Gīkūyū Documentation Centre – Mūkūrwe-inī
The Gīkūyū Documentation Centre is a Library, Archive, and Museum specializing in not just the archival material history of the Gīkūyū people of Central Kenya, but especially in exploring how the...
View ArticleGīkūyū Traditional Colors
What, may we ask, constitute the definitive Gīkūyū traditional colors? The answer to this question is particularly important to designers of “modern traditional dress” and to architects and interior...
View ArticleCancer Curse – Nyūmba na Riika Itiumagwo
Some time back I met an old flame and since Gīkūyū himself said, ‘no irīma itacemanagia’, that is, ‘only mountains never meet’, and since neither she nor I are mountains, I was not the least surprised....
View ArticleThe Yam and it’s Support – Gīkwa na Mūkūngūgū
The Mūkūngūgū tree, (Commiphora eminii), is a fast growing tree with very soft and light wood when dry. Its leaves are compound with usually five leaflets and sometimes seven. It grows vegetatively and...
View ArticleGĩkũyũ Folk Remedies in a Scientific Age
In traditional Gĩkũyũ society, women drew water from the nearest river or stream. They carried the water on their backs in a large earthenware pot, Ndigithũ, or a sizable guard, Kĩnya kĩa maaĩ. The...
View ArticleHow the Gĩkũyũ and Africa’s Minds were Stolen.
An old English Fairy tale relates that once upon a time the town of Frenchville was overrun by rats. There were rats, rats and rats everywhere. All means to get rid of the rats were unsuccessful. One...
View ArticleKarũri wa Gakure: The Rise and Fall of a Giant
Karũri wa Gakure was born in or around 1849 at Kanorero of Iyego location in Mũrang’a in the Gĩkũyũ reigning generation of Maina. He was born together with two brothers, Kĩguma and Ngarũ and sisters...
View ArticleNdundu ya Anake a 40 (in Gĩkũyũ)
Gĩkũyũ augire ‘ita rĩtarĩ ndundu rĩhũragwo na njũgũma ĩmwe’. Ndundu na kĩngenũ nĩ kuga think tank – andũ maikaire thĩ makirĩte ki ta itangi ria maĩ magĩthugunda ũndũ kana maũndũ. Itangi rĩakagwo...
View ArticleWith a Prehistoric People: The Kikuyu of British East Africa
“With a Prehistoric People: The Akikuyu of British East Africa – Being an account of the method of life and mode of thought found existent amongst a nation on its first contact with European...
View ArticleThe Gĩkũyũ People Art of Dying – Revisited
Any discussion of the Gĩkũyũ people’s art of dying and especially one that is open to the non-Gĩkũyũ reader would have to begin with defining certain words and concepts that relate to death among the...
View ArticleKamera: Gĩkũyũ Sprouted Millet Drink
Kũmera in English is “to germinate” and the word Kamera denotes a Gĩkũyũ fermented porridge made with sprouted finger millet. Kamera, this slightly alcoholic sprouted millet drink was not so long ago,...
View ArticleGĩkũyũ and Mũmbi:In Search of Their Euthentic Worship
On page 45 of the Gĩkũyũ book, Kwarahũra Mũhooere wa Gĩkũyũ na Mũmbi, “Awakening the worship of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi”, is a framed write-up entitled, WHAT THE GĨKŨYŨ AND MŨMBI BELIEVE. The framed piece is...
View ArticleThe Mũũgĩkũyũ as High Priest and High Altar
Traditionally, an adult Mũũgĩkũyũ was one who was a master of his/her own fate, home, political beliefs, mind, body, spirit. It would have been impossible to place any Mũũgĩkũyũ, man, woman or child on...
View ArticleThe Truth About Cancer
The human body is made up of trillions of cells. Like every single celled creature a cells life is sometimes just a few days and is replaced by new cells. The old are either turned into food for the...
View ArticleThe Truth about Cancer – 2
As we discussed earlier in a post, “The truth about cancer”, the road to cancer is paved with Free Radicals, those dirty guys who are by-products of the oxidative process that drive cell metabolism....
View ArticleHarambee is our National Motto
Many years ago, I had a teacher who took me through an awakening. It is said that “when the student is ready, the teacher appears” This man came into my life like a whirlwind and shook many of my deep...
View ArticleCounting Taboos
“How many children are present today?” Marjie Spiers, an American volunteer teacher, asked her class of Kikuyu primary school children.“Twenty-five,” came the answer. Marjie counted out twenty-six...
View ArticleGĩkũyũ system of prayer
The Gĩkũyũ “system of taboo”, his close relationship with the All- seeing, Omnipresent ancestors, Ngomi, kept his behaviour and moral conduct in check so much so that direct worship to the Almighty...
View ArticleThe True Meaning of Gĩkũyũ Circumcision.
Among the Gĩkũyũ people a person’s transformation from a state of ignorance into a state of awareness and awakening was a journey the person undertook assisted by all the agents at his or her disposal....
View ArticleŨTURI: The Aagikuyu Cult of Iron Making
One of the most famous Gĩkũyũ folktales tells the story of the the blacksmith, Mũturi who had left his pregnant wife and gone to work in the smithy a long way from home. Smiths among the Gĩkũyũ...
View ArticleThe History of the Kenya National Anthem.
The Video shows Members of the Cabinet visiting the home of the Prime Minister, Jomo Kenyatta, in 1963 where they heard three versions of the National Anthem and tried to select a final version. “Ee...
View ArticleSports: The pacification of the masses
Why were the Aagĩkũyũ and other traditional societies not interested in competitive sports. Ever since the Roman circus, the princes and emperors of the day have used sports as a method of controlling...
View ArticleITUĨKA! The Management of Gĩkũyũ Generational Sets
The handing over of the reigns of governance from one generation to another is a natural process even in the world of nature that happens due to the very nature of life as a continuum ruled by birth...
View ArticleThe Colonial Heritage of a “Master Class”
One of the legacies of colonialism that has always fascinated me is what I call, the “overseer syndrome” This is the idea that there is someone who does a job and another one employed to make sure that...
View ArticleKĩrĩrĩ: The Aagikũyũ girls’ Great Bed
The Aagĩkũyũ traditionary had a very rich culture and ways of maintaining moral rectitude and behaviour through shaming and an elaborate system of taboo. Girls in Kikuyuland used to sleep in “The great...
View ArticleMbakĩ – Tobacco
Tobacco is one of the most powerful healing herbs on earth up until so-called scientific rockefeller medicine swept the world and prescription drugs became synonymous with the treatment of disease....
View ArticleGĩkũyũ “Promisquity”
When a traditional Gĩkũyũ man found a spear planted upright into the earth outside his wife’s hut, he immediately took off to his hut, thingira, and waited for the owner to pass by his hut as he went...
View ArticleThe Republic of Kenya Coat of Arms.
The official Coat of Arms of the Republic of Kenya is the highest symbol encoding the meaning, aspiration, intents and purposes of the said Republic. It is the quintessence, the distilled identity of...
View ArticleBreaking with the mother – Gũtua Rũrĩra
It is related in the Hebrew book of the New Testament that a certain Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, went to consult with Jesus in the dead of night. In the discussion that ensued regarding the Kingdom...
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