HOME





Iloikop Wars
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. For these communities, a delicate balance existed between the amount of pasture land required for successful pastoralism and the number of men and animals available to exploit it effectively. It has been suggested that the Iloikop wars resulted from demographic pressure within these societies leading to congestion and conflict. The Iloikop wars ended in the 1870s with the defeat and dispersal of the Laikipiak. However, the new territory acquired by the Maasai was vast and left them overextended thus unable to occupy it effectively. Background Nile records indicate that the three decades starting about 1800 were marked by low rainfall levels in regio ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Maasai People
The Maasai (;) are a Nilotic peoples, Nilotic ethnic group inhabiting northern, central and southern Kenya and northern Tanzania, near the African Great Lakes region.Maasai - Introduction
Jens Fincke, 2000–2003
Their native language is the Maasai language, a Nilotic languages, Nilotic language related to Dinka language, Dinka, Kalenjin languages, Kalenjin and Nuer language, Nuer. Except for some elders living in rural areas, most Maasai people speak the official languages of Kenya and Tanzania—Swahili language, Swahili and English language, English. The Maasai population has been reported as numbering 1,189,522 in Kenya in the 2019 census compared to 377,089 in the 1989 census. However, many Maasai view the census as government meddling and either refuse to participate or actively pro ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Ludwig Krapf
Johann Ludwig Krapf (11 January 1810 – 26 November 1881) was a German missionary in East Africa, as well as an explorer, linguist, and traveler. Krapf played an important role in exploring East Africa with Johannes Rebmann. They were the first Europeans to see Mount Kenya with the help of Akamba who dwelled at its slopes and Kilimanjaro. Ludwig Krapf visited Ukambani, the homeland of the Kamba people, in 1849 and again in 1850. He successfully translated the New Testament to the Kamba language. Krapf also played a key role in exploring the East African coastline, especially in Mombasa. Early life Krapf was born into a Lutheran family of farmers in southwest Germany. From his school days onward he developed his gift for languages. He initially studied Latin, Greek, French and Italian. More languages were to follow throughout his life. After finishing school he joined the Basel Mission Seminary at age 17 but discontinued his studies as he had doubts about his missionary vo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Parakuyo People
The Parakuyo people, are a community of about thirty thousand pastoralists who live scattered across Tanzania today. They are the principal speakers of the Kwavi language. Etymology Members of the community refer to themselves as Parakuyo when speaking to each other. When interacting with unfamiliar outsiders they will almost always identify themselves as Maasai. Maasai people and other East Africans often refer to the Parakuyo as Kwavi, Loikop or Lumbwa, a practice that Parakuyo do not appreciate. About The Kwavi are related to the Maasai. Though little has been written about them, they were the subject of a 1974 Master's thesis at the University of Dar es Salaam The University of Dar es Salaam (UDSM) (Swahili: ''Chuo Kikuu cha Dar es Salaam'') is a public university located in Ubungo District, Dar es Salaam Region, Tanzania. It was established in 1961 as an affiliate college of the University of London. ... by Douglas Ndagala, "Social and Economic Change among the Pastoral ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kikuyu People
The Kikuyu (also ''Agĩkũyũ/Gĩkũyũ'') are a Bantu peoples, Bantu ethnic group native to Central Province (Kenya), Central Kenya. At a population of 8,148,668 as of 2019, they account for 17.13% of the total population of Kenya, making them Kenya's largest ethnic group. The term ''Kikuyu'' is the Swahili language, Swahili borrowing of the Endonym and exonym, autonym () History Origin The Kikuyu belong to the Northeast Bantu languages, Northeastern Bantu branch. Their language is most closely related to that of the Embu people, Embu and Mbeere people, Mbeere. Geographically, they are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Northeast Bantu speakers migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion is uncertain. Some authorities suggest that the Kikuyu arrived in their present Mount Kenya area of habitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east,Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Matt Fletcher, ''Lonely Planet Kenya'', (Lonely ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kalenjin People
The History of the Kalenjin people, Kalenjin is 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 District, Kapchorwa, Kween District, Kween and Bukwo District, Bukwo districts. The Kalenjin have been divided into 12 culturally and linguistically related tribes: Kipsigis people, Kipsigis (1.9 million), Nandi people, Nandi (937,000), Pokot people, Pokots (778,000), Sebei people, Sebei (350,000), Elgeyo people, Keiyo (451,000), Tugen people, Tugen (197,556), Sengwer people, Cherang'any 8,323, Marakwet people, Marakwet (119,000), Okiek people, Ogiek (52,000), Terik people, Terik (323,230), Lembus people, Lembus (71,600) and Sengwer people, Sengwer (10,800). The Kalenjin speak the Kipsigis language, Kipsigis languages but can ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


picture info

Kamba People
The Kamba or Akamba (sometimes called Wakamba) people are Bantu peoples ethnic group who predominantly live in Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and northwards to Embu, Kenya, Embu, in the southern part of the Eastern Province, Kenya, former Eastern Province. This land is called ''Ukambani'' and constitutes Makueni County, Kitui County and Machakos County. They also form the second largest ethnic group in 8 counties including Nairobi and Mombasa counties. Origin The Kamba are of Bantu people, Bantu origin and they are originally believed to have originated from the Congo Basin.Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Matt Fletcher, ''Lonely Planet Kenya'', (Lonely Planet: 2003), p.35. They are also known as the 'Akamba.' They are closely related in language and culture to the Kikuyu people, Kikuyu, the Embu people, Embu, the Mbeere people, Mbeere and the Meru people, Meru of whom together they form the GEMA community, and to some extent relate closely to the Digo people, Kambe an ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Ciarunji Chesaina
Ciarunji Chesaina (born 1947) is a Kenyan folklorist, professor, and diplomat. She is best known for her work studying the history, ethnography, and folklore of peoples across Africa, particularly among the Nilotic and Bantu groups. She also represented Kenya as the high commissioner to South Africa from 2000 to 2003. Biography Ciarunji Chesaina was born Jane Ciarunji Geteria in 1947. She attended Alliance Girls High School in Kikuyu, Kenya. Chesaina graduated from Uganda's Makerere University with a bachelor's degree in French and English in 1971. She subsequently studied in the United States, where she received a master's in education from Harvard University, and in the United Kingdom, where she obtained a Ph.D. in literature from the University of Leeds in 1988. Chesaina lectured at Kenyatta University beginning in the 1970s, then joined the faculty of the University of Nairobi in 1991. She teaches literature, particularly African literature, women's literature, and oral liter ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Uasin Gishu People
The Uasin Gishu people were a community that inhabited a plateau located in western Kenya that today bears their name. They are said to have arisen from the scattering of the Kwavi by the Maasai Maasai may refer to: *Maasai people *Maasai language *Maasai mythology * MAASAI (band) See also * Masai (other) Masai may refer to: *Masai, Johor, a town in Malaysia * Masai Plateau, a plateau in Kolhapur, Maharashtra, India *Maasai peopl ... 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. 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...". 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 ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Mbatian
Mbatian (died 1890) was a Maasai laibon known for prophecies that he made and consequent victories by Maasai warriors that were attributed to him. Early life Mbatian was born to the Maasai laibon Supeet and he succeeded him as laibon. Maasai - Laikipia war Berntsen (1979) notes that elders of the Purko-Kisongo Maasai relate that it was warriors of the Il Aimer age-set (c. 1870-1875) who blunted the attack of their northern neighbours the Ilaikipiak and then destroyed them as a social unit. The elders do not attribute the victory of the Maasai warriors to superior military strength but rather to the prophetic-ritual leadership of the famous laibon Mbatian who exploited his influence among several Purko-Kisongo sections to unite all the warriors of the Purko-Kisongo against the Ilaikipiak. According to Purko informants, the Purko and the Ilaikipiak allied to raid the Uasin Gishu during the warriorhood of the Il Nyankusi age-set (c. 1860s - 1870s). These traditions imply a joint ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Enganglima People
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. Sources Ludwig Krapf recorded accounts of the Engánglima from Lemāsěgnǒt whose father was "Engobore, an Mkuafi of the tribe Engánglima" who had "married a woman in the Interior near Oldoinio eibŏr (white mountain)" by whom he got his son, Lemāsěgnǒt. Krapf notes that Engobore resolved to reside at a place called Muasuni which was situated on the upper course of the Pangani river in the vicinity of the kingdom of Usambara when he returned from the interior. Krapf states that "the reason which had induced Engobore to join the nomadic settlement of the Wakuafi tribe Barrabuyu...was because his own tribe Engánglima had during his stay in the interior been nearly annihilated by the wild Masai". Territory Krapf noted that the Enganglima territo ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  


Samburu People
The Samburu are a Nilotic peoples, Nilotic people of north-central Kenya. Traditionally, they are semi-nomadic pastoralists who primarily herd cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels. They refer to themselves as Lokop or Loikop, a term with varied interpretations among the Samburu. Some believe it means "owners of the land" ("lo" meaning ownership and "nkop" meaning land) while others have different interpretations. The Samburu speak the Samburu dialect of the Maasai language, Maa language, a Nilotic languages, Nilotic language which is also spoken by 22 other sub tribes of the Maa community commonly known as the Maasai people, Maasai. Some suggest that the Samburu are a distinct tribe separate from the Maasai, a view that some Samburu people accept today. Samburu National Reserve is one of the well known wildlife conservation areas in Kenya. Within the Maa community of Kenya and Tanzania, the Samburu sub-tribe is the third largest, following the Kisonko (Isikirari) of ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]  




Kwavi People
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. Etymology Krapf's (1854) account on the Kwavi was the earliest and for a long time influenced accounts about the Kwavi community. On their name, he states; Later writers, writing a few decades later by which point the community had collapsed seemed to indicate that Krapf's designation was not quite accurate. None provided an alternative however. Johnston writing in 1886 for instance, noted that "'Kwavi' is supposed to be a corrupted version of 'El-oigob'"(i.e. Loikop). He also noted that the term Loikop at the time implied settled residence. In another account (1902) he states "...'Kwavi', a name that no Masai can recognise or explain, b ...
[...More Info...]      
[...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]