Uasin Gishu people

Last updated

The Uasin Gishu people were a community that inhabited a plateau located in western Kenya that today bears their name. [1] [2] They are said to have arisen from the scattering of the Kwavi by the Maasai in the 1830s. They were one of two significant sections of that community that stayed together. The other being the Laikipiak with whom they would later ally against the Maasai.

Contents

c.1830 Origins

According to narratives told to Thompson in 1883, a community referred to as "Wa-kwafi"(Kwavi) fragmented following a series of misfortunes that befell them "about 1830...". [1]

Thompson notes that the original home of the 'Wa-kwafi' was "the large district lying between Kilimanjaro, Ugono and Pare on the west, and Teita, and Usambara on the east. The Kwavi had been attacked by the Maasai while enfeebled by their 'misfortunes', the result being that the community was broken up and scattered to various corners. [1]

The Wa-kwafi were not all scattered thus, however, for a large division of the clan kept together, and contrived to cut their way through Kikuyu and to reach Lykipia, where they settled.
Another section crossed the meridional trough and reached the opposite half of the plateau in Guas' Ngishu. In both places they found superb grazing-grounds and plenty of elbow room, and there for a time they remained quietly...

— Joseph Thompson, 1883 [1]

According to Maasai traditions recorded by MacDonald (1899), in taking over the plateau, the Uasin Gishu conquered a people he referred to as 'Senguer' and almost annihilated this community. [2]

It is notable that certain accounts state that the name Uasin Gishu was actually the proper term for the Wuakuafi given. McDonald (1899) for instance writes that the "..Masai, Kwafi (or more properly Guash Ngishu, for Kwafi, is a Swahili term) and Sambur (or Kore) are three divisions of one tribe,the Eloegop..." [3] while Wagner (1949) writes of "..the Uasin-Gishu Masai (Kwafi)...". [4]

Uasin Gishu - Siger war

Historicity

According to Maasai tradition, the Uasin Gishu front conquered a group of people who occupied the Uasin Gishu plateau, this community is remembered as Senguer. [2] Other Maasai traditions concur with this assertion, noting that the Loosekelai (i.e Sigerai/Siger) were attacked by an alliance of the Uasin Gishu and Siria communities. [5]

Finding congruence with Maasai traditions, are Kalenjin traditions. The Kalenjin occupy the area around Uasin Gishu and according to certain narratives of origin, such as that recorded by Chesaina (1991) they were once attacked by the Uasin Gishu, causing the Kipsigis and Nandi to split. [6] A tale which was recorded by Hollis (1905), starts "At a time when the Maasai occupied some of the Nandi grazing grounds". It is presumed that this was the Uasin Gishu plateau and that Nandi place names on the plateau were superseded by Maasai names. This is evinced by certain "Masai place-names in eastern Nandi (i.e Uasin Gishu border) which indicate that the Masai had temporary possession of strip of Nandi roughly five miles wide", these include Ndalat, Lolkeringeti, Nduele and Ol-lesos, which were by the early nineteenth century in use by the Nandi as koret (district) names. [7]

However, micro-Kalenjin tradition turn the above narratives on their heads. They concur on key points, notably an incoming population and an enfeebled population (in some cases known as Segelai) holding out in what were then dense forests around the plateau. The key difference is that the Kalenjin communities as seen as the incomers.

Kipsigis traditions such as those recorded by Orchadson (1927), state that at a time when the Kipsigis and Nandi were a united identity, they moved southwards through country occupied by 'Masai'. Orchadson notes that this was "probably the present Uasin Gishu country". Here, they accidentally got split in two by a wedge of Masai who Orchadson records as being "Uasin Gishu (Masai) living in Kipchoriat (Nyando) valley". [8] Accounts from Hollis however refer to a "branch called 'L-osigella or Segelli [who] took refuge in the Nyando valley but were wiped out by the Nandi and Lumbwa...It was from them that the Nandi obtained their system of rule by medicine-men. [9]

Though seemingly disparate, the totality of these narratives are in congruence with the large scale movement of pastoralists from the plains into the forested areas, assimilation of forest-dwelling communities and wide-spread identity shift. A widespread trend across the region as the Mutai of the 19th-century dragged on.

Territory

According to Kalenjin and Maasai traditions, the territory of the Uasin Gishu people extended over the Uasin Gishu and Mau plateaus following the conquest of these regions from the 'Senguer' or Siger. This period also saw the fragmentation of Loikop society. [2]

c.1870 Maasai - Kwavi war

Thompson (1883) noted that the 'Wa-kwafi' of Guas'Ngishu and those of Lykipia allied together to make war on the Maasai. He was advised that this was about fifteen years before then i.e c.1870. Wagner (1949) writing on the Bantu of North Kavirondo notes that "After 1860 the greater part of the Uasin-Gishu Masai (Kwafi) was decimated by wars with the main Masai bands...". [4] Hollis in his account of the Maasai recorded similar narratives occurring about the same time. He notes "that about 1850 the Turkana drove the most westerly branch of the Masai from the west, to the south of (Lake Turkana)". He states that "somewhere about the same period - at the time an old man can remember according to the native expression - the Masai dwelling on the Uasin Gishu plateau attacked those of Naivasha". The Maasai of Naivasha would later ally with those of Kilimanjaro. [10]

Assimilation of Laikipiak

According to Thompson's account the war lasted several years, during which time famine came upon the 'Wa-kwafi' causing large numbers to move to Njemps and Nyiro. "Only a remnant of the Wa-kwafi of Lykipia were left, and these contrived to make peace". [1]

Annihilation of Kwavi identity

Thompson states, that following the extinction of Laikipiak identity, "The Masai swept from north to south, and left not a man in the entire land, those who escaped the spear and sword finding refuge in Kavirondo". [1] MacDonald's portrayal of the force of attack parallels Thompson's account,

Civil war broke out between the Masai and Guash Ngishu who were helped by their kinsmen of Lykipia. After some initial defeats, the Masai detached the Sambur of Lykipia from the hostile alliance and then crushed the Guash Ngishu so utterly that the latter could no longer hold their own against the dispossessed Nandi and their kindred, and ceased to exist as a tribe.

— MacDonald, 1889 [2]

Diaspora

MacDonald noted that the survivors of this conflict were at that time scattered remnants in 'Nandi, Kavirondo or Ketosh'. [2]

Thompson (1883) noted that there was a district of Masai country known as Guas' Ngishu. [1]

Legacy

The conflicts between the Guas' Ngishu/Masai and Wakwafi form much of the literature of what are now known as the Iloikop wars.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalenjin people</span> Group of Southern Nilotic peoples indigenous to East Africa

The Kalenjin are a group of tribes indigenous to East Africa, residing mainly in what was formerly the Rift Valley Province in Kenya and the Eastern slopes of Mount Elgon in Uganda. They number 6,358,113 individuals per the Kenyan 2019 census and an estimated 273,839 in Uganda according to the 2014 census mainly in Kapchorwa, Kween and Bukwo districts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandi people</span> Ethnic group of Kenya

The Nandi are part of the Kalenjin, a Nilotic tribe living in East Africa. The Nandi ethnic group live with close association and relation with the Kipsigis tribe. They traditionally have lived and still form the majority in the highland areas of the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya, in what is today Nandi County. They speak the Nandi dialect of the Kalenjin language.

Kimnyole Arap Turkat was the Nandi Orkoiyot who predicted the arrival of Europeans and the railways ; two events that were to forever alter the history of the Nandi.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Elgeyo people</span>

The Elgeyo are an ethnic group who are part of the larger Kalenjin ethnic group of Nilotic origin. They live near Eldoret, Kenya, in the highlands of the former Keiyo District, now part of the larger Elgeyo Marakwet County. The Elgeyo originally settled at the foothills of the Elgeyo escarpment, in the area between Kerio river to the east and the escarpment to the west. Due to drought and famine in the valley, the Keiyos climbed the escarpment and started to settle on the highland east of Uasin Gishu plateau. When the British came, the Keiyos were pushed to settle in clusters called reserves.

The Kwavi people were a community commonly spoken of in the folklore of a number of Kenyan and Tanzanian communities that inhabited regions of south-central Kenya and north-central Tanzania at various points in history. The conflicts between the Uasin Gishu/Masai and Kwavi form much of the literature of what are now known as the Iloikop wars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nandi County</span> County in Kenya

Nandi County is a county in Kenya in the North Rift, occupying an area of 2,884.4 square kilometres. Its capital, Kapsabet, is the largest town in the county while other towns include Mosoriot, Tinderet, Kobujoi, Kaiboi, Kabiyet and Nandi Hills. According to a 2019 census, the county has a population of 885,711, made up of a number of Kenyan communities, the majority of whom belong to the native tribe called Nandi.

The Kalenjin people are an ethnolinguistic group indigenous to East Africa, with a presence, as dated by archaeology and linguistics, that goes back many centuries. Their history is therefore deeply interwoven with those of their neighboring communities as well as with the histories of Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Sudan, and Ethiopia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oreet</span> Kinship group among the Kalenjin people of Kenya

The Oreet is a kinship group among the Kalenjin people of Kenya that is similar in concept to a clan. The members of an oreet were not necessarily related by blood as evidenced by the adoption of members of the Uasin Gishu Maasai by Arap Sutek, the only Nandi smith at the time. His proteges would later be adopted into almost every other clan as smiths. More famously, the lineage of the Talai Orkoiik were adopted members of the Segelai Maasai.

The Lumbwa were a pastoral community which inhabited southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. The term Lumbwa has variously referred to a Kalenjin-speaking community, portions of the Maa-speaking Loikop communities since the mid-19th century, and to the Kalenjin-speaking Kipsigis community for much of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sengwer people</span>

The Sengwer people are an indigenous community who primarily live in the Embobut forest in the western highlands of Kenya and in scattered pockets across Trans Nzoia, West Pokot and Elgeyo-Marakwet counties. The Sengwer are sometimes portrayed as a component of the Marakwet people but are a distinct ethnic grouping.

The Loikop people, also known as Wakuafi, Kor, Mu-Oko, Muoko/Ma-Uoko and Mwoko, were a tribal confederacy who inhabited present-day Kenya in the regions north and west of Mount Kenya and east and south of Lake Turkana. The area is roughly conterminous with Samburu and Laikipia Counties and portions of Baringo, Turkana and (possibly) Meru Counties. The group spoke a common tongue related to the Maasai language, and typically herded cattle. The Loikop occasionally interacted with the Cushitic, Bantu, and Chok peoples. The confederacy had dispersed by the 21st century.

The Settlement of Nandi was the historical process by which the various communities that today make up the Nandi people of Kenya settled in Nandi County. It is captured in the folklore of the Nandi as a distinct process composed of a series of inward migrations by members from various Kalenjin ortinwek.

The Chok were a society that lived on the Elgeyo Escarpment in Kenya.

Kalenjin folklore consists of folk tales, legends, songs, music, dancing, popular beliefs, and traditions communicated by the Kalenjin-speaking communities, often passed down the generations by word of mouth.

Mutai is a term used by the Maa-speaking communities of Kenya to describe a period of wars, usually triggered by disease and/or drought affecting widespread areas of the Rift Valley region of Kenya. According to Samburu and Maasai tradition, two periods of Mutai occurred during the nineteenth century. The second Mutai lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s.

The Iloikop wars were a series of wars between the Maasai and a community referred to as Kwavi and later between Maasai and alliance of reformed Kwavi communities. These were pastoral communities that occupied large tracts of East Africa's savannas during the late 18th and 19th centuries. These wars occurred between c.1830 and 1880.

The Chemwal people were a Kalenjin-speaking society that inhabited regions of western and north-western Kenya as well as the regions around Mount Elgon at various times through to the late 19th century. The Nandi word Sekker was used by Pokot elders to describe one section of a community that occupied the Elgeyo escarpment and whose territory stretched across the Uasin Gishu plateau. This section of the community appears to have neighbored the Karamojong who referred to them as Siger, a name that derived from the Karimojong word esigirait. The most notable element of Sekker/Chemwal culture appears to have been a dangling adornment of a single cowrie shell attached to the forelock of Sekker women, at least as of the late 1700s and early 1800s.

The Siger people were a community commonly spoken of in the folklore of a number of Kenyan communities that inhabited regions of northwestern Kenya at various points in history.

The Laikipiak people were a community that inhabited the plateau located on the eastern escarpment of the Rift Valley in Kenya that today bears their name. They are said to have arisen from the scattering of the Kwavi by the Maasai in the 1830s.They were one of two significant sections of that community that stayed together. The other being the Uasin Gishu with whom they would later ally against the Maasai. Many Maa-speakers in Laikipia County today claim Laikipiak ancestry, namely those among the Ilng'wesi, Ildigirri and Ilmumonyot sub-sections of the Laikipia Maasai.

The Enganglima were a community that occupied and were said to dominate the southern and northern plains of present-day Kenya and Tanzania respectively. They were pushed out of their territory in the early 19th century by the Maasai.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Thompson, Joseph (1887). Through Masai land: a journey of exploration among the snowclad volcanic mountains and strange tribes of eastern equatorial Africa. Being the narrative of the Royal Geographical Society's Expedition to mount Kenia and lake Victoria Nyanza, 1883-1884. London: S. Low, Marston, Searle, & Rivington. pp.  240–241.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 MacDonald, J.R.L (1899). "Notes on the Ethnology of Tribes Met with During Progress of the Juba Expedition of 1897-99". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 29 (3/4): 240. doi:10.2307/2843005. JSTOR   2843005.
  3. ↑ MacDonald, J.R.L (1899). "Notes on the Ethnology of Tribes Met with During Progress of the Juba Expedition of 1897-99". The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. 29 (3/4): 228. doi:10.2307/2843005. JSTOR   2843005.
  4. 1 2 Wagner, Gunter (1949). The Bantu of North Kavirondo. London: Oxford University Press. p. 16.
  5. ↑ Jennings, Christian (2005). "1" (PDF). Scatterlings of East Africa: Revisions of Parakuyo Identity and History, c. 1830-1926 (PhD). The University of Texas at Austin. p. 98. Retrieved August 21, 2019.
  6. ↑ Chesaina, Dr. Ciarunji (1991). Oral literature of the Klenjin. Nairobi: Heinmann, Kenya Ltd. p. 1.
  7. ↑ Museums Trustees of Kenya (1910). The Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. London: East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. p.  7.
  8. ↑ Orchadson, I.Q (1927). Origin of the Maasai (Criticism of Cardale Luck's treatise). Nairobi: The East Africa Natural History Society. p.  20.
  9. ↑ Museums Trustees of Kenya (1910). The Journal of the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. London: East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society. p.  6.
  10. ↑ Hollis, Alfred Claud (1905). The Masai; their language and folklore. Oxford: The Clarendon Press. p. xv.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.