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 mothers of the offender and deceased then bring [[120]]to the place food made of every kind of field produce grown by the tribe, as well as meat; the usual sheep is killed by the elders and a little of the tatha, or stomach contents, is sprinkled over the food which was provided by the mothers of the two parties.

The two elders who first sat on the plantain trunks then solemnly eat a little of this food, and also administer some to the offender and the brother of the deceased. Two gourds containing gruel made of meal are then taken, and the elders put a little of the tatha in each, and one gourd is sent to the village of the offender and one to that of the deceased. The remaining food is divided among the assembly.

The following day the elders proceed to the local sacred fig tree (mugumu), and kill a sheep. They deposit some of the fat, the chest bone, the intestines and the more important bones at the foot of the tree, and eat the rest of the carcase. They say that the ngoma, or spirit of the deceased, will visit the tree that night in the shape of a wild cat and eat the meat, and that this offering will prevent the ngoma of the deceased from coming back to his village and troubling the occupants.

A medicine man then has to come and purify the murderer and the brother of the deceased.

This ceremony is not considered legal, and cannot be performed till the blood money has been paid.

The above case is a good example of the two stages of the removal of a more serious thahu; in the first place, the spirits of the deceased ancestors, including that of the murdered man, have to be appeased, and the personal defilement due to the spilling of blood, which falls on both the murderer and the family of the murdered man, has then to be removed by a separate ceremony performed by the medicine man. It is interesting to note that only the medicine man can remove this latter.

The above thahu applies to both sections of the tribe. In giving these details, my informants explained [[121]]that according to Kikuyu native law, the blood money for a man was a hundred sheep and goats, and nine sheep and goats in addition for the elders. If, however, a man could not raise a hundred goats it was the custom for him to give three daughters in payment, plus the nine goats for the elders.

The Kikuyu were formerly only allowed to eat the following wild animals and birds before being circumcised: partridges (ngware), pigeon (ndutwa), and hyrax (mi-kami). Many will not eat wild game throughout their lives, and people follow the custom they have been brought up to observe; those that eat it probably had Asi or Dorobo ancestors. A person who eats wild game does not become thahu. This same view is held by both sections. The repugnance to eating this kind of food probably had its origin in totemism, but all traces of this belief seem to be lost in S. Kikuyu.

(61) If a tree falls on a hut it is considered extremely unlucky; the hut, however, will not be abandoned, but it is necessary for the head of the village to kill a ram which is led round the village before being killed. If this were not done, the owner of the village, or at any rate the woman who lived in the hut, would become the victim of a thahu or curse. The owner of the village, however, may not enter the hut until the sacrifice has been made to appease the ngoma or ancestral spirits who inflict the thahu. This applies to both sections of the tribe, viz., those circumcised Kikuyu fashion and those Masai fashion.

(62) If a jackal (mbwei) comes into a village and calls at night when the inhabitants are asleep, the people say that a spirit is calling for meat, and it is considered very unlucky. Next morning the owner of the village will take a male goat (nthenge), lead it round the village, and kill it at about the spot where the jackal called out. Pieces are cut from the loin, lungs, heart, and each of the limbs, and piled up into two little heaps as offerings to the ngoma, who are believed to have [[122]]called out through the medium of the jackal. The sex of the ngoma is not known, and therefore to be on the safe side two little heaps are laid out, one for any male spirits and one for any female spirits. No bone must be broken in any meat offered to the spirits.