WORLD BOOKS
AND RECORDS
Kiswahili -English
Bible
Kiswahili
Bible
CHILDREN'S
Kiswahili
Bible
Kiswahili -English
nt-Bible
MITHA MUGIKUYU
NA
NYIMBO CIAKE
WIRUTE
GUTHOMA
GIKUYU
NYIMBO NJERU
CIA
MITHA
MUGIKUYU
KIMERU
BIBLE
GUCHANJAMURA
NGORO
KIKUYU
NEW
TESTAMENT
KIMBEERE
BIBLE
Nanu        I / Me
Eeya        You
Entie        His
Eni        Hers
Aniy        Mine
Enino        Yours
Eyo        We
Indai        They
      
Empasia aja        How much does it cost
Ayieu        I want it / need it
Mayieu taata        I don’t want / need it today
Ainyang ena        I will buy this one
Ainyang kuna        I will buy these
Mainyang onya taata        I won’t buy anything today
Maata Empesai        I have no money
Aosh Empicha        May I take a picture
MAASAI WORDS FOR TRAVELERS
Ilakirr        Star
Ositimu        Torch
Olorika        Seat
Ikaray        Cloth
Ewoshoto        Hurt
Emotonyi        Bird
Engirutoto        Scare
Eng’orore        Hunt
Eng’wenia        Laugh
Eloasikeli        Bicycle
Ingumock        Many
Endeke        Fly
Esaa        Watch
Indadoi        Drop
Tigila        Break
Engisulat        Whistle
Enjipai        Happy
Mesai        Sad
Engoro        Angry
Empisha        Picture
Engerai        Child
Engiyuran        Silly
Eyeunoto        Exciting
Sidai naleng        Beautiful
Errdoy        Long
En’dorop        Short
Eyeunoto        Interesting
Isudori        Disappear
Tisira        Write
Tolimu        Spell
Tangaza        Borrow
Ipesai        Money
Olndoilo Lemesidai        Noise
Taatanji        Catch
Tabolo        Open
Engeno        Close
Iyeau / pockini        Collect
Aata / Kazi        Busy
Taretokoki        Help
Having migrated to their current location about four
centuries ago, the Kikuyu now make up Kenya’s
largest ethnic group. The Kikuyu people spread
rapidly throughout the Central Province and Kenya.
The Kikuyu usually identify their land by the
surrounding mountain ranges which they call
Kirinyaga-the shining mountain. The Kikuyu are
Bantu and actually came into Kenya during the
Bantu migration. They include some families from
all the surrounding people and can be identified
with the Kamba, the Meru, the Embu and the Chuka.

The Kikuyu tribe was originally founded by a man
named Gikuyu. Kikuyu history says that the Kikuyu
God, Ngai, took Gikuyu to the top of Kirinyaga and
told him to stay and build his home there. He was
also given his wife, Mumbi. Together, Mumbi and
Gikuyu had nine daughters. There was actually a
tenth daughter but the Kikuyu considered it to be
bad luck to say the number ten. When counting they
used to say “full nine” instead of ten. It was from the
nine daughters that the nine (occaisionally a tenth)
Kikuyu clans -Achera, Agachiku, Airimu, Ambui,
Angare, Anjiru, Angui, Aithaga, and Aitherandu-
were formed.

The Kikuyu rely heavily on agriculture. They grow
bananas, sugarcane, arum lily, yams, beans, millet,
maize, black beans and a variety of other
vegetables. They also raise cattle, sheep, and
goats. They use the hides from the cattle to make
bedding, sandals, and carrying straps and they
raise the goats and sheep to use for religious
sacrifices and purification. In the Kikuyu culture
boys and girls are raised very differently. The girls
are raised to work in the farm and the boys usually
work with the animals. The girls also have the
responsibility of taking care of a baby brother or
sister and also helping the mother out with
household chores.

In the Kikuyu culture family identity is carried on by
naming the first boy after the father’s father and the
second after the mother’s father. The same goes
for the girls; the first is named after the father’s
mother and the second after the mother’s mother.
Following children are named after the brothers and
sisters of the grandparents, starting with the oldest
and working to the youngest. Along with the naming
of the children was the belief that the deceased
grandparent’s spirit, that the child was named after,
would come in to the new child. This belief was lost
with the increase in life-span because generally the
grandparents are now still alive when the children
are born.

Though they are traditionally agricultural people and
have a reputation as hard-working people, a lot of
them are now involved in business. Most of the
Kikuyu still live on small family plots but many of
them have also seen the opportunities in business
and have moved to cities and different areas to
work. They have a desire for knowledge and it is
believed that all children should receive a full
education. They have a terrific reputation for money
management and it is common for them to have
many enterprises at one time. The Kikuyu have also
been active politically.

The first president of Kenya, Jomo Kenyatta, was
actually a Kikuyu. Kenyatta was a major figure in
Kenya's fight for independence.
KIKUYU CULTURE
According to Kikuyu mythology, all of creation began at the summit of Mount Kenya.
The icy peak was the realm of Ngai, the Supreme Creator, who descended from the
heavens to his mountainous throne to survey his newly created lands. The mountain
became Kirinyaga, his resting place, and it was from here that he called forth Gikuyu,
the father of the Kikuyu people.

Ngai told him that all of the lands around Kirinyaga would be the home of Gikuyu and
his children forever. He sent Gikuyu to grove of Fig trees, where he found a woman
called Mumbi. This grove would become known as ‘Mukuru wa Nyagathanga’, the
birthplace of all Kikuyu, still revered as a sacred place.

Among the fig trees, Gikuyu and Mumbi produced nine daughters - Wanjiku, Wanjiru,
Wanjeri, Wambui, Wangari, Wacera, Waithera, Wairimu, and Nyambura (traditionally
all Kikuyu girls should be given one of these names). The girls grew into beautiful
young women, who each full moon wandered the lands around Kirinyaga in search of
men so that they could bear children. They begged their father to appeal to Ngai for
help. Finally he bowed before the Mountain, and Ngai commanded him to make
sacrifice among the figs and light a fire.

The sacrifice of a goat beneath a fig tree is still considered a way to call rain in times
of drought, but in this first case it was a different form of life sustaining rain that Gikuyu
sought. After the sacrifice he plunged nine sticks into a fire, and prayed. The fire
erupted into an inferno, from which nine strong young men emerged. Giving thanks,
Gikuyu took them back to his daughters, and the nine marriages were blessed by Ngai.

Each of the daughters made her own homestead, and nine separate clans of the
Kikuyu were born. the unity of these clans was known as the Nyumba ya Mumbi, in
honour of their Mother. The peak of Kirinyaga has since remained the sacred home of
Ngai. All Kikuyu homesteads were traditionally built to face this Holy Mountain.

In reality, the traditional Kikuyu lands (from Mt Kenya south through the Aberdares and
towards present day Nairobi) have indeed been long inhabited by the Kikuyu, but their
exact origins are uncertain. The most widely held theory is that they descended from a
now extinct group known as the Thagicu, who are considered the linguistic ancestors
of the Kikuyu, Kamba, Meru, Tharaka and other tribes. Some Kikuyu lore also speaks
of the Gumba, a tribe of pygmy hunter gatherers who lived in holes under the ground,
being absorbed by the early Kikuyu.

Regardless, the Kikuyu were traditionally an industrious people who quickly expanded
throughout the central highlands. They came into close contact with the Maasai, with
whom they shared some traditional practices and elements of dress, and intermarriage
was common. This resulted in some Maasai clans being absorbed into the Kikuyu.

The Kikuyu culture has always remained bound by strict and strong ties of clan loyalty
and an even stronger sense of tribal unity - still devoted to the original Nyumba ya
Mumbi. There was an age set system among young men, known as Mariika, but all
clans and villages (itura) always paid deference to the wisdom and law of the tribe.
There were many tribal councils of elders known as Kiama.

There was a structured system of Chiefdom, with all powerful 'Paramount Chiefs' ruling
entire areas. Society was strongly patriarchal - with one surprising exception. In the
mid-19th century, a Paramount chief appointed a woman, Wangu wa Makeri, as Chief
of an area near modern day Muran'ga.

She proved to be a very powerful and authoritarian ruler. Rigid order was maintained,
and she was widely supported by the female population. The men however, felt
differently. She was known to treat her male subjects harshly, and it is believed that
she even used to require men to kneel on all fours so that she could sit on their backs.
Dissent among the male ranks grew, and a very unique political coup was hatched.

All of the men plotted to impregnate their wives at around the same time, knowing that
in nine months the majority of Makeri's supporters would be physically disabled. This
actually worked, and a wave of planned pregnancies (including Makeri herself) swept
her from power. The men easily assumed control as the female population, almost
entirely heavily pregnant, in childbirth or nursing, were powerless to stop this unusual,
bloodless coup.

The Kikuyu were widely effected by the coming of European settlement. The Mountain
was first described by the German explorer Krapf in 1849, though his stories of snow
on the equator were mostly dismissed as ridiculous. The British found the highlands of
Kenya to be ideal for settlement and farming and the Kikuyu were widely displaced.
Karen Blixen's Out of Africa is an interesting European perspective of the initial
relationship between settler and Kikuyu on her coffee plantation just outside Nairobi.

The British were shocked to find that Kikuyu elders were sometimes found high on the
snowline of the mountain, making pilgrimages to their god. Such climbs seem to have
been a regular custom. Whether or not they ever actually achieved the summit is still
unknown. The first recorded ascents by European climbers were made in 1899 and
1928.

Meanwhile the industrious nature and opportunism saw the Kikuyu quickly take
advantage of the arrival of the colonial settlers, and the Kikuyu quickly became some
of the first western educated local authorities and business men.

At the same time, resentment at the loss of land and imposition of colonial restrictions
grew. The Kikuyu the driving force behind the Independence movement, and the
inevitable initial stakeholders in Kenyan politics and business. Today, the Kikuyu are
Kenya's largest tribe.

Some may consider that the Kikuyu were quick to abandon tradition and embrace
Western values, but Kikuyu loyalty remains very strong, and traditional beliefs hold
strong in many communities. Rites of passage, especially initiation and marriage,
remain very important and widely celebrated events.
KIKUYU RELIGION AND IDENTITY