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.