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

Both of these curses are said to be equally effective, and it is believed that the thief will gradually become thin and fade away with a terrible cough. When he becomes ill, however, he will usually confess his crime and be brought to the smith or come to him to beg that the curse may be lifted. He must bring a ram (ndorume) with him, and the smith will then order him to sit down outside the smithy and will march round him with the ram. The ram is killed, and the heart and lungs are extracted; these parts are then roasted in the smith’s fire and the patient eats them, and the curse is lifted. The complete recovery, however, is said to take about six weeks. A medicine man has no power over a smith’s magic.

In former times smiths were sometimes supposed to bewitch people against whom they had a grievance. A smith would secretly take the necklet or bracelet of a deceased person, cut it into pieces, and bury a piece at the gate of the village he wished to bewitch; the people [[172]]passing in and out all day would step on the spot where the piece of iron was buried and thus incur the evil influence. Another piece would probably be buried at the watering place. By these means the whole village became afflicted, and unless the magic was removed the people would die. The infliction of the magic, in fact, would probably not be realised until several people had died. The evil magic has to be removed by a smith and a medicine man; a ram and a young ewe, which has not yet borne, mwati, are provided, the ram is killed, and the usual purification ceremony gone through, the ewe being set aside and taken by the mundu mugo. After the evil magic has been removed, the head of the afflicted village receives from the smith a twisted iron bracelet (muthiori).

Smiths place their old clay tuyéres on sticks in cultivated fields to protect the crops from thieves; there is no ceremony connected with this, but if at any time these must be removed, the smith removes them, carefully placing a little tatha from the stomach of a sacrificial sheep in the hole in which the stick was erected. This removes the curse and also the possibility of the magic damaging, at some future time, a person for whom it was not intended.

When a smith forges a new hammer for use in his forge, the medicine men of the district come and collect the iron scale from the forging to mix with their medicines, more particularly the medicines they make to protect a village from thieves or wild beasts. The medicine man (mundu mugo) marches round the village with the medicine and then buries it at the gate. It is called kihoho by the Kikuyu.

If anything is stolen from a smith’s forge he calls together all the smiths of the country-side. This assembly is called njama ya aturi. Each one in turn is asked if he stole the article, and whether the culprit confesses or not, they generally fix on one whom they strongly suspect and insist on his taking the oath of the goat (ku-ringa thenge). If the culprit confesses he is [[173]]forgiven and warned, but if he refuses, he is cursed by the bracelet of a dead person. Should he be guilty, the spirit of that person will bewitch him to the peril of his life. He cannot get the curse lifted until the njama ya aturi reassembles and lifts it.

The ordinary Kikuyu native is far too afraid of the magic of the smiths to steal anything from one of them, so that when a smith is the victim of a theft it is easy to guess that the crime has been committed by another smith.

In the old days, the Anjiru clan, before starting on a foray against the Masai, went to a smith and got from him a small piece of iron called kiheto, for which the representatives of the clan would pay a pot of honey beer and one of sugar cane beer. The smith took a little of the beer and spat it out on the kiheto. The Anjiru then took away the kiheto, made medicine with it, and buried it on the path at the entrance to the enemy’s country. This was believed to stop the Masai cattle from being driven off a long way.

Smiths were formerly called upon to settle cases. If, for instance, a man was owed a debt, he would induce some smiths to go to the village of the debtor and order him to pay. And as the smiths were held in fear because of this magic the order was generally complied with.

The Eithaga clan has never counted any smiths amongst its members. The magic of the smiths was always feared by them. When this clan made spells to withhold the rain it is said that they were careful not to let the fields of a smith suffer.

If a medicine man visits the village of a smith he does not sleep in one of his huts, but lodges in the goat hut, thengira; a smith does the same if he visits the village of a medicine man. If a Mweithaga passes a smithy when it is raining he cannot enter to take shelter.