The Akamba Tribe

Basket Making

Historical background
The Akamba people are part of the Bantu linguistic group that combines with other groups to make up the forty-two tribes of Kenya. Today they are found settled in the Kitui, Machakos, Makueni and Mwingi districts in south-eastern Kenya. Over the years some of them have migrated to Kwale district of the coast province. Kitui, Machakos, Makueni and Mwingi districts form what is commonly known as the Ukambani region. Their common language is Kikamba.

All the Bantu tribes are historically known to have originated from the central part of the continent but the Kamba folklore has it that they originated from the Mt. Kilimanjaro area. Such renowned ethnologists as Gerhald Lilbolm and John Middlaton support this theory. This theory draws its support from the fact that the community shares certain cultural aspects with the Wachagga people of the Tanzanian side of Mt. Kilimanjaro. It purports that the occupancy of the four Kenyan districts by the community is due to centuries of migration through the plains and valleys in search of food and security. The same theory argues that the present occupants of Kitui districts settled there from Mbooni hills where they had lived for generations.

The Akamba were great hunters before game was protected by law. They hunted antelopes, gazelles and even elephants mainly for food and skin. Poisoned arrows were their main weapon. The longest tusks ever seen in the country were obtained by a Mkamba after killing an elephant with a poisoned arrow (Elizapheth, H 1949). The poison was in form of black paste and was used to coat the arrow heads. Before the arrival of the Europeans, flourishing trade existed between the Akamba and the coastal Arabs. They traded in ivory in exchange for bracelets, copper beads, rolls of cloths and salt.

The most important commercial centre for the Akamba was Masaku (presently Machakos). The Imperial British East African company opened an office in Machakos in 1892 and in 1895 Indian traders opened stores. Currency was also introduced around this time. The British East African charter and Protectorate was decalred in 1898 the administration and foreign office set up at Masaku. Thus Masaku became the protectorates capital. The capital was later shifted to Nairobi upon the construction of the Uganda railway.

TOURING THE AKAMBA LANDSCAPE

Kambaland lies approximately 50 Km south of Nairobi. Its altitude is nearly 5,000 ft above sea level. A drive across the land leaves little doubt of the highlands crispness, the landscapes firmness and a sense of space and freedom. From the various hills in the area, your eye is carried over enormous plains of a distinct range of grass and shrubs. During the rainy seasons, the grass is green and spring-like. The hills are encrusted with bush, Acacia trees and shrubs, usually covered with a yellow blossom after rains. Hillsides are scarred and naked, brown as chestunt and baren as a crater in the moon and deeply raked by gulleys. Granite boulders break like bones through starred fresh. However to say that not a blade of grass intrudes on these hills would be inaccurate for rain has enticed a few spindly weeds through the brown soil. During the rains, the plains have trees in the open bush in the gulleys and several sheets of water hospitable for the birds. Herds of native cattle graze among the thorny trees. A good part of the land is utilized for farming. This demonstrates how native agriculture can be managed with skills and absolute control to conserve fading soil resources. Scarcity of arable land has led farmers to the hillsides. Their is a tortuned landscape full of huge smooth rocks and deep valleys which turn into impetus torrents after rains. Crops are grown here with a large population struggling to eke a living even during the bad years of famine. Though the land is steadily depreciating, it is still suitable for agriculture.

THE AKAMBA CULTURAL DANCES
The Akamba are cheerful people, great singers and dancers. During their traditional cultural dances, men usually decorate themselves with ostrich plumes on their heads while girls use strings of beads. They also use fat and oil to adorne themselves. Married women usually don’t join in dances commonly know as ngomas and as they marry young, the dancing girls are little more than children. The men’s dress is particularly wonderfully striking, they tie a blanket folded till it’s about a foot wide and is miraculously held in place around their waste by a simple puttee. Arms and legs are adorned with frills of Columbus monkey fur usually black and white in colour. Round their ankles and just above the knees, are jiggling gatters and miscellaneous collection of iron mongery. Majority have whistles around their necks. The rhythm of the dislocating jerky steps of the ngoma is driven by drums usually hollowed out of a tree trunk. To give them greater resonance, they are heated periodically over fire kept burning closely.

During the dance not only do everything in heaven or earth throb and vibrate but the dozens of ear piercing whistles thrill above the dim of the wild singing voices. Add to all this the empowering smell of hot bodies oiled with rancid fat and you will have a feint idea of a native ngoma. They dance in swaying unison, moving gradually round the inner circle of girls even more pungently oiled than themselves. As soon us the dance is over your head is left singing and throbbing for every long afterwards