Bantu Beliefs and Magic / With particular reference to the Kikuyu and Kamba tribes of Kenya Colony; together with some reflections on East Africa after the war

by C. W. Hobley

It is said that fights with the Kamba were more [[246]]frequent than with the Masai, and that they were much more feared because of the Kamba arrows, but nevertheless the Kikuyu declare that they penetrated as far as Mumoni, and that they also fought the Emberre. Gachii wa Kichara remembers that on one occasion the Kamba and Kikuyu joined to fight the Masai, but that the Kamba ran away, not because they were afraid of the Masai, but because they foresaw that they would have to fight the more numerous Kikuyu if they were to get any of the booty.

On the whole it would appear that the Kikuyu were no mean fighting tribe; they certainly inflicted very severe lessons on the Masai, and they gave us no little trouble in the early days. One can, however, scarcely imagine them to have been warlike judging from their present character, but the generation of warriors before our time have passed into elders, and the present warrior class has never known war; this class is also rapidly disappearing, and the young native now marries long before the time when wars and raids allowed them to do so in the past.

It is believed to be very lucky to meet a mole on the way to war; a warrior kills it with his spear and carries the skin on the point of it; this is supposed to bring him good fortune in the fight.

Before the Kikuyu went to war they used to sacrifice at the sacred trees in the usual way; the elders attended, but not the warriors; their weapons were not smeared with the sacrificial blood. If any of the warriors killed an enemy during the fighting, the elders who had conducted the sacrifice above mentioned shaved the heads of the warriors upon their return, took away the hair and hid it in the woods. They also smeared their faces with a line of ira, or white earth, and the spear which had done the killing was also smeared with ira. This white earth is generally used as a protecting agent against evil influences, in this case doubtless the spirits of the slaughtered foes.

If cattle were captured the captain of the warriors, as [[247]]soon as possible after the fight, would choose a fine bullock from the spoil and slaughter it as near as possible to the scene of the fighting. This was done as a thank-offering to the deity, Engai. The bullock should be a whole coloured beast, either black, white, or red, and not spotted or parti-coloured.

The elders who go to sacrifice and pray at the sacred tree before the fighting, and the captain of the warriors, eat the meat; the bulk of the fighting men do not participate. The hide of the bullock is left on the spot after the feast.

Peace Ceremonial (Kikuyu).—Seven elders from the clans or tribes at enmity each meet with a number of the warrior class, the different sides providing a ram or he-goat, which is slaughtered. An elder of one side then takes the intestines and cuts them with a razor and says: “Who breaks this peace may he be cut as this is cut.” An elder from the other side now takes the intestines from the animal provided by his side and goes through the same ceremonial. Both sides then eat the meat together.

In the days of the early travellers, some fifteen to twenty-five years ago, the Kikuyu were noted for their treachery; one day they would make peace with a caravan and the next day attack it. The elders were asked the reason of this, and whether they believed that peace deliberately broken would bring evil on the breakers of it; they said it was quite true that many had been guilty in this respect, but that the great famine of 1899, and the smallpox which followed it, had killed off all the guilty ones.

In former war-like times when a member of another tribe came to the village of an elder and wished to enter into brotherhood and settle among the tribe, the elder would summon his colleagues and kill a bullock. The stranger would be formally adorned with a bracelet made of the ox hide, and he would then be safe from harm. The meat was eaten by the assembled elders and the villagers. The elder then chose a daughter [[248]]for him to marry. If, for instance, the head of the village belonged to the Anjiru clan, the stranger became a Munjiru; and he also adopted the circumcision guild of his host. If, after this, anyone belonging to the tribe were to kill him, the murderer would have to pay a hundred goats and nine rams to his adopted father, nine rams for the elders and nine rams for his mother.

Peace Ceremonial, Ukamba (Kitui).—The elders of the vanquished side bring an ox, and the elders of the winning side bring a kithito. The elders of each side assemble in two groups in the centre, and the warriors are collected in two masses, one on either side of the area chosen for the ceremony. The kithito oath is then administered to the leaders of the two groups of fighting men.