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The region east of Nairobi towards Tsavo National Park is the traditional homeland of the Akamba people (Ukambani). They migrated here from the south several centuries ago in search of food, mainly the fruit of the baobab tree which was accorded great nutritional value. Read more…
Religion: African Traditional Religion
Population: 183,000 (1994)
Status: 33% Christian
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NARRATIVE PROFILE
Location: Just inland from the Indian Ocean coast of Kenya along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway south to the Tanzania border are The Duruma people with a population of about 183,000. Their area is marked roughly by the triangle of Taru, Mazeras and Lunga Lunga on the border. Kinango, the main administrative center is about two hours drive from Mombasa. Read more…
Facts About The Edo Tribe
Population 80,000 (1997 SIL).
Region Rift Valley Province , Elgeyo Marakwet District
The Gusii – Kisii inhabit an area in the western highlands east of Lake Victoria. The area is dominated by Nilotic-speaking groups with just this pocket of the Bantu-speaking Gusii. Read more…
The Kikuyu number more than three million and their heartland is the area around Mt Kenya. The original Kikuyu are thought to have migrated to the area from the east and north-east over a period of a couple of hundred years from the 16th century, and were actually part of the group known as Meru. Basically they overran the original occupants of the area such as the Athi and the Gumba, although intermarriage and trading did take place. Read more…
The nine sub-tribes of Kenya The Mijikenda tribe are a Kenya coastal Bantu tribe that consists of nine closely related sub-tribes.
Closely related to the Maasai, and in fact speaking the same language, the Samburu occupy an arid area directly north of Mt Kenya. It seems that when the Maasai migrated to the area from Sudan, some headed east (and became the Samburu) while the bulk of them continued south to the area they occupy today. Read more…
The Taita tribe The Taita people are a Bantu tribe living in the Taita Hills, on the South West of Kenya near the border with Tanzania and the surrounding plains.
What is known as the Taita tribe actually consists of three closely related tribes: Wadawida (or Taita), Wasaghala (Sagalla) and Wataveta (Taveta).
The languages of these three tribes have a close similarity with each other and with the Swahili language.
The languages also bear some similarity with the language spoken by the Chagga people of Tanzania. The Wadawida are the most populous of the three tribes, numbering about 300,000 as of the last population census.
The beautiful Taita hills
The Taita hills consist of three main hills: Dawida, Saghala, and Kasighau. Dawida is by far the most massive, fertile, and densely populated ares of the Taita tribe. The Wadawida living on the slopes of this hill practice different forms of agriculture, with the bulk of the food they produce being sold to the residents of Coast Province, especially Mombasa town.
Red-skinned elephants in Tsavo West National Park
On the plains surrounding Taita hills lies the expansive Tsavo West National Game park. Before Tsavo was gazetted as a national game reserve, these plains were important game hunting grounds for the Taita tribe.
History of the Taita tribe
Historians believe that Taitas migrated from Central Africa alongside other Bantu tribes, coming into present day Kenya from the south through Shungwaya before finally settling in the fertile Taita hills. The hills provided the Taita refuge from raids and attacks by the neighboring Maasai tribe.
Culture & Lifestyle
Taita people have today assimilated many western values such that most of their traditional cultures have faded away. Traditionally, one of the most important aspects of Taita tribe culture was male circumcision. Circumcision was considered an important ritual in training young boys normally aged between 7 and 11 years to take more adult responsibilities. Traditional circumcision no longer takes place in most parts of Taita, with many parents opting to have the operation done in a hospital.
One very unique Taita culture is the respect accorded to the dead. In the past, when a person died, they’d be buried, then after a period of about one year their body would be exhumed and the skull severed from the rest of the body and taken to a sacred cave, their “proper” abode with the ancestors. While this is no longer practiced today, the caves where skulls of long dead people are still found are treated as sacred in many parts of Taita.
Taitas and music
Traditionally, the Taita people liked expressing themselves in music. They had many interesting forms of traditional dances, the most fascinating of which was the pepo spirit-possession dances called Mwazindika. This and other traditional dances have since died off and are only performed during national holidays. Members of the Taita tribe are however still very talented musically. The late Fadhili Williams of the hit song Malaika was one of the many recent Taita musicians.
Faith & Religion
Today, most Taita people are Christians, though there is a considerable number of Muslims. Taita traditional religion revolved around the spirits of the ancestors. While Taitas believed in one supreme god, Mlungu, this god was only called upon, and given sacrifices for appeasement or thanksgiving in times of calamities and misfortunes such as droughts, locust invasions, barrenness, and famine. In “normal” times, sacrifices were made to the ancestors or household gods, milimu. Only very few Taitas still practice their traditional religious faith.
Economic Activities of Taita people
Being an agricultural society in a fertile land, most Taitas practice agriculture as the main economic activity. Horticultural production has recently become an important economic activity in Taita hills. Taitas also rear dairy cattle and produce most of the milk supplied in other parts of Coast province. They also grow coffee.
Gemstone mining is primarily done in the drier parts of Taita land, which have large deposits of precious stones such as Ruby, Tanzanite and Garnets.
Taita staple food
The traditional diet of the Taita consisted of bananas, pumpkins, cassava, beans, sweet potatoes, cow-peas, and millet. Occasionally, this diet would be supplemented with game meat hunted from the plains.
However, when they started growing maize (corn) and after the government’s restriction on hunting, ugali and green cooked vegetables, especially cabbage, is now the staple food. Kimanga (a mashed combination of beans plus either cassava, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, or bananas) is still a traditional taita delicacy prepared during special occasions, and accompanied by mbangara, a taita traditional drink made out of sugarcane, corn or cassava
The Turkana are another of Kenya’s more colourful (and warlike people). Originally from the Karamajong district of north-eastern Uganda, the Turkana number around 250,000 and live in the virtual desert country of Kenya’s north-west. Due to their isolation, the Turkana are probably the last affected by the 20th century of all Kenya’s people. Read more…
The Meru arrived in the area north-east of Mt Kenya from the coast sometime around the 14th century following invasions of that area by Somalis from the north. Read more…