One of the most important factors in the life history of all natives is the formal initiation to the tribe, of which the outward sign is usually the ceremony of circumcision. In Kikuyu these rites have attained some elaboration, and it is important to describe them in detail.

It will later be seen in Chapter VII how deeply the division of the Kikuyu tribe into the two guilds, Kikuyu and Masai,1 affects their customs, and in the following description the rites of the two guilds are described separately.

Before a child reaches the age of circumcision, however, a ceremony called Ku-chiaruo ringi has to be gone through, which means “to be born again.” It must be undergone by young children before they are eligible for the next stage of initiation, viz., circumcision.

The occurrence of these two ceremonies, connected as they are, cannot fail to strike one as being, in a lower stage of civilisation, the genesis of the idea of the sacraments of baptism and confirmation. It is said in fact [78]that some of the missionaries do not hesitate to explain the two Christian doctrines mentioned by reference to the two pagan ones, and state that with the help of this key the natives at once grasp the idea of their doctrines.

But to return to the ceremony itself—the form varies with the guild of the parents. According to the fashion of the Masai guild, about eight days after the birth of the child, be it male or female, the father of the infant kills a male sheep and takes the meat to the house of the mother, who eats it with her neighbours if they belong to the Masai guild. At the conclusion of the feast, the mother is adorned with the skin from the left foreleg and shoulder of the sheep, the piece of skin being fastened from her left wrist to left shoulder; this she wears for four days, when it is taken off and thrown on to her bed, where it remains till it disappears. The mother and child have their heads shaved on the day this ceremony takes place; it has no connection with the naming of the child, which is done on the day of its birth.

The ceremony of Ku-chiaruo ringi, according to the fashion of the Kikuyu guild, is as follows in S. Kikuyu. The day after the birth a male sheep is killed and some of its fat is cooked in a pot and given to the mother and infant to drink. It was not specifically stated whether this had a direct connection with the rite referred to, but the description commenced with a mention of this. When the child reaches the age of from three to six years the father kills a male sheep, and three days later the novice is adorned with part of the skin and the skin of the big stomach. These skins are fastened on the right shoulder of a boy or on the left shoulder of a girl. The skin used for a boy has, however, the left shoulder and leg cut out of it, and that for a girl has the right shoulder and leg cut away. The child wears these for three days, and on the fourth day the father cohabits with the mother of the child. [79]

There is, however, one important point, and that is that before the child is decorated with the sheep skin it must go and lie alongside its mother on her bed and cry out like a newly born infant. Only after this ceremony has been performed is the child eligible for circumcision.

A few days after circumcision the child returns to sleep on a bed in its mother’s hut, but the father has to kill a sheep before he can return, and the child must drink some of the blood, the father also having to cohabit with the mother upon the occasion.

Owing to similarity of name it is possible that the ceremony of Ku-chiaruo ringi might be confused with Ku-chiaruo kungi, which is of widely different significance. This latter is an adoption ceremony, and is said to be similar to a Swahili rite called ndugu Kuchanjiana. If a person has no brothers or parents he will probably try to obtain the protection of some wealthy man and his family. If such a man agrees to adopt him he takes a male sheep and slaughters it, and the suppliant takes another one. The elders are assembled and slaughter these sheep, strips of the skin (rukwaru) being taken from the right foot and from the chest of each sheep and tied round each person’s hand, while each is decorated with strips of skin from the sheep of the other party. The poor man is then considered as the son of the wealthy one, and when the occasion arises the latter pays out live stock to buy a wife for his adopted son.

The Kamba people, at any rate the Kitui section, have nothing corresponding to the Ku-chiaruo ringi rite of the Kikuyu, but when the child is about six months old it is moved from its mother’s bed and thenceforward sleeps on a little bed by itself. If the husband cohabits with his wife during this period the child has to be placed on the mother’s back.

Circumcision.—As previously mentioned, the A-Kikuyu are circumcised according to two systems, some according to one and some according to the other. [80]

• (1) Ku-ruithia ukabi, i.e., Masai fashion.
• (2) Ku-ruithia u Kikuyu or Gikuyu, i.e., Kikuyu fashion.

The actual surgical operation is the same, but according to the Masai system the boys stay and sleep in the hut for four days after the operation, and then go out, shoot birds, and wear the skins of the birds on the head and neck. When the new moon appears their heads are shaved, and each one then goes to his home. The head of the village cannot sleep in the hut where the circumcised youths are staying until they are well.

According to the Kikuyu system the youths remain in the hut for eight days; on the day of the operation a sheep is killed, and on the ninth day the father of the children takes them away to their homes. The head of the village sleeps in the hut where the youths stay after the operation has taken place.

Those circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion hold the feast called Mambura the day before the operation; the writer recently witnessed one of these gatherings, and so is able to describe it with some accuracy. It was held at a village between the Mathari and Thigiri streams, and was on the twelfth day of the moon, so there does not appear to be any particular significance as to date. Several thousand people of both sexes had collected to dance and take part in the festivities; the warriors were dressed in their war paint and had their bodies smeared with red or grey paint, and in some cases were picked out with star-like patterns. The women were all in their best, and freely smeared with red ochre and oil; a large collection of elders was there, and the chief was present, as he explained, in order to keep order and prevent the young warriors from quarrelling. Over the gate of the village two long pieces of sugar cane were fastened, and all who entered the village were supposed to pass underneath. The entrance of the village was also guarded by a bag of medicines belonging to a mundu mugo; these were supposed to prevent [81]anyone coming into the village to bewitch the candidates. In the morning the elders of kiama slaughtered a big male goat, nthengi, by strangulation, and each male candidate for circumcision had a strip of the skin fastened round his right wrist, the same strip being also carried over the back of his hand and his second finger passed through a slit in it. The male candidates were nude with the exception of a string of beads or so, and a necklace made of a creeper called ngurwa; the girls were nude as far as clothes went, but were enveloped in strings of beads from their necks to below their waists. Much dancing took place till a little after two p.m., when there was a ceremonial meal. The candidates came into the village in Indian file, the girls leading the way. They were received in front of the hut, where they were to reside temporarily after the operation, by a few elders who had for some time been preparing a number of strips of a vegetable creeper, and smearing them with a black oily mixture. Each girl first came up and had a piece of the creeper fastened round her left ankle. The creeper is called ruruera, and each piece is smeared with medicine made from the umu and wang͠nondu plants mixed with castor oil. One of the elders then took a handful of porridge made of wimbi and mtama meal (eleusine grain and sorghum), and placed some on a bundle of twigs of the mararia bush and offered it to each candidate; the candidate bit a little piece and then spat it out on the ground, the balance was then placed in her hand and she ate it. The porridge was placed on a flat stone used for grinding corn. The boys then came along one by one, and the ceremony was repeated in the same manner, but the strip of creeper was fastened on the right ankle of each boy. It was stated that the object of this portion of the ceremony was to lessen the pain suffered by the candidates during the actual operation.

In another part of the village a man was completing five stools of white wood, roughly hewn out of the solid, which were intended as special seats for the [82]elders and old women who had to perform the ceremony.

Immediately after the ceremonial meal was finished a great rush occurred, and the candidates, followed by the crowd, galloped off to a mugumu, fig tree, about three hundred yards away; as they approached it, the boys threw clubs and sticks up into the tree, and then commenced to climb into the branches, hacking savagely the whole time at the leaves and twigs; each youth had a light club with the head sharpened to a blunt cutting edge, and by dint of vigorous hacking gradually broke off small branches which fell down among the crowd below, and were immediately seized by the people, some of whom at once began to strip off the bark.

The bark was supposed to be used to bind round the heads of the candidates. The people then danced round the tree, and this ended the proceedings. The leaves of the fig tree are collected and strewn in the hut where the candidates sleep after the operation. They are said to be for the purpose of catching the blood, and possibly to prevent the hut being defiled by the blood soaking into the earthen floor. They would never throw sticks into, or gather leaves from, a sacred mugumu tree.

The actual operation was not seen, as it took place at dawn the following morning; it is performed in the open near the village. The bulk of the prepuce is not cut off at all, but forms an excrescence below the glans, a small piece of skin only being cut off; it is thrown away, and not buried.

At the similar operation in Ukamba the prepuce is left on the leaves on which the youth is seated during the operation and thrown away with them.

The neophyte is placed on a bed of leaves for the operation, as it is very bad for the blood to fall on the earth. If anyone touches the blood it is considered unlucky and he must cohabit with his wife, and the mother of the child with her husband, and no harm will ensue. [83]

Mambura Festivities Preceding Circumcision According to Masai Fashion.—The festival which precedes circumcision according to the Masai fashion was also witnessed. It was originally to have been held at full moon, but bad weather caused its postponement till the twenty-fifth day of the moon, which seemed to be equally propitious.

In the morning a sheep was killed and eaten by the elders, and at about noon the candidates had assembled. The people of the village and the candidates passed their time in dancing until the preparations were completed. The male candidates were smeared from head to foot with ashes, and were nude with the exception of a belt of iron chain (munyoro), a bead necklet (kinyata), an iron dancing bell (kigamba) on the right leg near the knee; some wore a ring of the ngurwa vine round their necks. The girls were decorated from neck to waist with a load of beads as in the Kikuyu form of the ceremony.

The first proceeding was the decoration of each of the male candidates with a bracelet made of climbing euphorbiaceous plant called mwimba iguru.

The elders of kiama and the wives of the owner of the village, who was one of the elders, sat round in a circle in the middle of the village with a quantity of tendrils of the plant on a wicker tray, kitaruru, in the centre; a small gourd of white diatomaceous earth, ira, was produced, and each person licked a little and then smeared a small portion of the white earth on his throat and navel; this was to purify himself for the ceremony. A horn cup of honey-beer was then produced, each one taking a sip, and then all simultaneously blowing it out of their mouths in spray on to the plant; it was said that the object of this was to purify or dedicate the plant to the use to which it was to be applied. The male candidates then came up one by one and a bracelet of the creeper was fastened on the right wrist of each.

After a little more dancing the male candidates were seated in a row on ox-hides spread out on the ground; [84]a woman, the sister of the owner of the village, came along and poured first a little milk and then a little honey-beer on the head of the one on the left of the line; she smeared it over the scalp and shaved a place on the right side of his head and passed on to the next. The shaving was merely ceremonial, as the candidates had all been shaved on the head before coming to the ceremony—the native razor, ruenji, being used. The milk was in a gourd and the beer in a cow horn. The male candidates then got up, and the same performance was gone through with the girls.

Shortly after this two great branches from the mutamaiyu tree were brought to the gate of the village and held upright, one on each side of the entrance; the elders said that in the ceremonies according to Masai fashion the mutamaiyu had the same significance as the mugumu tree had in the Kikuyu ceremonial. The candidates came through the village dancing and singing all the time up to near the mutamaiyu branches, and stopped a few yards away from them, still dancing and singing. The song did not appear to have any great significance, being to the effect that from time immemorial they always had the mutamaiyu at these festivals, and now it had come they could proceed to circumcise the candidates according to old custom.

They then all returned to the village, and the candidates were arranged in the order in which they could be circumcised on the morrow. The owner of the village divested himself of his blanket and donned an oily kaross made of goatskin from which all the hair had been scraped; his hands were carefully wiped and some ira (the white earth previously mentioned) was poured into the palm of his hand from a small gourd. He then commenced at the left of the line and anointed each candidate on different parts of the body with smears of the white earth; he was assisted by his principal wife and two sisters and another elder.

The boys were first touched on the tongue, and a line was then drawn down the forehead to the point of [85]the nose; a spot was placed on the throat, the navel, the palm of each hand, and finally between the big toe and first toe.

The procedure with the girls was slightly different, the tongue being smeared first, and a horizontal line then drawn across the forehead. The palms of the hands and the navel were next smeared, and finally a band was drawn round each ankle.

After the candidates had thus been anointed, the elders took mouthfuls of honey-beer out of a horn and blew it in spray over each candidate’s head and shoulders. This part of the proceedings was a ceremony intended to purify the candidates from any thahu which might be on them, and to protect them from any thahu which they might possibly get from an onlooker. The spectators “ululued” loudly during this operation.

It was then about two p.m., and nothing further of importance took place; the crowd, which had been gradually growing, however, danced on till sundown.

At nightfall each candidate was said to receive a dose of the crushed seeds of a plant called ngaita, which acted as an aperient, and in the morning before the operation each one had to bathe in water in which an axe head had been placed to make it cold; it was, however, stated that if there were a large number, some would not bother about this, but would bathe in the nearest stream.

The operation took place at dawn on the following morning, and was not witnessed. No firewood but that from the mutamaiyu tree is allowed to be used in the hut where the candidates live after the operation.

This custom of circumcision according to the two different systems applies to both sexes. Both classes dance with the oval wooden shields called ndomi before circumcision, and travel through the district painted in zig-zag stripes with white clay.

A man circumcised according to Masai fashion can marry a girl circumcised according to Kikuyu fashion [86]and vice versâ; but a medicine man and the elders have to perform a ceremony to change the girl from Kikuyu to Masai before the marriage can take place. The ceremony is said to be as follows: a male sheep is killed, and the small intestines are extracted. The medicine man and the girl take hold of them, and the elders then cut the intestines with three pieces of wood sharpened to a knife edge and made of mathakwa, mukeo, and mukenya bushes. A piece of intestine is cut with each knife. The girl is then anointed with the fat of the sheep by another woman and smeared over with tatha (the stomach contents) mixed with water.

In the case of a marriage between a couple belonging to different guilds the man never changes; it is always the woman who relinquishes the system in which she was brought up. A man can, however, at his own wish and for reasons of his own, change his guild; that is to say a man brought up Masai fashion can change over to the Kikuyu side. It is a much simpler matter for him than for a woman; a male sheep is killed by the elders, and a medicine man then comes and puts him through the ordinary purification ceremony.

A man usually belongs to the guild of his father; that is to say, he is circumcised according to the system of his father and grandfather before him. The mark of a person circumcised Masai fashion is as follows: a copper ring is placed in the lower lobe of each ear, and a piece of stick with an ostrich feather on it is bound on each side of the head; a band of sanseviera fibre, ndivai,2 is bound round the forehead, and on this band bird skins are fastened.

These ornaments are worn for eight days only; bows and arrows are also carried and sandals are worn. After eight days they put off the ornaments and give up the bows and arrows, leaving them in the village where they were circumcised. They then have their heads shaved at the village and return home.

Those circumcised Kikuyu fashion go through [87]none of this, but for two days wear a strip of banana fibre, maigoia, in the lobe of each ear. During five days after recovery they also wear in their ears a round plug of mununga wood whitened on the top with ira and a necklace of the leaves of the mutathi plant. This is probably a protective magic to preserve them from evil influence during their convalescence.

The marks just enumerated only apply to the male sex. With regard to girls, further inquiry has elicited the following facts: a girl whose father belongs to the Masai guild wears rings of copper called ndogonyi on each ankle. A girl whose father belongs to the Kikuyu guild wears an anklet of iron with little rattles, called nyara runga, attached to it.

If a girl who is Masai marries a man who is Kikuyu the ndogonyi are taken off at marriage. If a girl who is Kikuyu marries a man who is Masai she does not, however, discard the nyara runga.

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

Version II

This brings us up to the last few years, and the elders said they had no interest in them.

The name given to the morika generally has some topical allusion to an event which occurred during the year and about the time of the circumcision ceremonies; these allusions are naturally forgotten in course of time, and the derivations in many cases now appear senseless.

One morika extends over two years, or four Kikuyu seasons, called Kimera.

The terms Maina and Mwangi as names for the rika of the last fifty years seem to be fixed as far as one can gather, e.g.:—

• The Chief Katonyo’s father was Maina.
• Katonyo himself is Mwangi.
• Katonyo’s children are Maina. [92]
• Katonyo’s grandchildren when circumcised become Mwangi.
• His great-grandchildren when circumcised become Maina.

So apparently every person when circumcised takes the name of the morika of his grandfather.

The word morika is used indifferently as applying to the larger group as well as to the group of a particular year. Any young men, however, who have been circumcised of recent years, and are still under the class Mwiringhu, would not be called Mwangi until the group of years was complete.

The time of the completion of a group of years is decided by the elders, but what determined the commencement of a new group was not ascertained.

These rika names only apply to males.

A leading Kikuyu elder named Lorigi was independently questioned on these matters by Mr C. Dundas, and his view was as follows: The Azamaki of to-day are practically all Mwangi, and Lorigi himself, who is among the most senior Azamaki, belongs to Mwangi. Kamiri, and a few others, are Maina, like the Mwangi he attends the councils. The sons of Maina are Mwangi and the sons of Mwangi are Maina, so that a man always belongs to the same division as his grandfather: thus Lorigi’s father was a Maina and his son also belongs to Maina, but Lorigi himself belongs to Mwangi as his grandson does. It thus comes about that there are two generations of Mwangi and Maina living at the same time, and the younger generation of either is distinguished by the temporary name of Mwirungu (plural Irungi). When these become elders they will be called Mwangi or Maina, as the case may be, without the addition of Irungu.

The Itwika Ceremony.—As explained in the last section, the Kikuyu have rika or circumcision ages, and a long list was given; these rika fall into groups and so many form a greater rika, named either Mwangi or [93]Maina, which follow one another alternately. It was not clear at the time what determined a group of rika being lumped together as Maina or Mwangi; it now appears, however, that this is connected with a periodic ceremony called the itwika, which takes place every fifteen years or so. These correspond to a great extent to the eunoto of the Masai, and are of tremendous importance to the Kikuyu; the elders, in fact, state that they originated in Kikuyu, and were copied by the Masai during the period when the Kapotei and Dogilani Masai were very friendly with the S. Kikuyu and the Purko Masai with the N. Kikuyu; in the present state of our knowledge it is, however, impossible to say whether there is any foundation for this.3 Probably the best test would be to inquire if the Bari people who live in or near the country from which the Masai are believed to be derived, possess this kind of social organisation. The itwika has been described by Mr. Routledge as a secret society connected with snake worship, but as far as can be discovered in S. Kikuyu there is no foundation for this idea, elders, however, do not care to discuss its ceremonial unless one is very well known to them; they are not supposed to discuss it with any person of younger grade than themselves, and the ceremonies may be considered, in fact, as a final initiation at which only fully qualified elders are allowed to attend.

The last great itwika ceremony was at the end of the big famine of 1898–9, and was held about the time that the Government founded Fort Hall.4 The gatherings were formerly held on the area between the Thika and Chania rivers, just above the junction of these two rivers, and the name Thika is derived from its connection with the itwika. The last itwika was held [94]near Kalaki’s, in the district known as Tingnanga in Mimi wa Ruchu’s country; it is said that on account of the decimation of the people by famine and small-pox it was decided not to hold it at the old place. The next itwika will take place when the grandchildren of people of the same rika as the chief Kinanjui have all been circumcised, and the decision of the date rests with the athuri ya ukuu of the Maina generation, this being the senior generation to-day. This apparently corresponds to the ngaje of the Masai (vide Hollis’s “Masai”).

An account of the last ceremony was obtained from one who was present, and the first step is said to be the building of a huge long hut to accommodate those who participate in the festival. This is divided into two main divisions, one for elders of the Maina generation and one for those of the Mwangi generation, and in addition, a small room for the athuri ya ukuu, who may be considered as the officiating priests of the festival. These thuri ya ukuu are always eight in number, and at the last itwika their names were, Muthaka, Ngombwa Tutua, Kimwaki, Kathungu, Kithenji wa Njuki, Rimui wa Kanjuku, Ngegenya and Mbura wa Katuku, and the whole programme rested in their hands.

The principal elder of each village is supposed to attend, and often the next in importance as well; the gathering, therefore, consists of several thousand souls, and the proceedings continue for three months or more. Each elder brings sheep and goats, bullocks, gourds of honey-beer, and gourds of sugar-cane beer, and relays of food are brought to the camp during the ceremonies by women, but no women are allowed within the confines of the camp. A number of men are also selected to collect firewood, but do not come inside the camp. The only persons allowed inside the camp, except the elders, are eight spearmen, who are told off to attend on the eight athuri ya ukuu.

It does not appear possible to obtain a detailed account of the proceedings, but it is said that every [95]day the eight athuri ya ukuu instruct their juniors in the customs of the tribe and so forth, the elders also hold “ngomas” or dances.

One man is chosen as an official trumpeter to the proceedings, and he collects the elders for the various rites by blowing a horn of the rare bongo antelope (ndongoro). The horn is called choro, and no one else is allowed to blow it; this is considered a very honourable office, and the trumpeter is paid nine rams and nine female kids for his services.

In former days towards the end of the festival the elders in charge of an itwika sent two envoys to a certain place on a stream called Kikira, in Kenya province, which was said to be the habitat of a mysterious reptile called the ndamathia. It was described as being more like a crocodile than like a snake. This beast was given beer to drink, and when it was drunk hairs were plucked from its tail. A hairy tail is not characteristic of reptiles, but all are agreed that the hairs were obtained. The envoys then returned, and the hair was plaited together with some strands of fibre of the wild date palm (Phœnix reclinata), and then placed on the top of the itwika hut. At the conclusion of the festival the people went in procession to a sacred fig tree (mugumu) in the vicinity, and stuffed the hair into a crevice in the tree and left it there. They then took the milk of a cow which had only borne one calf, the milk of a ewe which had only borne one lamb, and the milk of a goat which had only borne one kid, and poured them as a libation at the foot of the fig tree; a dance round the fig tree then ensued. This was the concluding ceremony of the itwika. Each person attending was finally adorned on the wrist with a rukwaru or strip of skin from a male goat, and the itwika house was broken up and they returned home.

At the last itwika held in South Kikuyu the elders did not send for the hair of the ndamathia, but the concluding ceremony was carried out with a big black ox, which was tied by its fore and hind legs and laid [96]between two poles; all the people then came along, one after the other, and stamped on the ox, which eventually died. The ox was not eaten but was left lying there, and they then poured libations of milk and fat at the foot of the sacred mugumu tree and danced round it, praying to God (Engai). After this they shaved their heads, were adorned with the rukwaru from a male goat, and returned home. Upon reaching their villages each elder killed a ram and placed a rukwaru cut from its skin on every person in his village; these were worn for one day only, the villagers then ceremonially bathed and threw them away.

These ceremonies are said to be very pleasing to God (Engai). No one is ever allowed to cultivate on the area which has been used for an itwika ceremony, and no one must ever cut the mugumu (fig tree) with an axe or knife. [97]