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

Sheep and goats, both male and female, are sacrificed, and also bulls and bullocks, but never a cow.

A black bullock is thought to be the most acceptable and a white sheep comes next, whilst many of the Kamba people consider a red animal bad for the purpose of sacrifice.

Sacred Places (Mathembo) in Ukamba.—Dotted about the country, near most of the older villages, there are sacred trees, representing private shrines, called mathembo. The sacrifice which takes place here is similar to that described above, but the proceedings do not take so long, as the assembly is smaller. There is no particular day of the month for such a ceremony, but it should not be performed in the months called Nyanya and Kenda (the month Nyanya in 1912 commenced on June 14th). Ikumi is suitable for a sacrificial ceremony, as it is then considered possible to prepare the fields for planting, in expectation of the rain which will fall as a result of the ceremony.

Four pieces of the stalk of the castor oil bush are planted at the foot of the sacred tree. If on a certain day a man brews beer, he visits the tree in the evening and pours a little of the beer into each of the castor [[59]]oil stems, and prays to the aiimu, saying, “I have made some beer, and this is your share; do not come into the village and bother us.” The castor oil stalks are meant to imitate gourds of beer. It is customary to deposit at the tree a piece of the fruit of Kigelia pinnata, or K. Musa (called miatini and used in producing fermentation in beer), and the leaf of a mumo tree. They then say, “This is your nzeli to drink the beer from,” the nzeli being a half gourd used as a drinking cup, and the mumo leaf in this case representing a nzeli. As these things decay, they are periodically renewed.

The people of a village utter a prayer when they see the new moon, begging that they may go safely through the month. This bears a close resemblance to the European habit of turning one’s money and bowing nine times to the new moon. At the village ithembo beer is poured out, generally on the advice of a medicine man, when someone is ill in the village.

The sacrifice at the village ithembo usually takes place about ten a.m., the people returning at noon. On their arrival at the village, a mixture of tatha and water is sprinkled upon the cattle, and upon the water pots of the village. This is called kikaela muyo and is done for the benefit of those villagers who are not qualified to go to the sacred place.

The women qualified to attend a ceremony at an ithembo are those who are past the age of child-bearing and have a husband who is a mutumia ya ithembo (an elder of the ithembo). A childless old woman may also be allowed to go.

It often happens that during a ceremony at an ithembo a woman is seized, or possessed, and passes into a condition of semi-trance in which she will prophecy either that the rains are coming or that they will fail, or, in former days, that a Masai raid was imminent. An explanation of this was carefully sought, and, upon investigation, I was told that the message came from the imu or spirit of the person of [[60]]olden times to whom the ithembo was dedicated and to whom it was supposed to belong, but quite clearly, that this spirit was only an intermediary, the message really coming from the high god Engai or Mulungu.

A little house is always built at the foot of the sacred tree on the east side, with the door facing the rising sun, and two days before the time settled upon for commencing planting a pot of water and one of food, as well as butter and milk, are placed in it. On the day following the deposit of this offering, no work is done. These offerings are said to be for Engai; the pot of water is a reminder that rain is required, and the food represents the crops.

Sacrifices for Rain.—Kikuyu—If the elders go to the sacred fig tree for rain they sacrifice the usual ram, preferably a black one. If, on the other hand, they pray for rain to cease, the sacrificial ram is preferably a white one, although a red one may be used. After the sacrifice, the intestines are taken and tied round the stem high up in the tree. The melted tail fat is then poured at the foot of the tree and a strip of the meat and fat are hung on a branch.