Gikuyu

By  Jean Davison

Kikuyu, Agikuyu (pl.), Mugikuyu (s.)

“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.

In 1987, the Gikuyu population was approximately 4.4 million, accounting for about 20 percent of Kenya's population of 25 million. The corresponding estimate for 2010 was about 8.8 million people or 22 per cent of 40 million Kenyans (World Factbook 2010).  

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.”

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.

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.

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.

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.

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Wanchanga, H.K., .1975.  The Swords of Kirinyaga: The Fight for Land and Freedom.  Nairobi: East Africa Publishing House.

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Worthman, Carol, and John Whiting, .1987.  “Social Change in Adolescent Sexual Behaviour, Mate Selection and Premarital Pregnancy Rates in a Kikuyu Community, Ethos 15(2): 145-165.

This culture summary was written by  Jean Davison in March 2009. Teferi Abate Adem wrote the synopsis and indexing notes in September  2009.