Akamba Tribe Guide: History, Clans, Culture, Music & Witchcraft

Kamba | Akamba Tribe

The Kamba or Akamba people are a Bantu ethnic tribe or group who live in the semi-arid formerly Eastern Province of Kenya which stretches east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is called Ukambani which constitutes of Machakos County Makueni County and Kitui County.

Sources vary on whether Kambas are the third, fourth, or fifth largest ethnic group in Kenya. The ethnic group makes up 11 percent of Kenya’s population. They speak the Bantu Kikamba language as a mother tongue. They are predominantly based in Machakos, Kitui, and Makueni Counties of Kenya. Approximately, the total population of the Kamba stands at 4.1 million. The Kamba are also called Akamba or Wakamba.

Origin and History of The Kamba | Akamba People

The first group settled in present-day Mbooni Hills in the Machakos District of Kenya in the second half of the 17th century before spreading to the greater Machakos, Makueni and Kitui Districts.

Other authorities suggest that they arrived in their present lowlands east of Mount Kenya area of inhabitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east, while others argue that the Kamba, along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the Kikuyu, Embu, Mbeere, and Meru moved into Kenya from points further south.

It is believed that the Akamba bore a son ‘Kikuyu’ (a boy named after the figtree) who married Mumbi (Creator) and together started the first Kikuyu family which is today the Kikuyu tribe.In colonial times the Akamba were highly considered by the British for their intelligence and fighting ability and were drafted in large numbers into the British army. Thousands lost their lives in WWI.

When it came to land, however, the British were not quite so respectful and tried to limit the number of cattle the Akamba could own (by confiscating them) and also settled more Europeans in Ukambani. The Akamba response was the formation of the Ukamba Members Association, which marched to Nairobi and squatted peacefully at Kariokor Market in protest. After three weeks the administration gave way and the cattle were ultimately returned to the people.

List of Kamba Clans

Kamba Tribe – Kamba | Akamba Language

The Kamba speak the Kamba language (also known as Kikamba) as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family. Interestingly, Kikamba has no letters “c”, “f”, “j”, ‘r’, ‘x’ and ‘q’ in its alphabet.

Kamba Language – Kamba | Akamba Naming and Kamba Names

Naming of children is an important aspect of the Akamba people. In most but not all cases, the first four children, two boys, and two girls, are named after the grandparents on both sides of the family. The first boy is named after the paternal grandfather and the second after the maternal grandfather. Girls are similarly named.

Because of the respect that the Kamba people observe between the varied relationships, there are people with whom they cannot speak in “first name” terms.

• The father and the mother-in-law on the husband’s side, for instance, can never address their daughter-in-law by her first name. Neither can she address them by their first names. Yet she has to name her children after them. To solve this problem, a system of naming was adopted that gave names that were descriptive of the quality or career of the grandparents.

Therefore, when a woman is married into a family, she is given a family name (some sort of baptismal name), such as “Syomunyithya/ng’a Mutunga,” that is, “she who is to be the mother of Munyithya/Mutunga.” Her first son is to be called by this name. This name Munyithya was descriptive of certain qualities of the paternal grandfather or of his career. Thus, when she is calling her son, she would indeed be calling her father-in-law, but at the same time strictly observing the cultural law of never addressing her in-laws by their first names.

After these four children are named, whose names were more or less predetermined, other children could be given any other names, sometimes after other relatives and/or family friends on both sides of the family. Occasionally, children were given names that were descriptive of the circumstances under which they were born;

• “Nduku” (girl) and “Mutuku” (boy) meaning born at night,
• “Kioko” (boy) born in the morning,
• “Mumbua/Syombua” (girl)and “Wambua” (boy) for the time of rain,
• “Wayua” (girl) for the time of famine,
• “Makau” (boy) for the time of war,
• “Musyoka/Kasyuko/Musyoki” (boy) and “Kasyoka/Kasyoki” (girl) as a re-incarnation of a dead family member,
• “Mutua” (boy) and “Mutuo/Mwikali” (girl)as indicative of the long duration the parents had waited for this child, or a lengthy period of gestation.
• “Munyao”(boy) for the time of famine
• “Waeni” (girl) for the time of visitors
• ‘Maundu”(boy) for the time of multiple activities/things

Children were also given affectionate names as expressions of what their parents wished them to be in life. Such names would be like

• “Mutongoi” (leader),
• “Musili” (judge),
• “Muthui” (the rich one),
• “Ngumbau” (hero, the brave one).

Of course, some of these names could be simply expressive of the qualities displayed by the man or woman after whom they were named. Very rarely, a boy may be given the name “Musumbi” (meaning “king”).

Kamba | Akamba Tribe – Culture

All adolescents go through initiation rites to adulthood at around the age of 12 and have the same age-set groups common to many of Kenya’s people. The various age-set rituals involve the men, and the women to a lesser extent, gaining seniority as they get older. Young parents are known as ‘junior elders’ (mwanake for men, mwiitu for women) and are responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the village.

Once his children are old enough to become junior elders. Themselves, the mwanake goes through a ceremony to become a ‘medium elder’ (nthele), and later in life a ‘full elder’ (atumia ma kivalo) with the responsibility for death ceremonies and administering the law. The last stage of a person’s life is that of a ‘senior elder’ (atumia ma kisuka) with responsibility for the holy places. Akamba subgroups include Kitui, Masaku, and Mumoni.

Kamba | Akamba Tribe – Clothing and Costumery

The Akamba of the modern times, like most people in Kenya, dress rather conventionally in Western / European clothing. The men wear trousers and shirts. Young boys will, as a rule, wear shorts and short-sleeved shirts, usually in cotton, or tee-shirts. Traditionally, Akamba men wore leather short kilts made from animal skins or tree bark. They wore copious jewelry, mainly of copper and brass.

It consisted of neck chains, bracelets, and anklets. The women in modern Akamba society also dress in European fashion, taking their pick from dresses, skirts, trousers, jeans, and shorts, made from the wide range of fabrics available in Kenya. Primarily, however, skirts are the customary and respectable mode of dress.

They shaved their heads clean and wore a headband intensively decorated with beads. The various kilumi or dance groups wore similar colors and patterns on their beadwork to distinguish themselves from other groups. Traditionally, both men and women wore leather sandals especially when they ventured out of their neighborhood to go to the market or on visits. While at home or working in their fields, however, they remained barefoot.

School children, male and female, shave their heads to maintain the spirit of uniformity and equality. Currently, the most popular Kamba artists include; Ken Wamaria, Kativui, Kitunguu, etc. Ken Wamaria is rated as the top artist in Ukambani and the richest Kenyan artist (Kioko, 2012).

Kamba Language – Kikamba music

The Akamba people’s love of music and dance is evidenced in their spectacular performances at many events in their daily lives or on occasions of regional and national importance. In their dances, they display agility and athletic skills as they perform acrobatics and body movements. The Akamba dance techniques and style resemble those of the Batutsi of Rwanda-Burundi and the Aembu of Kenya.

The earliest, most famous, and respected traditional Kamba soloist who can be documented was Mailu Mboo (grandfather to Influx Swaggaa top Kenyan Artiste) who came from “Kwa Vara” now Mwingi. Dances are usually accompanied by songs composed for the occasion (marriage, birth, nationally important occasion), and reflect the traditional structure of the Kikamba song, sung on a pentatonic scale.

The singing is lively and tuneful. Songs are composed of satirizing deviant behavior, anti-social activity, etc. The Akamba have famous work songs, such as Ngulu Mwelela, sung while work, such as digging, is going on. Herdsmen and boys have different songs, as do young people and old. During the Mbalya dances the dance leader will compose love songs and satirical numbers, to tease and entertain his / her dancers.

Some of the Kamba songs include

• Mwali (plural Myali), is a dance accompanying a song, the latter which is usually made to criticize anti-social behavior.
• Kilumi and Ngoma, religious dances, performed at healing and rain-making ceremonies;
• Mwilu is a circumcision dance;
• Mbalya or Ngutha is a dance for young people who meet to entertain themselves after the day’s chores are done.
• Kamandiko, or the modern disco usually held after a wedding party.

Kamba | Akamba Tribe – Economy

The Akamba were great traders and ranged all the way from the coast to Lake Victoria and up to Lake Turkana. Ivory was one of the main barter items but locally made products such as beer, honey, iron weapons, and ornaments were also traded. They used to obtain food stocks from the neighboring Maasai and Kikuyu, as their own low-altitude land was relatively poor and couldn’t sustain the increasing population that followed their arrival in the area.

Over time, the Akamba expanded their commercial activity and wielded economic control across the central part of the land that was thereafter to be known as Kenya (from the Kikamba, ‘Kiinyaa’, meaning ‘the Ostrich Country’ derived from the reference they made to Mount Kenya and its snow cap similar to the male Ostrich), from the Indian Ocean in the east to Lake Victoria in the west, and all the way up to Lake Turkana on the northern frontier.

The Akamba traded in locally produced goods such as sugar cane wine, ivory, brass amulets, tools, weapons, millet, and cattle. The food obtained from trading helped offset shortages caused by droughts and famines experienced in their Kamba land. In the mid-eighteenth century, a large number of Akamba pastoral groups moved eastwards from the Tsavo and Kibwezi areas to the coast. This migration was the result of extensive drought and a lack of pasture for their cattle.

Kamba Witchcraft

Kamba witchcraft is a type of Bantu witchcraft that involves the use of charms, spells, and “muti” to achieve a client’s goals. According to Kamba, they don’t want to marry the daughters of witches. Therefore, witches’ daughters usually marry poor men with few cattle. The bride-wealth paid for a witch’s daughter is less than normal.

Characteristics of witches

Witches are all women and their magical power (uoi or woman’s uoi, uoiwa mundu muka) is inherited through the female line by doing a specific ritual in which mother and daughter join and shake their buttocks together, chanting a spell. Witches’ sons do not inherit uoi at all. They are not regarded as witches. Kamba witchcraft is deeply involved with femininity.

Also, witches do not use any magical medicines (miti, ndawa) or fetishes (ithitu). People explain that witches hide these kinds of things. They bewitch people by just scratching their buttocks or saying some suggestive words such as “You will see later.” Witches’ magical power originates from the inside of their bodies, specifically their genital organs, not from medicine men or others.

They cause people many kinds of misfortunes such as disease, wounds, sterility, death, and loss of work. Witches can also cause ‘disease, death, and sterility among livestock and the devastation of crops.