A Brief History of the Taita People

From: Godwin Kilele
Sent: Thu, August 12, 2010

The people of kenya belong to three language groups:-

• CUSHITES:borans,somali,orma,rendile
• NILOTES:nandis,teso,luo,maasai,turkana,samburu,pokot,elgeyo,turgen and all kalenjins
• BANTUS:luhyas,embus,kikuyus,kambas,merus,mijikenda,pokomo,bagusii,swahili and taitas

Sagalla Mountain

Bantus are believed to have been living in Western Africa region  in east of Nigeria and Cameroon. Their population growth led to some moving southwise to southern Zaire [Congo forests] about 4000 years ago. They later split and two groups entered East Africa in two directions.some moved to N.E and came via W.Uganda about 600.b.c.some entered through further east to Mt.Elgon. Population growth and pressure to move more southward. This group passed through Olitoktok and some got mixed up with the chagga people of Tanzania at Taveta township. So the other group started moving towards the coastal region and its the Mijikendas [meaning nine villages–Giriama, Ribe, Chonyi, Kauma, Kambe, Jibans, Duruma, Digo and Rabai]. So those who remained formed the Taita tribe and the Taita language was derived from the mixture of these groups which moved to the coastal strip of Kenya, some opted to remain in Wundanyi area, Voi Mbololo and Sagalla mountain, while some continued their journey to the coast.

Otherwise,let me talk about the Taita community. The Taita tribe consists of:—
1]–Taveta tribe–.They settled in lake challa and jipe and they do farming as they use the lake challa and lake jipe which get their waters  from mount kilmanjaro.
2]–Another tribe is Wa-Dawida —They live in wundanyi mountains,chawia muntains in mwatate,mgange and bura mountains and also mbololo mountains.
3]–Sagalla tribe—They settled in sagalla mouintains and their language is the pure mixture of the coastal nine villages[mijikendas]
4]–WA- Kasigau who live in kasigau mountains in bungule a,jora and rukanga mountains,their dialect is just like the wa-dawidas.Its the smallest of the taitas

One thing they have in common are the traditions they share and are the same and funnily all these four tribes can speak kidawida fluently.

• They all settled on their respective mountains as they believed that they could see there anemies better when they are on the hills and not to be caught unawares and they also believed that God was more near at the mountains and its easy for him to hear one’s prayers
• They had their own ways of governance which were the same to all four small tribes.
• They had council of elders which were led by chief elders.
• They had their judiciary system,eg if one committed a crime or an act of sin, there were liniet and tough sentenses. Example : A young man having a sexual naffair with a related young lady [sister or close cousin], then the offender altogether with the lady will be skinned alive and be thrown to the furthest cave as they can bring a bad omen to the community ,like ,a calamity might befall the village if they stay or interact with normal people. Some penalties were harsh like being burried alive, being bannished beacause being a social misfit or etc
• Incase there was a long spell of drought , the council of elders will meet and the rainmakers will be called to give the offerings to the gods of rain and rains will come there
• The four small tribes speak somehow the same language but differ mostly in dialects.

Anyway, many traditions and culture have been eroded away by the so called civilization and thus some have been forgotten or ignored but ost vof them are still applicable to all the four tibes and they are recognised and respected by the government.

Kilele

Beehive Fence Update

From: Lucy King, Department of Zoology, Balliol College, University of Oxford

Sent: Fri, 23 July, 2010

Dear Cliff,

Beehive Fence

I have had two really enjoyable trips to Sagalla over the past few months. The beehive fences have been looked after extremely well by Bernard and Ambrose (the farmers) and they seem to be very proud of them which I can see from the maintenance and condition of the hives, roofs and wire. They have recorded 14 sheets showing incidents of elephants approaching near the fences and to date only 1 bull elephant has broken through which seems like a good ratio to me. I think we really need to monitor them for another crop-season before we can be absolutely sure that its working but so far they have effectively had no problems inside the fences and the crop harvest has been pretty good. The only problem we are having is with wasps coming into the hives! I have phoned Kilele recently and suggested that they smoke them out as this had recently worked well in Samburu. Unfortunately this wasp issue seems to be worse in Sagella but lets hope the new smoking-out system has an effect.

Its such a pleasure to visit the community, every time I have been I am so welcomed and Margaret is always there with a cup of tea and a snack! Her new teachers house is super and she seems very happy having a nice room to settle into.  I took the liberty of taking down a set of T-Shirts for the football team at Kilele’s suggestion which was fun and I enclose a photo of some of the team wearing some team shirts. I couldn’t afford the pricey proper football shirts but they now have “Plant a Tree Save the Earth” T-shirts which are not nearly as trendy but at least they are all the same colour and there is a bit of an environmental message in there!

Lucy with the team

I’m just off to the UK now to finish the last two months of my write up in Oxford. Masses of work to do so I probably won’t make it back to sagella until November when I return to Kenya but that should be a good time to visit just as the new crops have been planted. Looking forward to it already!

Best wishes for now,

Lucy

Lucy King MSc
DPhil Researcher, Animal Behaviour Research Group & Save the Elephants, Kenya
Department of Zoology, Balliol College, University of Oxford