In my previous post, "
TOP FIVE PLACES A MUST VISIT IN KENYA" i mentioned to you that Kenya is a country highly endowed with great cultural heritage. Now in this post i want to educate and guide you to where you can get to see this cultural heritage.
Bomas is a Swahili word that means "homestead"It is situated 10 kilometers from Nairobi town and about 1 km from Nairobi National Park main entrance.It shows the main aspects of the rich African culture, their music, and dances, arts and crafts as well as living styles. It has more than 41 homesteads each representing a tribe and their way of life.
At Bomas you will not only be entertained by the African cultural dancers
but also you will also see how the African homestead was normally constructed
all the way from the gate. The structure itself comprises was
constructed in a super plan which leaves every one amazed and has super
walls that allows natural light complimented by fluorescent lighting
gets through. This means that you will get the best shots from your camera for this memorable moment!
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| the large bomas of kenya podium |
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| a tourist pausing for a photo at one of the houses |
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| a woman dressed culturally shows an african woman doing her chores |
Within the african context women were entrusted with some duties such as preparing meals for the family members. This woman dressed in Agikuyu traditional attires preparing ingredient a meal for his family. Gikuyu is the major community in Kenya and we will take it as an example to describe how the homestead was divided.
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| acrobats performing at bomas |
In any Kikuyu traditional homestead, the woman’s hut was the cradle
of the family traditions and it loomed over the traditional homestead
both in physical size and psychologically. The English word ‘house’ to
the Kikuyu mind refers to any building, but ‘house’ in Kikuyu,
Nyumba,
in the context of a home is that which was built for a specific married
woman as no two married women ever shared a house. The man’s habitation
is a
thingira and is
properly what the word ‘hut’ conjures and it is improper to refer to the
woman’s abode as ‘the woman’s hut’ as it cannot be a hut. To the Kikuyu
mind,
Nyumba, as a proper capitalized name always refers to the woman’s “house” and must be differentiated from a generic uncapitalised
nyumba, which means any building. The man’s habitation is the
thingira which however can never be capitalized as a proper name as there are many types of huts which lay claim to the name
thingira like those built for young unmarried men or exclusively for goats but generally, a
thingira is any habitation built for the exclusive use of the male gender. A
nyumba in the context of a
Kikuyu homestead refers to either a
Nyumba or a thingira without distinction. Outside this context a
nyumba means any building.
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| an african elder blesses a young tourist |
As the Kikuyu were polygamous, a traditional homestead had several
Nyumba as each wife had her own but only one man’s
thingira. Circumcised but unmarried young men had their own young men’s
thingira. Children and unmarried girls slept in the
Nyumba. Girls and even children could distribute themselves in the various
Nyumba
and all the mothers were considered common to all. Every mother treated
her co-wive’s children as her own and could feed and house them for the
night if they
fell asleep in her place listening to her fireside tales.
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| an african dance |
These
Nyumba were arranged around an open space,
Nja that accommodated many
outdoor activities especially food preparation. Each woman had a granary for her farm produce and they were all build near the entrance to this
Nja with the first wife’s,
nyakiambi being prominently nearest the entrance and the others supporting her. The man’s
thingira was also built near the entrance slightly removed from the intimate conversation the various
Nyumba made with the
Nja. The first wife ruled this inner world,
Nja
and the homestead and the man was an appendage that had a stronger
connection with the external world and the cattle krall, palisaded with a
gate visible from the man’s
thingira’s doorway. The first wife
ruled this whole arrangement and because many of her activities, drying
grain, pounding grain, cooking etc happened here, the female species
acquired the name,
Mundu-wa-Nja, or Person-of-the-Nja.
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| an example of an african homestead |
A
nyumba can have only one door which normally faced the
Nja though the man’s
thingira had its door slightly askance from the courtyard. If there were young circumcised but unmarried men, with their own
thingira it would never ever have a conversation with the
Nja
but would be located nearest the gate. After marriage young men were
expected to move out of the homestead and establish their own.
There were no partitions inside the man’s
thingira and as you
entered, you found a raised platform on your right that was the bed of
the man. Nearest the door to the head of the bed was placed on a
platform, a barrel where the food for the man was placed for his
convenience in case he was not in. Directly opposite the door was a goat
fattening pen constructed in the same manner as in the woman’s hut. The
left was left open for goats and sometimes a visitor’s bed. At the
centre was a fireplace of three stones and it could sometimes be
borrowed by the woman to cook an extra pot in the evening. On such an
occasion she would sit in the
thingira tending the pot while a
daughter tended her main fire and sat at her mother’s position. Other
times she would join the man in the
thingira when he had visitors. There was no
firewood rack above the fire except a small rack over the doorway where the man kept saline earth for his goats
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| artists perfgoaming a traditional dance |
Several posts within the space but on the man’s side,
kihanya would be used to hang his cloak,
githii and
leather bag. He would also keep his weapons, bow and arrow, spear and shield near him at the foot of his bed.
Young men’s
thingiras were arranged with
sleeping beds
on all three sides save the entrance and without a fattening pen.
Sometimes young men from neighboring homesteads could share a
thingira until they married and each established his own homestead. There was usually no fire inside the young men’s
thingira, but rather an outside one.
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| artist performing outside one of the households |
During the day in the heat, the man seated on a stool would shelter
under the shadow
of the overhang just outside his door to the left or right. His walking
stick would be beside him and if he entered inside he would go in and
leave his walking stick next to the stool. If he left the compound he
would carry the stick with him and sometimes even the stool. It was
therefore easy for anyone to tell whether the man was in or away merely
by the presence or absence of the walking stick and stool.
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| The Akamba (one of the tribes) village |
Sometimes a young couple used the
Nyumba for conjugal purposes
but this would later become impractical and undesirable as the children
grew older and then the function shifted to the
thingira more so
if he acquired many wives. Because Kikuyu men sometimes married as many
as ten wives there is an interesting story as to how this rotation was
managed.
When and why men began to live separately in a
thingira is not on record, but it is a fact that a man cannot enter the
Nyumba before all the children and animals have entered and everything has settled nicely. He MUST be the last to enter. The
thingira may have started as a warm space to kill the time while as they say, “the chickens go in” and while waiting for the
food to cook rather than waiting out in the cold or in the sometimes very noisy
Nyumba exactly the function
bars and clubs
perform today. It could then have developed into a fully fledged
habitation where he stayed permanently and entertained his friends. His
presence in the
Nyumba however remained with a symbolic stool which he rarely used.
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| tourists headed inside the african granary |
The
thingira was where the man sat in the evenings in
contemplation in front of a fire alone or with a friend and was rarely
used during the day. The
thingira was a quiet abode of contemplation, a retreat into the quiet uncluttered fundamental substance of life, -
kanyumba ka meciria, something forever gone with the “wind of change”. The
Nyumba was a noisy classroom.
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| you will also see this from Nairobi national park |
To get this and many many others its a must visit to The Bomas of Kenya for an exclusive details of the Kenyan Cul;tures.
