The Rise of African Nationalism in Kenya

 

The Rise of African Nationalism in Kenya

Introduction: What is African Nationalism? Nationalism can be defined simply as a feeling of belonging and commitment; by an individual or groups of people to the geopolitical area they defined as their motherland. A nationalist therefore is an individual who has such strong feelings for his country that he or she is ready and willing to defend that country and keep out foreigners who might want to occupy it or interfere with it in any way. If the country has already been occupied by foreigners, the nationalist will do everything possible to get them out: This feeling of belonging to one country may be based on shared cultural, historical, political and other experiences which bind the people in a country together and make them feel that they have something unique in common which makes them different from others. Although nationalism has been said to have begun in Europe after the collapse of feudalism, it is quite evident that nationalism as defined above has existed among different societies and communities through the ages. For example, members of an ethnic group occupying a distinct geographical area and having their own government usually develop a strong feeling of belonging to that group as opposed to any other group. This could be called ethnic nationalism. Nationalism has to do with one's identification with people with whom he shares similar geographical, political, cultural and other experiences such as history. In the African context, nationalism has been defined as a feeling of national consciousness, awareness by people that they are members of a nation state created by the colonial powers. These people have been subjected to the same colonial experience, an experience that made them develop a feeling and sense of belonging to one and the same group. Nationalism in Africa was expressed in anti-colonial terms as the desire for freedom from colonial rule. Colonial powers had imposed an alien rule over the African people and this was rejected right from the start as an illegitimate system. Besides its illegitimacy colonial rule was also harsh and repressive and this made it even more detestable. All these experiences made Africans come together in defiance of the imposed system.

 In the Kenyan context the people of Kenya, though from diverse etlmic backgrounds had a strong feeling of belonging to the colonial nation state of Kenya, They felt committed and proud in this nation and developed a strong desire to liberate it from colonial power, Britain. This nationalism developed among the people of Kenya because they shared the same colonial experience, the same geographical area and adopted many aspects of English culture. Several factors accounted for the rise of African nationalism in Kenya, namely:

 

 

The Kipande System

 The Kipande system, which compelled all adult male Africans in the country to carry an identity card wherever they went, was introduced in 1915. However it was not enforced until 1920 by the Native Registration Ordinance.

 It was racist in the sense that only Africans had to carry it. Moreover, it had to show the name of the carrier's employer and this was seen as an attempt at forcing the Africans to provide cheap labor to the European settlers.

The great Depression

The 1920's and 1930's witnessed the Great Depression, which resulted in serious economic hardships in the country. Prices of many commodities rose, and yet the colonial government proposed wage reductions for African workers of up to thirty per cent. This caused hardships to Africans. Redundancies were rampant, unemployment rose further worsening the situation.

Forced Labour

From the beginning of the colonial rule compulsion had been used in order to obtain cheap labour for the construction of colonial government administrative posts, roads and for the    European settlers. The in 1918 the Governor Sir Edward Narthey, issued a circular to the effect that all chiefs must supply a given number of force to obtain the required number. This policy made Africans resistant and rebellious to colonial chiefs.

 

 

Rapid Change of Currency

 Between 1920 and 1921 the official currency changed twice.

The rupee was first changed to the florin and then shortly after, the shilling was introduced.

This not only caused anxiety among the people but also led to loss of savings.

The Change of the Country's Status

In 1920s the British government changed the official status of the country from the British East Africa Protectorate to Kenya colony. The Africans were uncertain about the future and they felt more insecure in a colony than in a protectorate.

The issue of female circumcision

The issue of female circumcision contributed a lot towards African nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s; the missionaries expelled circumcised girls from their schools together with other African people who supported the practice and other traditional values like polygamy. Africans had no alternative but to establish their own independent schools and churches. This movement was stronger among the Agikuyu.

 

 

 

 

 

There was by then a large number of mission educated Africans, to organize the nationalist political association. These educated young men working and living together in the urban included the wage earners and the elite urban dwellers.

Political Organisations The kikuyu Association (K.A)

 This was formed in 191.9 by Paramount Chief Kinyanjui (Patron) and Chief Koinange wa Mbui (President). Its aim was to ask for the return of the alienated Agikuyu lands and to seek an assurance that no more of their land would be alienated. In 1921, the association sent a memorandum to the government asking for a meeting to discuss the two issues. They were granted a baraza on June 24' 1921 at Dagorett at which the speaker also condemned forced labour, but and poll taxes and Kipande System. They also asked for land title deeds as a means of ensuring security of tenure. The Kikuyu Association was basically a grouping of conservative colonial chiefs. It was mild in its demands and wished to restrict itself to constitutional method in attempt to improve the conditions of the Agikuyu.

The Young Kikuyu Association (YKA)

It was formed in June 10, 1921 by Harry Thuku in order to present the views of the younger generation at the June 24 Dagoretti baraza. It demanded land title deeds, abolition of the Kipande System and opposed the reduction of African wages.

The Young Kikuyu Association differed with the Kikuyu Association over the latter co-operation with the colonial government and was more radical. YKA changed its name to East African Association.

 

Alienation of Land

In addition to the already alienated white highlands, the colonial government alienated land around Kakamega following the discovery of gold in that area in the early 1930s. This was a thickly populated African Reserve. The colonial government dispossessed many people from the area as they embarked on the exploitation of the precious mineral. This stirred great discontent among the people.

Compulsory Destocking

 In the mid-1930s the colonial authorities introduced compulsory destocking campaigns in some parts of the country particularly in Ukambani. This was a soil — conservation exercise but many Africans viewed it as a measure aimed at supplying cheap livestock for slaughter to the newly opened meat factory at Athi River town.

Other grievances pre-dating 1920s In addition to the above factors there were other grievances predating the 1920s e.g. the discriminatory but tax and the ban on the Africans from growing cash crops and raising grade cattle.

Furthermore there was racial discrimination and segregation against Africans. Africans were denied civil and political rights e.g. they were not allowed to vote .they were not represented in the Leg Co. they were denied employment as middle or senior civil servants. They were segregated in school, hospitals residential areas, restaurants etc.

 

 

 

The East Africa Association (EAA)

 It was formed on 1st July 1921 by former members of the Y.K.A as the first nationwide political party in the country. Among other things, it addressed itself to the change of the country's status from protectorate to colony, the reduction of the wages of African workers, forced labour, but tax, the Kipande System and land alienation.

It also demanded African representation in the Legco, election on a common voter's roll and an expansion to the education facilities for Africans.

The colonial government was so alarmed by the radicalism of the EAA that on March 14th 1922 they arrested its president, Harry Thuku and charged him with incitement and sedition. Violent demonstrations broke out in Nairobi, with people demanding Thuku's release. Many were shot dead outside the central police station and others wounded. Thuku was deported to kismayu and the EAA banned.

The association, however, had some achievements: the authoritarian governor„ Sir Edward Northey, was withdrawn from the country; a missionary Dr. John Arthur was nominated to represent African interests in the Legco.

And the Devonshire White paper recognized that Kenya was an African country and the interests of Africans were paramount. Besides, the massacre of demonstrators attracted international attention to the country and forced the colonial government to at least pay up service to African interests.

 

The Young Kavirondo Association

 It was founded on Dec, 23rd. 1921 at a meeting held at Gem by the teachers and former students of the Maseno School. The officials were Jonathan Okwiri (President) and Benjamin Owuor (Secretary and Simon Nyende (Treasurer).

They sent a petition to the Chief Native commissioner over the following demands: autonomy for Nyanza province, abolition of the Kipande system, reduction of but and poll taxes, title deed for African land owners, an end to forced labour and the disbandment of labour recruitment coups in the region; the rescinding of the new colony Q1 Status for the country an expansion in education facilities for the Africans and the appointment of paramount chiefs.

The colonial government expressed concern over these demands. In July 1923, following request from the government, Archdeacon Owen of the Maseno Diocese assumed the presidency of the YKA and transformed it from a political party to a mild welfare association.

The Kavirondo Tax Payers Welfare Association (KTWA) It was formed in July 1923, when Archdeacon Owen of the CMS Maseno Diocese took over the presidency of the YKA. The P.0 and DCS in Nyanza were the other officials in addition to J. Okwiri et al. The KTWA concentrated its attention on social and welfare issues like education on and hygiene. It also called for a demarcation of African reserves and the provision of title deeds to African land — owners. The association further opposed forced labour. It sought co-operation with the colonial authorities and appeared for racial harmony. It shed away from mass political rallies and used only memoranda in its demands.

 

The Kikuyu Central Association

 This was the most dynamic of all the inter-war African political Associations. It was founded in 1924 at Kahula in Muranga by Joseph Kangethe (president), Jesse Kariki (Vice President), Henry Gichuru (secretary) and Job Muchuchu (Treasurer). Its demands included the return of lienated land, an end to the restriction on the growing of cash crops, the need for the translation of laws into the Gikuyu language, the expansion of medical and educational facilities and the release of Harryg Thuku. In 1927 nthe association transferred its HQ to Nairobi. Jommo Kenyatta became its secretary in 1928 and in 1929 editor of its magazine Muigwithawa.

 In 1929 and again 1931 Kenyatta was sent by the association with petitions to the colonial Secretary in London. During the 1930s, the KCA actively involved itself in the establishment of independent schools and churches.

The Ukamba Members Association (UMA)

It was formed in Dec. 1937 by Muindi Mbingu (President) and Elijah Kavula (Vice President) and Isaac Mwalonzi (secretary) at Ngelani in Iveti. Its most celebrated activity was tge 1938 opposition to compulsory destocking as a means of controlling soil erosion. On 29th July, 1938, Muindi led over 2000 people with their livestock in a long protest march from Machakos to Nairobi.

 The Akamba interpreted destocking as an unfair means of forcing them to supply slaughter cattle to Liebig Meat Factory ast Athi River town. On 4th October, 1938, Muindi was arrested for his part in the protests march and deported to Lamu, where he was confined until 1946. However, the destocking campaign was officially abandoned on 1st Dec. 1938.

 

The Taita Hills Association (THA)

This was formed at Voi by Mengo Woresha (President) and Jimmy Mwambichi (Secretary) to demand the return of alienated Taita lands and economic development. In Feb 1940, the THA organized a four-day strike at Voi to protest against a proposed destocking campaign. The association leaders were arrested and deported to Kapenguria. However, destocking was abandoned.

The Coast African Association

 It was formed in 1943 in Mombasa to champion the welfare of the Africa people in Coast Province. Between 1943-1948 the CAA sent several memoranda to the government demanding: the placement of illiterate chiefs with educate Africans in the LNCS, appointment of African administrative officers, and expansion of African education, especially the upgrading of Shimo-la-Tewa to a high school with the exception of KTWA, these associations were proscribed in May 1940 because of the Second World War.

The Struggle for Independence in Kenya (1939-1963)

 Kenya experienced a sharp increase in Africa nationalism after the Second World War; resulting in an intensification of the struggle for independence several factors were responsible for this.

1.      The Atlantic Charter. Signed in 1941 between the British prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, and the President of the U.S.A., Franklin Roosevelt, stated that from the end of the War all peoples of the world should have the right to choose the type of government under which they would wish to live.

 

2. The experience of the African Soldiers in the Second World War. These greatly increased their political awareness, after the war, the demobilization of the soldiers left thousands of unemployed and disgruntled Africans who took the lead in political agitation

 3. The Independence of India and Pakistan in 1947. This encouraged Kenyans in their determination to de free.

4. The emergence of new Super-powers. The U.S.A. and the USSR emerged as the new most powerful nations and campaigned for independence of the colonized countries.

5. The emergence of the UNO: through this body many countries lobbied for independence of the colonized people.

6. The unbanning of African political activity. Africans were allowed again to inform political associations after the war.

Political and Military Organization

The Kenya African Study Union (KASU) and the Kenya African Union (KAU)

The Kenya African union was founded on Oct. 1st, 1944 by Harry Thuku (president). Its aims were two-fold: to advise Eliud Mathu on the grievances of Africans which he could rise in the Legco, and to provide a country wide organization for the advancement of African interests.

 In Nov. 1944, the Governor persuaded Thuku to change the name of the union (KASU) making it a mere debating club to discuss African social welfare. This annoyed some members and in January 1945 they denounced Harry Thuku as a loyalist and forced him to resign.

 

At the second annual delegate's conference held in Feb, 6th 1946, KASU reverted to its original name and declared its new aims as being to:

 > Unite all the African people in the country.

 > Demand the introduction of democracy.

> Fight for equal rights for all Africans.

On 1st June 1947, Jomo Kenyatta was elected President of KAU. He revitalized the union by making it a mass political party with branches all over the country; its aims and demand were expanded to include the following for Africans:

➢Self-government.

> More seats in the Legco.

> More land for their use.

> Abolition of the Kipande System.

 > Improvement of the working and housing conditions.

 ➢ Equal pay for equal work.

On June 10 1951, KAU demanded independence within three years and Achieng Oneko represented the Union at a UN conference in Paris, where they called for an urgent solution to land shortage for an urgent solution to land shortage for Africans in a petition entitled "Land Hunger in Kenya". In 1951, radical members of the branch of KAU began to administer oaths to its members to join the Mau Mau liberation struggle. On October 20, 1952 KAU leaders were arrested and charged with managing Mau Mau movement and emergency was declared. On June 8, 1953, KAU was proscribed.

EMERGENCE OF KENYAN COMMUNITIES

 

The Emergence of the Kenyan Communities

  Among the ancient people of the late Stone Age times, the Cushitic speakers and the short hunters (pigmies) were absorbed or pushed from their hunting grounds by the incoming Sudanic and Bantu speakers. These last are the two big groups with whom the history of Kenya is mainly concerned after about A.D 1000.

Distant memories of ancient peoples survive in some places. Central Kenya traditions speak of five peoples who lived here before the rise and expansion of its present inhabitants. These are remembered as the Mwoko, Njuwe, Gumba, Athi and Dorobo.

All but the last have since disappeared in many places, too, there are small saucer shaped dips in hillsides. These were certainly made by men, and are known as Sirikwa holes; probably they are the places where men lived or kept their cattle, and were made by the ancestors of the Kalenjin, who were Sudanic speakers. In other places there are many signs of stone terraces for farming on hillsides, and artificial water channels and ponds, these were mainly the work of early Bantu populations. From about A.D 1000 these early inhabitants, mainly Sudanic and Bantu speakers by this time, grew in numbers as they mastered the lands in which they lived, and became the ancestors of all the different African peoples of Kenya today. But they were also joined, from time to time, by groups of related peoples who came from outside Kenya. These movements have given rise to many traditions, and we should note the most important among them. They contain a core of truth about the distant past, though it must be remembered that they seldom refer to the movement of more than small numbers of incoming people. These new corners moved into a land that was not much different in appearance from today, except that the forest were bigger and was peopled by hunters, farmers and cattle herders. The new-comers mixed with these more ancient inhabitants and built up separate traditions and ways of life.

Of these traditions of movements, the most important include one that is connected with a place called Shungwaya, which lay between the Tana and Juba Rivers in north-eastern Kenya and South-eastern Somalia. Shungwaya seems to have been the home land of coastal people whom we know as Pokomo, Kilindi, Swahili and the MijiKenda. This explains Why the coast of southern Somalia — the northern Banadir Coast- became peopled with the Swahili and their relatives.

The Somali arrived here only at a much later date. In this homeland of Shungwaya a number of Bantu peoples grew in numbers and began sending out groups in search of new land. A second reason for movement out of Shungwaya may have been the arrival from the north of the Galla who were also searching for new land, in about A.D. 1300.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is also possible that Shungwaya was the first homeland of some of the early ancestors of the

Central Kenya, notably the Kikuyu, Kamba and Meru . Like the Pokomo along the Coast some of

these central Kenyan peoples evolved a form of self —rule which had a governing council called

by a similar name Kiama. But this evidence for movement out of Shungwaya into central Kenya, even if more than mythical can refer only to small groups. The main point to notice here is that the Bantu speaker of Central Kenya — the Kikuyu, Kamba, Merui, and Embu — were well established in their present countries by A.D. 1500, while most of their ancestors must have been living here for many centuries before that time.

Sudamic speakers represented mainly by the ancestors of the Kalenjin had also begun to grow in numbers and expand across new territory before A.D. 1500. This expansion is especially associated at least after 1600, with the growth of one of their branches, the Nandi. In about 1500

and after, there began entering Kenya, from the north, a number of different groups who included the ancestors of the Luo, Baluyia, and Maasai. Most of these arrived from homelands which lay

in the Southern Sudan and Southern Ethiopia. By about 1500 there were present in Kenya and

growing steadily in numbers, the ancestors of nearly all its present inhabitants.

The Kenya Luo By about A.D. 1000 the Luo speakers were probably a distinct group in eastern Equtoria and the eastern parts of the Bahr-el- Ghazal in the Southern Sudan. In about 1500 A.D some migrated southwards. Some groups settled in Uganda and others moved further south to the eastern shores of Lake Victoria. Although the Luo clan descent from a common ancestor, Ramogi, this is probably no more a mythical attempt to show that they are one people. The clan tradition give, instead accounts of migration into Nyanza province of Kenya. These migrations most probably were widely separated in time and distance.

The Luo invasion into Nyanza took place between 1500 and 1600 A.D. Most of the original inhabitants (the Bantu and Kalenjin) were driven north and south to find new land but some stayed and were absorbed by the Luo. However in a few areas it was the Luo who were in a few areas it was the Luo who were absorbed into Bantu communities.

The Kenyan Luo came from three main areas. The earliest group, the Joka-Jok, migrated into Kenya directly from Acholiland. By about 1490 — 1600, they had arrived at Ramogi Hill in western Kenya. Their penetration and settlement was both slow and peaceful. The second group is Joka- Owiny. These are the Luo who separated from Japadhola.

 The third group Joka-Omolo came from pawir in Bunyoro. The last two groups appeared in Nyanza about the start of the 17th. Century.The Luo occupation of their present lands was haphazard and took a long time. They not only fought strangers, they also fought one another.

The fourth group, the "Abasuba"  is made up of a very mixed variety of people, many of whom were refugees from Buganda and Busoga or migrants from the shores of Lake Victoria. Although non-Luo, on arrival they became Luo — speaking in due course as they merged with the Luo of Nyanza and settled in the southern part of the province and on the off-shore islands.

 

 

 

 

The settlement of these groups around the lake shore and in Nyanza was accompanied by a good deal bof inter-clan warfare, quite apart from wars with the Maasai Nandi and Abaluhya to the east and north. The wars with their neighbors tended to consolidate the Luo, and gave them a sense of unity that they had hitherto not been conscious of The increase in population during the 18th and 19th centuries caused many clans to break apart and disperse, seeking fresh land. The pattern of political and economic organization based on the clan system. Gradually this changed to the organization based on the clan. With this a new form of chieftainship developed in northern, central and southern Nyanza. The Luo continued to expand and of the 19th century./ by this time their sense of identity as a 'nation' had been established. The Highland and Plain Nilotes Through research, it has been established that Highland and plain Nilotes all shared a common homeland in the south-western fringe of Ethiopian Highlands Cushites played an important part in moulding the culture of these Nilotes. There was intermingling and intermarriage between the Cushites of Ethiopian Highland and Nilotes.

 The Southern Cushites were the first to settle in East Africa, the earliest cultivators in that area, establishing their own Cushitic culture over a wide area of northern and western Kenya.

The Nilotes adopted many Cushitic practices such as the initiation ceremony of circumcision and the habit of not eating fish. Also, they absorbed many Cushitic words into their language.

In their turn the Eastern Cushites may have borrowed the idea of age-sets and intensive cattle keeping from the Nilotes. The Kalenjin groups entered western Kenya from somewhere in the north, perhaps from an area in Ethiopia north of Lake Turkana. It is believed that the ancestors of many of these peoples single full cycle being completed every 105 years. This system produced social stability and a strong armed force.

Each political unit was made up of several clans and was administered by a council. There were several types of council, the principal ones being the clan, the sectional and a broad-baSed council which represented many clans.

The legal system was administered by these councils who advised and judged on crimes and disputes.

Originally the Nandi were hunters and gathers. Then eventually they became herders-they kept cattle, goat, and sheep for their meat. Cattle were also kept for their milk and blood. Cultivation was of secondary importance.

During the early 19th century the Nandi inherited a new institution from the Maasi: the Orkoiyol.  Apparently a number of the Oloiboni, a Masaai family noted for its great prophetic qualities, had migrated and settled among the Nandi. His name was Barsabotwo and it was not long before his advice proved of value to the Nandi who won a series of battles against the Luo, Bukusu, and Uasingisgu Masaai. His power and influence grew, he become the central authority to consult in matters such as war, circumcision, sacrifices and the transfer of power from one age group to the next. When he died in 1860 intense rivalry broke out between his sons for the office of Orkoiyot. In the 1880s his grandson Kinyolei emerged as a powerful leader predicting among other things the coming of white people who would conquer the Nandi, and also a snake spitting fire and originally, belonged to a single group. The Bok, the Bongomek and the Kony stayed in Mt. Elgon area, The Terik moved to Western Kenya, intermarried with local Bantu and formed the Tiriki. The first Kalenjin immigrants into Nandi country seen to have arrived there about the beginning of the 17th century first settled around Aldai, and later otters from Tugen, Elgeyo, Elgon, and kipsigis area joined them.

Their population increase led them to an expansion north, south and west. It is most likely that as the kalenjin were pastoralists, they graze their hards freely over their new country, and as a result of this movement the people of Sirikwa, Uasin Gishu Masaai and Kalenjin descent mixed and intermarried.

Growth of Nandi Power

 During the last 30 years of the 19th century, the Nandi became the most powerful people in western Kenya. They frequently went raiding, but only in small units because their raids were top capture cattle, not win more territory. Their rise as a military power was largely due to the decline of Masaai power. In the 1870s, after the Masaai civil wars, the Nandi defeated the Kwavi and the Purko. By 1880s they were raiding all their neighbors except their Kipsigis cousins.

The structure of Nandi Society.

The Nandi operated a clan system which was divided into age-grades. Meru were initiated during adolescence and formed closely-knit age-sets. Initiations occurred at intervals of five years Three age-sets formed an age-grades were of the "cycling" type there were a limited number of named grades and when the last grade had been formed, the next one adopted the name of the first in the series. There were seven named age-grades which succeeded one another every 15 years- a smoke which would run along the escarpment — a reference to the coming of the railway. The strength of the nandi grew during the 19th century mainly due to unifying influence of the Orkoiyot. Their expansion was stopped by arrival of the British

 

 

The River — Lake Nilotes

The River — Lake Nilotes migrated from their cradleland in southern Sudan. They moved southwards along the Nile and its tributaries and around the lakes of Uganda. The River — Lake Nilotes include the Dinka, Shilluk, Bar, Anuak, Alur, Acholi, Jonam, Japarluo, Padhola and Luo. Their history can be traced back to about A.D. 1000, largely by means of oral tradition and linguistic research. They all speak the Luo language. At this time they were living in the Equatoria and Balel Ghazal province of Southern Sudan.

They were pastoralists and fishermen living in isolated communities along the banks of the Nile, their lives governed by the seasonal pattern of rains and drought. For a variety of reasons they started to migrate from this area; overpopulation, overstocking, or some external pressure may have been among them.

PEOPLE OF KENYA

 

The people of Kenya

The people of Africa belong to three main physical types: Negroid, Bushmanoid and Caucasoid. The last covers much of northern and north-eastern Africa, as well as western. Asia, India and Europe. The Negroid and Bushmanoid races are exclusively African — or were before overseas slave traders. As for pygmies, they probably do not constitute a race of their own, but a division of the Negroid specially adapted to forest conditions.

In Kenya the present people are entirely Negroid (excluding of course, the small numbers of

recent immigrants from overseas). An exception is north eastern Kenya, where the Gailla and Somali constitute representatives of the Caucasoid blood. This suggests that Caucasoid prople were once more widespread in Kenya. The Swahili people of the coast moreover have combined

some Caucasoid elements through intermarriage with Arabs.

The Bushmanoid type can nowadays be found among the Sandwe and their neighbors in central

Tanzania, but their distinct features are becoming rapidly blurred through Negroid expansion and absorption. The only pygmis-Negroes now in East Africa inhabit the forests above the western Rift Valley on the borders of Uganda, Rwanda and the Congo. It seems clear that Bushmanoid people, and perhaps pygmies as well, were more widespread in Kenya and East Africa in the period before the introduction of food production, since the they have undergone gradual assimilation by Caucasoid and more particularly by Negroid people, expanding in large numbers with agriculture, do remnants have been forced into the least attractive types of country. The former in the Kalahari

desert and the latter in the Congo forest.

 

These physical differences are not very useful for classifying tribes or groups of tribes.

The distinction between racial types is vague, and individuals vary enormously. We can only make very general observation on how the Luo, for example, look different from the Kikuyu: we cannot attempt to define tribes in this way. A tribe is a tribe because it feels it is one. It must possess a common culture and a particular common language. It is not necessarily a high organized political unit. Tribes, moreover, are fluid groupings: some members are lost; others are absorbed through the continual processes of migration and interaction with neighbors. There is no such thing as a 'pure' tribe derived from a single founding ansestor .again ability division for administrative convenience or through the ignorance of, government officials, was not unknown in the colonial period.

Linguistic Classification

The most useful and objective method of classifying tribes and larder groupings is by language. The scheme that is used is based mainly on Greenberg's classification. The important groups to note are the Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic.

The Bantu include:

1. Highland Bantu — Kikuyu, Embu, Meru, Tharaka, Kamba, Gusii, Kuria.

2. Coastal and Hinterland Bantu- Swahili, Taveta, Taita, Giriama, Digo, Pokomo.

3. Interlacusrine Bantu- Luhya. Suba. mestic herds and better tools.

 

 

The Nilotic include:

1. River-lake Nilotes — The luo.

2. Plains Nilotdes — Teso, Turkana, Masai, Njemps, Samburu, Kalenjin (Pokonit, Sebei, Marakwet, Elgeyo, Tuken, Nandi, Kipsigis, Opkiek (Dorobo).

3. CushitiC — Galla, Somali, Rendille, Mogogodo.

When the first food-producing communities began settling in parts of Kenya in the late stone age, they would have found thee country thinly populated by bands of hunters and gatherers. In many of the highland regions of Kenya, stories are told of dwarfs that once lived or hid in the thick forests. The reliability of these stories is difficult to assess, but they may refer to the former presence of pygmies.

Certainly the pygmies of the Congo, who extended right up to the Uganda border, descend, from populations that have for long been adjusted to gathering and hunting in the forests.

More important is the evidence of advanced late Stone Age hunters and perhaps also fishermen in the high savannahs of Kenya. These are known from finds of stone tools of the Capsian type, famous for blades, perhaps used as knives and spears-heads, made of the fine obsidian rock. These advances probably began reaching the Kenyan highlands ten thousand years ago. They may have connections with the Middle Nile region or with Ethiopia.

But their origins as well as the type of people responsible remain far from clear at the present stage of archaeological research.

 

The First Cultivators and Herdsmen

These advanced hunters lived in precisely those highland regions which towards the close of the late Stone Age experienced the first introduction of agriculture and domestic herds into Kenya. Dating by the radio-carbon method indicates that these developments had began by 1,000 BC in the Kenyan highlands. The newcomers were of a Caucasoid physical type: that is shown by skeletons excavated from a number of their burial site. In fact, most of our knowledge of these earliest food-producers comes from burials, for very few living sites have been discovered. The burials are usually under cairns (stone mounds). Large ones measure 12 feet in height and 50 feet in diameter, but many are much smaller. They can be found either singly or in groups, occasionally numbering a hundred and more. Their distribution extends from northern Kenya to central Tanzania, the whole length of the Rift Valley and the highland on either side, as well as across the plains that stretch away to the east and north as far as Ethiopia. Often the burials contain offerings or some of the belongings of the dead man or woman. These include grindstones and pestles, earthen ware ports and stone bowls which apparently contained food. From this we conclude that these people cultivated grain crops, presumably types of sorghum and millet. Animal bones show that they kept cattle and probably goats and sheep.

Nor was hunting despised, it continued to supplement the diet. It seems that there was considerable interbreeding between the newcomers and the indigenous hunters and gatherers of the highlands and adjoining plains.

A very famous communal burial site of this period is the Njoro River cave in the elevated part of the Kenya Rift Valley. It was excavated by Dr. and Mrs. Leakey. They found that the bodies had been cremated — an unusual practice, but one which ensured that many grave goods that would normally have rotted were carbonized and thus preserved.(they are now in the National Museum in Nairobi) these include basketry, cords, gourds, and a beautifully carved and decorated wooden vessel, presumably a milk container. Also famous from this site are pendant and hundreds of beads belonging to necklaces. The beads were made from bone, ostrich, eggshells, nut, sedge-seeds and various semi-precious stones, all obtainable locally.

The Njoro River Cave is only one of many burial sites of these late Stone Age cultivators and herdsmen, one of which provides however, an unusually rare insight into their material culture and economy. Like the hunters and gatherers, they lacked all knowledge of metals. Their knives, scrapers and spears were made of stone, principally obsidian that provided beautifully sharp edges. Their axes would also have been of stone, their hoes of stone and wood. They preferred, therefore, the more open country with light soil, where fields could more easily be cleared and dug and where grazing was more available. Possibly it was in this pre-iron period that the first irrigation works were constructed for agriculture in the highlands.

 Many systems of irrigation channels exist in Kenya and Tanzania to this day, both in the hills themselves and more valuable, at the base of escarpments where rivers flow into the drier plains. We do not know how old these complex feats of engineering may be, but it is certain that many of them are ancient, and their present users often attribute them to tribes that have now vanished or been absorbed.

Of similar antiquity, perhaps, the big dams in the plateau grasslands that doubtless provided reservoirs for watering cattle and the deep rock cut wells in the drier plains of north-eastern Tanzania and eastern and northern Kenya.

 

Many of these wells are still used and enlarged by the present inhabitants of the plains, Masai, Galla and Somali. But the reservoirs have fallen into disuse. There is a fine series of these old reservoirs dams at Ngorongoro, just above the crater.

The burials with their grave-goods, the red ochre with which the corpses were often adorned and the special placing of skulls or jaw bones, provide clear evidence of religious beliefs connected. with cults of the dead. The burials are so numerous both male and female that is difficult to believe that they represent important persons only. Quite probably, the societies of the highlands, then as now, were mostly chief-less.

Can we identify these late Stone Age food-producers more precisely? The Ethiopian highlands would have been the most likely direction from which seed-agriculture and domestic livestock would have diffused into the highland of Rift Valley regions of Kenya. The Caucasoid physical type also points to an Ethiopian origin type, so do the methods of burial, for cairns are constructed in Ethiopia to this day by Cushitic speaking people. The practice of circumcision as an initiation rite, and certain other social and cultural traits widespread among the present people of Kenya highlands and northern Tanzania also indicate earlier Cushitic influences in these regions.

 The southern Cushitic mainly found in Tanzania provides the obvious answer. Only a few pockets survive, the largest tribe being the Iraqw, but it is clear on linguistic grounds that they are remnants of a population that expanded from Ethiopia a few thousand years ago. Physically they should be classified as Negroid, doubtless through intermarriage with other stocks in East Africa, but they still betray many Caucasoid features.

 

 

As far as we can trace it at present, this late Stone Age food production was confined to the highland, Rift Valley and plains of Kenya and northern Tanzania. It seems certain that most of the rest of the country remained the territory of hunters and gatherers until the beginning of the Iron Age.

The Iron Age It is not clear just how and when iron-making first reached Kenya. The commonly accepted view is that it was brought from the north, on the presumption that it diffused through sub-Saharan Africa from Meroe on the middle Nile (north of Khartoum) where there was a large iron-smelting industry two thousand years ago. This view is clearly over simplified and no convincing evidence has been produced for a line of diffusion from Meroe to Kenya. The eventual answer will doubtless be more complex and it is now being suggested that iron-working was introduced to East Africa from several directions — the south-west, the Indian Ocean and the north during the first millennium, AD.

This supposed by a few recently obtained ratio-carbon dates. One thing is certain: there was no rapid or absolute change-over from a stone to an iron till very recently. And many iron using people for long supplemented their tool-kit by continuing to work stone. Throughout the Iron Age, iron tools were never tool plentiful.

Intermingling and Assimilation of peoples

More extensive process of assimilation by Bantu and Nilotes has taken place in the highland regions of Kenya already occupied by the southern Cushitic- speaking food-producers. The first and most important Nilotic group in the highlands was the ancestors of the present Kalenjin tribes Lingustic and archaeological studies show that certain times in the past they have been more widespread in the highlands and Rift Valley than they are now.

 The Bantu approach to the highlands was from the opposite's direction — the south and the coastal region. The Cushites were not simply overthrown by the successive waves of newcomers; there were some very long process of intermingling. Though as we have seen, the distribution of southern Cushitic languages is today very restricted, the people have left a deep mark on the customs, beliefs, economies and social and political organizations of the Bantu and Nilotes now inhabiting the highlands.

We should not envisage the history of the peopling of Kenya in the Iron Age merely as a process of Bantu and Nilotes absorbing the earlier Bushman — type hunter —gatherers and southern Cushitic food — producers. There was also considerable interaction, both peaceful and hostile, between various Bantu and Nilotic groups. There has been assimilation of Bantu and Nilotes on the edges of western Kenya highlands, in both directions over many centuries in both directions over many centuries.

The Bantu who live in the highlands east of the Rift Valley (Kikuyu, Kamba, Meru e.t.c), have absorbed many non-Bantu elements. These include besides hunters — gatherers and southern Cushites, pastoralists of diverse origins — Highland Nilotes. Gafla and other Eastern Cushitic groups, and in the last century or two Masai of the plains branch of the Nilotes.

Whereas Nilotes have tended to dominate the highland and Rift Valley grassland, Eastern Cushites, expanding from Ethiopia and the Horn, have for several centuries roamed the dry plains of northern and eastern Kenya, stretching from the highland edges right down to the coast.

 

Pressure from Eastern Cushites was one of the factors that induced kikuyu and other Bantu groups to move from the coastal regions and rift valleys into the highlands. Surrounded by Nilotes and Eastern Cushites, both jealous for the grasslands, the highland Bantu. have been mainly confined to the fertile forested hill slopes where few cattle can be kept. But here they provide refuge for pastoralist who from time to time fall on hard times and lose their cattle or are driven by stronger rivals from the grasslands. For instance many of the highland Bantu, have absorbed numbers of Masai, or in some cases have themselves been absorbed by the Masai.

Lastly, Nilotes have absorbed Nilotes and Bantu have absorbed Bantu. In the highlands and rift valley, Masai have assimilated some of the previously far-ranging Kalenjin, while the Kalenjin have been constantly interacting among themselves and thus forming new tribes. For an interesting example of inter-Bantu fusion, we might observe the region to the East and south-east of lake Victoria. Here Bantu who have come around or across the lake have mixed with others who have crossed from the eastern highlands through the Nilotic zone of the Rift Valley. Elsewhere there have been constant and numerous inter - Bantu movements.

Though, as we have seen, the main Bantu penetration into East Africa appears to have been from the south-west, thus has not prevented secondary migrations in the opposite direction. Some of these movements were connected with increasing populations and the need to open up more land for agriculture. Because of these movements and interaction among the peoples of Kenya, it is not surprising that, although there have been Nilotes and Bantu East Africa for one or two thousand years, the traditional histories of individual Nilotic and Bantu tribes usually go back only one, two or three hundred years, and never for more than six hundred.

 

Thus we see the complex nature of tribe origins and compositions. Though we may for convenience classify tribes by their language as Bantu, Nilotic, Cushitic etc., the more we examine them, the more mixed we find their ancestries to be. A tribe emerges not by maintaining the pure blood of its ancestors; not by sedulously avoiding contact with its neighbors, but by successfully assimilating its diverse elements. To survive, a tribe must continually adjust itself to surrounding circumstances.