Gikuyu
Africaintensive agriculturalistsMap
expand_more Description
The Gikuyu are a Bantu-speaking people living in central Kenya. Pre-colonial Gikuyu were hunters and gatherers who adopted cultivation over time. Organized along lineages, clans and age-grades, traditional Gikuyu society was politically decentralized. The oldest males of kin groups and/or councils of residential communities were responsible for administering land and other political issues. In the 1940 and 1950s, many Gikuyu families were dislocated from their land by the colonial government in order to settle farmers of European descent. The Gikuyu responded to this injustice by organizing an insurgency movement called Land and Freedom Fighters (also known as Mau Mau). The Gikuyu continue to dominate Kenya's post-independence national politics and economic life largely due to their demographic majority and earlier access to modern education.
Identifier
Region
- Africa
Subregion
- Eastern Africa
Subsistence Type
- intensive agriculturalists
Samples
Countries
- Kenya