These discoveries of early hominids have earned Lake Turkana the
sobriquet, 'The Cradle of Mankind', although still older finds were
subsequently made in Ethiopia, to the north.Of Kenya's present-day
tribes (the number depends on how you count them; 42 were named
in the 1989 census, and one source mentions 45 distinct languages
as opposed to dialects), some have been there for over a thousand
years, perhaps much more; while others only arrived fifty years
ago. Their size varies greatly: some number barely a few hundred
people and are on the brink of extinction, whilst others number
several million, and constitute the country's economic and political
elite. Each have their own languages as well as numerous dialects,
and traditionally also had their own religions, customs, rituals
and ways of life, many of which have been broken down by the modernization
which swept through the twentieth century. Within this multiplicity
of tribes, the main distinctions that have been made by anthropologists,
and to a lesser extent by Kenyans themselves, are based on broad
ethno-linguistic classifications, which use the existence of common
root languages as a basis of defining cultural (and racial) differences
and similarities between peoples. The logic is simple in theory,
if not in practice: in the same way that Europeans make a distinction
between Romance, Celtic, Latin, Nordic and Slavic tongues, and thus
peoples, so it is in Kenya that distinctions are made between Bantu,
Cushitic and Nilotic-speaking peoples.
Like the European ethno-linguistic groups, these tend to occupy
distinct geographical areas. The cattle-herding Nilotes occupy the
plains of the Rift Valley in the west of the country, which cuts
across the whole of Kenya from north to south; the camel-rearing
Cushites live in the esertic northeast; and the agricultural Bantu
are in the more fertile highlands of central and southern Kenya,
as well as in a few highland areas near Lake Victoria. The Swahili,
who are sometimes also classed as a distinct ethno-linguistic group,
occupy the coast.
The arrival of each of these groups can be sequentially
dated, although ascribing precise dates to particular migrations
and tribes is difficult if not impossible. It should be borne in
mind that these classifications, and the names that are used, are
almost entirely academic, and moreover were coined by European scholars
rather than by Kenyans themselves. Periodic disputes arise among
researchers as to the precise meaning of the classifications, and
many alternative labels crop up. The labels below are the ones currently
in use, and I've made no attempt to find better alternatives.
The Hunter-gatherers
--Dahalo
--El-Molo
--Ndorobo
--Sanye
The people who have inhabited Kenya the longest, and who might thus
be called Kenya's aboriginal or indigenous people (a somewhat pointless
term, really, given that every human society on earth has migrated
at some time in its history), were various small groups of hunter-gatherers
who lived in scattered groups throughout the country, though mainly
in forests (most of which have been felled over the last century).
They relied on hunting, bee-keeping for honey, and the collection
of wild fruits and vegetables, although some also practised limited
agriculture, which is believed to have begun as early as 3000 years
ago.Most of these hunter-gathering cultures have now all but disappeared,
having been either annihilated or assimilated by the larger tribes
in the plains and hills surrounding them (see the paragraph about
the Okiek below, whose plight exemplifies that of other surviving
hunter-gatherer populations in Africa).
The Cushites
Southern Cushitic
-- Boni
--Galla
--Sakuye
Eastern Cushitic
-- Somali
-- Rendille
-- Orma
-- Borana
-- Gabbra
Of the major ethno-linguistic groups, the first
to arrive in Kenya were the Cushites, the first of whom (ancestors
of the present-day Somali, Rendille and Wa-Boni) are believed to
have entered north and northeastern Kenya around 2000-1000BC from
Ethiopia. Some sources quote a figure of 9000BC for this, although
it appears to confuse them with the hunter-gatherers. Needless to
say, there's little evidence linking any particular ethno-linguistic
group to any archaeological finds dating from that time. Many migrations
have occurred subsequently, the latest in the mid-1900s, so that
tracing the ancestry of any of these peoples is a confusing and
probably pointless exercise. Cushitic-speaking peoples in Kenya
include the Borana, Burji, Gabbra,
Orma, Rendille and Somali.
The Nilotes
Plains (Eastern) Nilotic
-- Maasai
-- Samburu
-- Turkana
-- Iteso
-- Njemps
-- Elmolo
Highland Nilotic (Kalenjin group)
-- Nandi
-- Marakwet
-- Pokot
-- Tugen
-- Kipsigis
-- Elkony
-- Elgeyo
-- Sabaot
-- Terik
Lake-River Nilotic
-- Luo
The next major linguistic group to arrive were
the Nilotes who, as their name suggests, originally came from the
Nile Valley, probably in southern Sudan. The first of these peoples
are believed to have arrived around 500BC, although Nilotic migrations
only became substantial some five hundred years ago, with the arrival
of the Luo and Maasai. Their main direction of movement was southwards
along the plains of the Rift Valley, which favoured both their cattle-raising
lifestyle, as well as their rapid, all-conquering advance into the
country. By the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they had reached
Tanzania, where their advance was finally stopped.
Nilotes who have kept to their nomadic way of life,
namely the Maasai, Turkana, Rendille and some sections of the Pokot,
nowadays consider themselves as oppressed, dominated and discriminated
against by the state and by the more numerous agriculturalists.
Nilotic-speaking peoples in Kenya include the agricultural
Luo (14% of the population, and Kenya's second-largest tribe), various
tribes who came together in the last century to form the Kalenjin
(Kenya's fourth-largest, at 11%), the Maasai (1.5% of the national
population), the Pokot, Samburu and Turkana
The Bantu
Western Bantu
-- Luyia
-- Gusii
-- Kuria
-- Kisii
Central Bantu
-- Akamba
-- Kikuyu
-- Embu
-- Meru
-- Mbere
-- Tharaka
Coastal (Eastern) Bantu
-- Mijikenda
-- Segeju
-- Pokomo
-- Taita
-- Taveta
-- Digo
-- Giriama
-- Duruma
Swahili
--Bajun
--Pate
--Mvita
--Vumba
--Ozi
--Fundi
--Siyu
--Shela
--Amu
The last major group to arrive (excluding the numerically-small
but all-powerful Europeans in the nineteenth century), were the
Bantu-speakers, the first of whom probably arrived some two thousand
years ago.Bantu-speaking peoples in Kenya include three of Kenya's
five largest tribes, namely the Kikuyu (largest, with 21% of the
national population), the Luhya (third-largest at 13%), and the
Kamba (fourth- or fifth-largest, with around 11% of the population).
Other Kenyan Bantu include the Chuka the Embu and closely-related
Mbeere (covered in the same section), the Gusii, Kuria, Makonde,
Meru, Mijikenda and the Taita.
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