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

Some people use the term ceremonial uncleanness to express the meaning of thahu, but, as far as my inquiries go, the phrase inadequately explains the Kikuyu ideas on this question. Acts which cause a person to become thahu are also often found to be enumerated under the heading of “prohibitions” and “tabus.”

The similarity between thahu and tabu is somewhat striking and worth considering. Tabu appears usually to be applied to some act or object by a man who often acts in the dual capacity of ruler and magician. There is, as far as can be discovered, no record of a Kikuyu thahu having been imposed by any known personage, but these beliefs must have originated somewhere, and it may be that they were originally imposed one by one by great medicine men in former times, and have thus become incorporated in what may be termed the tribal religion.

The removal of the curse is effected by a process of lustration which, in the more serious cases, has to be done by the mundu mugo, or medicine man, and in [[105]]others by the members of the native council, or kiama; the latter is an interesting case of the overlapping of judicial functions and those of a sacerdotal character.

The lustration ceremony is almost always accompanied by the slaughter of a sheep and anointment with the contents of the stomach, the white diatomaceous earth called ira being used in some cases. The purification is called tahika.

In a few cases smoke is used as a purifying agent and seems to be considered effective in some more trivial ones.

The reality of this aspect of Kikuyu life and thought may easily be under-estimated, but it is important that all who wish to gain a deep insight into native affairs should understand it and give the phenomenon its true value. To give the question a practical application, it may safely be said that no Kikuyu native who becomes thahu during the course of his employment by a white master, will rest until he has been freed of his curse or ill luck, and he will probably desert with wages due to him in order to get rid of it; he cannot afford to wait, the risk is too great.

There is another curious side to the question; a Kikuyu, when he is circumcised, undergoes this rite either according to the old Kikuyu custom or according to Masai custom; the physical operation and result are the same, but the ceremonial varies, and for some unfathomed reason, a man who is circumcised Masai fashion can do certain things or encounter certain circumstances with impunity which would, if he had been circumcised Kikuyu fashion, render him thahu. This is a very curious fact, and the Kikuyu themselves do not seem to be able to give any reason for it. The matter should, however, be made the subject of further research, as my information is derived from the southern branch of the tribe, and many customs which are dropping into disuse in that area, and thus losing their inner meaning, are found to be very much better known in Kenya Province or Mwaitumi, as they call it. [[106]]

List of Thahu.—I will now proceed to give a list of thahu which I have collected with the assistance of the Kikuyu chief Kinanjui and his kiama, or council, of athuri, or elders; the question of the two classes of circumcision will be discussed later.

(1) If a small child dies and the mother carries the body away into the bush, the woman is thahu, and if the husband cohabits with her before she is purified, he becomes thahu and the woman is cleansed. The man carries the thahu away with him, and, what is worse, may transmit it to his other wives. If the man becomes thahu in this way it is much more serious for him than the woman, and a mundu mugo, or medicine man, has to be called in: the woman has to be purified by three elders, athuri ya kiama, and an elder woman, mwirui. For instance, if a man has two wives and the younger had become thahu, the senior wife would shave the head of the woman who was to be purified; a sheep is killed, and she is smeared with tatha, or the contents of the stomach.

This thahu only falls on those who have been circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion: if the man has been circumcised according to Masai custom he does not become thahu.