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

Njau wa Kabocha.—There is, in S. Kikuyu, a curious old medicine man named Njau wa Kabocha, belonging to the Anjiru clan, who is held in great esteem on account of his magical powers and his priestly functions. He possesses a sacred tree, at which sacrifices are believed to be very effectual. He is said not to deal in bad magic, and one of his specialities is the removal of a plague of caterpillars, ngunga, or wireworms, vigunyu, from the crops. He was good enough to give a description of the procedure used to effect this useful object.

The owner of the afflicted crops brings a ram, ndorume, and some beer; the ram is strangled and the lower intestine, mutura, is extracted; a number of the caterpillars are also collected. The magician drinks a draught of the beer and then bites the caterpillars in half, one after another, and lays the pieces on the leaves of the mutundu (Croton macrostachys) and mukuyu (Dombeya sp.). He then places fragments of the caterpillars in the intestine of the ram, goes away into the bush and buries the parcel in the hole of white ants’ nest (Muthongonina).[1] He next takes some wood of the morika and muirangani trees and lights a fire near the place where the caterpillars are buried, and in this fire he burns the above-mentioned leaves and the remaining caterpillars. [[185]]

The magician does not eat any of the meat of the ram; this is consumed by the owners of the fields and the elders who have accompanied him.

A second ram is then provided, and the magician, together with the village elders, goes and sacrifices this at the nearest sacred fig tree; the breast of the ram is cut out and hung in the tree, and the remainder of the sacrifice is eaten by the magician and the elders. After this, the magician takes the ngorima (colon?) from the second ram, some beer, njohi, some unfermented beer, ngogoyo, honey, beeswax, medicine, of which he would not disclose the nature, and the horns of the ram; these he burns in a fire, ichua, in the afflicted field. The bones are all broken intentionally, but the marrow is not extracted, as it is said that when the fat and bones are burnt in the fire they make a smell which is very acceptable to the deity Engai. The fire is called ichua, the particular name for a fire lit at a sacrifice—a sacred fire in fact.

This is the end of the ceremony, and the magician then receives two or three miati, ewes which have not yet borne a kid. It was stated that after the ceremony above described the caterpillars would disappear in a day or two; they would either be killed by heavy rain, eaten by soldier ants, siafu, or the sun would dry them up.

On the day after the ceremony no person is allowed to cultivate the fields, the men may not eat beef that day or the next, and that night every man must observe celibacy. He must not sleep in one of his ordinary huts, but in the thengira, or goat hut, among the unmarried men.

Njau wa Kabocha declares that he can, if he wishes it, bring a plague of caterpillars upon any section of people who treat him badly, and that he can do this by pouring out some beer in his village and praying to Engai. Within fourteen days, he alleges, the caterpillars will begin to appear, but he admitted that he could only do this about the normal season when caterpillars are apt to come in swarms. [[186]]

In the old days, when the Kikuyu used to fight the Masai, Njau’s father, who was a great magician, was a specialist at making medicine to enable his people to check the Masai invasions, and when they came, to ensure victory for the Kikuyu. The knowledge of this art is said to have come down from his ancestors.

This magic is called mwita, and its most important instrument is a kiheto, or small piece of iron obtained from a smith. A small clay pot is made in which the kiheto is placed and some medicine called njeku, and this is brought to the path by which the Masai usually came to attack. If this failed, Njau’s father would go to an old woman of the Asi or Dorobo tribe, buy from her an earthenware pot; this he would take, along with a ram, and proceed secretly through the forest near Ngong Mt., to a spot close to the Masai raiding track. He would then kill the ram as if for a sacrifice, cook the tail fat in the pot, then melt down some of the body fat, taking care to pick out any pieces of flesh which had accidentally been put into the pot. He would also add some tatha from the stomach of the ram and some sugar cane beer to the melted fat in the pot. He would next seek out a straight and lofty tree and bury the pot and its contents at the foot of it, being careful that the mouth of the pot just showed above ground. This is what the Swahilis call kafara, and it is believed to stop a raiding party from passing that way. If, however, they did succeed in passing, their raid would be abortive and many would be killed. The power of this magic is said to be derived from the deity Engai and not from the spirits.

The medicine above referred to and called njeku is stated to have been made from a piece of cloth or an old discarded sandal secretly obtained from an abandoned Masai kraal; this is charred, ground up, and then mixed with certain magic herbs.