Conceptualising children as sexual beings: pre-colonial sexuality education among the Gĩkũyũ of Kenya

Abstract

Based on oral history accounts elicited from 25 Gĩkũyũ elders in Kenya, this paper describes a non-penetrative sexual practice, ngweko, permitted for the sake of pleasure and sexual release among circumcised and unmarried young people in the Gĩkũyũ community. Lessons that can be learned from the pre-colonial Gĩkũyũ sexuality culture are identified, and possible implications for contemporary sexuality education explored.

Keywords:

• Gĩkũyũ
• traditional sexuality
• oral history
• children
• sex education

Notes

^1. Gĩkũyũ is spelt as Kikuyu in English.

^2. Directly translated, this term describes a process of ‘hardening’.

^3. All the names used are pseudonyms.

^4. Gĩkũyũ waltz. This waltz is borrowed from the English. Gĩkũyũ love songs are accompanied by a beat from a metal ring and an accordion.

^5. Beecher (1944) and Leakey (1952) wrote about how stories and instruction told round the fire in the evening were the source of much information. ‘The instructions, or rather education in its most real sense was given by elders and senior women to groups of children gathered together informally after supper. It lost nothing of its value by being informal and to a great extent voluntary, instead of being formal and compulsory’ (Leakey 1952, 22).

^6. Direct translation – ‘to be made/improved/beautified’ and it is a term that refers to female circumcision.

^7. Direct translation – ‘stand up’.

^8. Direct translation – ‘seeing each other’.

^9. Direct translation – ‘bad omen/ill luck’ such as sickness.

^10. These were a short apron and skirt. Tying this would form an effective protection of her private parts, similar to a nappy tied around a baby's bottom.

^11. Direct translation – ‘bad manners or naughtiness’.

^12. Communality and ties with one's circumcision group.

^13. Other punishments for sex before marriage include a shameful public confession by the guilty couple whereby they are made to describe in detail how they had sex; an oath ceremony whereby a hot knife is passed between one's lips and if you are innocent (have not committed a sexual misconduct) you do not burn and if guilty you do, etc. See Kiragu (2009, 91).

^14. Direct translation – ‘caresser’.