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Descendants of Slaves Kidnapped from Kenya
madhaquer
#21 Posted : Thursday, June 25, 2020 11:44:49 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 11/10/2010
Posts: 281
Location: Nairobi
I think slavery was a global issue in the pre-colonial periods.
People were raided and enslaved and others got enslaved out of debt or crimes against their rulers.

But the slave trade on the East African coast that was around Malindi and Zanzibar was fuelled by slaves coming from the interior of Tanzania, Malawi and upto the DRC. Remember Tipu Tipu was at one time the governor of Kisangani (then Stanely falls).
It is said that the slave caravans could not survive the interior of what is now Kenya due to the fierce Maasai who controlled the rift valley from Lake Turkana to Dodoma.

There is a book 'The fall of the Congo Arabs' 1863 - 1930 by Hinde Sidney Langford which chronicles the war between the Belgians and the Arabs for control of the Eastern Congo. (Told from the Belgian side of things, makes quite interesting reading on how the Arabs lost their clout.) The author also came to East Africa in 1923 and wrote a book about the Maasai 'The Last of the Masai'. This one chronicles the loss of Maasai dominance after the 1892 Rinderpest outbreak and the subsequent small pox outbreaks

"During the height of their prestige the Masai neither made slaves nor took prisoners on their raiding expeditions : they did not marry, or allow their women to marry, outside the tribe. Members of neighbouring tribes were never permitted to live among, and rarely even to visit, Masai kraals; and if for any reason individuals of the tribe chose to live with alien races, they were not allowed to return to their people. As the Masai were in no sense traders—all their necessaries of life being found within their own borders, and augmented by cattle-lifting from their neighbours—they remained an isolated race.... "

I have digressed! but the author does argue that the Maasai did dominate other races at least in pre British East Africa times...

Under Masai rule are two tribes called the Elgunonu and the Dorrobo, both of which are practically slave races. Though no individual man is a slave, any Masai warrior is entitled to give an order, which must be obeyed, to any member, or members, of either of these tribes. All work thus ordered by the Masai is paid for by them when completed.

The Dorrobo are hunters and carpenters, and it is their especial function to make the shields and prepare the skins required by the Masai


Also interesting

The Wakikuyu are an agricultural race living along the borders of the Masai country. Many years ago, when the Masai owned and ruled all the country, from far into Uganda territory to the coast, the Wakikuyu were in subjection to them, and, in consideration of their usefulness in this capacity, were permitted to live under Masai protection. Since the establishment of European influence, and the decimation of Masai numbers, the Wakikuyu have largely augmented their strength, and now cover a considerable area of land.

Ten Masai boys, or even Wakamba, armed only with bows and arrows, will, however, go through the whole of the Kikuyu country unmolested. In olden days, when the Wakikuyu kidnapped women, for the purpose of selling them to the neighbouring tribes or to the Arabs as slaves, the Masai punished them so severely that order was kept; but since European protection has been extended to them their raiding propensities have increased rather than diminished...
mv_ufanisi
#22 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 7:24:09 AM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
madhaquer wrote:
I think slavery was a global issue in the pre-colonial periods.
People were raided and enslaved and others got enslaved out of debt or crimes against their rulers.

But the slave trade on the East African coast that was around Malindi and Zanzibar was fuelled by slaves coming from the interior of Tanzania, Malawi and upto the DRC. Remember Tipu Tipu was at one time the governor of Kisangani (then Stanely falls).
It is said that the slave caravans could not survive the interior of what is now Kenya due to the fierce Maasai who controlled the rift valley from Lake Turkana to Dodoma.

There is a book 'The fall of the Congo Arabs' 1863 - 1930 by Hinde Sidney Langford which chronicles the war between the Belgians and the Arabs for control of the Eastern Congo. (Told from the Belgian side of things, makes quite interesting reading on how the Arabs lost their clout.) The author also came to East Africa in 1923 and wrote a book about the Maasai 'The Last of the Masai'. This one chronicles the loss of Maasai dominance after the 1892 Rinderpest outbreak and the subsequent small pox outbreaks

"During the height of their prestige the Masai neither made slaves nor took prisoners on their raiding expeditions : they did not marry, or allow their women to marry, outside the tribe. Members of neighbouring tribes were never permitted to live among, and rarely even to visit, Masai kraals; and if for any reason individuals of the tribe chose to live with alien races, they were not allowed to return to their people. As the Masai were in no sense traders—all their necessaries of life being found within their own borders, and augmented by cattle-lifting from their neighbours—they remained an isolated race.... "

I have digressed! but the author does argue that the Maasai did dominate other races at least in pre British East Africa times...

Under Masai rule are two tribes called the Elgunonu and the Dorrobo, both of which are practically slave races. Though no individual man is a slave, any Masai warrior is entitled to give an order, which must be obeyed, to any member, or members, of either of these tribes. All work thus ordered by the Masai is paid for by them when completed.

The Dorrobo are hunters and carpenters, and it is their especial function to make the shields and prepare the skins required by the Masai


Also interesting

The Wakikuyu are an agricultural race living along the borders of the Masai country. Many years ago, when the Masai owned and ruled all the country, from far into Uganda territory to the coast, the Wakikuyu were in subjection to them, and, in consideration of their usefulness in this capacity, were permitted to live under Masai protection. Since the establishment of European influence, and the decimation of Masai numbers, the Wakikuyu have largely augmented their strength, and now cover a considerable area of land.

Ten Masai boys, or even Wakamba, armed only with bows and arrows, will, however, go through the whole of the Kikuyu country unmolested. In olden days, when the Wakikuyu kidnapped women, for the purpose of selling them to the neighbouring tribes or to the Arabs as slaves, the Masai punished them so severely that order was kept; but since European protection has been extended to them their raiding propensities have increased rather than diminished...


thanks for this valuable contribution.

based on the much I've read, it seems that slavery used to happen during famines. people would run out of food and they would have no option but to exchange their children and sometimes women for food. additionally, this happened when there was a raid or a war.

Did some of the slaves captured in the interior of Kenya leave via Mombasa or there was only the Zanzibar route?
mv_ufanisi
#23 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 7:26:56 AM
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Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
The Maasai were the Zulus of East Africa. The tribe was very regimented but unfortunately even they seem to have lost a number of their people to slavery. There are blanket claims that trade/salve caravans never penetrated the interior of Kenya but we have many instances of them having visited the interior before the Europeans came.
mv_ufanisi
#24 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 7:34:30 AM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
I find it most interesting that after the long Arab domination in Zanzibar, it took one John Okello from Zanzibar to lead the locals to overthrow the Sultan and put an end to their perhaps 1,000 year long domination at the coast and the chief slave trading centre in East Africa through which perhaps millions of East Africans were sold off"

Field Marshall John Okello was a Lango from Uganda who had lived in Kenya. When he got to Zanzibar he roused the people against their Arab rulers.

"Okello left for Zanzibar in 1963, where he contacted the leaders of the Afro-Shirazi Youth League, the youth organisation of the Afro-Shirazi Party. The Youth League strove for a revolution in order to break the power of the Arabs. On Zanzibar, Okello was also a member of the Painters Union, being a house painter, which gave a regular salary and allowed to move around the island, supposedly giving speeches at union branches, but in reality to organize a revolution to overthrow the sultan. In his free time, he built up a small army of determined African nationalists. This army was required to hold themselves to the strict rules of Okello: sexual abstinence, no raw meat, and no alcohol.

The highly religious Okello was convinced he had been given orders in his dreams by God to break the powerful position of the Arabs and to find a revolutionary state on Zanzibar and Pemba. Okello also said that he received orders from God, when still in Uganda, by how he observed the position of stones in a stream." ...

"On 12 January 1964, with popular support from the island's native African majority, Okello and his men fought their way to the capital of Zanzibar, Stone Town, where the sultan lived. Even though they were poorly armed, Okello and his men surprised the police force of Zanzibar and they took power."

from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Okello

So ended the reign of the Arab rulers of the East African coast and the centre of the East African slave trade.
mv_ufanisi
#25 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 7:48:19 AM
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Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
The Masai and Kikuyu seem to have had an interesting history with each other a mix of friendship, enmity & assimilation.

For example Waiyaki Way is named after Waiyaki wa Hinga who was actually originally a Masai named Koiyaki who got assimilated & became a Kikuyu during the Masai clan wars. Because of this reason, many Kikuyu families will have Masai blood. Many names among Kikuyu people such as Nyokabi, Wokabi were given to assimilated Masai people.
sqft
#26 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 9:55:19 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 1/10/2015
Posts: 961
Location: Kenya
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived at Waiyakis territory in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.
Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
kaka2za
#27 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 10:01:55 AM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 10/3/2008
Posts: 4,057
Location: Gwitu
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

It is on Waiyaki’s land that Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


That actually doesn't prove that he wasn't a Maasai. Any captured children would be assimilated in the family.
Even Jomo's grandmother was a Maasai
Truth forever on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne
(James Russell Rowell)
mv_ufanisi
#28 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 10:29:41 AM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived at Waiyakis territory in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


You should read the book "Muthamaki Waiyaki wa Hinga" written by Lawyer Njoroge Regeru who is one of his descendants where he says that Waiyaki wa Hinga came from Masailand. You can check out an article written on the Nairobi Law Monthly about this book - https://nairobilawmonthl...-wa-hinga-to-maa-roots/

According to the book Waiyaki was a full blooded Masai that escaped into Kikuyuland.

Confirming this is Wambui Otieno

Though it is not possible to say when Waiyaki was born, one of his great grand daughters, Wambui Otieno in her book, Mau Mau Daughter, A Life History, gives credence to Waiyaiki’s Maasai lineage.

According to Wambui, Waiyaki’s parents had migrated from Maasai in the mid 19th century and were adopted by the Gathecha family, where Jomo Kenyatta later got his fourth wife, Mama Ngina.

Wambui explains that Waiyaki forged closer ties with the original owners of the land in Dagoretti, the Dorobo, also known as Olgiek, from where he was to marry.
sqft
#29 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 11:08:39 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 1/10/2015
Posts: 961
Location: Kenya
mv_ufanisi wrote:
The Maasai were the Zulus of East Africa. The tribe was very regimented but unfortunately even they seem to have lost a number of their people to slavery. There are blanket claims that trade/salve caravans never penetrated the interior of Kenya but we have many instances of them having visited the interior before the Europeans came.


Before the coming of europeans, there were trade caravans all the way from zanzibar to lake baringo where traders got ivory mainly from wadorobo and njemps. Infact early explorers used to hire in zanzibar guides who had previously gone on caravans and were thus farmiliar with the route inland. The caravan route was from zanzibar, to pangani (TZ coast), taveta, ngong, naivasha to lake baringo. Note that taveta and ngong were the major points where caravans could get food. At taveta food was sold by the wataveta while at ngong food was from wakikuyu.

Also note that the wakikuyu were more feared than the maasai coz caravans (and explorers) could go through masailand but not through kikuyuland.

Count Teleki book 1889 pg 287

Quote:
Before our arrival little was really known about the land or the people of Kikuyu. There were count-less tales afloat of the fierceness and hostility of the natives.

A caravan from Mombasa, it was said, had attempted, a few years ago, to enter Kikuyu from the east, and had been destroyed. Since then no traders had dared to venture within range of the poisoned arrows, which natives hidden in the dense woods were reported to shoot at every intruder in their land.

And two of the men with us assured us that Dr. G. Fischer had had to fight every inch of his way when he crossed this redoubtable district somewhere in the north, on his way to the coast from Kavirondo. Moreover the Masai had shaken their heads when we spoke of our intentions, so that there seemed
reasons enough for us to change our minds about going to Mt Kenia by way of Kikuyu.


Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
sqft
#30 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 11:21:38 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 1/10/2015
Posts: 961
Location: Kenya
mv_ufanisi wrote:
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived at Waiyakis territory in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


You should read the book "Muthamaki Waiyaki wa Hinga" written by Lawyer Njoroge Regeru who is one of his descendants.

Confirming this is Wambui Otieno




I prefer reading my history from books written in the 1800s by the explorers coz they record facts as they were at the time not books written in 2010 by so called descendants.

Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
sqft
#31 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 11:34:53 AM
Rank: Veteran


Joined: 1/10/2015
Posts: 961
Location: Kenya
kaka2za wrote:
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

It is on Waiyaki’s land that Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


That actually doesn't prove that he wasn't a Maasai. Any captured children would be assimilated in the family.
Even Jomo's grandmother was a Maasai


During kikuyu/maasai raids, only young women and girls were captured, while men, boys and old women were killed.
Proverbs 13:11 Dishonest money dwindles away, but whoever gathers money little by little makes it grow.
kaka2za
#32 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 1:55:51 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 10/3/2008
Posts: 4,057
Location: Gwitu
sqft wrote:
kaka2za wrote:
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

It is on Waiyaki’s land that Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


That actually doesn't prove that he wasn't a Maasai. Any captured children would be assimilated in the family.
Even Jomo's grandmother was a Maasai


During kikuyu/maasai raids, only young women and girls were captured, while men, boys and old women were killed.


Not true. I know quite a number of families whose grandpas were Maasais captured during raids.
Truth forever on the scaffold
Wrong forever on the throne
(James Russell Rowell)
Lolest!
#33 Posted : Friday, June 26, 2020 2:35:24 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 3/18/2011
Posts: 12,069
Location: Kianjokoma
kaka2za wrote:
sqft wrote:
kaka2za wrote:
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

It is on Waiyaki’s land that Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


That actually doesn't prove that he wasn't a Maasai. Any captured children would be assimilated in the family.
Even Jomo's grandmother was a Maasai


During kikuyu/maasai raids, only young women and girls were captured, while men, boys and old women were killed.


Not true. I know quite a number of families whose grandpas were Maasais captured during raids.

Correct. There were also other Maasai who moved to Kikuyu country during the troubled late 1800s where the Maasai were faced by decline of livestock du to rinderpest & drought as well as intra-Maasai wars
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mv_ufanisi
#34 Posted : Sunday, June 28, 2020 1:29:36 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
Kenyan tribes on the coast seemed to have borne a big loss of population to the East African slave trade. Here's an excerpt

According to the traditions of the Pokomo, a Bantu-speaking people residing on the banks of the Tana River south of Lamu, sometime before the nineteenth century Swahili from the Lamu archipelago had imposed on Pokomo villages under their authority a tribute of two boys and two girls from each big village and one of each for small settlements. The
presence of Pokomo smiths of slave origin in Siyu seems to confirm this.

H. Brown, “History of Siyu: The Development and Decline of a Swahili Town on the Northern Kenya Coast
mv_ufanisi
#35 Posted : Monday, July 06, 2020 5:57:46 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
sqft wrote:
mv_ufanisi wrote:
sqft wrote:
It is untrue Waiyaki and his brother Githieya were Maasais. His father was Hinga wa Ngekenya and the mother was Ngina, also known as Nyambutu.

Captain Fredrick Lugard arrived at Waiyakis territory in Dagoretti on October 10, 1890, on his way to Uganda.

On arrival, Lugard acting on behalf of Imperial British East African Company (IBEA), made a treaty with Waiyaki, and was given land at Kihumo and constructed a fort where Kihumo PCEA church stands today.


You should read the book "Muthamaki Waiyaki wa Hinga" written by Lawyer Njoroge Regeru who is one of his descendants.

Confirming this is Wambui Otieno




I prefer reading my history from books written in the 1800s by the explorers coz they record facts as they were at the time not books written in 2010 by so called descendants.



Here is an article written in 1908 that details the relationship between Masai, Kikuyu and Dorobo peoples.

Notes on the Origin and History of the Kikuyu and Dorobo Tribes.
K. R. Dundas 1908






mv_ufanisi
#36 Posted : Friday, July 24, 2020 6:50:33 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ne...hing_for_my_slave_roots

This is a great story about a man who sets to figure out his black roots. It shows how banks like Barclays Bank are partly there because of the wealth that was got from the sale of slaves.

For a long time in Africa and Kenya in particular this has been the scene of an unimaginable scale of human exploitation. I wonder which companies still exist in Kenya or wealth that have been built on the back of the East African slave trade.
kmucheke
#37 Posted : Friday, July 24, 2020 9:29:50 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 3/16/2019
Posts: 313
There is a DNA study on the impact of transatlantic slave trade in the 16th and 19th centuries. An estimated 12.5 million people from Africa were forcibly deported across the Atlantic with 2 million dying en route.

The research is published here.

It would be interesting to have a similar study done for populations kidnapped through the East African coast via the Indian Ocean.
mv_ufanisi
#38 Posted : Friday, July 24, 2020 9:46:46 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 1/15/2010
Posts: 625
kmucheke wrote:
There is a DNA study on the impact of transatlantic slave trade in the 16th and 19th centuries. An estimated 12.5 million people from Africa were forcibly deported across the Atlantic with 2 million dying en route.

The research is published here.

It would be interesting to have a similar study done for populations kidnapped through the East African coast via the Indian Ocean.


That would be truly amazing. It would finally shed some light on the hidden east African slave trade and I think Kenyans would be shocked by the scale at which it happened here. Unfortunately, Kenyan culture is such as to repress uncomfortable truths ...
radiomast
#39 Posted : Monday, July 27, 2020 9:27:39 PM
Rank: Member


Joined: 2/15/2018
Posts: 428
mv_ufanisi wrote:


There is a group of Afro-Paraguayans who were descended from Kamba people and have managed to maintain their culture. They are called Kamba Kua and Kamba Kokue in Paraguay. Here's some links to them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op4-nZypCQ



Kamba Cua are the most logical target for DNA testing. It would be great to ascertain how related they are to Akamba.
Lolest!
#40 Posted : Monday, July 27, 2020 10:24:26 PM
Rank: Elder


Joined: 3/18/2011
Posts: 12,069
Location: Kianjokoma
radiomast wrote:
mv_ufanisi wrote:


There is a group of Afro-Paraguayans who were descended from Kamba people and have managed to maintain their culture. They are called Kamba Kua and Kamba Kokue in Paraguay. Here's some links to them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op4-nZypCQ



Kamba Cua are the most logical target for DNA testing. It would be great to ascertain how related they are to Akamba.

Still find it hard to believe that we have Akamba slave descendants in South America

East coast of Africa to America? Odd.
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