Agikuyu Origin Narratives

Introduction

            It is important to note that none of the following traditions are intended to be looked at or treated as 

 stories in and of themselves.  One who looks at these as complete stories will be dissatisfied and feel like they are missing key elements.  They are but the necessary elements that storytellers must use in their stories about these subjects. However, a storyteller is free and expected to embellish these traditions into an entertaining and fresh story for the listener’s entertainment (Gecau 1970, 7-9).  The same storyteller may tell the same tradition but choose to add different elements or emphasize different parts or add characters to their heart's content.  The only guiding principle is that the story contains the essential elements of the tradition.  The audience is well aware of the distinction between the parts that are embellished or added and the parts that are essential.

               As an aside, a Gikuyu storyteller is not interested in internal dialogue (I am led to understand that this is the case with most all African storytellers). What matters is what one does or does not do—the audience is left to infer the internal response of the character. This can be very strange to a person accustomed to modern Western ideas of the elements of story. This concept of storytelling is similar to old Greek stories as well as most stories of the Hebrew and Christian scriptures.

In the beginning

              Mogai (the creator of the universe) was given special charge over a beautiful country surrounded by Kirinyaga[1], Kia-Nyandarua,[2] Kia-Ng’ombe, and Kia-Mbiuiru.[3] Mogai put a rare white blanket of dust (snow) on Kirinyaga so that he could have a resting place when he came to visit the beautiful country. Mogai filled the land between these mountains with abundant trees, rivers and blessed it with good soil and rains. Mogai then made a man to look after the beautiful country (Orgins 2011). Mogai named the man Gikuyu. Mogai took Gikuyu to his resting place on top of Kirinyaga and showed him the land. Gikuyu was given responsibility and authority over all the country and was told that it was his responsibility to take care of the beautiful land (Njoroge 2011).

Before sending Gikuyu down the mountain, Mogai pointed in a direction to the south of the great mountain and told Gikuyu there was a place on a ridge filled with fig trees (mukuyu) and a giant muringa tree. Mogai told Gikuyu when he got to the place he would recognize it because on top of the giant tree there would be birds called Nyagathanga (Njoroge 2011).[4] Mogai called the place, Mukurwe Wa Nyagathanga. Gikuyu was instructed to begin his homestead near the giant tree. Mogai instructed Gikuyu that when he was in need, he should make a sacrifice under a fig tree and lift his hands facing Kirinyaga, and Mogai would come to his assistance.

It took Gikuyu many difficult days of crossing rivers and climbing ridges, as Mogai led him to the place of the fig trees (mukuyu). When he finally found the tree, he was tired and lay down under a giant mukuyu tree[5] and the man entered a deep sleep. When he woke up, he saw that Mogai had also created a woman for him. Mogai told him the woman’s name was Mumbi (which means "creator/provider” (Mouitherero 2011).

The Nine-plus Daughters

            

God gave Gikuyu and Mumbi nine daughters plus one.[6] These daughters grew and were a delight to Gikuyu and Mumbi. But the time came when the daughters grew up and complained to their mother that they too deserved to make their own homes but there were no men in the land to become their husbands. Mumbi reported the daughters' complaints to Gikuyu. Gikuyu sent each girl into the forests to find a good stick that was their own height. When the daughters brought their sticks to Gikuyu, he took a ram to a mugumo tree and offered a sacrifice of petition to Mogai (Moultherero 2011). He prayed for an answer as to how he was going to find nine-plus men to marry his daughters.

            As Gikuyu was praying, the voice of Mogai answered him in the sound of thunder so loud that Gikuyu fainted in fear.  When Gikuyu awoke, he saw nine[7] men standing and waiting next to him. 

Gikuyu was amazed that his prayer was answered. He led the men to his daughters, who were very happy when they each met the man that Mogai had given them.[8] The last daughter was too young to marry and she did not marry until later.[9]

When women ruled

         In the beginning of the Gikuyu, women ruled men, as the daughters of the first nine-plus daughters and the givers of life. However, the women ruled the men harshly and their demands were cruel to the men. The men gathered to discuss the matter. They decided that each of them would go to his wife's hut on the same night and all would get their wives pregnant on the same day. They did this in order to make their wives more vulnerable to a takeover plot by the husbands. When the men’s wives were heavy with child, the men rebelled against their wives and men have ruled ever since (Njoroge 2011).[10]

Wild animals and Iron

            In the beginning, Mogai divided authority over his animals between the men and the women.  However, the women had only sharp sticks and wooden knives to slaughter their animals for food.  The animals suffered greatly and this displeased Mogai, so he made the women’s animals wild and untamable. When the men saw what Mogai had done to the women’s animals, they feared that he would do the same to theirs.  The men went to the mountain of Mogai and offered a sacrifice and prayers, asking for guidance so that they would not also lose the animals given them.  Mogai was very pleased that the men had sought his advice.  He told them to follow the river until they reached the place of black sand. He instructed them to take the sand, heat it, pour the metal that comes out of the sand into molds, and make knives so they can slaughter their animals without cruelty.  The men rejoiced and thanked Mogai, and Mogai told them that they must be kind to the women and share the meat from their animals with them (Njoroge 2011). As a sign of this promise, women share a portion of the men’s meat, and a man is not allowed to eat the kidneys and liver as these are reserved for women.  Since this time, it is considered irresponsible and lazy to kill a wild animal because wild animals are women’s food that has been set free by Mogai.  No one can remain a Gikuyu long if it is found that they kill wild animals for food.  Such a person is banished from the people and joins the N’dorobo[11] (Orgins 2011).

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[1] Mount Kenya

[2] Aberdare Mountains

[3] Ngong Hills

[4] The exact species is not identifiable from this name but Nyaga is one of the derivatives of God in Gikuyu and the bird is the symbol of the “spirit” or “messenger” of god, so a literal bird may not be in contemplation. 

[5] The word “gikuyu” means “giant fig tree” which is the understood source of the name of the first man named, Gikuyu, and the Gikuyu culture. 

[6] In Agikuyu culture, it is considered prideful and arrogant to give an accurate accounting of one's blessings. For instance, a man with four goats would never say he has four goats, for such arrogance might invite a bad ancestor to bring misfortune upon him.  Instead, an owner of four goats would say that he has three-plus goats.  (Gachero 2011) And so it was with the daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi.  The Agikuyu do not say that there were ten daughters of Gikuyu, but rather that they had “nine plus” or a “big nine.” It is from these nine-plus daughters that the Agikuyu clans are divided.  Each Agikuyu clan is named after one of the daughters.  Even when others such as the Maasai or Akamba become part of the Agikuyu community, they can only do so by being adopted into one of the nine-plus clans. 

[7] Or nine-plus depending on the version

[8] One explanation is that, in the thunder, Mogai divided a part of himself to make the husbands for the daughters. 

[9] One variant is that the last girl was either too young to marry or was an illegitimate child.  However, it seems that these variations were most likely post-colonial. 

[10] The tradition of the rule of women and the takeover by males does not state, for instance, how the men rebelled. This would be an opportunity for the storyteller to embellish and create characters and circumstances to explain this rebellion.

[11] The N’dorobo culture is a rather enigmatic one. They are a hunter gathering people who were among the two original inhabitants of the Gikuyu lands.  However, any Gikuyu or Maasai who, for any number of reasons, are banished from their culture are also considered to be N’dorobo and become part of the N’dorobo culture.  As a result the N’dorobo now live on the edges of various cultures and reflect the cultures around them more than the “original” N’dorobo peoples.  It is very difficult to find any distinguishing characterizes of the present N’dorobo people that are clearly from the original peoples.