The Star of Israel and the Holy Land Slave Trade to the Americas – The Bantusi

The Berber/Moor Holy Land Slave Trade and The Bantu-Tutsi (African) Slave Trade

Spain was retaken by Ferdinand and Isabella’s Army in 1492 and all Muslims were finally expelled in 1609 (Sookdheo p

173). Moorish Spain wasn’t tolerant or enlightened (O’Neill p 126).

In 916, Marquis Adalbertusof Tusca, Marquis Albericus of Spoleto, Prince Landulf of Capua and Benevento, Prince Gaimar of

Salerno, the dukes of Gaeta and Naples and Byzantine Emperor Constantine combined with Pope John X heading the land troops, and they defeated the Muslim Arabs freeing the Italian mainland!

(Khan p 156) The Byzantine fleet also helped to protect Italy.

- From: Islam’s European, Balkan and Asia Minor slave trade–

Arabs, Berbers, Moors: Part F in Islam’s genocidal slavery.

References:

1. Bostom, A. G.  ‘The Legacy of Jihad:  Islamic holy war and

the fate of the non-Muslims.’  Prometheus Books.  New York.  

2005.

2. Constantelos, D.  ‘Greek Christian and other accounts of the

Muslim conquests of the Near East’  Ch. 37 in Bostom, A. G. 

‘The Legacy of Jihad:  Islamic holy war and the fate of the

non-Muslims.’  Prometheus Books.  New York.   2005.

3. Encyclopaedia Britannica Vol 17 p 419  15th edition. 1982

Printed in the USA.

4. Hedaya or guide:   A commentary on the Mussulman laws:  

Translated by order of the Governor-General and Council of

Bengal   by Charles Hamilton:   Vol IV.  (1791)  London. 

Printed by T.  Bensley.  (this is a reprint of the original)

5. Karsh, E.  ‘Islamic imperialism: A history.’  Yale University

Press. 2006.

6. Khan, M. A.  ‘Islamic Jihad:  A legacy of forced conversion,

imperialism and slavery.’ iUniverse, Bloomington, IN.  2009.

7. O’Neill.  ‘Holy warriors:   Islam and the demise of classical

civilisation.’   Felibri publications.   2009.

8. Pipes, D:  ‘Jihad: How Academics Have Camouflaged Its Real

Meaning’ 12-02-02 http://hnn.us/articles/1136.html  George

Mason University  History News Network

9. Pirenne, Henri.  ‘Mohammed and Charlemagne.’   Dover

Publications Inc, New York.  Reprint 2001 of 1954 print by

George Allen and Unwin.

10. Reliance of the Traveller:  A classic manual of Islamic sacred

law.   In Arabic with facing English Text, commentary and

appendices edited and translated by Nuh Ha Mim Keller  Al-

Misri, Ahmad ibn Naqib;  Amana publications  Maryland USA

1994.

11. Sookhdeo, P.  ‘Global Jihad:  The future in the face of 

Militant Islam.’  Isaac Publishing.  2007.

12. The Scourge of Slavery  vol 4 2004

http://www.christianaction.org.za/articles_ca/2004-4-

TheScourgeofSlavery.htm

13. Ter-Ghevondian.  A.  ‘The Armenian rebellion against the

Caliphate’  Ch. 38 in Bostom, A. G.  ‘The Legacy of Jihad: 

Islamic holy war and the fate of the non-Muslims.’ 

Prometheus Books.  New York.   2005.

14. Trifkovic, S. ‘The sword of the prophet.’   Regina Orthodox

Press, Inc.  2002.

15. Warraq, I.  ‘Why I am not a Muslim.’  Prometheus books. 

1995

16. Ye’or, B. And G. Bostom.   2004   ‘Andalusian Myth,

Eurabian Reality:  Inventing the past, and denying the

present.’   A Jihad Watch EXCLUSIVE essay 

http://www.jihadwatch.org/2004/04/andalusian-myth-

eurabian-reality.html

Arab slave trade

OverviewThe Arab slave trade

 was the practice of slavery in the Arab World

, mainly Western Asia, North Africa, East Africa and certain parts of Europe (such as Iberia and southern Italy) during their period

of domination by Arab leaders. The trade was focused on the slave markets of the Middle East and North Africa. People traded

were not limited to a certain color, ethnicity, or religion and included Arabs and Berbers

, especially in its early days.

Scope of the trade

Historians agree between 11 and 18 million Africans were enslaved by Arab slave traders and taken across the Red Sea

, Indian Ocean, and Sahara desert between 650 and 1900, compared to 9.4 to 14 million Africans brought to the Americas in the Atlantic slave trade

 from 15th century to the early 19th century.

From a Western point of view, the subject merges with the Oriental slave trade, which followed two main routes in the

Middle Ages:

Overland routes across the Maghreb

 and Mashriq

 deserts (Trans-Saharan

 route)

Sea routes to the east of Africa through the Red Sea and Indian Ocean (Oriental route)

The Arab slave trade originated before Islam and lasted more than a millennium. It continues today in some places. Arab

traders brought Africans across the Indian Ocean from present-day Kenya

, Mozambique, Tanzania

, Sudan, Eritrea

, western Ethiopia and elsewhere in East Africa to present-day Iraq, Iran

, Kuwait, Turkey

 and other parts of the Middle East and South Asia (mainly Pakistan and India). Unlike the trans-Atlantic slave trade to the

New World, Arabs supplied African slaves to the (Berber/Moorish so-called

‘Muslim world’), which at its peak stretched over three continents from the Atlantic (Morocco

, Spain) to India and eastern China.

Luiz Felipe de Alencastro states that there were 8 million slaves taken from Africa between the 8th and 19th centuries along the

Oriental and the Trans-Saharan routes.

Olivier Pétré-Grenouilleau has put forward a figure of 17 million African people enslaved (in the same period and from the same

area) on the basis of Ralph Austen's work. Paul Bairoch suggests a figure of 25 million African people subjected to the

Arab slave trade, as against 11 million that arrived in the Americas from the transatlantic slave trade.

The Arab slave trade from East Africa is one of the oldest slave trades, predating the European transatlantic slave trade by 700

years. Male slaves who were often employed as servants, soldiers, or laborers by their owners, while female slaves,

including those from Africa, were long traded to the Middle Eastern countries and kingdoms by Arab and Oriental traders, as

concubines and servants. Arab, African and Oriental traders were involved in the capture and transport of slaves northward across the Sahara desert and the Indian Ocean region into the Middle East, Persia,

and the Indian subcontinent].

20th century

From approximately 650 until around the 1960s, the Arab slave trade continued in one form or another. The Moroccan Sultan

 Ismail Ibn Sharif "the Bloodthirsty" (1672–1727) raised a corps of 150,000 black

slaves, called his Black Guard, who coerced the country into submission. Historical accounts

and references to slave-owning nobility in Arabia, Yemen and elsewhere are frequent into the early 1920s. In 1953, sheikh

s from Qatar attending the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II

 included slaves in their retinues, and they did so again on another visit five years later.

As recently as the 1950s, Saudi Arabia's slave population was estimated at 450,000 — approximately 20% of the population. It is estimated that as many as 200,000

black Sudanese children and women had been taken into slavery in Sudan

 during the Second Sudanese Civil War. Slavery in Mauritania

 was legally abolished by laws passed in 1905, 1961, and 1981. It was finally criminalized in August 2007. It is estimated that up to

600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of Mauritania

's population, are currently enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour

.

The Arab slave trade in the Indian Ocean, Red, and Mediterranean Seas long pre-dated the arrival of any significant

number of Europeans on the African continent.

Descendants of the African slaves brought to the Middle East during the slave-trade still exist there today, and are aware of

their African origins.

Medieval Arabic sources

These are given in chronological order. Scholars and geographers from the Arab world had been travelling to Africa

since the time of Muhammad in the 7th century. Al-Masudi

 (died 957), Muruj adh-dhahab or The Meadows of Gold, the reference manual for geographers and historians of the

Muslim world. The author had travelled widely across the Arab world as well as the Far East.

Ya'qubi

 (9th century), Kitab al-Buldan or Book of Countries

Al-Bakri, author of Kitāb al-Masālik wa'l-Mamālik or Book of Roads and Kingdoms

, published in Córdoba around 1068, gives us information about the Berbers and their activities; he collected eye-

witness accounts on Saharan caravan routes

.

Muhammad al-Idrisi

 (died circa 1165), Description of Africa and Spain

Ibn Battuta

 (died circa 1377), Moroccan

 geographer who travelled to sub-Saharan Africa, to Gao

 and to Timbuktu

. His principal work is called A Gift to Those Who Contemplate the Wonders of Cities and the Marvels of

Travelling.

Ibn Khaldun

 (died in 1406), historian and philosopher from North Africa. Sometimes considered as the historian of Arab, Berber and

Persian societies. He is the author of Muqaddimah

 orHistorical Prolegomena and History of the Berbers.

Al-Maqrizi

 (died in 1442), Egyptian historian. His main contribution is his description of Cairo

 markets.

Leo Africanus

 (died circa 1548), author of Descrittione dell’ Africa or Description of Africa

, a rare description of Africa.

Rifa'a el-Tahtawi

 (1801–1873), who translated medieval works on geography and history. His work is mostly about Muslim Egypt.

Joseph Cuoq, Collection of Arabic sources concerning Western Africa between the 8th and 16th centuries (Paris

1975)

European texts (16th-19th centuries) João de Castro

, Roteiro de Lisboa a Goa (1538)

James Bruce

, (1730–1794), Travels to Discover the Source of the Nile (1790)

René Caillié, (1799–1838), Journal d'un voyage à Tombouctou

Johann Ludwig Burckhardt

, (1784–1817), Travels in Nubia (1819)

Henry Morton Stanley

, (1841–1904), Through the Dark Continent (1878)

Other sources African Arabic and Ajam

 Manuscripts

African oral tradition

Kilwa

 Chronicle (16th century fragments)

Numismatics: analysis of coins and of their diffusion Archaeology: architecture of trading posts and of towns

associated with the slave trade Iconography: Arab and Persian miniatures

 in major libraries

European engravings, contemporary with the slave trade, and some more modern

Photographs from the 19th century onward

Ethiopian (Ge'ez

 and Amharic) historical texts

Historical and geographical context of the Arab slave trade

A brief review of the region and era in which the Oriental and trans-Saharan slave trade took place should be useful here. It is

not a detailed study of the Arab world, nor of Africa, but an outline of key points which will help with understanding the slave

trade in this part of the world.

The Islamic world

The religion of Islam appeared in the 7th century CE, and in the next hundred years it was quickly diffused throughout

the Mediterranean area, spread by Arabs after they conquered the Sassanid Persian Empire and many territories from the

Byzantine Empire, including the Levant, Armenia

 and North Africa; they invaded the Iberian peninsula

 where they displaced the Visigothic Kingdom. These regions therefore had a diverse range of different

peoples.

The framework of Islamic (Sunni/Jewish Berber-Moorish Facist governments called ‘islamic by Jewish historians) civilisation was

a well-developed network of towns and oasis trading centres with the market (souq, bazaar

) at its heart. These towns were inter-connected by a system of roads crossing semi-arid regions or deserts. The routes were

travelled by convoys, and black slaves formed part of this caravan traffic.

In contrast to the Atlantic slave trade

 where the male-female ratio was 2:1 or 3:1, the Arab slave trade usually had a higher female:male ratio instead, suggesting a

general preference for female slaves. Concubinage and reproduction served as incentives for importing female slaves (often Caucasian), though many were also imported

mainly for performing household tasks.

Arabic views on black people

The Qur'an, the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the overwhelming majority of Islamic jurists

 and theologians, all stated that humankind has a single origin and rejected the

idea of certain ethnic groups being superior to others. According to the hadith

s, Muhammad declared:Despite this, some ethnic prejudices

 later developed among Arabs due to several reasons: their extensive conquests

 and slave trade; the influence of Aristotle's idea of certain ethnic groups being slaves by nature, echoed by

Muslim philosophers such as Al-Farabi

 and Avicenna, particularly in regards to Turkic and black peoples; and the

influence of the early mediaeval Geonic Academies ideas regarding divisions among mankind between the three sons of

Noah, with the Babylonian Talmud

 stating that "the descendants of Ham are cursed by being black, and [it] depicts Ham as a sinful man

and his progeny as degenerates." However, ethnic prejudice among some elite Arabs was not limited to darker-skinned black

people, but was also directed towards fairer-skinned "ruddy people" (including Persians, Turks and Europeans), while Arabs referred to themselves as "swarthy people". It should also be

noted that the concept of an Arab identity itself did not exist until modern times.

The famous 9th century Muslim author Al-Jahiz

, an Afro-Arab and the grandson of a Zanj

 (Bantu) slave, wrote a book entitled Risalat mufakharat al-Sudan 'ala al-bidan (Treatise on the Superiority of Blacks over Whites),

in which he stated that Blacks:And that:

Al-Jahiz also stated in his Kitab al-Bukhala ("Avarice and the Avaricious") that:

Jahiz' criticism however, was limited to the Zanj and not blacks in totality, likely as a result of the Zanji revolts

 in his native Iraq.

This sentiment was echoed in the following passage from Kitab al-Bad' wah-tarikh (vol.4) by the medieval Arab writer Al-

Muqaddasi:

Al-Dimashqi (Ibn al-Nafis), the Arab polymath, also described the inhabitants of Sudan and the Zanj coast,

among others, as being of "dim" intelligence and that:By the 14th century, an overwhelming number of slaves came

from sub-Saharan Africa, leading to prejudice against black people in the works of several

Arabic historians and geographers. For example, the Egyptian historian Al-Abshibi (1388–1446) wrote: "It is said that when the [black] slave is sated, he fornicates, when he is hungry, he

steals."

In 14th century North Africa, the Arab sociologist, Ibn Khaldun, wrote in his Muqaddimah:

Ibn Khaldun suggests a link between the decline of Ghana and rise of the Almoravids. However, there is little evidence of there actually being an Almoravid conquest of Ghana aside from the

parallel conflict with Tekrur, which was allied with the Almoravid and eventually absorbed by them.

Ibn Khaldun attributed the "strange practices and customs" of certain black African tribes to the hot climate of sub-Saharan

Africa and made it clear that it was not due to any curse in their lineage, dismissing the Hamitic theory as a myth.

His critical attitude towards Arabs has led the scholar Mohammad A. Enan to suggest that Ibn Khaldun may have been a Berber

pretending to be an Arab in order to gain social status, but Muhammad Hozien has responded to this claim stating that Ibn Khaldun or anyone else in his family never claimed to be Berber

even when the Berbers were in power.

Africa: 8th through 19th centuries

In April 1998, Elikia M’bokolo, wrote in Le Monde diplomatique. "The African continent was bled of its human resources via all possible routes. Across the Sahara, through the Red Sea, from

the Indian Ocean ports and across the Atlantic. At least ten centuries of slavery for the benefit of the Muslim countries (from the ninth to the nineteenth)." He continues: "Four million slaves

exported via the Red Sea, another four million through the Swahili

 ports of the Indian Ocean, perhaps as many as nine million along the trans-Saharan caravan route, and eleven to twenty million

(depending on the author) across the Atlantic Ocean"

In the 8th century, Africa was dominated by Arab-Berbers in the north: Islam moved southwards along the Nile and along the

desert trails. The Sahara was thinly populated. Nevertheless, since

antiquity there had been cities living on a trade in salt

, gold, slaves, cloth, and on agriculture enabled by irrigation: Tiaret, Oualata, Sijilmasa

, Zaouila, and others. They were ruled by Arab, Berber, Fulani

, Hausa

 and Tuaregs. Their independence was relative and depended on the power of the Maghrebi and Egyptian

states.

In the Middle Ages, sub-Saharan Africa was called bilad -ul-Sûdân

 in Arabic, meaning land of the Blacks. It provided a pool of manual labour for North Africa and Saharan Africa. This

region was dominated by certain states: the Ghana Empire, the Empire of Mali, the Kanem-Bornu Empire

.

In eastern Africa, the coasts of the Red Sea and Indian Ocean were controlled by native Muslims, and Arabs were

important as traders along the coasts. Nubia

 had been a "supply zone" for slaves since antiquity. The Ethiopian coast, particularly the port of Massawa

 and Dahlak Archipelago

, had long been a hub for the exportation of slaves from the interior, even in Aksumite

 times. The port and most coastal areas were largely Muslim, and the port itself was home to a number of Arab

and Indian merchants.

The Solomonic dynasty of Ethiopia often exported Nilotic

 slaves from their western borderland provinces, or from newly conquered or reconquered Muslim provinces. The Somali

 and Afar Muslim sultanates, such as the Adal Sultanate

, exported slaves as well. Arabs also set up slave-trading posts along the southeastern coast of the Indian Ocean, most notably

in the archipelago of Zanzibar, along the coast of present-day Tanzania. East Africa and the

Indian Ocean continued as an important region for the Oriental slave trade up until the 19th century. Livingstone

 and Stanley were then the first Europeans to penetrate to the interior of the Congo Basin

 and to discover the scale of slavery there. The Arab Tippu Tip extended his influence and made many people slaves.

"Supply" zones

Merchants of slaves for the Orient stocked up in Europe. Danish merchants had bases in the Volga

 region and dealt in Slavs with Arab merchants. Circassian slaves were conspicuously present in the harem

s and there were many odalisques (from the Turkish odalık, meaning "chambermaid") from that region in the paintings of Orientalists

. Non-Muslim slaves were valued in the harems, for all roles (gate-keeper, servant, odalisque, musician, dancer, court dwarf, concubine). In the Ottoman Empire, the last black slave sold in Ethiopia named Hayrettin Effendi, was freed in 1918. The slaves

of Slavic origin in Al-Andalus came from the Varangians who had captured them. They were put in the Caliph's guard and

gradually took up important posts in the army (they became saqaliba

), and even went to take back taifa

s after the civil war had led to an implosion of the Western Caliphate. Columns of slaves feeding the great harems of

Córdoba, Seville and Grenada

 were organised by Jewish merchants (mercaderes) from Germanic countries and parts of Northern Europe not controlled

by the Carolingian Empire. These columns crossed the Rhone

 valley to reach the lands to the south of the Pyrenees.

There are also historical evidence of North African Muslim slave raids all along the Mediterranean coasts across Christian Europe

and beyond to even as far north as the British Isles and Iceland

 (see the book titled White Gold by Giles Milton).

Slaves were also brought into the Arab world via Central Asia, mainly of Turkic or Tartar

 origin.

At sea, Barbary pirates joined in this traffic when they could capture people by boarding ships or by incursions into

coastal areas, mainly in Southern Europe as well as Western European coasts.

Nubia and Ethiopia were also "exporting" regions: in the 15th century, Ethiopians sold slaves from western

borderland areas (usually just outside of the realm of the Emperor of Ethiopia

) or Ennarea, which often ended up in India, where they worked on ships or as soldiers. They eventually rebelled and

took power (dynasty of the Habshi

 Kings in Bengal 1487-1493).

The Sudan region and Saharan Africa formed another "export" area, but it is impossible to estimate the scale,

since there is a lack of sources with figures.

Finally, the slave traffic affected eastern Africa, but the distance and local hostility slowed down this section of the

Oriental trade.

Routes

Caravan trails, set up in the 9th century, went past the oasis of the Sahara; travel was difficult and uncomfortable for reasons of

climate and distance. Since Roman times, long convoys had transported slaves as well as all sorts of

products to be used for barter. To protect against attacks from desert nomads, slaves were used as an escort. Any who slowed down the progress of the

caravan were killed.

Historians know less about the sea routes. From the evidence of illustrated documents, and travellers' tales, it seems that people

travelled on dhows or jalbas, Arab ships which were used as transport in the Red

Sea. Crossing the Indian Ocean required better organisation and more resources than overland transport. Ships coming from

Zanzibar made stops on Socotra or at Aden

 before heading to the Persian Gulf or to India. Slaves were sold as far away as India, or even China:

there was a colony of Arab merchants in Canton. Serge Bilé cites a 12th century text which tells us that most

well-to-do families in Canton had black slaves whom they regarded as savages and demons because of their physical

appearance. Although Chinese slave traders bought slaves (Seng Chi i.e. the Zanj) from Arab intermediaries and "stocked up"

directly in coastal areas of present-day Somalia, the local Somalis—referred to as Baribah and Barbaroi (Berbers)

by medieval Arab and ancient Greek geographers, respectively (see Periplus of the Erythraean Sea

).and no strangers to capturing, owning and trading slaves

themselves -- were not among them:

THE BANTU-TUTSI (BATUSI) CONNECTION

Slave labor in East Africa was drawn exclusively from the Zanj, who were Negroid Bantu

-speaking peoples that lived along the East African coast in an area roughly comprising modern-day Tanzania, Mozambique

 and Malawi.

The Zanj were for centuries shipped as slaves by Arab traders to all the countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The Umayyad and Abbasid caliphs recruited many Zanj slaves as soldiers and, as early as AD 696, we learn of slave revolts of the Zanj against

their Arab enslavers in Iraq (see Zanj Rebellion). Ancient Chinese texts also mention ambassadors from Java

presenting the Chinese emperor with two Seng Chi (Zanj) slaves as gifts, and Seng Chi slaves reaching China from the Hindu

 kingdom of Srivijaya in Java.

Barter

Slaves were often bartered for objects of various different kinds:

in the Sudan, they were exchanged for cloth, trinkets and so on. In the Maghreb, they were swapped for horses. In the desert

cities, lengths of cloth, pottery, Venetian glass slave beads

, dyestuffs and jewels were used as payment. The trade in black slaves was part of a diverse commercial network. Alongside gold

coins, cowrie shells from the Indian Ocean or the Atlantic (Canaries

, Luanda) were used as money throughout black Africa (merchandise was

paid for with sacks of cowries).

Slave markets and fairs

Enslaved Africans were sold in the towns of the Muslim world. In 1416, al-Maqrizi told how pilgrims coming from Takrur

 (near the Sénégal River) had brought 1,700 slaves with them to Mecca. In North Africa,

the main slave markets were in Morocco, Algiers, Tripoli

 and Cairo. Sales were held in public places or in souks. Potential buyers made a careful examination of the "merchandise": they checked the state of health of a person who was often standing

naked with wrists bound together. In Cairo, transactions involving eunuchs and concubines happened in private houses. Prices

varied according to the slave's quality.

Towns and ports involved in the slave trade

North Africa:o Tangier

 (Morocco)

o Marrakech

 (Morocco)

o Algiers

 (Algeria)

East Africa: Bagamoyo

 (Tanzania)

Zanzibar

 (Tanzania)

Kilwa (Tanzania) Sofala

 (Beira,

Arabian Peninsula

Zabīd

 (Yemen)

Muscat

 (Oman)

Aden

 (Yemen)

o Tripoli

 (Libya)

o Cairo

 (Egypt)

o Aswan

 (Egypt)

West Africao Aoudaghost

 (Mauritania)

o Timbuktu

 (Mali)

o Gao

 (Mali)

o Bilma

 (Niger)

o Kano

 (Nigeria)

Mozambique

)

Horn of Africao Assab

 (Eritrea)

o Massawa

 (Eritrea)

o Nefasit

 (Eritrea)

o Zeila

 (Somalia

)

o Mogadishu

 (Somalia)

Socotra

 (Indian Ocean)

Indian Oceano Debal

 (Sindh)

o Janjira

 (India)

o Surat

 (India)

See also

Slavery in antiquity

Christianity and slavery

Judaism and slavery

Slavery in Libya

Afro-Arab

Black orientalism

Books in English Edward A. Alpers, The East African Slave Trade (Berkeley

1967) Ibn Khaldun

, The Muqaddimah, trans. F. Rosenthal, ed. N. J. Dawood (Princeton 1967)

Murray Gordon, Slavery in the Arab World (New York 1989) Bernard Lewis

, Race and Slavery in the Middle East (OUP 1990)

Patrick Manning

, Slavery and African Life: Occidental, Oriental, and African Slave Trades (Cambridge 1990)

Paul E. Lovejoy, Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (Cambridge 2000)

Allan G. B. Fisher, Slavery and Muslim Society in Africa, ed. C. Hurst (London 1970, 2nd edition 2001)

The African Diaspora in the Mediterranean Lands of Islam (Princeton Series on the Middle East) by Eve Troutt Powell

(Editor), John O. Hunwick (Editor) (Princeton 2001) Ronald Segal, Islam's Black Slaves (Atlantic Books, London

2002) Robert C. Davis, Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White

Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500-1800 (Palgrave Macmillan, London 2003) ISBN 978-1-

4039-4551-8

Audio material

Owen 'Alik Shahadah, African Holocaust Audio Documentary

External links

Arab Slave Trade BBC - History - British Slaves on the Barbary Coast

BBC - Islam and Slavery Encyclopædia Britannicas Guide to Black History

iAbolish.ORG! American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) - particular focus on North African slaves

From: www.absoluteastronomy.com/topics/arab_slave_trade

Samarians as Slaves 1607

The famous Triangle Trade occurred in the New England colonies where slaves were sold in the West Indies for molasses. This was sent to New England to make Rum which was then sent to Africa to trade

for slaves.

While Europeans were running the slave trade on the west side of Africa ...

Arab traders were doing the same thing (this is a BBC audio clip) on the east side.

Let's take a closer look at the second leg of the triangular journey - the infamous "middle passage" - wherein Africans were shipped, to the

"New World," as slave-labor.

In July of 1788, as MPs (Members of Parliament) debated the issue of African slave-trading, pro-slave-trade members summoned individuals,

like Robert Norris, to testify. From Liverpool, Norris insisted that Africans were treated fairly and their transatlantic passages were

comfortable. His book on the subject - at pages 171 and 172 - reveals his general position:

That the opinion...of these ships being unequal to the numbers which were said to be crowded in them, is groundless...That on

the voyage from Africa to the West Indies, the Negroes are well fed, comfortably lodged, and have every possible

attention paid to their health, cleanliness, and convenience.

Thomas Clarkson, in chapter 23 of his history, summarizes Norris' testimony to the privy council. The captive Africans, Norris said:

had sufficient room, sufficient air, and sufficient provisions. When upon deck, they made merry and amused themselves

with dancing. As to the mortality, or the loss of them by death in the course of their passage, it was trifling. In short, the

voyage from Africa to the West Indies "was one of the happiest periods of a Negro's life."

Norris, like others, wanted to maintain slave-trading for economic reasons. He knew slave labor was "the connecting medium of our

foreign with our domestic commerce." British manufacturing depended on it. If that connection were removed:

The export of British manufactures, which to Africa and the Colonies amount to nearly three millions sterling annually,

would soon be reduced to nothing...From the inevitable decrease of the import of West Indian productions, there

would be such a deficiency of the national revenue, as the imposition of fresh taxes, upon a people deprived of their accustomed resources of opulence and industry, could not possibly replace ... Our national importance would quickly

decline, and be known to the next generation, only by the page of history. (Norris, pages 182-183)

MIDDLE PASSAGE REALITY

In July of 1788, Liverpool slave-trade participants testified about their activities in Parliament. They told MPs that slaves, among other things,

were comfortable during transatlantic crossings.

Then, under intense cross examination, they acknowledged the truth. We pick up the story in chapter 23 of Clarkson's history:

Every slave, whatever his size might be, was found to have only five feet and six inches in length, and sixteen inches in

breadth, to lie in. The floor was covered with bodies stowed or packed according to this allowance: but between the floor and

the deck or ceiling were often platforms or broad shelves in the mid-way, which were covered with bodies

When captives were brought to the African ports, they were bound together, two by two. Were they also tethered, in some manner,

aboard ship?

The men were chained two and two together by their hands and feet, and were chained also by means of ring-bolts, which were fastened to the deck. They were confined in this manner at least all the time they remained upon the coast, which was

from six weeks to six months as it might happen.

If they were captured to provide free labor, Africans needed nourishment. What did they eat?

Their allowance consisted of one pint of water a day to each person, and they were fed twice a day with yams and

horsebeans.

Some of the captives refused to eat, wishing to die rather than to live in such horrific conditions. When that happened, slavers would force-

open their mouths with a device (called a speculum oris) which looked like an instrument of torture. (See Clarkson, chapter 17.)

Confined in cramped quarters, how did the captives keep their bodies limber?

After meals they jumped up in their irons for exercise. This was so necessary for their health, that they were whipped if they refused to do it; and this jumping had been termed dancing.

Young girls could also be whipped if they refused the captain's order to dance without their clothes. One example was memorialized by George

Cruikshank on the 10th of April, 1792.

John Kimber, captain of the slave ship Recovery, whipped a fifteen-year-old captive while she was suspended by her ankle. Although she

died of her injuries, a jury in the High Court of Admiralty acquitted Kimber. They concluded the girl had died of disease, not mistreatment.

Were captives allowed to breathe fresh air, or did they spend most of their time below deck?

They were usually fifteen and sixteen hours below deck out of the twenty-four. In rainy weather they could not be brought up

for two or three days together. If the ship was full, their situation was then distressing. They sometimes drew their breath with anxious and laborious efforts, and some died of

suffocation.

It is said one could smell an approaching slave ship ten miles away, so horrific were its onboard conditions.

AFRICA – From “Real Israelites” – (Samaritans)

In his book ‘From Babylon to Timbuktu’ Rudolf R Windsorgives an account of this scattering of the Israelites:

‘In the year 65B.C. the Roman armies under General Pompey captured Jerusalem. In 70 A.D. General Vespasian and his son, Titus put an end

to the Jewish state, with great slaughter. During the period of the military governors of Palestine, many outrages and atrocities were committed against the residue of the people. During the period of Pompey to Julius, it has been estimated that over 1,000,000 Jews (Israelites) fled into Africa, fleeing from Roman persecution and

slavery. The slave markets were full of black Jewish slaves.’

Millions of Israelites who escaped the persecution of the Roman-Jewish War fled into the interiors of Africa. In his book ‘Jewish Roots in Africa,’ Mr Litchtblau, speaking of the Israelites that ran into Africa, says this:

‘Pressed under sweeping regional conflicts, Jews settled as traders and warriors in Yemen, the Horn of Africa, Egypt, the kingdom of Kush and Nubia, North African Punic settlements (Carthage and Velubilis), and areas now covered by Mauritania. More migrants followed these early

Jewish settlers to Northern Africa…’

Rudolf R Windsor in his book ‘Babylon to Timbuktu points out:

‘The black Jews who migrated to the Sudan from the North converged with the Jews migrating from the eastern Sudan to the countries of the Niger River…There is much proof, and still much more to be revealed

by scholars, that there existed prior to the slave trade and subsequent to it many tribes, colonies, and kingdoms in West Africa’. pg 120

The Beginning:

At the end of the 14th century Europeans started to take people from Africa against their will. Initially they were mainly used as

servants for the rich. The Europeans justified the taking of slaves by arguing that they were providing an opportunity for Africans to become

Christians. By the 17th century the removal of slaves from Africa became a holy cause that had the full support of the Christian Church.

When Spanish and Portuguese sea-captains began to explore the Americas they took their African servants with them. Some of these

Africans proved to be excellent explorers. The most important of these was Estevanico, who led the first European expedition to New Mexico

and Arizona.

The people living in the Americas resisted the attempt by the Europeans to take over their land. One of he most important struggles

took place in Cuba in 1512. The Cubans, led by Chief Hatuey, were eventually defeated by the superior weapons of the Spanish.

It is estimated that over a million people lived in Cuba before the arrival of the Europeans. Twenty-five years later there were only 2,000

left.

Large numbers had been killed, while others died of starvation, disease, committed suicide or had died from the consequences of being forced to work long hours in the gold

mines.

After the arrival of the Europeans there was a sharp decline in the local population of most of the islands in the Caribbean Sea.

This created a problem for the Europeans as they needed labour to exploit the natural resources of these islands. Eventually the

Europeans came up with a solution: the importation of slaves from Africa.

By 1540, an estimated 10,000 slaves a year were being brought from Africa to replace the diminishing local populations.

British merchants became involved in the trade and eventually dominated the market. They built coastal forts in Africa where they kept the captured Africans until the arrival of the slave-ships. The merchants obtained the slaves from African chiefs by giving them goods from Europe. At first, these slaves were often the captured

soldiers from tribal wars. However, the demand for slaves become so great that raiding parties were organised to obtain young Africans.

The Height of the Slave Trade:

Between the years 1650 and 1900, historians estimate that at least 28 million Africans were forcibly removed from central and western Africa

as slaves (but the numbers involved are controversial). A human catastrophe for Africa, the world African Slave Trade was truly a

"Holocaust."

Between 1450 and 1850 at least 12 million Africans were taken across the notorious Middle Passage of the Atlantic - mainly to colonies in

North America, South America, and the West Indies

European countries participating in the slave trade accumulated tremendous wealth and global power from the capturing and selling of

Africans into slavery.

Initially, slaves were sold to the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in South and Central Americas to work on sugar cane plantations. This

area became known as the 'seasoning stations' for the northern plantations, because of the brutal conditioning that took place there. However, by the 1700's, due to the high demand for African slaves,

most Africans were shipped directly from Africa to mainland America.

End of the Slave Trade:

The slave-produced goods were shipped back to Britain - the "Mother Country" - where they were manufactured or refined (if necessary) and

then either sold domestically or re-exported at a vast profit.

The slave trade brought in huge amounts of money to Britain, and few people even knew what was going on in the plantations, let alone

cared.

Men who owned plantations in the West Indies, including Sir John Gladstone, formed an important political group which opposed the

abolition of the slave trade.

In New England, small towns. In the West Indies the economic results of the Act were disastrous. The islands depended on the

sugar trade which in turn depended on slave labor. Ultimately, the planters were unable to make the West Indies the thriving centers of

trade which they had been in the eighteenth century.

How Many Africans Were Affected?:

1. Between 10 and 28 million people taken from Africa

2. 17 million Africans sold into slavery on the coast of the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and North Africa

3. 12 million Africans taken to the Americas – (sic – 3.15)

4. 5 million Africans taken across the Sahara and East Africa into slavery in other parts of the world

(7/11)

Spain, Portugal, Rome and the Holy Land Slave Trade to the West Indies and The New World

Portuguese on the Western Shores of Africa

So-called ‘Islamic’ Berbers (Moors) brought the first black slaves to the Iberian Peninsula.

Although small in numbers compared to later periods, the consequences turned out to be tremendous. Spaniards and Portuguese were well aware of the strength and the qualities of Negros as cheap labour. Especially in the sugar culture around the Mediterranean Sea

and after their discovery on the Azores and Madeira slaves were employed.

Iberians heard stories about the kingdoms south of the Sahara and about the Songhay king, who was 'the wealthiest king in the world'.

In search of these African kingdoms of gold, Dom Henrique (also called Henry the Sailor) left Portugal in 1441 A.C. with a

few ships.

He landed on the African west coast but did not find gold, though enough other merchandise.

Two of his captains captured twelve Negros (men, women and children). These captives were carried to Portugal as slaves to convince the king that it was cheaper to get slaves directly from the African west

coast than to buy them from Arabic and European middle-men. Dom Henrique offered the Pope two black slaves, and the Pope granted the Portuguese permission for the slave trade on the West African coast.

The Pope issued in advance complete absolution to those who would fall in the battle on the African west coast. Such ended Arab monopoly

of the slave trade through the Sahara. In 1448 for the first time, leaders of Mali and Songhay exchanged almost a thousand slaves with the

Portuguese against horses, silk and silver. The first black slaves were used as domestics and for the sugar culture around the Mediterranean Sea, the Azores and on Madeira. Black slaves were also sold to Spain

and Italy.

In 1481 the Portuguese built their first fort on the Gold Coast, the notorious d'El Mina, the mine. Thus the first stone was laid for an

enormous and forbidding enterprise, 'The Transatlantic Slave Trade."

The beginning of the Transatlantic slave trade

Two years after the discovery of America in 1492, the Treaty of Tordesillas, made by the Pope, assigned the territory eastward of the

line through Brazil to Portugal and the territory on the west of it to Spain. With this the Portuguese gained a monopoly on the slave trade on the African coast. On the other hand Spain got a free hand in the

Caribbean sea and Central and South America.

A treaty made the previous year; the demarcation line went further to the east, thus completely excluding Portugal from the new world. In 1494, after heavy protest, the treaty was adjusted and Portugal was assigned a part of the present Brazil that still had to be discovered.

At first, colonists in Portuguese and Spanish colonies preferred to use natives as slaves. But the Indians were originally fishermen and

hunters. Physically they were not suitable for heavy labour. The work was predominantly in salt and silver mines and in agriculture. Many of the natives died from exhaustion, malnourishment, ill-treatment or Old

World diseases, such as smallpox and measles. Others preferred to commit suicide rather than to live the inhuman life that was forced on them by Spanish colonists. When possible, the native slaves tried to

escape to the impenetrable inlands. Regularly, Spanish soldiers carried out punitive expeditions. Captured runaways were severely punished.

As a warning many natives were hanged. Escapees often preferred mass suicide rather than being captured again.

On Hispafiola (now Haiti) the number of natives decreased in less than 25 years from more than one million to hardly eleven thousand, in spite

of a constant supply of new native slaves from the other Caribbean Islands.

About 200,000 of the "Arowakken" who were carried off from the coastal region of South America and the Caribbean islands, died

between 1492 and 1510.

Already in 1510, black slaves were transported to Spanish colonies with the permission of Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand (Ferdinand the Catholic) of Spain. At first, all Africans had to come from Portugal or

Spain or had to be baptized in Africa before embarkation.

The "Casa dos Escravos" in Lisbon (the government slave trade agency) sold more than 1,200 Negros between 1511 - 1513. Emperor of Austria

and King of Spain, Charles V, granted licenses to his trusted and favorite courtiers to transport African slaves to the new world. In 1529

such a license was handed for the first time to a Dutchman (at that time Holland was a Spanish territory). No doubt that also at the beginning of

the sixteenth century, slaves had been illegally transported directly from Africa to the New World colonies.

Bishop Bartolomé de las Casas of Chiapas could not bear to witness the atrocities committed against the Caribbean native population. Ruthless and cruel expeditions forcing conversion of nonbelievers were equally destructive as those of the slave raiders. Thus the Catholic Church had become involved in the destruction of native Caribbean's. In 1537 the bishop returned to Spain with a request to King Charles V to end the inhuman situation of the natives. He proposed to replace the native

Caribbean's with more "durable" African Negros.

Based solely on economical motives, King Charles V honored the bishop's request. It was not possible to make the new territories

productive with only the help of a few unwilling natives. It was thought that Africa Tihad an inexhaustible labour force.

In 1538, this led to the "Asiento de Negros" (a monopolistic con-tract for the slave trade). As the licenses to transport black slaves to the new

world was limited to one trip or a certain number of slaves, the "asiento" was a privilege that, during the agreed term, granted the

holder a monopoly on slave transports to the overseas colonies. King Charles V granted this "asiento" to one of his courtiers, the Fleming

Laurens de Goumenot. He obtained the right to transport 4,000 Negros to Hispanola, Cuba, Jamaica and Puerto Rico.

De Goumenot could only recruit this large number of slaves from the Portuguese in Africa, because the Treaty of Tordesillas excluded Spain

from all trade with West Africa. The purchase of Negro slaves, the transport over sea and the high price that had to be paid to the crown, required large sums of money, which De Goumenot did not have at his disposal. That is why he sold the "asiento" for 25,000 ducats to some Genuese traders. They started a very profitable trade with Portuguese slave traders on the West African coast. Especially at the beginning the

slaves were captured during inland expeditions, or bought from wealthy African kings. Some kings even undertook special military expeditions against neighboring tribes and, if necessary, sold their own citizens.

Curaçao as centre of the slave trade

After the loss of the Pernambuco region in Brazil, Curaçao formed the most suitable market for African slaves.

Already in 1636 the WIC had promulgated instructions that ordered captains equipped with Dutch letters of marquee, to deliver captured Negro slaves on Curaçao. Most were employed as company slaves on Curaçao and Bonaire, for the cutting down of dye-wood and the salt

production, but also for fishing, turtle hunting and the maintenance of the company gardens.

Superfluous slaves were sold to the New Netherlands and to the Guyanas.

At the end of the sixteen forties, the demand for African slaves at the Dutch colonies in Pernambuco slowly died as the Portuguese gradually reconquered this region. The WIC transferred its slave trading activities to the Spanish colonies in the Caribbean area. Between 1646 and 1657,

about 3,800 slaves were sold to Santo Domingo, Puerto Rico and the Tierra Firme. Some ships sailed directly to these destinations; others

brought their load to Curacao first, where the human cargo was resold.

Peter Stuyvesant was the owner of a slave camp on Curacao. After his departure for the New Netherlands in 1646 he asked his successor,

Matthias Beck, to sell these slaves. Beck sold - to the dismay of Stuyvesant - the slaves to the Spaniards. Among the slaves were children who, at the request of Stuyvesant's wife, were baptized Protestant. Stuyvesant was not indignant about the sale of these

children, but he did not agree with a sale to the Catholic Spaniards.

In 1640, sixty years after the Spanish occupation, the Portuguese regained their freedom. Portugal closed its doors for Spanish traders.

The just granted asiento became worthless.

The Spanish needed workers and apart from Portugal, only the Dutch (with whom Spain waged war for almost eighty years) had trading posts on the African coast. Spain did not want to conclude an asiento with a rebellious nation. Until 1662 no asiento was concluded, only individual

supply agreements.

In 1655 the shipping industry between Spain and the new world was severely damaged because of the British conquest of the former

Spanish colony Jamaica. In 1657, the deputy governor of Curaçao, Matthias Beck, got in touch with Spanish colonial authorities on the

nearby South American continent. It was quite clear that the Spanish colonies were in big need for European goods. But trade with this region could only be possible when, apart from goods, also negro slaves could

be delivered.

There were not sufficient slaves available to fulfill the great demand of the Spanish colonies. The demand for slaves was so enormous that

most slave ships, who sailed between 1658 and 1662 to Curacao, were already sold before the ship entered the harbor.

The flourishing slave trade on Curaçao did not escape the attention of the two Genuese traders who in 1662 obtained the Asiento. Instead of

importing slaves from Africa they choose to conclude a delivery contract with the WIC.

The contents of the first contract stipulated the delivery of 24,000 slaves during a period of seven years.

At their arrival on Curaçao, slaves were immediately accommodated in special slave depots. After a medical examination they were taken to agents of the "Asientistas". At first, the depots were situated in the

Schottegat area, where the slave ships docked. It is conceivable that there was a slave depot in the area of the present museum Kurá

Hulanda. Due to lack of documents, much is still unknown about the first years of the slave trade on Curaçao.

Slaves, who were not immediately sold, were accommodated in two W1C slave camps, these were mostly the weak, the sick or slaves

rejected by the "Asientistas". The chained slaves walked from Schottegat to Zuurzak plantation, which was the largest slave camp.

This camp was walled to prevent escape attempts.

When the camp was full, slaves were brought to Groot St. Joris, the

second slave camp. In these camps the slaves could recover. Afterwards most of them were sold illegally to Spanish or other

colonies. Others remained in the service of the company and were put to work on one of the nine plantations of the WIC. The company had a doctor to take care of sick slaves. Not from a humane point of view but

purely for economic reasons.

The value of a healthy slave was about 150 Guilders. At that time a bricklayer, a barber or a carpenter earned 20 Guilders a month.

Stuck a feather in his cap and called it Macroni

In the slave trade the value of a slave was counted in piezas de Indias. A slave only counted as a full pieza de Indias if he or she was at least seven palmos (about five feet) in height

and was between 15 and 35 years of age. Because of physical defects such as bad teeth, a bad eyesight or a

disease, individual slaves were counted as fractions of the ideal slave. They were sometimes called manquerones or

macrons. Children aged 4-8 and 8-15 were counted as one-half and two-thirds of a pieza de Indias.

The slave trade on Curaçao had its ups and downs. Could the demand between 1659 and 1662 not be fulfilled, due to a temporary stagnation in 1669 there were about 3,000 slaves available on the island. In spite

of all, the WIC was unable to deliver the contractually agreed number of slaves. Instead of three to four thousand slaves a year, the average

delivery to the Asientistas was not even a thousand a year. Nevertheless the Asientistas kept on concluding new contracts with the company, because Curacao was the most important slave market in the

Caribbean. The trade went on until the end of the eighties of the seventeenth century. Then the importance of Curacao as a slave

market lessened, due to increased competition with the now British island of Jamaica. More and more slave ships delivered their load

directly to the Spanish colonies.

In 1713, through the peace treaty of Utrecht, Britain gained the Spanish Asiento. This ended the official slave trade with the Spanish colonies for Curaçao. There was no market for the slaves that were

delivered on the island in 1715. They were forced to stay on the island. In years to come very few slaves from Africa were directly delivered to

Curaçao. The last (documented) slave ship that delivered African slaves directly to Willemstad, reached the island in 1775. All illegal

transportations seldom were committed to paper, this does not imply the end of the transatlantic slave trade to Curaçao, although it would

have been minimal.

Other nations and the slave trade

The monopoly on West Africa granted by the Pope in 1494, was in practice a mere formality. Portugal did not have the necessary military means to maintain its monopoly. Already during the first quarter of the seventeenth century several Dutch trading posts arose along the West African coast. After the Dutch conquest of fort d'Ehnina in 1637, other countries competed for a key position along the West African coast. At first they restricted themselves to the delivery of slaves to the Spanish

colonies in the new world.

But as countries like France, Denmark, Britain and Germany gained possession of their own colonies, slaves were also transported across

the Atlantic Ocean to provide their own territories with black labourers. Britain, with whom during the seventeenth century the Dutch

Republic was at war several times, turned out to be a formidable competitor. In 1655 it had conquered the island of Jamaica and

set out to develop it into a major slave depot. Despite the British having lost its forts along the Gold Coast during the second war with the Republic (1665 - 1667), the British slave trade recovered quite fast. A lot of slave ships changed their course to Jamaica and Barbados.

In 1672 the Royal African Company was founded. It gained a monopoly on the slave trade with British colonies in the new world. Unfortunately

this monopoly was undermined by British seamen, who managed to cross the ocean with smaller and faster ships at lower expenses.

Jamaica had a flourishing sugar culture and needed a lot of slaves. But the supplied slaves were also sold to the Spanish Continent of South America. More and more Britain took over the leading role from the

Republic as the major slave supplier to the new world.

The 144,000

In exchange for peace after the ending of the Spanish Succession War in 1713, Britain gained the Asiento, which

allowed them to transport 144,000 Negro slaves to the Spanish colonies during a period of thirty years. In the

eighteenth century Britain became the largest provider of African slaves. Also France and - after the War of

Independence - the United States of America were active in this trade.

Early Colonization in Brazil

Today, Brazil is demographically and culturally practically an "African" country, which has derived from a rich history of

African presence in the area. Shortly after the first European arrival in 1500, by Pedro Alves Cabral, Africans were being

imported into Brazil.

Unfortunately the names of the first Africans were not as well recorded as the Europeans.

By 1535, the African slave trade was a fully organized endeavor.

However, just as we often overlook the names of the first Africans, we also often find that comparative analysis of technological achievements

of Africans and Europeans have also been overlooked. Such that in 16th century Africa, the level of metallurgy and agricultural technologies were superior to those of the Europeans at the time, thus it often resulted that the slaves would teach their

masters such skills.

The earliest Dutch colonies in the New World, were at Dutch Guyana (Suriname) and in the Pernambuco region of northern Brazil at Olinda and Recife. Olinda was settled in 1630, and Johan Maurits van Nassau

was made Governor of the colony in 1637.

His house still stands as a monument in that city today. In 1654, the Dutch handed over the Brazilian colony to the Portuguese, and

thereafter shifted their African slave traffic primarily via the island of Curaçao. However the Portuguese continued to increase their

importation of Africans into Brazil.

The actual numbers of Africans brought to Brazil by the Portuguese is very difficult to calculate, as a result of vague documentation and a

single catastrophic historical event. This event was the decree of the Minister of Finance, Rui Barbosa, on May 13, 1891, that all

historical documents relating to slavery and the slave trade, be destroyed.

This act, single-handedly ruined the possibility for the millions of Africans in Brazil to properly research their heritage.

Sugar was the Brazilian colony's first industry, with the states of Bahia and Pernambuco being the center of major early growth as a colony. By

1587 there were over 47 sugarmills operating in Bahia alone. Throughout the early years of the colony,

the African slaves were the majority population.

Later, with the advent of cotton as a primary cash crop, the larger African slave populations were moved north into the area of Maranho.

Into the 18th century, gold and diamonds became the focus of economic activity in Brazil, and thus the African slave populations were

concentrated largest in the south near Minas Gerias.

Brazil was the last nation in the Western Hemisphere to abolish slavery, on May 13, 1888.

João Mauricio Rugendas in BrazilJoão Mauricio Rugendas was born in Ausborg, Germany, in 1802, into a family of famous artists, and he died in Weilheim, Germany, in 1858. After serving as a professor then director of the Academy of Ausborg,

Rugendas eventually joined a scientific expedition to Brazil led by Amado Adriano Taunay.

Many of Rugendas' drawings from this expedition were sent to St. Petersburg, Russia, while he was still in Brazil. Some of these original drawings were lost and others have been found and later published.

After Rugendas returned to Germany, he compiled the drawings that he still possessed into a "Pictorial Voyage of Brazil" (Viagem Pictoresca

atraves do Brasil) published in Paris in 1835, with both French and German editions, both having lithographic reproductions of Rugendas' drawings done by an artist named Engelmann. These lithographs are

the basis of this exhibition, as they best depict the life ways of the African slaves in Brazil during the 19th century, some of the origin

Rugendas drawings are also represented in the exhibition.

Of some interest are the drawings that record the first Dutch colonies in Brasil at Olinda and Recife.

Subsequent to this 1835 publication Rugendas returned to South America and Mexico, where he produced hundreds of drawings. Most of

these original drawings were displayed in the Museum of Munich. In 1928, Clovis Ribeiro and Wasth Rodrigues took advantage of the poor economic conditions in Germany at the time, and purchased over 600

of the Rugendas drawings and returned them to Brazil.

In this exhibition, Rugendas was able to capture the very human characteristics of daily African slave life and physical characteristics in

Brazil, from the harsh conditions and cruelty, to the pleasantries of dance and domestic life.

Abolition of the slave tradeAlready in the seventeenth century public opinion turned against slavery. The Quakers thought that slavery was in contravention of Christianity. In the next century French philosophers like Voltaire criticized slavery. He made a foal of the Roman Catholic Church

because of their acceptance of slavery by moans of his publication of "Sacramento".

England - the country that was the largest slave trader since the beginning of the eighteenth century - turned out to be the first to

abolish slavery. Two important protagonists for the abolition of slavery in England were the vicar John Wesley and the lawyer Granville Sharp. The latter founded in 1765 the first organized abolition movement. In

England lived between 15,000 and 16,000 slaves, that were taken along by the (former) owners of plantations in the colonies. Sharp

started several legal cases about escaped slaves. On June 22, 1772 this led in the famous case of the escaped slave James Sommersot, to the judgment of the High Court that "slavery in this nature, morally as well politically, can not be established. It is detestable and there is nothing to justify this - not even a law. What the unpleasant conclusion of this verdict may be, it is impossible to say that slavery can be accepted or approved by the British court and Therefore I demand that this black

man is acquitted."

With this verdict all slaves living in England were discharged, but not the slaves in the colonies, whore in accordance to the local laws,

slavery was allowed. In the year following this verdict many free slaves wore kidnapped by their previous masters and illegally shipped to the

colonies.

The abolitionists did continue their struggle against slavery. In 1787, the famous potter Josiah Wedgwood, co-founder of the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade in England, made 200,000 replica's of a medallion he had designed, of a kneeling and chained slave with the

text: "Am I not a man and a brother?" Continually more and more voices were raised against the slave trade. The British abolitionists tried

to convince other nations to stop their slave trade. They contacted French abolitionists. This country was at the forefront concerning the

abolition of slavery. France already had a "Code Noir" with rules concerning the treatment of slaves. In August 1789, the National

Assembly in Paris published the first declaration of human rights. They insisted on the right of freedom and equality for all human beings; the well-known slogan of the French Revolution: "Freedom, Equality and Fratemy." Against all expectations this turned out not to apply to the French slaves in the West Indies. This led in 1791 to a general slave

revolt in Saint Dominique, when slaves killed or dislodged their previous masters. After a bloody war of many years, m 1804 the former French colony became an independent nation under the new name of Haiti. In

1794 the French government officially sot free all slaves. But their freedom did not last long. In a do-cree, issued in May 1802, Napoleon restored slavery in imperial France. The (short-lived) freedom of the

slaves on the French part of St. Martin led to commotion and discontentment among the slaves on the Dutch part of the island. Only because the slaves had - within certain boundaries - a lot of freedom, no great irregularities were caused on the Dutch side of St. Martin, but

it did increase desertion to the French side among the slaves.

Denmark was the first country to ban slavery. In 1807 Britain declared the slave trade to be illegal. One year later the United States of America followed, Sweden in 1813, The Netherlands in 1814, France in 1815 and

Spain in 1820. Brazil became independent in 1822, submitted to the pressure of the British government and legally ended the slave trade

soon after.

However the constant demand for slaves in the Caribbean and in the Southern States of America continued. Huge profits could still be made with the slave trade. In the years that followed, dozens of illegal slave transports took place between Africa and those destinations. Britain on

an international level made great efforts to stop this illegal trade. It made agreements with other countries. The British marine ships were

authorized to ransack ships leaving Africa. They patrolled along the African coast to stop illegal slave transports. When a slave trader got

caught, the ship was confiscated and the captain punished. The punishments England imposed in 1811 was deportation or the death

penalty.

It was not from a humane point of view that England suppressed the slave trade, but to protect its own sugar colonies against dishonest

competition of other countries that could still count on new supplies of cheap slave labour. The British ships along the African coast caused the situation of the slaves aboard illegal slave ships to become even more insecure. It was not unusual for a slave ship to toss her human car-go

into the sea when confronted with a British or French slave hunter. There wore also rumours about mass slaughters of slaves along the African coast by Negro slavers when British or French marine ships prevented the slave ships to roach the shore to pick up the human

cargo.

The most important markets for illegal slavers wore Cuba and Brazil. From Cuba the African Negros wore illegally transported on fast clippers to the southern states of America, often with false documents to prove

the slaves originated from other Caribbean colonies and not from Africa. British, American, French and Dutch ships took part in the illegal slave transports that happened until 1870. At a rough estimation, about

1,898,400 slaves have been transported over the Atlantic Ocean between 1811 and 1870. Sixty per-cent of these slaves wore

transported to Brazil, 32 percent to Cuba and Puerto Rico, 5 percent to the French West Indies and only 3 percent straight to the United States,

but many slaves were brought to the United States through Cuba.

The ban on the import of new African Negros in most colonies forced the plantation owners to treat their slaves better. In some colonies the situation did not change much because of the large number of illegally imported slaves. On Curaçao slaveholders could, despite the ban on the slave trade, get permissions for the export of slaves to other colonies,

like Puerto Rico and Surinam. Because of a natural growth many planters had problems to feed their fast growing slave population. But

exports to other colonies was (officially) only possible with the authorization of the slave himself. They often preferred Puerto Rico to Surinam. A transfer to Surinam for a white governor was considered a

promotion, for the slaves it was used as a punishment.

ere the centers of local government. In 1643, Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven formed the New England Confederation to provide defense against Indians, Dutch, and the

French. This was the first attempt to form a union between colonies.

A group of Massasoit Indians organized themselves under King Philip to fight the colonists. King Philip's War lasted from 1675-78. The

Indians were finally defeated at a great loss.

Middle Colonies

Colonies: New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. These were known for being rich in forests and fur

trapping. Harbors were located throughout the region. The area was not known for good farmland. Therefore, the farms were small, mainly to provide food for individual families. New England flourished instead with fishing, shipbuilding, lumbering, and fur trading along with trading

goods with Europe.

The famous Triangle Trade occurred in the New England colonies where slaves were sold in the West Indies for molasses. This was sent to New England to make Rum which was then sent to Africa to trade

for slaves.

Middle Colonies

Colonies: New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. The Middle Colonies also practiced trade like New England

Southern Colonies

Colonies: Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. Southern colonies grew their own food along with growing three major cash crops: tobacco, rice, and indigo. These were grown on plantations typically worked by slaves and indentured servants.

The main commerce of the South was with England. Plantations kept people widely separate which prevented the growth of many towns.

An important event that occurred in the Southern Colonies was Bacon's Rebellion. Nathaniel Bacon led a group of Virginia colonists

against Indians who were attacking frontier farms. The royal governor, Sir William Berkeley, had not moved against the Indians. Bacon was labeled a traitor by the governor and ordered arrested. Bacon attacked Jamestown and seized the government. He then

became ill and died. Berkeley returned, hanged many of the rebels, and was eventually removed from office by King Charles II.

Virginia

Jamestown was the first English settlement in America (1607). It had a hard time at first and didn’t flourish until the colonists received their own land and the tobacco industry began flourishing, the settlement took root. People continued to arrive and new settlements arose. In

1624, Virginia was made a royal colony.

Massachusetts

In 1628, Puritans formed the Massachusetts Bay Company and many Puritans continued to settle in the area around Boston. In 1691,

Plymouth joined with the Massachusetts Bay Colony.

Purina Dog Chow - Remains

Rhode Island

Roger Williams argued for freedom of religion and separation of church and state. He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony and

founded Providence. Anne Hutchinson was also banished from Massachusetts and she settled Portsmouth. Two additional settlements

formed in the area and all four received a charter from England creating their own government eventually called Rhode Island.

New Hampshire

In 1622, John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges received land in northern New England. Mason eventually formed New Hampshire and

Gorges land led to Maine. Massachusetts controlled both until New Hampshire was given a royal charter in 1679 and Maine was made its

own state in 1820.

Maryland

Lord Baltimore received land from King Charles I to create a haven for Catholics. His son, the second Lord Baltimore, personally owned all the

land and could use or sell it as he wished.

North Carolina and South Carolina

Eight men received charters in 1663 from King Charles II to settle south of Virginia. The area was called Carolina. The main port was

Charles Town (Charleston). In 1729, North and South Carolina became separate royal colonies.

Pennsylvania

The Quakers were persecuted by the English and wished to have a colony in America. William Penn received a grant which the King called

Pennsylvania. Penn wished to begin a “holy experiment.” The first settlement was Philadelphia. This colony quickly became one of the

largest in the New World.

The Triangle TradeColonial Massachusetts and Rhode Island played a major role in the

"infamous triangle trade" of the 15th through mid-18th centuries.  At the time, Massachusetts and Rhode Island produced some of the best

rum in the world.  It was this rum that was shipped to the western coast of Africa to be traded for slaves.

The ports in the New England colonies of Massachusetts and Rhode Island formed a vital leg of the triangle.  In towns across New England,

two forms of rum, tafia and ordinary rum, were produced.  The rum was manufactured partially for personal consumption, but even more importantly, it was shipped to the west coast of Africa to be traded for

gold and slaves.

Most of the slaves who were bought with New England rum were from Central and Western Africa.  These slaves were transported aboard specially designed slave ships from the west coast of Africa to the

sugar producing islands of the West Indies and a small portion made the trip to colonial America.

Upon arrival in the West Indies, the slaves were sold and traded for sugar and molasses, two of the key ingredients in rum production.  The sugar, molasses and any remaining money were then shipped to New England (Massachusetts and Rhode Island) where the molasses and

sugar were used to produce the rum which would be traded for another group of slaves in Africa.  New England's rum distilleries were integral to the continuation of the immensely profitable triangle trade.  This

continuous cycle of rum production and trade ensured a constant influx of capital which was used to help "industrialize New England with

ventures into textile manufacturing."  

    The transportation of slaves from Africa to the West Indies was know as the "Middle Passage."  The Middle Passage was the longest leg of

the triangular trade route.  Slaves were kept below deck in conditions that were almost uninhabitable.  The food that they were fed was often

contaminated as was the water.  For reasons such as this there was roughly a 12% mortality rate during this part of the journey alone. 

Typically, slaves were allowed on the above decks of the ship for only a short while each day for "exercise".  The purpose of the exercise was

not because the slave traders were friendly or caring, but they realized that the circulation of the slaves was poor because they were laying on their backs for roughly 23 hours a day in chains.  When the slaves were brought above deck revolts were not uncommon, nor was the action of

slaves throwing themselves overboard to avoid a life in captivity.

while Europeans were running the slave trade on the west side of Africa ... Arab traders were doing the same thing (this is a BBC audio

clip) on the east side.

Let's take a closer look at the second leg of the triangular journey - the infamous "middle passage" - wherein Africans were shipped, to the

"New World," as slave-labor.

The Mau-Maus Ancient Egypt’s Military Clan

( Kalenjin, the Military Clan of Ancient Egyptians)

Between East Africa and Egypt

The Kalenjins of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania had the role of defending Egypt,up to the time of Herodotus. When Herodotus

visited Egypt during the 5th century BCE, he encountered a sub-nation of Egypt known as Sebenitus. Until the 40s, all Kalenjin were known by four names, namely Sebei, Sabaot, Miot and

Midian. Scholars from the community coined the word, Kalenjin, meaning I tell you to unite all the sub-nations of the tribe. Sebei

and Sabaot now live around Mt. Elgon in Western Kenya and Eastern Uganda. It is possible that Herodotus misspelled the word, Sebenitus, which should have been either Sebei or Sabaot. Even the Bible confirms the presence of the Sebei

(Kalenjin). Job 1:5 says "...and the Sabeans fell upon and took them away." Ezekiel also wrote about the Kalenjins (Sabeans), a sub-tribe of Ancient Egyptians. ze:23:42 says, "..and a voice of multitude being at ease was with her, and with the men of the common sort were brought Sabeans from the wilderness which put bracelets upon their hands and beautiful crowns upon their

heads."

When Herodotus asked the Sebenitus people about where their aboriginal home was, they told him is/was a place called Nttr-the

holy land of the God in the south. With the Benefit of Kalenjin language, we can learn that Ntrr was actually Tororo Hills in

Eastern Uganda. Tororo means the exalted one, the high hill or even God. Hence Ntrr should be netoror-the exalted one!

According to their own accounts, the Kalenjin believe that their ancestors aboriginal home was here in Kenya at a place called

Tororo Hills in Eastern Uganda. From here they migrated to Misiri or Egypt, where they stayed for thousands of years, and then migrated back again to Kenya. Some remained in Egypt. Others are in Ethiopia, Sudan, Eritrea and many other places

around the world. However not all Old Egyptians (Kalenjin) left for Egypt. The Ogiek or Dorobo who speak Kalenjin do not recall

having migrated from elsewhere. They say that they have been living in Kenya since time immemorial.

In 2001, I interviewed some oldmen as to why they left Egypt. They told me that they left Egypt after being attacked by a

mysterious people called Kipyayamungeen. They said these people were white. (The term, "white", is a relative term, which

means lighter skin color.) They say this was during the reign of

Pharaoh Kipcheum. According to Dr. Sambu, about 250,000 warriors left Egypt for East Africa as a result of this

invasion. This event coincides with the first Persian invasion of Egypt, which occurred about 525 BCE.

Because the Kalenjin tongue is basically a dialect of the Egyptian language, many Egyptian words and names are

recognizable by the Kalenjin peoples, such as:

1. For thousands of years, Egypt was known to the entire ancient world as Kagypta, meaning the sanctuary of

Pta. Pta, now known as Kiptaiyat in modern Kalenjin language, was the deity of Memphis. When the Greeks came to Egypt about 2500

years ago, they could not pronounce the word Kagypta. Instead, they pronounced it as Aigyptos

or Aegyptus. They also referred to people of Egypt as Kiptaios (see the word Kiptaiyaat

above!).2. The word, kmt, which the Egyptians referred to as their

country, is also traceable to the Kalenjin tongue. Kemet in Kalenjin means country. Some other Egyptians called their

country Khemet, which historians used to coin the word Hamites.

3. Pharaoh in Kalenjin language means a massively built house, a leader or president. In fact, Pharaoh should be

written as Parao, from the words Para (meaning big or vast) and ooh or woor, meaning the big one. Parao should mean

the leader of the entire nation. I say it should be Parao because the English word Empire is derived from it. Em in

Kalenjin and Ancient Egyptian means country, while para or pire means wide, big or vast. Hence, the Europeans coined the word Empire and its derivatives from the word Parao or Pharaoh! The Kalenjin people have produced some of the

Egyptian Pharaohs.4. Pharaoh Amasis in Kalenjin may mean the one loved by

God, the one who loves God, the one who eats God or the one who is eaten by God. Am in Kalenjin means eat, while

Asista means the sun. There are many other examples.

The Kalenjin say that upon arrival in east Africa, they circumcised their boys in two places. They circumcised their boys near Mt

Elgon at a hill called tulwop Kabiniet (ie the hill of Phallus).Around 1500 CE they circumcised their boys again at a hill called Tulwop

Monyiseet (ie the hill of the foreskins). It is interesting to note that like their ancestors in Egypt, the Kalenjins gave functionally

descriptive names to hills where circumcision rites have been performed. Remember God telling Jushua to circumcise his boys again in the hill of the foreskins (Joshua 5;3) in Gilgal area. Again the Kalenjin say that their ancestors used to circumcise their boys in Gilgil area which is 100 km west of nairobi. Gilgil is a corruption

of Gilgal, which is the military base of the Kenyan Army.

Kalenjin Dieties

Like, Old Egyptians, Kalenjin was a monotheistic society. They believe in one God who has so many names. Asis is the deity of

the Kalejin. This is Isis. Asis or Aset among the Barabaig of Tanzania was believed to be a woman. Other names we brought

from Egypt include Illat-the God of Justice. Some other people later corrupted to Allah or Illay among the Somalis of Kenya and Ethiopia. Chebo-Amoni is another name of our deity which the Greeks corrupted to Amoni. The Kalenjin word osirun means to resurrect, to wake up from sleep or to cross a bridge. Apeso is

also the name of our Deity, known as Apis.

The Kalenjin used to refer to themselves as children of Miot or Myoot, known in Ancient Egypt as Ma-at, another deity of Old

Egyptians.

Kalenjin and Moses

The Bible tells us that Moses married a lady from Midian people known as Zipporah. I am now convinced that Moses was a

Kalenjin since Moso in our language means a child. Moses was said to have been a child rescued somewhere in Egypt. We have songs about Moses in kalnjin. After circumcising our girls, we sing a song called, Ndomo rireet ab Mugaika koto mokimi emoni, ie if it were not for the sea of Musaiga (Moses) we would be dead. The

story about Moses crossing the sea with his people is common

among many tribes in Kenya and Southern Africa. This confirms that Moses was an Egyptian. Midian is a clan of the Kalenjins of

Baringo district of Kenya.

Kalenjin and Sabeans

Sebenitus also refers to the people known as Sabeans. In fact it was the Sabeans of South Arabia who established the first

civilization in the Arabian peninsula-thousands of years before the emergence of the Bedouin Arabs. Through the Sabeans

(Kalenjin) link, it is not difficult to explain the presence of Old Egyptians from remote antiquity, in the Malayan Peninsula, Indo-China, and the heavy concentration of Old Egyptians in India, the

Angkor and Champa in Southeast Asia, the vast populations of the dark-skinned peoples in Southern China as far as Japan's Ainu

people.

It can be seen in retrospect that the Kalenjins are Old Egyptians what with more information coming to this site from me.

Kalenjin history should now be rewritten by its free natives (and not by the colonial powers of European academia), and its great

past reconciled with that of other Old Egyptians around the world.

WELDON arap KIRUI, NAIROBI, KENYA

Forum of the Dispersed Olden Egyptians Worldwide

All Olden Egyptians worldwide are invited and encouraged to participate, and to encourage others to participate, by posting their stories, conditions, traditions, etc, on this website. Any

language is welcome: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc. We want PURE Egyptian essence only. Therefore, there will be NO

explicit/implicit endorsement/ validation/ acceptance of islam, christianity or judaism.

Please send your articles, in any language, to mgadalla@egypt-tehuti.org

MAU-MAU

Kikuyu peopleFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the ethnic group. For other uses, see Gĩkũyũ (disambiguation).

KikuyuGĩkũyũAgĩkũyũ

Mwai Kibaki, Wangari Maathai

Total population

5,347,000 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya,[1]

Regions with significant populations

Kenya

Languages

Gĩkũyũ, Swahili, English

Religion

Christianity

Related ethnic groups

Swahili people, Ameru, Kamba

person

people Agĩkũyũ

language Gĩgĩkũyũ

The Kikuyu are a Bantu people inhabiting East Africa. They are the largest ethnic group in Kenya, and speak the Bantu Kikuyu language as a mother tongue. The term Kikuyu is the Swahili

form of the proper name and pronunciation of Kikuyu, although group members refer to themselves as the Agĩkũyũ.

There are about 5,300,000 Gĩkũyũ people in Kenya (1994 I. Larsen BTL),[1] equal to about 23% of the country's total

population.[2] This just slightly higher than the entire population of Norway [3]

Contents

[hide] 1 History o 1.1 Origin

o 1.2 Before 1888 1.2.1 The Nation and Its Pursuits

1.2.2 Social and Political Life 1.2.3 Spirituality and Religion

1.2.3.1 Ngai-The Creator 1.2.3.2 Mount Kenya and Religion

1.2.4 Political Structures & Generational Change

1.2.5 Collapse of Traditional Political Structure

o 1.3 1898-1945 o 1.4 1945-1963

o 1.5 1963-Present 2 Genetics 3 Language

4 Culture o 4.1 Literature

o 4.2 Music o 4.3 Cinema o 4.4 Cuisine o 4.5 Religion

5 List of prominent Gĩkũyũs or people of Gĩkũyũ descent

6 Selected Literature 7 References

8 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Origin

The Kikuyu are of Bantu origin.[4] They constitute the single largest ethnic group in Kenya, and are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Kikuyu's

ancestors migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa is uncertain. Some authorities suggest that they

arrived in their present Mount Kenya area of inhabitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east,[4] while others argue that the Kikuyu, along with related Eastern Bantu peoples

such as the Embu, Mbeere and Meru, moved into Kenya from points further south.[5]

[edit] Before 1888

[edit] The Nation and Its Pursuits

For many generations past,accident,geographic and political,had,until the coming of the European,preserved the Agikuyu from the access of almost any external influence or rule,and hence had never been subdued.[6] The Agikuyu used from time to time to imprint a lesson on raiders that was not

forgotten.[7] Just before the arrival of the English people, Arabs

were involved in slave trade and their caravans passed at the southern edges of the Agikuyu nation.Slavery as an institution did

not exist amongst the Agikuyu,nor did they make raids for the capture of slaves.[8] The Arab and slave raiders who tried to

venture into Agikuyu country met instant death.[9] Relying on a combination of land purchases, blood-brotherhood (partnerships),

intermarriage with other people, and their adoption and absorption,the Agikuyu had been and were in a constant state of

territorial expansion.[10] Economically,the Agikuyu were great farmers-because there is a strong evidence that everybody knew that the Agikuyu country was full of food[11]- and shrewd business men.[12] Besides farming and business,the Agikuyu were involved in small scale industries with professions such as bridge building,

[13] string making,[14] Wire drawing,[15] Iron Chain making[16] and medicine.In disposition the Agikuyu were naturally

cheerful:merry,loquacious,and laughter-loving. Soon forgetting their troubles and lacking the spirit of vindictiveness. They also

had a great sense of justice(kihooto).[13]

[edit] Social and Political Life

The Agikuyu nation was divided into 9 Clans.The members of each clan had a blood tie in common,but were not restricted to any particular geographical area, they lived side by side.Some

clans had a recognised leader,others did not.[17] However,in either case,real political power was excised by the ruling council of

elders.

[edit] Spirituality and Religion

[edit] Ngai-The Creator

The Gĩkũyũ were- and still are- monotheists believing in a unique and Omnipotent God whom they referred to as Ngai (also spelled Mogai or Mungai). The word comes from the Maasai word Enkai, and was borrowed by both the Gĩkũyũ and Kamba. God was also

known as Mungu, Murungu, or Mulungu (a variant of a word meaning God which is found as far south as the Zambezi of

Zambia). The title Mwathani or Mwathi (the greatest ruler) which comes from the word gwatha, meaning to rule or reign with

authority was-and- is also used.

[edit] Mount Kenya and Religion

Ngai is the creator and giver of all things, ‘the Divider of the Universe and Lord of Nature’. He(God) created the human

community. It is also believed that He created the first Gĩkũyũ communities, and provided them with all the resources necessary for life: land, rain, plants and animals. He cannot be seen, but is manifest in the sun, moon, stars, comets and meteors, thunder

and lightning, rain, in rainbows and in the great fig trees (mugumo). These trees served as places of worship and sacrifice and marked the spot at Mukurue wa Gathanga where Gikuyu and

Mumbi – the ancestors of the Gĩkũyũ in the oral legend – first settled.

Yet was not a distant God (as known in the West). He has human characteristics, and although some say that He lives in the sky or in the clouds, Gĩkũyũ lore also says that he comes to earth from

time to time to inspect it, bestow blessings and mete out punishment(similar to God's visit of Abraham before destroying

Sodom). When he comes He rests on Mount Kenya and kirima kia njahi(kilimambogo).Thunder is interpreted to be the movement of God, and lightning is the weopon used by Ngai to clear the way when moving from one sacred place to another. Some people

believe that Ngai’s abode is on Mount Kenya, or else ‘beyond’ its peaks. Ngai, one legend says, made the mountain his resting place while on an inspection tour of earth. In the account God

then took the first man, Gikuyu, to the top to point out the beauty of the land he was giving him.

[edit] Political Structures & Generational Change

The Agĩkũyũ had four seasons and two harvests in one year.1. Mbura ya njahĩ [The Season of Big Rain] from March to July,2.

Magetha ma njahĩ [The season of the big harvest] between July and Early October,3. Mbura ya Mwere [Short rain season] from

October to January,4. Magetha ma Mwere [the season of harvesting millet]Further, time was recorded through the initiation. Each initiation group was given special name.

According to *Professor Godfrey Mũriũki, The individual initiation sets are then grouped into a regiment every nine calendar years. Before a regiment or army was set, there was a period in which no initiation of boys took place. This period lasted a total of four

and a half calendar years [nine seasons in Gĩkũyũ land, each season referred to as imera] and is referred to as mũhingo, with initiation taking place at the start of the fifth year and going on

annually for the next nine calendar years. This was the system adopted in Metumi [Mũrang’a]. The regiment or army sets also get special names, some of which seem to have ended up as popular male names. In Gaki [Nyeri] the system was inversed

with initiation taking place annually for four calendar years, which would be followed by a period of nine calendar years in which no initiation of boys took place [mũhingo]. Girls on the other hand were initiated every year. Several regiments then make up a

ruling generation. It was estimated that Ruling generations lasted an average of 35 years. The names of the initiation and regiment sets vary within Gĩkũyũ land. The ruling generations are however uniform and provide very important chronological data. On top of that, the initiation sets were a way of documenting events within the Gĩkũyũ nation, so, for example, were the occurrence of small

pox and syphilis recorded. Girls’ initiation sets were also accorded special names, although there has been little research in this area. Mũriũki only unearths three sets, whose names are, Rũharo [1894], Kibiri/ Ndũrĩrĩ [1895], Kagica [1896], Ndutu/ Nuthi [1897].All these names are taken from Metumi [Mũrang’a] and Kabete [Kĩambu]. It is strange that professor Mũriũki didn’t do

more research in this area because he states that the girls’ initiation took place annually.

1. Manjiri 1512 – 46 ± 55 2. Mamba 1547 – 81 ± 50 3. Tene 1582–1616 ± 45 4. Agu 1617 – 51 ± 40 5. Manduti 1652 – 86 ± 40 6. Cuma 1687–1721 ± 30 7. Ciira 1722 – 56 ± 25 8. Mathathi 1757–1791 ± 20 9. Ndemi 1792–1826 ± 15 10. Iregi 1827–1861

± 10 11. Maina 1862 – 97 ± 5 12. Mwangi 1898?

Mathew Njoroge Kabetũs list reads, Tene, Kĩyĩ, Aagu, Ciĩra, Mathathi, Ndemi, Iregi, Maina [Ngotho], Mwangi.Gakaara wa Wanjaũs list readsTene, Nemathĩ, Kariraũ, Aagu, Tiru, Cuma,

Ciira, Ndemi, Mathathi, Iregi, Maina, Mwangi, Irũngũ, Mwangi wa Mandũti. The last two generations came after 1900.One of the

earliest recorded lists by Mc Gregor reads (list taken from a history of unchanged)Manjiri, Mandoti, Chiera, Masai, Mathathi, Ndemi, Iregi, Maina, Mwangi, Muirungu. According to Hobley(a historian) each initiation generation, riika, extended over two

years. The ruling generation at the arrival of the Europeans was called Maina. It is said that Maina handed over to Mwangi in

1898. Hobley asserts that the following sets were grouped under Maina – Kĩnũthia, Karanja, Njũgũna, Kĩnyanjui, Gathuru and Ng’ang’a. Professor Mũriũki however puts these sets much

earlier, namely Karanja and Kĩnũthia belong to the Ciira ruling generation which ruled from the year 1722 to 1756, give or take

25 years according to Mũriũki. Njũgũna, Kĩnyanjui, Ng’ang’a belong to the Mathathi ruling generation that ruled from 1757 to

1791 give or take 20 years according to Mũriũki.

Professor Mũriũkis list must be given precedence in this area as he conducted extensive research in this area starting 1969, and had the benefit of all earlier literature on the subject as well as doing extensive field work in the areas of Gaki [Nyeri], Metumi

[Mũrang’a] and Kabete [Kĩambu]. On top of the ruling generations, he also gives names of the regiments or army sets from 1659 [within a margin of error] and the names of annual

initiation sets beginning 1864. The list from Metumi [Mũrang’a] is most complete and differentiated.

Mũriũkis is also the most systematically defined list, so far. Suffice to say that most of the most popular male names in

Gĩkũyũ land were names of riikas [initiation sets].

Here is Mũriũkis list of the names of regiment sets in Metumi [Mũrang’a].

These include Kiariĩ [1665 - 1673], Cege [1678 - 1678], Kamau [1704 - 1712], Kĩmani [1717 - 1725], Karanja [1730 - 1738],

Kĩnũthia [1743 - 1751], Njũgũna [1756 - 1764], Kĩnyanjui [1769 - 1777], Ng’ang’a [1781 - 1789], Njoroge [1794 - 1802], Wainaina [1807 - 1815], Kang’ethe [1820 - 1828] Mbugua [1859–1867],

Njenga or Mbira Itimu [872 – 80], Mutung’u or Mburu [1885–1893]

H.E. Lambert who dealt with the riikas extensively has the following list of regiment sets from Gichũgũ and Ndia. It should be remembered that this names were unlike ruling generations

not uniform in Gĩkũyũ land. It should also be noted that Ndia and Gachũgũ followed a system where initiation took place every

annually for four years and then a period of nine calendar years followed where no initiation of boys took place. This period was

referred to as mũhingo.

Karanja [1759 - 1762], Kĩnũthia [1772 - 1775], Ndũrĩrĩ [1785 - 1788], Mũgacho [1798 - 1801], Njoroge [1811 - 1814], Kang’ethe

[1824 - 1827], Gitaũ [ 1837 - 1840], Manyaki [1850 - 1853], Kiambuthi [1863 - 1866], Watuke [1876 - 1879], Ngũgĩ [1889 -

1892], Wakanene [1902 - 1905]

The remarkable thing in this list in comparison to the Metumi one is how some of the same names are used, if a bit off set. Ndia and Gachũgũ are extremely far from Metumi. Gaki on he other

hand, as far as my geographical understanding of Gĩkũyũ land is concerned should be much closer to Metumi, yet virtually no

names of regiment sets are shared. It should however be noted that Gaki had a strong connection to the Maasai living nearby.

The ruling generation names of Maina and Mwangi are also very popular male Gĩkũyũ names. The theory is also that Waciira is

also derived from ciira [case], which is also a very popular name among male Agĩkũyũ. This would call into question, when it was exactly that children started being named after the parents of one parents. Had that system, of naming ones kids after ones

parents been there from the beginning, there would be very few male names in circulation. This is however not the case, as there are very many Gĩkũyũ male names. My theory is though that the

female names are much less, with the names of the full-nine daughters of Mũmbi being most prevalent.

Gakaara wa Wanjaũ supports this view when he writes in his book, Mĩhĩrĩga ya Aagĩkũyũ page 29.

“Hingo ĩyo ciana cia arũme ciatuagwo marĩĩtwa ma mariika ta Watene, Cuma, Iregi kana Ciira. Nao airĩĩtu magatuuo marĩĩtwa

ma mĩhĩrĩga tauria hagwetetwo nah au kabere, o nginya hingo iria maundu maatabariirwo thuuthaini ati ciana ituagwo aciari a

mwanake na a muirĩĩtu.”

Freely translated it means“In those days the male children were given the names of the riika [initiation set] like Watene, Cuma,

Iregi or Ciira. Girls were on the other hand named after the clans that were named earlier until such a time as it was decided to

name the children after the parents of the man and the woman.”From this statement it is not clear whether the girls were

named ad-hoc after any clan, no matter what clan the parents belonged to. Naming them after the specific clan that the parents

belonged to would have severely restricted naming options.

This would strangely mean that the female names are the oldest in Gĩkũyũ land, further confirming its matrilineal descent. As far

as male names are concerned, there is of course the chicken and the egg question, of when a name specifically appeared but some

names are tied to events that happened during the initiation. For example Wainaina refers to those who shivered during

circumcision. Kũinaina [to shake or to shiver].

There was a very important ceremony known as Ituĩka in which the old guard would hand over the reigns of government to the

next generation. This was to avoid dictatorship. Kenyatta relates of how once in the land of the Agĩkũyũ, there ruled a despotic King called Gĩkũyũ, grandson of the elder daughter [Wanjirũ

according to Leakey] of the original Gĩkũyũ of Gĩkũyũ and Mũmbi fame. After he was deposed of, it was decided that the

government should be democratic, which is how the Ituĩka came to be. This legend of course calls into question when it was

exactly that the matrilineal rule set in. The last Ituĩka ceremony where the riika of Maina handed over power to the Mwangi

generation, took place in 1898-9 [Hobley]. The next one was supposed to be held in 1925–1928 [Kenyatta] but was thwarted by the colonial imperialist government. And one by one Gĩkũyũ

institutions crumbled

Muriuki, Godfrey 1974. History of the Gĩkũyũ 1500–1900. (Oxford U Press)

[edit] Collapse of Traditional Political Structure

The ruling generations, the rĩĩka system can be traced back to the year 1500 AD or there abouts. These were:

Manjiri 1512 to 1546 Mamba 1547 to 1581

Tene 1582 to 1616 Agu 1617 to 16521

Manduti 1652 to 1686 Cuma 1687 to 1721 Ciira 1722 to 1756

Mathathi 1757 to 1791 Ndemi 1792 to 1826 Iregi 1827 to 1861

Maina 1862 to 1897 Mwangi 1898

The last Ituĩka ceremony where the rĩĩka of Maina handed over power to the Mwangi generation, took place in 1898-9 [Hobley].

The next one was supposed to be held in 1925–1928 [Kenyatta] but was thwarted by the colonial government.[18]

[edit] 1898-1945

The traditional way of life of Agikuyu was disrupted when they came into contact with British people around 1888.The aim of

these Europeans was to subdue the local population, colonise and take over their rich agricultural land.The colonial takeover was met with strong local resistance: Waiyaki Wa Hinga, a leader of

the southern Agikuyu,who ruled Dagoretti who had signed a treaty with Frederick Lugard of the British East Africa Company(BEAC), having been subject to considerable

harassment, burnt down Lugard's fort in 1890. Waiyaki was abducted two years later by the British and killed.[19] Following

severe financial difficulties of the British East Africa Company, the British government on July 1, 1895 established direct rule,by force, through the East African Protectorate, subsequently

opening (1902) the fertile highlands to British settlers.[19] The Agikuyu simply killed almost any member of the Agikuyu nation that helped the British to subdue the Agikuyu.[20] In response the

British employed crude methods to reiterate.Failing compliance in such a case, some five hundred of the Masai tribe,the hereditary enemies of the Akikuyu,would then be summoned, and with the addition of some regular local conscripted troops and police the

country would be scoured. The men were killed, and the women,children, and herds taken captive until such time as,

experience having been dearly bought, another meeting procured the requisite submission.[21] Having tried to violently resist British occupation and colonisation by force and failed between 1895–

1920,the Agikuyu people resulted to political means of resistance.Kenya became a military base for the British in the First World War (1914–1918), as efforts to subdue the German colony to the south were frustrated. At the outbreak of war in

August 1914, the governors of British East Africa (as the Protectorate was generally known) and German East Africa

agreed a truce in an attempt to keep the young colonies out of direct hostilities. However Lt Col Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck took

command of the German military forces, determined to tie down as many British resources as possible. Completely cut off from Germany, von Lettow conducted an effective guerilla warfare campaign, living off the land, capturing British supplies, and remaining undefeated. He eventually surrendered in Zambia

eleven days after the Armistice was signed in 1918. To chase von Lettow the British deployed Indian Army troops from India and

then needed large numbers of porters to overcome the formidable logistics of transporting supplies far into the interior by foot. The Carrier Corps was formed and ultimately mobilised

over 400,000 Africans, contributing to their long-term politicisation.[22] The experiences gained by Africans in the war coupled with the creation of the white-settler-dominated Kenya Crown Colony, gave rise to considerable political activity in the 1920s which culminated in Archdeacon Owen's "Piny Owacho"

(Voice of the People) movement and the "Young Kikuyu Association" (renamed the "East African Association") started in

1921 by Harry Thuku (1895–1970), which gave a sense of nationalism to many Kikuyu and advocated civil disobedience.

From the 1920s, the Kikuyu Central Association (KCA) focused on unifying the Kikuyu into one geographic polity, but its project was undermined by controversies over ritual tribute, land allocation, the ban on female circumcision, and support for Thuku.[22] By the

1930s, approximately 30,000 white settlers lived in Agikuyu country and gained a political voice because of their contribution

to the market economy. The area was already home to over a million members of the Kikuyu nation, most of whom had been

deprived of their land by the European settlers, and lived as itinerant farmers. To protect their interests, the settlers banned

the growing of coffee, introduced a hut tax, and the landless were granted less and less land in exchange for their labour. A massive

exodus to the cities ensued as their ability to provide a living from the land dwindled.[22] In the Second World War (1939–45)

Kenya became an important British military base. For the Agikuyu soldiers who took part in the war as part of the King African

Rifles(KAR), the war stimulated African nationalism and exposed the weakness of the Europeans who were oppressing them at home. Meanwhile,on the political front,in 1944 Thuku founded and was first chairman of the multi-ethnic Kenya African Study

Union (KASU).[22]

[edit] 1945-1963

In 1946, KASU became the Kenya African Union (KAU). It was a nationalist organization that demanded access to white-owned land. KAU acted as a constituency association for the first black

member of Kenya's legislative council, Eliud Mathu, who had been nominated in 1944 by the governor after consulting with the

local Bantu/Nilotic elite. The KAU remained dominated by the Kikuyu ethnic group. In 1947, Jomo Kenyatta, the former

president of the moderate Kikuyu Central Association, became president of the more aggressive KAU to demand a greater

political voice for the native inhabitants.[22] The failure of the KAU to attain any significant reforms or redress of grievances from the colonial authorities shifted the political initiative to younger and more militant figures within the African trade union movement, among the squatters on the settler estates in the Rift Valley and

in KAU branches in Nairobi and the Kikuyu districts of central province[23] The Agikuyu soldiers who had come back from the second world war as King African Rifles(KAR), having gained military skills resulted to war to liberate Agikuyu from British

oppression and colonisation.By 1952,under Field Marshal Dedan Kimathi,the Kenya Land and Freedom Army(Mau Mau) launched a

full military conflict on the British military,settlers and their sympathisers.[24] By this time the Mau Mau was fighting for total

independence of Kenya.The war is considered by some the gravest crisis of Britain's African colonies[25] The capture of rebel leader Dedan Kimathi on 21 October 1956 signalled the ultimate defeat of the Mau Mau Uprising, and essentially ended the British military campaign. The conflict arguably set the stage for Kenyan

independence in December 1963.[26]

[edit] 1963-Present

Since the proclamation of the Republic of Kenya,after the British colony of Kenya came to an end in 1963,the Agikuyu now form an integral part of the Kenyan nation.They continue to play their part as citizens of Kenya,helping to build their country.However,due to

their incorrectly perceived superior economic status,some Kenyans resent that fact and this resentment is sometimes

vented through political violence,as happened in 1992,1997 and 2007 Kenyan elections.

[edit] Genetics

According to a Y DNA study by Wood et al. (2005), about 73% of Gĩkũyũs and their Bantu kinsmen the Kamba belong to the

common Sub-Saharan paternal haplogroup E1b1a. The remainder carry other clades: 19% E1b1b, 2% A, and 2% B.[27]

In terms of maternal lineages, Gĩkũyũs closely cluster with other Eastern Bantu groups like the Sukuma and Hutu. Most belong to various Sub-Saharan mtDNA L haplogroups such as L0f, L3x, L4g and L5 per Castrì et al. (2009).[28] According to Salas et al. (2002), other Gĩkũyũs largely carry the L1a clade, which is a signature of

the Bantu expansion from West Africa.[29]

[edit] Language

Gĩkũyũs speak the Gĩkũyũ language as their native tongue, which is a member of the Bantu subgroup of the Niger-Congo language

family. Additionally, many speak Swahili and English as lingua franca, the two official languages of Kenya.

The Gĩkũyũ are closely related to the Embu, Mbeere, Kamba and Meru people who also live around Mt. Kenya. Members of the

Gĩkũyũ family from the greater Kiambu (commonly referred to as the Kabete) and Nyeri districts are closely related to the Maasai

people due to intermarriage prior to colonization. The Gĩkũyũ people between Thika and Mbeere are closely related to the Kamba people who speak a language similar to Gĩkũyũ. As a

result, the Gĩkũyũ people that retain much of the original Gĩkũyũ heritage reside around Kirinyaga and Murang'a regions of Kenya. The Murang'a district is considered by many to be the cradle of

the Gĩkũyũ people and as such, Gĩkũyũ's from the Murang'a area are considered to be of a purer breed.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Literature

Until 1888,the Agikuyu literature was purely expressed in folklore.[30] Famous stories include;The Maiden Who Was

Sacrificed By Her Kin,[31] The Lost Sister,[32] The Four Young Warriors,[33] The Girl who Cut the Hair of the N'jenge[34] and many

more. When the European missionaries arrived in the Agikuyu country in 1888, they learnt the Kikuyu language and started

writing it using a modified Roman alphabet. The Kikuyu responded strongly to missionaries and European education. They had greater access to education and opportunities for

involvement in the new money economy and political changes in their country. As a consequence,there are notable Kikuyu

literature icons such as Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o and Meja Mwangi. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o's literary works include Caitani Mutharabaini

(1981), Matigari(1986) and Murogi wa Kagogo(Wizard of the Crow (2006)) which is the largest known kikuyu language novel having

been translated into more than thirty languages[35]

[edit] Music

Traditional Kikuyu music has existed for generations up to 1888,when the Agikuyu people encountered and adopted a new

culture from the Europeans.Before 1888 and well into 1920s,Kikuyu music included Kibaata,Nduumo and Muthunguci.

Today,Music and Dance are strong components of Kikuyu culture. There is a vigorous Kikuyu recording industry, for both popular and gospel music, in their pentatonic scale and western music

styles.Popular Kikuyu musicians include Joseph Kamaru,DK Kamau,Wanganangu,HM,D'mathew,Peter Kiggia,Mike Rua and

Esther Wahome.

[edit] Cinema

Kikuyu Cinema and film production are a very recent phenomenon among the Agikuyu.They have become popular only

in the 21st century.In the 20th century,most of the Agikuyu consumed cinema and film produced in the west,particularly America's Hollywood. popular kikuyu film productions include

comedies such as Machang'i series and Kihenjo series.

[edit] Cuisine

Typical Kikuyu food includes githeri (maize and beans), mukimo (mashed green peas and potatoes), irio (mashed dry beans, corn

and potatoes), roast goat, beef, chicken and cooked green vegetables such as collards, spinach and carrots.[36] Agikuyu

people are also fond of nyama choma.

[edit] Religion

Although Gĩkũyũs historically adhered to indigenous faiths, most have today converted to Christianity.

[edit] List of prominent Gĩkũyũs or people of Gĩkũyũ descent

Politicians & Freedom Fighters

Wangari Maathai , Nobel Laureate, first African woman, and the first environmentalist, to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.

First woman in Kenya to earn a Ph.D Jomo Kenyatta , 1st President (founding father of Kenya) Ngina Kenyatta (Mama Ngina), Former First Lady, Uhuru Kenyatta's Mother, Jomo Kenyatta's widow.Daughter of Gĩkũyũ

Chief Muhoho Mwai Kibaki , 3rd President of Kenya

Lucy Kibaki , First Lady (Wife to sitting president Mwai Kibaki)

Uhuru Kenyatta , Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Finance, Former Minister of Trade, Former Official Leader of

Opposition.Accused and has a case at the ICC in 2011 following the investigation of the killing of more than 1000 people in 2007 political violence. Vying for the presidential

seat in 2012.Grandson to Chief Muhoho. Has been tauted as the most promising presidential candidate in the 2012

elections. These elections may however be held in march 2013 owing to a court's decision.

Kenneth Matiba , Former MP, Leader of Official Opposition, youngest Permanent Secretary to serve in Kenya, Chairman

Alliance Hotels and Hillcrest Schools Njenga Karume , A very wealthy businessman from Kiambu

county Dedan Kimathi , Field Marshal

Julius Gikonyo Kiano , former Minister for Commerce and Industry, former Minister for Water Development, Kenya; first

Kenyan to hold a Doctorate degree Mbiyu Koinange , former Minister of State in the Office of the

President, Jomo Kenyatta's closest confidante and brother-in-law of Jomo Kenyatta, first Kenyan holder of a Masters degree

(U.S) Josephat Karanja , Former Vice President

Josiah Mwangi Kariuki (J.M. Kariuki), Former Member of Parliament Nyandarua

Waruhiu Itote aka General China Charles Rubia , Former Member of Parliament and Political

Activist Harry Thuku , Freedom Fighter and Independence Hero

Kungu Karumba ,Freedom Fighter Kapenguria six Amos Kimunya , Minister of trade, Former Finance Minister

and Chairman of Muthaiga Country Club

Mutahi Kagwe , Former Minister for Information and Communications

Martha Karua , Former Minister of Justice and Constitutional Affairs. Presidential candidate, 2012.

John Njoroge Michuki , Minister of Environment and Mineral Resources, Former acting Minister of Finance, Former Minister

of Roads, Former Internal Security Minister and owner of Windsor Golf & Country Club

Koigi wa Wamwere , Author, politician and Human rights activist.

Gakaara Wa Wanjaũ , Mau Mau Freedom fighter and author Charles Mugane Njonjo , Former Attorney General and

Minister for Constitutional Affairs Eliud Mathu , First black Kenyan parliamentarian (then

known as LEGCO)

Others

Samuel Wanjiru , 2008 Beijing Olympic Marathon Champion, 2009 London Marathon Champion, 2009 Rotterdam Half

Marathon Champion, 2009 New York Marathon Champion Douglas Wakiihuri , 1987 World Athletic Championships Marathon Champion, 1988 Olympic Marathon silver medalist, 1990 London Marathon Champion, 1990 New York Marathon

Champion Henry Wanyoike , Paralympics Gold medalist over 5,000 meters, Holder of various marathon and half marathon records

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o , Author, literary scholar living in America,but considers being patriotic.

John Ngugi , World Cross Country Champion four consecutive titles between 1986 and 1989 and five titles overall. 1988

Olympic Champion 5000 metres Catherine Ndereba , Four time Boston Marathon Champion,

silver medalist in the Olympics in 2004 and 2008. Former marathon World Record Holder October 7, 2001

Tom Morello , Grammy Award winning guitarist of Gĩkũyũ descent through his father, well known for his tenure with Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave; ranked #26 on

Rolling Stone magazine's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time."

Meja Mwangi , Author Chris Murungaru , Politician, Former Security Minister

Eric Wainana , musician

David Mathenge , musician known as "Nameless" Joseph Kamaru , Musician

[edit] Selected Literature

Branch, Daniel (2009). Defeating Mau Mau, Creating Kenya: Counterinsurgency, Civil War, and Decolonization. New York:

Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521130905. Muriuki, Godfrey 1974. History of the Gĩkũyũ 1500–1900.

(Oxford U Press) Elkins, Caroline, 2005. "Imperial Reckoning: The Untold Story of Britain's Gulag in Kenya." (Henry Holt and Company,

LLC) Kenyatta, Mzee Jomo, 1938. Facing Mount Kenya

Wanjau, Gakaara Wa, 1988. "Mau Mau Author in Detention." Translanted by Paul Ngigi Njoroge. (Heinemann Kenya Limited)

Lonsdale, John, and Berman, Bruce. 1992. Unhappy Valley: conflict in Kenya and Africa. (J Currey Press)

Lonsdale, John, and Atieno Odhiambo, E.S. (eds.) 2003. Mau Mau and Nationhood: arms, authority and narration. (J. Currey

Press) Lambert, H.E. 1956. Gĩkũyũ Social and Political Institutions.

(Oxford U Press) Muriuki, Godfrey 1974. History of the Gĩkũyũ 1500 - 1900.

(Oxford U Press) Godfrey Mwakikagile , Kenya: Identity of A Nation, New

Africa Press, Pretoria, South Africa, 2008; Godfrey Mwakikagile, Ethnic Politics in Kenya and Nigeria, Nova Science Publishers, Inc., Huntington, New York, 2001.

Muhindi, Samuel, Author [Ngucanio 1 & 2] 2009, A Gĩkũyũ Christian movie] The first Gĩkũyũ Author to write a Christian

Gĩkũyũ Movie and shoot in the market. Elspeth, H. 2006. Red Strangers.(Penguin Classic]

[edit] References

1. ^ a b http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=kik Accessed 2007/07/09

2. ̂ CIA Factbook [1] retrieved on October 16, 20073. ̂ https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-

factbook/geos/no.html4. ^ a b Joseph Bindloss, Tom Parkinson, Matt Fletcher,

Lonely Planet Kenya, (Lonely Planet: 2003), p.35.

5. ̂ Arnold Curtis, Kenya: a visitor's guide, (Evans Brothers: 1985), p.7.

6. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 54,55

7. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 55

8. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 58

9. ̂ http://ia600508.us.archive.org/21/items/howibecamekingof0

0boyeiala/howibecamekingof00boyeiala.pdf,page.3-510. ̂

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_people_the_Akikuyu_of.html?

id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 4611. ̂

http://ia600508.us.archive.org/21/items/howibecamekingof00boyeiala/howibecamekingof00boyeiala.pdf,page 5

12. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 23

13. ^ a b

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_people_the_Akikuyu_of.html?

id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 7114. ̂

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_people_the_Akikuyu_of.html?

id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 7715. ̂

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_people_the_Akikuyu_of.html?

id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 9216. ̂

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 95

17. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 66

18. ̂ Page 92 - Hobley, C.W.: Bantu Beliefs and Magic: With Particular Reference to the Gĩkũyũ and Kamba Tribes

of Kenya Colony, London (1922). - Sample page http://books.google.com/books?id=--qAAAAAMAAJ&q=rika#search_anchor

19. ^ a b http://www.kenya-africa.com/historyofkenya.html20. ̂

http://ia600508.us.archive.org/21/items/howibecamekingof00boyeiala/howibecamekingof00boyeiala.pdf

21. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_people_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y

22. ^ a b c d e

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Kenya#East_Africa_Protectorate

23. ̂ http://www.jstor.org/pss/48521624. ̂ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising

25. ̂ Robbins, Richard H. (2008). 'Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism (4th Ed.). Pearson Education, Inc.

P. 315.26. ̂

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mau_Mau_Uprising#cite_note-percox2005_751-752-9

27. ̂ Wood et al. (2005), Contrasting patterns of Y chromosome and mtDNA variation in Africa: evidence for

sex-biased demographic processes -- Appendix A28. ̂ Castrì et al. (2009), mtDNA variability in two Bantu-

speaking populations (Shona and Hutu) from Eastern Africa: Implications for peopling and migration patterns in sub-

Saharan Africa, American Journal of Physical Anthropology, Vol. 140, Issue 2

29. ̂ Salas et al. (2002), The Making of the African mtDNA Landscape, Am J Hum Genet. 2002 November;

71(5): 1082–1111.30. ̂

http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page page 285

31. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 287

32. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 290

33. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 297

34. ̂ http://books.google.co.ke/books/about/With_a_prehistoric_p

eople_the_Akikuyu_of.html?id=d1tyAAAAMAAJ&redir_esc=y,page 321

35. ̂ http://www.ngugiwathiongo.com/bio/bio-home.htm36. ̂ http://www.kenya-information-guide.com/kikuyu-

tribe.html

Bantu peoplesFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to: navigation, search

Bantu

Approximate distribution of Bantu peoples divided into zones according to

the Guthrie classification of Bantu languages

Regions with significant populations

Sub-Saharan Africa

Languages

Bantu languages: There are over 140 different Bantu languages.

Religion

Christianity, Islam, Animism

Bantu is used as a general label for 300-600 ethnic groups in Africa who speak Bantu languages, distributed from Cameroon east across Central Africa and Eastern Africa to Southern Africa. There are about 250 Bantu languages by the criterion of mutual

intelligibility,[1] though the distinction between language and dialect is often unclear, and Ethnologue counts 535 languages.[2]

The Bantu family is fragmented into hundreds of individual groups, none of them larger than a few million people (the largest being the Zulu with some 10 million). The Bantu language Swahili

with its 5-10 million native speakers is of super-regional importance as tens of millions fluently command it as a second

language.

A Kongo woman in DRC

A Kikuyu woman in Kenya

==Etymology== butt Bantu or its various forms means the people or humans. The word appears in all Bantu languages in

various forms, for example as watu in Swahili, batu in Lingala, bato in Duala, abantu in Zulu and Ganda, Vanhu in Shona and

Vandu in some Luhya dialects.

Contents

[hide] 1 Origins and expansion

2 The use of the term "Bantu" in South Africa

3 See also 4 Notes

5 References

[edit] Origins and expansion

Main article: Bantu expansion

1 = 2000–1500 BC origin2 = ca.1500 BC first migrations

     2.a = Eastern Bantu,   2.b = Western Bantu3 = 1000–500 BC Urewe nucleus of Eastern Bantu

4–7 = southward advance9 = 500 BC–0 Congo nucleus

10 = 0–1000 AD last phase[3][4][5]

Current scholarly understanding places the ancestral proto-Bantu homeland near the southwestern modern boundary of Nigeria

and Cameroon ca. 4,000 years ago (2000 B.C.), and regards the Bantu languages as a branch of the Niger–Congo language family.[6] This view represents a resolution of debates in the

1960s over competing theories advanced by Joseph Greenberg and Malcolm Guthrie, in favor of refinements of Greenberg's

theory. Based on wide comparisons including non-Bantu languages, Greenberg argued that Proto-Bantu, the hypothetical ancestor of the Bantu languages, had strong ancestral affinities with a group of languages spoken in Southeastern Nigeria. He

proposed that Bantu languages had spread east and south from there, to secondary centers of further dispersion, over hundreds

of years.

Using a different comparative method focused more exclusively on relationships among Bantu languages, Guthrie argued for a

single central African dispersal point spreading at a roughly equal rate in all directions. Subsequent research on loanwords for adaptations in agriculture and animal husbandry and on the

wider Niger–Congo language family rendered that thesis untenable. In the 1990s Jan Vansina proposed a modification of

Greenberg's ideas, in which dispersions from secondary and tertiary centers resembled Guthrie's central node idea, but from a

number of regional centers rather than just one, creating linguistic clusters.[7]

A Makua mother and child. The Makua are the largest Bantu group in Mozambique, a predominantly Bantu country.

It is unclear when exactly the spread of Bantu-speakers began from their core area as hypothesized ca. 5,000 years ago. By

3,500 years ago (1500 B.C.) in the west, Bantu-speaking communities had reached the great Central African rain forest,

and by 2,500 years ago (500 B.C.) pioneering groups had emerged into the savannahs to the south, in what are now the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and Zambia. Another

stream of migration, moving east, by 3,000 years ago (1000 B.C.) was creating a major new population center near the Great Lakes

of East Africa, where a rich environment supported a dense population. Movements by small groups to the southeast from the

Great Lakes region were more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, due to

comparatively harsh farming conditions in areas farther from water. Pioneering groups had reached modern KwaZulu-Natal in

South Africa by A.D. 300 along the coast, and the modern Northern Province (encompassed within the former province of

the Transvaal) by A.D. 500.[8]

Early Iron Age findings in eastern and southern Africa

Before the expansion of farming and herding peoples, including those speaking Bantu languages, Africa south of the equator was

populated by neolithic hunting and foraging peoples. Some of them were ancestral to modern Central African forest peoples (so-called Pygmies) who now speak Bantu languages. Others

were proto-Khoisan-speaking peoples, whose few modern hunter-forager and linguistic descendants today occupy the arid regions

around the Kalahari desert. Many more Khoekhoe and San descendants have a Coloured identity in South Africa and

Namibia, speaking Afrikaans and English. The small Hadza and Sandawe populations in Tanzania comprise the other modern

hunter-forager remnant in Africa.

Over a period of many centuries, most hunting-foraging peoples were displaced and absorbed by incoming Bantu-speaking

communities, as well as by Ubangian, Nilotic and Central Sudanic language-speakers in North Central and Eastern Africa. The Bantu expansion was a long series of physical migrations, a diffusion of

language and knowledge out into and in from neighboring populations, and a creation of new societal groups involving inter-

marriage among communities and small groups moving to communities and small groups moving to new areas.

An Afro-Arab Swahili woman from Zanzibar in Islamic dress

After their movements from their original homeland in West Africa, Bantus also encountered in East Africa peoples of Cushitic

origin. As cattle terminology in use amongst the few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests, the Bantu migrants would

acquire cattle from their new Cushitic neighbors. Linguistic evidence also indicates that Bantus likely borrowed the custom of milking cattle directly from Cushitic peoples in the area.[9] Later

interactions between Bantu and Cushitic peoples resulted in Bantu groups with significant Cushitic admixture and culturo-

linguistic influences, such as the Herero herdsmen of southern Africa.[10][11]

On the coastal section of East Africa, another mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders. The Swahili culture that emerged from these

exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of

the Bantu Swahili people. With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Zanzibar, Kenya and Tanzania -- a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast -- the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic loan-words as a consequence of

these interactions.[12]

Between the 14th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region in the savannah south

of the Central African rainforest. On the Zambezi river, the Monomatapa kings built the famous Great Zimbabwe complex, a

civilization whose origins and ethnic affiliations are uncertain. From the 16th century onward, the processes of state formation

amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency. This was probably due to denser population (which led to more specialized

divisions of labor, including military power, while making emigration more difficult); to increased interaction amongst

Bantu-speaking communities with Chinese, European, Indonesian and Arab traders on the coasts; to technological developments in economic activity; and to new techniques in the political-spiritual

ritualization of royalty as the source of national strength and health.[13]

[edit] The use of the term "Bantu" in South Africa

Main article: Bantu-speaking peoples of South Africa

A Zulu traditional dancer in Southern Africa.

In the 1920s relatively liberal white South Africans, missionaries and the small black intelligentsia began to use the term "Bantu" in preference to "Native" and more derogatory terms (such as "Kaffir") to refer collectively to Bantu-speaking South Africans.

After World War II, the racialist National Party governments adopted that usage officially, while the growing African

nationalist movement and its liberal white allies turned to the term "African" instead, so that "Bantu" became identified with the policies of apartheid. By the 1970s this so discredited "Bantu" as

an ethno-racial designation that the apartheid government switched to the term "Black" in its official racial categorizations, restricting it to Bantu-speaking Africans, at about the same time that the Black Consciousness Movement led by Steve Biko and

others were defining "Black" to mean all racially oppressed South Africans (Africans, Coloureds and Indians).

Examples of South African usages of "Bantu" include:

1. One of South Africa's politicians of recent times, General Bantubonke Harrington Holomisa (Bantubonke is a

compound noun meaning "all the people"), is known as Bantu Holomisa.

2. The South African apartheid governments originally gave the name "bantustans" to the eleven rural reserve areas

intended for a spurious, ersatz independence to deny Africans South African citizenship. "Bantustan" originally

reflected an analogy to the various ethnic "-stans" of Western and Central Asia. Again association with apartheid

discredited the term, and the South African government shifted to the politically appealing but historically deceptive

term "ethnic homelands". Meanwhile the anti-apartheid movement persisted in calling the areas bantustans, to

drive home their political illegitimacy.3. The abstract noun ubuntu, humanity or humaneness, is derived regularly from the Nguni noun stem -ntu in isiXhosa,

isiZulu and siNdebele. In siSwati the stem is -ntfu and the noun is buntfu.

4. In the Sotho–Tswana languages of southern Africa, batho is the cognate term to Nguni abantu, illustrating that such

cognates need not actually look like the -ntu root exactly. The early African National Congress of South Africa had a newspaper called Abantu-Batho from 1912–1933, which

carried columns in English, isiZulu, Sesotho, and isiXhosa.

[edit] See also

Centre International des Civilisations Bantu Candomblé Bantu

Bantu Educational Kinema Experiment

[edit] Notes

1. ̂ Derek Nurse, 2006, "Bantu Languages", in the Encyclopedia of Language and Linguistics

2. ̂ Ethnologue report for Southern Bantoid. The figure of 535 includes the 13 Mbam languages considered Bantu in

Guthrie's classification and thus counted by Nurse (2006)3. ̂ The Chronological Evidence for the Introduction of

Domestic Stock in Southern Africa4. ̂ A Brief History of Botswana

5. ̂ On Bantu and Khoisan in (Southeastern) Zambia, (in German)

6. ̂ Erhet & Posnansky, eds. (1982), Newman (1995)

7. ̂ Vansina (1995)8. ̂ Newman (1995), Ehret (1998), Shillington (2005)

9. ̂ J. D. Fage, A history of Africa, Routledge, 2002, p.2910. ̂ Was there an interchange between Cushitic

pastoralists and Khoisan speakers in the prehistory of Southern Africa and how can this be detected?

11. ̂ Robert Gayre, Ethnological elements of Africa, (The Armorial, 1966), p.45

12. ̂ Daniel Don Nanjira, African Foreign Policy and Diplomacy: From Antiquity to the 21st Century, ABC-CLIO,

2010, p.11413. ̂ Shillington (2005)

[edit] References

Christopher Ehret, An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400, James

Currey, London, 1998 Christopher Ehret and Merrick Posnansky, eds., The

Archaeological and Linguistic Reconstruction of African History, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los

Angeles, 1982 April A. Gordon and Donald L. Gordon, Understanding

Contemporary Africa, Lynne Riener, London, 1996 John M. Janzen, Ngoma: Discourses of Healing in Central and

Southern Africa, University of California Press, Berkeley and Los Angeles, 1992

James L. Newman, The Peopling of Africa: A Geographic Interpretation, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1995. ISBN

0-300-07280-5. Kevin Shillington, History of Africa, 3rd ed. St. Martin's

Press, New York, 2005 Jan Vansina, Paths in the Rainforest: Toward a History of

Political Tradition in Equatorial Africa, University of Wisconsin Press, Madison, 1990

Jan Vansina , "New linguistic evidence on the expansion of Bantu", Journal of African History 36:173–195, 1995