You are singing the 'sanitized' Kabete version. The Muranga/Metumi version goes liked this:

"Ndathiire kurira mwere gatitu, Ithanga
Ngikinya kiura na ikinya, kiari kia mbarika
Kiurua kianjirire atiri; nginyukia ngwire...."


One question though: are there Nilotes and Cushites any south of Tanzania?


This an interesting thought. I know of no Cushites or Nilotes south of Central Tanzania (there are Nilotes in the north regions).

It seems like this part of Africa was the point of a massive 'clash of civilizations' in the recent past. The Nilotes, Cushites and Haamites arriving from the North, the Sahel and the Arabian peninsula clashed with the Bantu arriving from the South and West.

The result is, us, the strange mixture of peoples, languages and cultures that we are trying to unravel here.

A young historian will one day make a name for herself by focusing on this subject.

Njunge, you have introduced an interesting angle here. It is very true that the naming patterns in Gikuyuland can be very revealing of the past. I wish somebody could do an anthropological mapping. The names that recall the earliest ancestors of the Agikuyu are found in the Kiambu area:
- Tene – Watene
- Mathathi – Mathathi
- Ndemi – Ndemi, Mutemi etc
- Iregi – Iregi, Wairegi

One the other hand the Maina, Mwangi, Irungu (the generations that followed Tene, Iregi, Ndemi and Mathathi, are found mostly in Muranga

In Nyeri you find names like Ndungu (from Mutungu/small pox), Ngunjiri, Maathai, Wangombe, Nyookabi/Wamaitha, Muriiithi etc that recall more recent events like the smallpox epidemic around 1850’s and the conflict and intermixing with the pastoralist Purko and Laikipiak Maasai and Samburu around the same time - as the Gikuyu pushed north along the Nyeri valley in search of good land.

This process of expansion ‘kuuna ithaka’ existed until the Whiteman interfered. In fact you could say it never ended, the reason we have such a huge Gikuyu diaspora today.

Wakanyugi, Why do you make so much out of Ithanga? This seems to have been merely a place of dispersal of the Thagicu that became Kambas, Gikuyus, Embus, Merus?

Lol, Wakanyugi has list of theories without backup

@Wakanyugi, to put the discussion in greater perspective, we must recall that dispersals occurred frequently and thus we have many dispersal points. what historians focus on are the major dispersal points involving tribes/dialect communities, but not on minor dispersal points where clans and even blood brothers parted ways. Sagana/Tana river was the main migratory path with the source being the true north. families and dialect communities settled along the river once they felt they liked the place and were no longer interested in venturing further. The dense forest along the river was dangerous and so migrants had to stick to the river. as the late migrants moved along the river, they would stop for refreshments and rest (R&R) and their tribesmates would come to the river to welcome them (guthagana) hence Thagana River. Those who chose to remain started work immediately of cutting down trees and settling down others moved on after the rest. These minor dispersal points are rarely focussed on but still remain in orature. Ithanga was a dispersal point for the GEMA (include Akamba here). Ithanga could be from the word assembly like sand (ta muthanga) that is an assembly of many particles. At this assembly the last major migratory path for the clans was mapped out. Assuming the Gikuyu myth is not accurate then Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga might have been the assembly point for the Gikuyu where the leader Gikuyu formerly decided to delink Gikuyu from Thagichu (by pronouncing them as mbari ya Gikuyu that later became muhiriga wa Gikuyu then ruriri rwa Gikuyu) and start his tribe and dispersed his family in the directions where they Gikuyu settled.

A very resourceful thread this one!!!

Fafanua. Which hako? Like "hako ka mtu" or "uuki wa hako", "ngoima ya hako" or in what context?

this has always been a pet project of mine. My thesis is a bunch of bantus always wanted to go east but if you look the nilotes and cushites have always blocked them. The Maasai to me are more cushitic than nilotic as genetic studies have shown they have 20% ethio-somali makeup. but back to my point. the western side of South Sudan has bantu people who are indistingushable from some kikuyus - the Azande people. their east wards movement was curtailed when they met the Nilotes of Central Equitoria and the Dinkas. Same thing happened in UG and those that managed to cross (possibly before the luos got to the lake) were stopped on their tracks by the groups we call "kalenjin" and to my knowledge no bantu group ever migrated through maasai lands they had to go south and circumvent the maa people then come north. their northern movement was stopped by the cushitic people. some of the traditions these bantus have were actually borrowed from the maa people who in turn borrowed them from the hamitic groups. for example circumcision is not common south of the maasai it's only in pockets here and there.

Your pet project....makes the 2 of us. The assertion that Bantu oriented towards East makes lots of sense. But I think the northward movement was curtailed more by lack of arable land north of mt. Kenya (after mt kenya, the rest of N.E Africa is semi- or desert). Those who went south - if we take dispersal point is tropical forests of central Africa - never encountered a dry schism as they kept S.E trajectory. All the way to the Cape.

Same theory as to why Nilotes and cushites did not venture further south...as there was abundant savanna rangelands (plaine nilotes) and water (river-lake) around the great lakes region. Could 'mfecane' have taken place just as River Nilotes were going round the great lakes curve thus preventing nilotic discovery of the Zambezi?

Human migration is a continous, unstoppable process. Many indicators point to another major wave of movements akin to Euro-American migration 300yrs ago.

When dust settles in next 100 years, methinks major ethnic blocks in the world will be Afro-Chinese (mixed race) and Indians in south east hemisphere incl Pacific, Arab-Turkik in Europe and northern Asia (complete with their religion) as Latino dominates all of America, North and south.