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

The elaborate ceremonial of old days in connection with circumcision is now rapidly dying out in Southern Kikuyu.

Inquiries were made as to whether the bull-roarer, which is well known in Kikuyu as kiburuti, was used in these ceremonies, but curiously enough it appears to survive only as a child’s toy, whereas in many of the neighbouring tribes it and its first cousin, the friction drum, are regularly used in initiation ceremonial.

Among the Kikuyu, two men circumcised at the same ceremony cannot go into each other’s huts or even touch one another and neither may their children by their first wives. The prohibition may be removed by an exchange of goats, or beer, which both families consume together in a hut. This prohibition does not extend to children of younger wives or to grandchildren. It does not appear to be connected in any way with thabu, but a penalty of a goat or two is paid for breach of the custom.

Generations of the A-Kikuyu.—The description of [[88]]the circumcision may be concluded by an enumeration of the circumcision ages of the Kikuyu as far back as they can be traced.

In the December number of Man, 1908, the late Hon. K. Dundas gives a list of the Rika or circumcision ages of the A-Kikuyu which probably goes back about one hundred years or so, but this enumeration did not go sufficiently into detail, and certain important points were missed, so it has now been revised.

Four well-known elders, named Katonyo wa Munene, Karanja wa Hiti, Ithonga wa Kaithuma, and Mukuria wa Mucheru, were consulted, and the following lists are probably as reliable as can be expected, dependent as they unavoidably are on the memory of old men. The first list was given me by the first two, the second list by the second two. There are slight variations, but these are almost inevitable under the circumstances.

Morika, or Muhurika, singular—Rika, plural, is the circumcision age or generation, and corresponds more or less to the poror among the Masai. The Rika called Manjiri, Mamba, Manduti, and Chuma were not recognised by either of the elders, who both commenced their count with Chiira, which is obviously the same as Shiera of Dundas’s paper, and possibly the farther north one goes among the Kikuyu tribe the farther back do their legends go.

The following is the list beginning at the most remote point:

Version I

1.	Chiira.
2.	Mathathi.
3.	Endemi.
4.	Iregi		These three, it is said, are often grouped as Iregi.
5.	Kiarie
6.	Kamao[[89]]
7.	Kinuthia		The fathers of the oldest men alive in the country belonged to these ages, and arecalled Maina.
8.	Karanja
9.	Njuguna
10.	Kinyanjui
11.	Kathuru
12.	Ngnanga
13.	Njerogi, means the orphans, Chief Katonyo is of this morika.
14.	Wainaina, means those who shivered during the circumcision ceremony.
15.	Mungai, means swelled faces.
16.	Kitao, refers to their eating colocasia roots after they were circumcised.
17.	Ngua ya nina, those who wore their mothers’ clothes.
18.	Mbugwa or Kuchu, because the circumcision wounds did not heal.
19.	Mwiruri, name of a song they sang at the ceremony that year.
20.	Mwitungu, means small-pox.
21.	Kiambuthi, called Mwangi, those of the dancing place.
22.	Kirira or Ngugi, because fire was on Kenya at the time of the circumcision ceremony.
23.	Mangorio, named after a sweet-smelling tree used to decorate the youths after circumcision.
24.	Rohangha, named after a girl who had decorated her ears before marriage.
25.	Wanyoiki, because they came one by one to the place of circumcision.
26.	Boro, the big stomach of a sheep.
27.	Imburu, the poor people (there was a famine at the time).
28.	Ngoraya.
29.	Kiniti, from a song.[[90]]
30.	Ingigi, season of the locusts (Katonyo’s son, Thuku, belongs to this generation).
31.	Mutongu		Called Mwangi.		Time of the small-pox, probably about 1895. When circumcised they went to dig potatoesin the fields.
32.	Kenjeko
33.	Kamande		Called Mwiringhu. This is a name given by the youths themselves to this age. They will probably berenamed later by the elders when the generation is complete.		Time of the caterpillar plague.
34.	Wanyaregi				The wanderers.
35.	Kanyuto				The man-eating leopards; there were several about in that year.
36.	Thegeni				The year of the cutting of the iron wire.
37.	Kariangara				They ate gruel made of immature maize (Thuku’s son belongs to this year).
38.	Njege				The porcupines.
39.	Makio				Named after a liquid magic medicine which was sold in Kikuyu during the year. Thosecircumcised in 1910 belong to this morika, it will finish early in 1911.