man who held such land, through purchase or inheritance, had full rights to sell it outright or give it to any one as he liked without consulting any one, except the elders who acted as the ceremonial witnesses in all land transactions. By inheritance we mean a single son inheriting the land from his father who had no other relatives.”
Land Inheritance: “After the death of the father the land passed on to his sons, the eldest son took his fathers place. At this juncture the system of land tenure changed a little, there was no one who could regard the land as ‘mine.’ All would call it ‘our land.’ The eldest son who had assumed the title of moramati (titular or trustee) had no more rights than his brothers, except the title; he could not sell the land without the agreement of his brothers who had the same full cultivation rights on the pieces of land which they cultivated as well as those which were cultivated by their respective mothers.”
Ceremony of Marking the Boundary: “In analysing the Gikuyu system of land tenure the most important aspect and deciding factor as to the ownership of land is the ceremony of marking the boundary…It was only when the purchaser had paid or agreed to pay the number of sheep and goats required as the price of the land, that the two parties concluded an agreement in the form of a ceremony. This was done in the presence of the principal elders of the district who acted as witnesses.”
Oral accounts and the written records of early travelers suggest that the Gikuyu had a sense of shared community within certain groups derived from extended family, lineage and clan ideology.
Groups of pre-colonial extended families formed links that gave rise to membership in mbari (lineages) that traced their descent and histories to a particular place and time of common origin, and a specific ancestress. In addition, physical separation of particular Gikuyu groups led to differences in the Gikuyu language and the development of distinct dialects. The Gikuyu generally recognize nine emergent muhiriga, or clans (though the number differs with informants). Their oral tradition relates the existence of male and female progenitors, Gikuyu and Mumbi, from whose nine daughters the clans trace their descent. Each muhiriga bears the name of a particular daughter (ancestress). As a result, it has been argued that the Gikuyu may have been matrilineal prior to contact with Europeans. Since the late nineteenth century, the Gikuyu have been patrilineal with children belonging to their father’s mbari and muhiriga. Two of the nine clans may have originated through contact with neighboring Kamba: the Acera and Agaciku.
Mbari tends to be used interchangeably by informants for “extended family,” “lineage,” or even “clan.” It is a critical concept in ensuring exogamous marriages, depending on past relations between specific lineages and clans that maintained friendly relations over time or, alternatively, had a history of enmity between them. In the latter case, individuals from such clans were not allowed to marry. Muhiriga (clan) and mbari (patrilineage) provide a continuing basis for social networks and social control, particularly in connection with rites-of-passage and status to a new life stage. Children of the same lineage and clan referred to all clan adults as “mother” or “father.”
Uhiki, or marriage, was not a single event, but rather as a progression of events that brought together two clans and two extended families. Critical to the process was the negotiations over ruracio, or bridewealth: the number of yams and/or herd animals, usually goats or sheep, that the groom gave to the bride’s family to compensate for the loss of her services to her natal family when she moved to her future husband’s father’s compound as the Gikuyu were patrilocal. Ruracio served two purposes: to establish parentage, and to ensure that the children born to the wife would belong to her husband’s lineage and clan. Formal negotiations were held between adult males of the bride’s clan and family and those of the groom to establish what was to be given and the amount. Usually, the transfer of ruracio was rendered through a series of installments, a custom that has persisted. In addition to yams, goats and cattle, cash (shillings) became part of the exchange over time. As Gikuyu families began to invest money in the education of their daughters in the last half of the 20th century, ruracio came to include Kenya shillings. The amount was determined by the level of education a daughter had acquired, with a university-educated bride’s family demanding thousands of Kenya shillings. As ruracio became monetized, younger, educated Gikuyu girls (and increasingly boys) began to resent the custom, feeling that they did not want to be “bought” as a wife (the girls), or have to pay exorbitant amounts to marry (the boys). They argue that money has undermined the original intent of one of the oldest social customs in Gikuyu society.
Moreover, a man must pay ruracio for each wife he marries. Pre-colonial Gikuyu, especially headmen with much land and resources, had the privilege and responsibility of marrying multiple wives over time (polygyny). However, the number of wives a man could bring to his mucii (homestead) very much depended on his land, material wealth, and financial resources. Polygyny continued during the colonial period, except in cases where a man had become a Christian convert and gave up the custom. Since independence in 1963, the trend has been toward monogamy for several reasons: the influence of Christian, Western mores; increasing land scarcity in rural areas; the escalating costs of school fees and houses, especially in urban areas.
A muhiki refers to a woman who has left her father’s homestead to become a bride in her husband’s father’s compound, if he remains in the paternal home, or in a separate mucii if he has other wives. In this first stage, she remains in the nyumba of her husband’s mother, learning what is expected of her as a wife in her new extended family. She becomes a [n]wamung’ei[/n] when she gives birth to her first child and is allowed to move to a house that her husband had built for her and her children. This process still holds in many rural areas, but in urban areas, a Gikuyu woman is likely to move in with her husband directly. Often, though not always, a Christian marriage ceremony initiates the transition. In some cases, Gikuyu women are choosing not to marry. In rural areas, a woman may move into her husband’s compound and bear several children before she and her husband “renew their vows” with a marriage ceremony, often held in a Christian church.
The basic unit historically was the mucii, an extended family compound consisting of several dwellings and nja, a pounded earth yard in the center. The thingira, the eldest man’s house was the largest of the dwellings in the compound. Depending on his resources, the man might have several nyumba, separate houses for each of his wives and their youngest children. As a boy became older and went through circumcision, becoming a mwanake, he had to construct a small bachelor’s hut to live in, referred to as a kithunu. He lived here until he married and built a house for his new family once his wife gave birth to her first child. As a result, a domestic unit included a number of dwellings, varying in size from the large thingira, to the nyumba of various wives, down to the small kithunu. The mucii also included, and still does, smaller granaries for the storage of millet, maize, and dried beans. The mucii remains the basic unit in rural areas. In urban areas, fewer Gikuyu men are polygynous in the 21st century and they live in single-family homes.
Originally land was communally held by mbari (lineages) and allocated to individual men by lineage or clan elders. Only sons inherited land and property from a father until 1991 when the Kenyan Parliament passed a law extending the right to inherit land and property to wives and daughters.
“It takes a village,” is an African saying that describes how Gikuyu children learn about their culture and what is expected of them from an early age. Older extended family and village members teach young members. Children learn by observation and mimicry, how to handle tools such as the digging stick, short-handled hoe, and panga (machete) that are Gikuyu survival tools in rural areas. They learn whom they are related to, including extended family, lineage and clan members, from older relatives and parents who constantly inform them of these relationships and reinforce them when they leave their homesteads or visitors arrive. Ceremonies that mark various life stages, such as the transition from infanthood to childhood, Irua, the initiation for becoming an adulthood, marriage, parenthood, elderhood and death, provide opportunities to reinforce family, lineage and clan ties.
Another form of socialization is through stories, songs, and oral traditions that teach children about the importance of Gikuyu values such as courage, obligation, responsibility, obedience to elders, hospitality, and community. Problem-solving skills are taught through the use of riddles that are context specific, as well as through stories. Finally, various rites of passage, beginning with ear-piercings in pre-adolescence (matu and mbuci that once prepared children for what was to come when they participated in Irua, the initiation ritual that lasted several months and combined a course in Gikuyu history and customs with lessons in sexuality and skills for adulthood. It was through Irua that they learned kirira, secret knowledge that was only divulged during Irua. The ritual culminated in circumcision for boys and clitoridectomy for girls, which tested a young person’s physical stamina and willingness to endure pain while symbolically eradicating gender ambiguities associated with early stages of childhood. An initiated adult gained social respect and was recognized for her/his reproductive potential. Irua became a target of Christian missionaries in the 1920s, with a campaign to end the ritual because it included “female circumcision” and honored a Gikuyu god and spirits that did not fit into Christian moral precepts. Gikuyu defended their right to such indigenous practices, and began building their own churches and schools leading up to the 1950s’ liberation struggle, which became a focal point for revitalizing Gikuyu culture and solidarity in the face of British domination. After independence, with an increasing number of girls attending school, the practice of “female circumcision” again came under scrutiny. It intensified in the 1970s with the U.N. Decade of Women, and global attention on the issue. As a result, the practice was outlawed in Kenya by presidential decree in 1982. Since then, Irua and its associated circumcision for girls have slowly lost ground among educated Gikuyu who have become aware of its health dangers.
Lineage, clan, and age-grade have, together, been the organizing principles of Gikuyu social structure. This section is limited to mariika, age-grade organization. Riika (s.), one’s age-grade, was determined by the particular historical circumstances of the year in which a youth’s group participated in Irua. Once initiated, both boys and girls became members of a named riika that was circumcised together in a particular year. This experience of shared endurance and pain bonded them for life; the riika becoming a means of socially monitoring one another’s behavior to ensure the reputation of the age group, a method of securing help from age-mates periodically, and a social safety net that functioned throughout their lives, especially in times of crisis. In rural areas, mariika ties continue to play a significant role among older Gikuyu. In contrast, younger Gikuyu, who did not go through Irua, look to schoolmates to form bonds of support and security.
The kiama, or elders’ council, composed of both men and women, was the predominant legislative/judicial body in pre-colonial Gikuyu villages. It heard complaints and settled disputes in a public space. With the advent of British occupation, the kiama came to be dominated by male elders. A “headman” was appointed by the kiama, at the instigation of the British or by the colonial administration, to be the village’s leader. These headmen reported to a “chief,” where none had previously existed, who was appointed by the colonial government in keeping with the British Crown’s policy of in-direct rule. In some cases where a Gikuyu headman came into conflict with the colonial administration, he was marginalized or removed and the British appointed a sympathetic, pliable headman in his place. Resentment against the British over this practice led to several skirmishes. Other protests, beginning in the 1920s, against land alienation, the odious hut tax, and increased colonial criticism of Gikuyu cultural practices such as Irua and the Gikuyu’s “provocative,” “immoral dances,” came to a head, first in the protest led by Harry Thuku over the hut tax in the 1920s and continuing through the 1940s and into the 1950s with the liberation movement. In the post-colonial period, the Kenyan government adopted a system of sub-chiefs and chiefs that acted as liaison between Gikuyu locations, districts, and the central government. In addition, the Gikuyu have been successful in catapulting two of their own into Kenya’s highest office, with one becoming the first elected president of Kenya, Dr. Jomo Kenyatta (1963 – 1978) and more recently, Mwai Kibaki (2002 – present). Kibaki sought re-election in 2007 and won after a delay in announcing the results and cries of foul play. The election results were disputed by Kibaki’s opponent Raila Odinga and his party. Violence erupted across Kenya in early 2008, putting Gikuyu living in Rift Valley and elsewhere outside Central Province at great risk and loss of life. In 2009, with the intervention of an international negotiation team, Kibaki retained his position as president and Raila Odinga became Prime Minister in a power-sharing arrangement.
Extended families, lineages and clans, communities and kiama all acted to ensure security, order, and social justice. With colonial occupation these institutions continued, but others such as the introduction of British common law, in-direct rule, and formal schooling competed with indigenous institutions for control over people’s lives, relationships, and livelihood. University-educated Gikuyu are highly respected to help solve family and community problems.
As collections of dispersed homesteads grew into villages, Gikuyu kiama, or councils developed. They were responsible for settling conflicts between individuals over property, scarce resources, and women. For example, they heard cases concerning the control of particular beehives in the forest, cases over stolen goods such as a goat, stored food, or a hoe. They also heard disputes that could not be settled by family elders, such as marital quarrels of younger members or disagreements between co-wives. (See SOCIAL ORGANIZATION for more on the kiama.)
At the heart of the Gikuyu spiritual world was their belief in Ngai, the one god, who is also known as Mwene-Nyaga, the Creator of All (symbolized in the purity of Mt. Kenya) to Gikuyu living in its shadow. Spiritual places such as forests, trees, hills and mountains, especially Kirinyaga, served as places to pay homage to Ngai. A very old magumo (wild fig tree) was considered a sacred place, its magnificent branches twisting skyward, its solid trunk firmly planted in the earth. Every Gikuyu village had a magumo tree where elders made sacrifices to Ngai, offering a fat, white ram, whose neck was ritually slit and its blood poured in a sacred spot while the animal’s fat was smeared on the trunk. It was here, the elders prayed for rain, for the crops’ fertility, and for healing if some calamity had struck. Gikuyu continue to use large, sacred trees as gathering places for religious meetings and special events.
The mbari elders within a lineage or clan held a special spiritual place in the Gikuyu belief system. They were perceived to be intermediaries between Ngai and the people. Old people were referred to as andu akuru and were accorded great respect. In some cases they were also feared because they had the power to bring evil or bad luck as they drew near death. Once they died, they became sacred ancestoral spirits with the power to punish the living for breaches of conduct. To avoid their anger and punishment, individuals, lineages, and age groups instituted taboos and sanctions to maintain order. Disease and misfortune were the result of disharmony within the community and ignoring the wishes of the ancestors.
With the arrival of missionaries in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some Gikuyu began to convert to Christianity in order to gain access to mission schools and medicine. The Gikuyu clashed with Christian missionaries over the issue of female circumcision, criticism of their ceremonial dances, and the practice of polygyny. The clash of cultures over female circumcision was particularly harsh and figured dramatically in the Gikuyu’s struggle for Kenya’s independence from the British, as well as the founding of Gikuyu churches and the Kikuyu Independent Schools movement.
Gikuyu ceremonies often were celebrations of an age group’s passage from one life stage to another: mambura ma twana when a child was removed from his/her mother’s bed, matu, Irua. unhiki (marriage), and kumanda, when a new mother took vegetables to cook in the house she would live in with her husband, nyumithio, linked to a child’s initiation which allowed a man or woman to be recognized as an elder and join the kiama. Others were to celebrate a particular agricultural season; for instance, mugoiyo, a dance held on a moonless night when the beans had been planted, or the celebration for successful harvests. Still others involved dancing, such as mweretho, where young men tossed their female partners in the air as they twisted their bodies in the firelight, and ndumo, a dance for youth of both sexes in preparation for Irua. Such ceremonies gave young people of the opposite sex a chance to meet one another, and spend the night together without becoming involved in sexual intercourse, which was taboo and strictly enforced by the mariika of both sexes, and was made more difficult by the wrapped skirts that the girls wore and the communal context in which they enjoyed one another. The missionaries criticized the dances as “erotic” and “distasteful.” As a result, the ceremonies were held in secrecy. As schooling gave youth a way of meeting and getting to know members of the opposite sex, the older ceremonies gradually died out as new ones, often school-related, took their place.
The Gikuyu have no unique written language; therefore, much of the information on their traditional culture has been gleaned from their rich oral traditions. The oral literature of the Gikuyu consists, in part, of original poems, stories, fables, myths, riddles, and proverbs containing the principles of their philosophy, system of justice, and moral code. An example of Gikuyu music is the gicandi, which is a very old poem of enigmas sung by pairs of minstrels in public markets, with the accompaniment of musical instruments made from gourds.
Ugo is the name for Gikuyu medicine. The mundu mugo. or medicine man, was the person who practiced it. He had the power to heal people, free them of curses, and to predict their futures, using the kirira, secret knowledge, he learned from other healers during his special initiation. He used a collection of gourds. The divination gourd, or mwano, was filled with small animal bones, sticks, pieces of glass, and special stones that he rolled out in various patterns and analyzed for answers to social and physical problems. In cases of physical illness, such as food poisoning or poisoning as the result of a curse by someone in the community, the mundu mugo would call for kubibo, which meant that a specialist came who made cuts in the sick person’s body using a short-handled knife, and sucked up the sick person’s blood, spitting it out to get rid of the illness or evil. In the case of a curse, he divined the causes, and gave the afflicted person a set of steps s/he must take to overcome the power of the curse. Increasingly, educated Gikuyu have turned to Western medicine, which has proved to cure or control some diseases such as pneumonia, diarrhea, tuberculosis, malaria, STDs and HIV/AIDS.
There were many causes of death among early Gikuyu, including accidental death from drowning or falling from a tree, death in an encounter with a wild animal (be it a leopard, lion, or elephant) or through inter-group warfare as the Gikuyu came into contact with other tribes or lineage groups and fought with them over land and other environmental resources (streams, trees), animals, and women. Pre-colonial Gikuyu, when they knew a raid by Maasai was eminent, would hide their women and girls up in the storage areas between the rafters of the houses to avoid their being stolen by the Morani. Maasai warriors.
Pre-colonial Gikuyu did not bury their dead. They wrapped them in hides or cloth and took them to a sacred resting place in the forest or a stand of trees, and left them there for the wild animals as an offering, so that the body would be devoured and would not come back and trouble the homestead. If the individual had led a good life, being hospitable and kind to others, his or her spirit became an ancestor and was honored for their advice and wisdom. If the dead person had been niggardly and troublesome, people feared the spirit of this person, who had the power to cause harm to members of his family in the form of illness, psychosomatic problems, or misfortune, which were viewed as an imbalance in the community. Thus, the Gikuyu belief in afterlife was connected to their belief that the ancestral spirits were a part of their everyday lives, with the power to monitor their actions and exact punishment for bad behavior. As such, ancestors played an important role in Gikuyu social control. Even though Christian Gikuyu practice burial in a family compound in rural locations, or in a community cemetery in urban areas, to a certain extent the belief in the wisdom and power of unseen elders continues to be an unspoken part of the Gikuyu belief system in the 21st century.
In the pottery industry all the work, from start to finish, is done by women; the digging of the clay, beating and softening it, the moulding and drying, the burning of the pots, and finally, marketing- all these are entirely the tasks of women. Men are debarred by custom from approaching the moulding-place, especially when the work is in progress. Men are not allowed to touch any material associated with this work. The presence of a man at the moulding-place is said to have a bad effect on the articles and causes the pots to break when they are put on the fire.” The pottery industry is not carried all the year round, but is restricted to certain seasons. The most favourable time for making earthenware vessels is during the time when crops are nearly ripe, and again after the harvest…The industry is carried on with two purposes in view: firstly, to satisfy the family’s wants; and secondly, for marketing. The latter is the most important and deciding factor as to whether pots are to be manufactured or not, for unless the potters are satisfied that there is a good market for their articles they will not undertake the task.”
“Sexual intercourse must not take place…whilst food is being cooked, or the food will have to be thrown away, for an act of this nature renders the food unclean and unfit for human consumption. Anyone eating such food will have thahu (defilement), and will have to be cleansed by a mondo mogo (witch doctor), for it is feared that unless this is done, disaster will befall such a man.”
Until 1888, the Agikuyu literature was purely expressed in folklore. Famous stories include The Maiden Who Was Sacrificed By Her Kin, The Lost Sister, The Four Young Warriors, The Girl who Cut the Hair of the N'jenge, and many more.
When the European missionaries arrived in the Agikuyu country in 1888, they learned the Kikuyu language and started writing it using a modified Roman alphabet. The Kikuyu responded strongly to missionaries and European education. They had greater access to education and opportunities for involvement in the new money economy and political changes in their country. As a consequence, there are notable Kikuyu literature icons such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Meja Mwangi. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's literary works include Caitani Mutharabaini (1981), Matigari (1986) and Murogi wa Kagogo (Wizard of the Crow (2006)) which is the largest known Kikuyu language novel having been translated into more than thirty languages.
Traditional Kikuyu music has existed for generations up to 1888, when the Agikuyu people encountered and adopted a new culture from the Europeans. Before 1888 and well into the 1920s, Kikuyu music included Kibaata, Nduumo and Muthunguci. Cultural loss increased as urbanization and modernization impacted on indigenous knowledge, including the ability to play the mũtũrĩrũ - an oblique bark flute. Today, music and dance are strong components of Kikuyu culture. There is a vigorous Kikuyu recording industry, for both secular and gospel music, in their pentatonic scale and western music styles such as "Mathwiti Maigi Ngai!".
Typical Agĩkũyũ food includes Yams, sweet potatoes,Gītheri (maize and beans, after corns was introduced to Africa), Mūkimo (mashed green peas and potatoes), Kīmitū (mashed beans and potatoes), Irio (mashed dry beans, corn and potatoes), Mūtura (sausage made using goat intestines, meat and blood), Ūcūrū (fermented porridge made from flour of corn, millet or sorghum) roast goat, beef, chicken and cooked green vegetables such as collards, spinach and carrots.
Every household head, the man of the house acted as the first instance in disputes arising around his homestead. If there was a big dispute, then he called on heads of the family within his family unit, mbarĩ. If this failed then it was time to move to the highest court of the land.
The highest court of the land consisted of the elders of three stages, junior elders called kiama kĩa kamatimo, who were mainly there as trainees of law and had such functions as to fetch firewood and water and light fires. They could not yet judge a case. The next council of elders kiama kĩa mataathi were the main judges. Other than that there was a council of elders called kiama kĩa maturanguru who were the eldest and most experienced and were called upon to assist in intricate parts of the law. A man entered this council when practically all his children were circumcised and his wife or wives were past child bearing age.
Cases brought before the council of elders were heard in the meeting space also known as kĩhaaro( today nicknamed Hague-see story on Mungiki membership trials in Kirinyaga). The elders heard from both parties. In making a case the concerned parties would use twigs given to the elders after each concrete complaint was made. After the arguments were made, an open session followed in which elders expressed their opinions for or against either party. At the end of this a special committee, ndundu, was formed that would deliver judgement. This retired to a place where no one could here their deliberations and only came out when a decision was reached. An appeal was possible if one of the parties didn’t agree with the ruling.
Oaths played a significant part in the judicial process. Fear of breaking the oath and the misfortunes that would befall one prevented people from giving false testimonies, as well as brought defenders to justice by means of a guilty conscience and confession. Curses acted as good deterrents against crime. Most cases heard by the kiama involved debts resulting from transactions of sheep, goats or cattle, exchanged in buying land or paying marriage insurances (rũracio). There were also a few criminal cases involving murder, trespass, assault, theft and witchcraft. The last two were the worst crimes. Theft for first time offenders was not serious but perpetual offenders would face death just like proven witch-doctors.
Fees to the council was a ram. Beer would also have to be brewed and offered when a case was being opened. Interestingly for murder cases the compensation for a mans life and a womans life varied greatly. The loss of a mans life was fixed at one hundred sheep or goats or ten cows. That of a womans life was fixed at thirty sheep or goats or three cows
In April 2018, the Presbyterian Church of East Africa made a resolution to prohibit its members from the Kikuyu cultural rite known as “Mburi cia Kiama” and this triggered disturbances among devotees in the region of Mount Kenya. The “Mburi cia Kiama” entails the slaughtering of goats and advising men on how to become respected elders. When this process is over, they join different “kiamas” (groups). It is in these groups that they are given advice on issues like marriage, the Kikuyu culture and community responsibilities. Members of the church were given the ultimatum to renounce the cultural practice or to leave the church’s fold.
Missionaries: o “Among ourselves, a large part of the character and moral training of our children is considered to be among the nomal duties of the parents – and long may it remain so. There are, too, many Kikuyu parents, especially among the genuine Christians and among those who still retain faith in their ancient beliefs who try to train their children to become fit members of the adult community. But there are countless other Kikuyu children today for whom ‘education’ means only book learning and who are growing up without any real preparation for good citizenship and the responsibilities of modern life. On this failure of the education system that we have introduced, in place of the old tribal one, a heavy responsibility for the troubles of today must rest.” (2p77)
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.
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.
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).
After their period of warrior-hood, 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 .
Traditionally, there was a circumcision ceremony for boys organised by age-sets of about five-year periods. Although boys could be circumcised throughout that period, they would become part of the same age-set, and all the men in that circumcision group would take an age-set name. Times in the history of Kikuyu society could be gauged by age-set names.
Circumcision was traditionally a public affair, which only added to the anxiety - and determination - of the boys to pass the ordeal without showing the slightest trace of fear. The practice of circumcision is still followed, although is nowadays more likely to be performed in hospitals. Traditionally, boys who underwent circumcision became warriors (anake), although this institution is now defunct. As in so many societies all over the world, sex was seen as a weakness, both spiritual and physical. For this reason, junior warriors were barred from sexual relations, though in compensation they were also given a lot of food to make them strong. Only senior warriors, who were preparing to leave warriorhood, were allowed to marry and raise children.
Although still widespread (around 30% of Kenyan women are thought to have been circumcised), the practice of female circumcision is gradually becoming less common, especially as traditional social structures break down and women gain increasing access to modern western education, and indeed the cash economy.
Nonetheless, clitoridectomy is far from eradicated, and as long as the antagonistic attitude from outsiders against it prevails, it seems likely - somewhat perversely - that it will survive - for to attack clitoridectomy is, for many, an attack on their own society as a whole.
Among the Kikuyu, as among all the tribes which practice it, clitoridectomy marks a girl's transition from childhood to womanhood. With it comes the lifting of the taboo on pregnancy, and usually marriage is swift to follow.
A sexual as well as a social act (although the circumcision itself is done in private), the circumcision marks a woman's assumption of her female identity, allowing her both to procreate, and to take part in traditional rituals and traditional governing councils. It is also the time when initiates are instructed in the rules and regulations of their society, and their responsibilities within it.
Christian missionaries and other Westerners have invariably looked down on circumcision, of both men and women but especially of women, as being repugnant. Given the Christian belief that the body is the temple of God, this apparent act of mutilation was seen - and still is seen - as sacrilege. And thus, with their typical open-mindedness, the ceremonies that surrounded circumcision were condemned by the missionaries to be heathen and anti-Christian.
It was not so much the cutting of the clitoris that outraged them, but the excision of the labia and other parts which were prevalent before colonisation, and which were viewed as being abhorrent and barbaric in the extreme, and as an unwarranted mutilation of a woman's body. The term female genital mutilation itself (FGM) bears this up, as does the paradoxical absence of the term 'male genital mutilation'.
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