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Abstract
Kenya is the home of over 40 ethnic groups of different cultural backgrounds. In pre-colonial times each of these groups had its own belief system, incorporating natural sites to which they ascribed cultural significance. Many of these “natural sacred sites” have been destroyed or severely degraded over the last century, while others survive and continue to be preserved. Over time, the meanings of such sites have changed, as has their management and control, especially since the political changes in Kenya of the early 1990s and with the increasing strength of the global environmental movement over the same period. This paper traces the history and recent development in four clusters of natural sites of cultural significance: the kaya forests of the Kenya coast; Mount Kenya and related sites of the central Kenya highlands; cultural sites in the Lake Victoria basin, including Ramogi Hill and Kit Mikayi; and highland sites in northern Kenya occupied primarily by pastoral nomads, including Mount Nyiro and Forole Hill.
Acknowledgements
To the late Nancy Schwartz for her generous sharing of her unpublished material on Luo culture – erokamano ahinya! In addition, Jacob Muhando (at the time employed by the NMK) contributed significantly to the early drafts of this paper.
Notes
1. UNESCO, “Twenty-seven New Sites Inscribed.”
2. Lamu Old Town was inscribed as a cultural site in 2001; Lake Turkana National Parks were first inscribed as natural sites in 1997, with an addition in 2001.
3. UNESCO, UNESCO World Heritage Convention.
4. Sheridan and Nyamweru, African Sacred Groves.
5. UNESCO. Report on the Expert Group on Cultural Landscapes.
6. Frazer, The Golden Bough; Turner, The Forest of Symbols; Ramakrishnan, Saxena, and Chandrashekara, Conserving the Sacred; Sheridan and Nyamweru, African Sacred Groves; Nyamweru and Sheridan, “African Sacred Ecologies.”
7. Bernbaum, Sacred Mountains of the World; Wilson, The Atlas of Holy Places and Sacred Sites.
8. Hay-Edie and Hadley, “Natural Sites”, 55, 58.
9. Sheridan, “Dynamics of African Sacred Groves,” 23.
10. Ranger, Voices from the Rocks, 283, 270.
11. Three criteria are given; the high concentration of rock art, the interaction between communities and the landscape, and the Mwari (sic) religion “the most powerful oracular tradition in southern Africa.” UNESCO, World Heritage List.
12. Sheridan, “Dynamics of African Sacred Groves,” 23.
13. Hughes and Chandran, “Sacred Groves around the Earth,” 70.
14. Geschiere and van der Klei, “Popular Protest,” 209–30.
15. de Jong, “Politicians of the Sacred Grove,” 203–20.
16. See review of this literature in Sheridan, “Dynamics of African Sacred Groves,” 10, n.1.
17. Juhé-Beaulaton, “Sacred Forests and the Global Challenge,” 351–72; Nyamweru and Kimaru, “Contribution of Ecotourism,” 327–50.
18. The Digo and Duruma peoples live mainly in Kwale District; the Giriama, Rabai, Ribe, Jibana, Chonyi, Kauma and Kambe in Kilifi and Malindi Districts.
19. Spear, The Kaya Complex; Mwangudza, Kenya's People: Mijikenda.
20. For examples, see Walsh, “Mijikenda Origins,” 1–18; Willis, “The Northern Kayas of the Mijikenda,” 75–98; Helm, “Re-evaluating Traditional Histories,” 59–89.
21. Krapf, Travels, Researches and Missionary Labors, 111–14; New, Life, Wanderings and Labours, 76.
22. New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours, 112, 79.
23. Spear, The Kaya Complex, 47–8.
24. Also known as Kayafungo or Kaya Fungo.
25. Brantley, The Giriama, 40.
26. Parkin, Sacred Void, 40–3.
27. Nyamweru and Kimaru, “Contribution of Ecotourism.”
28. Parkin, Sacred Void, 37.
29. New mentions this from 1865 (Life, Wanderings, and Labours, 113), and Brantley provides a detailed account of changes through the early 20th century (The Giriama, 39–43).
30. Brantley, The Giriama, 93.
31. In 1919 the kaya was reopened and Mekatalili and Wanje, two Giriama resistance leaders, returned from exile to live there. Brantley, The Giriama, 111, 139.
32. Willis, “King of the Mijikenda.”
33. Aseka, Ronald Ngala, 1.
34. Ngala, Nchi na Desturi za Wagiriama; Mwangudza, Kenya's People: Mijikenda, 30.
35. Aseka, Ronald Ngala, 7.
36. Several sources, including New (Life, Wanderings, and Labours, 121–2) suggest that this can only be done if the elder has actually died within the kaya.
37. Bbeja, “Mijkenda's Closely Guarded ‘Kayas’.”
38. Willis, “King of the Mijikenda.”
39. Bbeja, “Mijkenda's Closely Guarded Kayas.”
40. Willis, “King of the Mijikenda,” 233.
41. KHRC, Kayas of Deprivation; KHRC, Kayas Revisited.
42. KHRC, Kayas of Deprivation, ii.
43. KHRC, Kayas of Deprivation, 21–3. Kinu is the Swahili word for a mortar; in this ritual the participants were washed in water containing a mixture of herbs that had been pounded in a mortar.
44. KHRC, Kayas of Deprivation, 28.
45. Mitukaa, “Mijikenda Condemn Anarchists.”
46. Mango and Mbaji, “Minister's Brother Sought over Kwale Training Camp.”
47. KNCHR, On the Brink of the Precipice, 106–7.
48. A manuscript report by J.B. Gillett of the East African Herbarium, Nairobi entitled “The Kayas or Sacred Forests of the Kenya Coast, Why and How they should be Preserved” (cited in Robertson and Luke, Kenya Coastal Forests), is undated, but is probably from the late 1970s.
49. Spear, The Kaya Complex, 46–8.
50. Hawthorne, Hunt, and Russell, Kaya: An Ethnobotanical Perspective, 32.
51. Robertson, Preliminary Floristic Survey of Kaya Forests.
52. Robertson and Luke, Kenya Coastal Forests, 6.1–6.2.
53. CFCU, Funding Proposal to ODA-JFS. See also: Githitho, “Destruction of Sacred Forests”; Githitho, “The Sacred Mijikenda Forests”; Nyamweru, “Women and Sacred Groves,” 52–4.
54. From Kenyan politicians as well as from conservation organizations.
55. Willis, “King of the Mijikenda.”
56. The earliest source is cited by Hawthorne et al. and was published in the Daily Nation in 1980. In it the Rabai elders appeal to the Kenya government to protect the forest, explaining that it is “set aside as a holy place where people went to say prayers”. Hawthorne, Hunt, and Russell, Kaya: An Ethnobotanical Perspective, 32.
57. Kithi, “Kaya Elders Uphold Traditional Faith.”
58. Wilson, “Sacred Forests and the Elders”; Nyamweru, “Sacred Groves Threatened,” 19–21; Tunbridge, “Tourism Cuts Swathe through Kenya's Spiritual Enclaves.”
59. Nyamweru, Report on Socio-cultural Research; Nyamweru, “Women and Sacred Groves,” 47; Nyamweru et al., “The Kaya Forests of Coastal Kenya.”
60. Nyamweru and Kimaru, “Contribution of Ecotourism.”
61. E. Kimaru, personal communication.
62. Bbeja, “Mijkenda's Closely Guarded ‘Kayas’.” But since this report, Kaya Rabai has been developed for ecotourism with the assistance of international donors.
63. Unlike most of the forests in Kilifi District, Kaya Kinondo is close to tourist hotels and holiday cottages.
64. Bbeja, “Sacred Kayas Awarded World Heritage Status.”
65. On clear mornings it can be seen from as far west as the Tugen Hills, from a large part of Samburu and Isiolo Districts to the north, as well as from much of the eastern plateau (Mwingi and Kitui Districts).
66. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 234. Another interpretation suggests the name derived from nyaga (ostrich), from the similarity between the black and white plumage of the male ostrich and the black and white patches on the top of the mountain due to the small glaciers close to the summit peaks.
67. Kea-Njahe (now known as Kilimambogo) to the east; Kea-Mbiroiro (Ngong Hills) to the south; Kea-Nyandarwa (the Aberdares) to the west. See also, Leakey, Southern Kikuyu, 1077–8; Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 236.
68. Mwaniki, Living History, 62. However Mwaniki also stresses that “Other places, just as important, were all sacred groves called Ngindwa and all age-set sacred places or the Matiiri, some caves and some enormous trees” (ibid.)
69. Mwaniki, Living History, 62. However Mwaniki also stresses that “Other places, just as important, were all sacred groves called Ngindwa and all age-set sacred places or the Matiiri, some caves and some enormous trees” (ibid.), 67, 90.
70. Stigand, The Land of Zinj, 260–1.
71. Mbiri Schools Harambee Committee, Mbiri 1984, 15.
72. Mwaniki, Embu Historical Texts, 118.
73. Barnett and Njama, Mau Mau from Within, 117, 131.
74. Barnett and Njama, Mau Mau from Within, 244.
75. Gikoyo, We Fought for Freedom, 184–5.
76. Kinyungu and Nzia, “Kisoi Munyao Given Hero's Send-off.” In the years before his death Munyao had been largely ignored; he lived a life of poverty in a lower-income area of Nairobi: Mathangani, “Unsung Hero Munyao Dies.”
77. Largely as a response to the Church of Scotland prohibition of female circumcision.
78. Githieya provides an account of the “Watu wa Mungu,” known by the Kikuyu as the Arathi or Akorino (“The Church of the Holy Spirit,” 242), but he does not mention praying towards Mount Kenya.
79. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 274; Wamue, “Revisiting our Indigenous Shrines,” 461.
80. Leakey, Southern Kikuyu, 117, 1080.
81. Leakey, Southern Kikuyu, 1080.
82. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 236, 245–9.
83. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 140.
84. The indigenous Kikuyu political system involved the sharing of power between alternating generations, Mwangi and Irungu (also known as Maina).
85. Castro, Facing Kirinyaga, 118.
86. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 249–50.
87. Castro, Facing Kirinyaga, 118.
88. Literally, “the small place of curse removers”: Fadiman, When We Began, 208.
89. Fadiman, When We Began, 208–9, 240–1.
90. Castro, Facing Kirinyaga, 122.
91. Muhando and Thuku, Mt. Kenya Sacred Sites, 17–18.
92. It is said to have reduced from 30 to 20 acres; tree species also disappeared from the forest ecosystem. Thuku and Gichere, Giitune Sacred Forest, 10. COMPACT is “Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation” – a UNDP – GEF SGP Project (United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme). See http://sgp.undp.org.
93. It is said to have reduced from 30 to 20 acres; tree species also disappeared from the forest ecosystem. Thuku and Gichere, Giitune Sacred Forest, 10. COMPACT is “Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation” – a UNDP – GEF SGP Project (United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme). See http://sgp.undp.org, 11.
94. It is said to have reduced from 30 to 20 acres; tree species also disappeared from the forest ecosystem. Thuku and Gichere, Giitune Sacred Forest, 10. COMPACT is “Community Management of Protected Areas for Conservation” – a UNDP – GEF SGP Project (United Nations Development Programme – Global Environment Facility Small Grants Programme). See http://sgp.undp.org., 15.
95. Karima ka Inya Forest Association (KAIFA). Muchire, “Villagers to Sue over Degraded Hill.”
96. Wadhams, “Kenyan Tribe Punishes Developers with Curse”; Muchire, “Elders set for Talks on Curse.”
97. Kenyatta, Facing Mt. Kenya, 3–4.
98. Muriuki, History of the Kikuyu, 62–3.
99. The 35th anniversary of Kenya's independence from British rule.
100. Wamue, “Revisiting our Indigenous Shrines,” 465.
101. President Moi's Kenya African National Union (KANU) government, then not broadly supported among Kikuyu, had retained power in bitterly disputed elections in 1997.
102. One for each of the nine clans of the Kikuyu, descended from the nine daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi.
103. Kilili, Morimoto, and Maundu, Preliminary Survey, 5.
104. Gikandi, “Leaders are Opposed to Police Post at Shrine.” In November 2011 veteran Kikuyu politician and businessman Njenga Karume “was crowned the chairman of the Kikuyu Council of Elders at a grand ceremony at Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga” (Wainaina “Leaders Wish Karume Quick Recovery”).
105. Got Ramogi in Dholuo.
106. Bagine, “Biodiversity in Ramogi Hill,” 252.
107. Hobley, “British East Africa,” 326.
108. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo, 148.
109. Ochieng’, Outline History of Nyanza, 23.
110. “Shrine to be Built soon on Ancestral Hill,” Daily Nation, November 23, 2004; JOOF, “Current Projects.” “Ker” is the title of the head of the traditional Luo elders’ council.
111. Hauge, Luo Religion and Folklore, 99–100.
112. Bagine, “Biodiversity in Ramogi Hill,” 261. He recorded 12 mammal species, four reptile species, three amphibian species, 64 bird species, over 22 orders of invertebrates and over 100 species of plants.
113. Onditi, “Got Ramogi.”
114. Onditi, “Got Ramogi.”, 6.
115. “Shrine to be Built soon on Ancestral Hill,” Daily Nation, November 23, 2004.
116. JOOF, “Current Projects.” Oginga Odinga, the late father of Raila, was the most important political leader of the Luo for many decades before and after independence.
117. “Western Tourism to Receive Boost from Trust Fund,” Daily Nation, June 7, 2010.
118. Nancy Schwartz, personal communication.
119. Warigi, “Mystical Rock.”
120. Ogot, History of the Southern Luo, facing page 129.
121. Hoehler-Fatton, Women of Fire and Spirit, 135; Hauge, Luo Religion and Folklore, 38; Warigi, “Mystical Rock.”
122. Schwartz, personal communication; Warigi, “Mystical Rock.”
123. Kilili, Morimoto, and Maundu, Preliminary Survey.
124. Luo Council of Elders, Report on Proposed Kit Mikayi Tourist Site.
125. Schwartz, personal communication; Shipton, The Nature of Entrustment, 58.
126. Taveta people have a similar story about the origin of Lake Chala, said to have been formed when a homestead was cursed by an old woman who came there asking for food, but was only given the placenta of a cow. Hobley has a slightly different version of the Simbi Nyaima story (“British East Africa,” 349).
127. Kilili, Morimoto, and Maundu, Preliminary Survey. 5.
128. Kassam, “The People of the Five ‘Drums’,” 173.
129. G. Schlee, “Ritual Topography,” 121.
130. Were et al., 35.
131. Schlee, “Ritual Topography,” 118. Farole (or Forole) is the most important of the Gabbra sites in Kenya.
132. Ganya, Haro, and Borrini-Feyerabend, “Conservation of Dryland Biodiversity,” 66; Ganya, “Forole Sacred Mountain.”
133. Ganya, “Forole Sacred Mountain,” 570.
134. As hunters they eat porcupines, rhinoceros and hippopotamus, making them unclean to Gabbra and Borana. Kassam and Bashuna, “Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo,” 197–200.
135. Kassam is of the opinion that this is not a variation of the name Forole and that the Waata had their own sacred mountains distinct from those of the Gabbra (pers. comm.)
136. Bashuna, “The Waata,” 36–8; Kassam and Bashuna, “Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo,” 207.
137. Makoloo, Kenya: Minorities, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Diversity, 9.
138. UNESCO, International Decade of the World's Indigenous People.
139. Kassam and Bashuna, “Marginalisation of the Waata Oromo,” 208.
140. Straight, Miracles and Extraordinary Experience, 52–66.
141. Spencer, The Samburu, 74, 129; Were et al., Marsabit District Socio-Cultural Profile.
142. Bernbaum, Sacred Mountains of the World. It is not clear whether this is the trembling rock mentioned by Straight's informant, said to tremble frequently for no apparent reason (Miracles and Extraordinary Experience, 54).
143. Bernbaum, Sacred Mountains; Omwega, Mpoke, and Wanyama, “Mount Nyiro and the Samburu (East Africa),” 1114–17.
144. Part of the western wall of the Rift Valley, rising to 3354 meters: Robson, Mountains of Kenya, 26.
145. Barton, “Notes on the Suk Tribe of Kenia Colony,” 98; Lucheli and Nyaboke, “Sacred Hill.”
146. A Mijikenda informant made the same comment to me of the kaya forest; “kaya ni kitovu ya dunia” (“kitovu” is Swahili for navel).
147. Schneider, “Pakot Resistance to Change,” 157; Peristiany, “The Age-set System of the Pastoral Pokot: The ‘Sapana’ Initiation Ceremony,” 192; Huntingford, The Southern Nilo-Hamites, 84–90.
148. Lucheli and Nyaboke, “Sacred Hill.”
149. Peristiany, “The Age-set System of the Pastoral Pokot: The ‘Sapana’ Initiation Ceremony,” 192, “The Age-set System of the Pastoral Pokot: Mechanism, Function and Post-‘Sapana’ Ceremonies,” 289; Lucheli and Nyaboke, “Sacred Hill.”
150. Marich Pass Field Studies Centre, “One and Two Day Excursions from the Centre.”
151. Nyamweru fieldnotes; “Priest Seeks Police Help over Sacred Tree Threat,” Daily Nation, January 7, 2002.
152. I draw on Greene, Sacred Sites, 137, for this interpretation.