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YOUTH
(Mary prefers to talk about what was-though most
of these things are still in practice today).
Men were not allowed near where a child was being
born. They hang around the fringes of the homestead.
Once the midwife announced the sex of the child,
the men and others were informed through ululations.
Five ululations meant the child was a boy while
four signified a girl.
Mary says that the child and mother remained
in seclusion until the umbilical cord of the child
was ‘cut’. Naming was held after the
seclusion was over.
Specific rules were followed in naming the child
as follows: If the couple was married, the first
boy and girl were named after their grandfather
and grandmother on the husbands side respectively.
The second boy and girl after the wife’s
father and mother respectively. Other children
were also thus alternated between husband and
wife’s sides. For example, if a couple had
six children, four boys and two girls, they would
be: husband and wife’s fathers and mothers,
plus the first brother of each.
A child belonged to the community. The role of
bringing him or her up and caring for the mother
was thus communal. The mother was taken care of
by other women in the community.
These especially ensured she did not tend to
difficult chores until she fully recovered. The
villagers thus brought her firewood, water, food
etc. Chores, especially farming, were done in
turns. The father however provided the basic needs.
Grand parent s and other siblings kept the child
company, teaching him or her the ways of the people.
A mother was put on a special diet. Traditionally,
husbands slaughtered animals for their recuperating
wives. The meat and especially soup would enable
the wife to recover. Otherwise, the mother’s
diet would especially be rich in proteins and
vitamins. Liquids were also taken in plenty.
Notably, among the Agikuyu, there is a special
kind of dark bean called ‘NJAHI’, which
every new mother was and is still given. So closely
is ‘NJAHI’ associated with new mother’s
that those who go to ‘see’ the new mother-taking
her various gifts, use a common phrase: “I’m
going to eat NJAHI at so and so’s place”.
NJAHI has it’s opposite number in another
brown bean called “NJUGU’ which was
for the new initiates.
She does not know of any medication unless the
mother fell sick. She however says there were
certain prescriptions made by the midwife constituting
of special herbs with the ability to “cleanse”
her stomach-womb.
GROWING UP
Most toys were improvised. Today, for example,
boys make cars using tins or wires and whatever
other material. They also make balls using polythene
papers or rags.
Children are also taught songs and games. They
learn these from elder children.
A lot is taught to the young before age ten.
Grandparents, who spend much time with the children
are especially involved in the training. Girls
are taught by their grandmothers and boys the
grandfathers. Oral narratives, songs, poems, riddles,
proverbs etc. are a good tool traditionally used
to inculcate social mores and values in the young.
Circumcision is the rite of passage from childhood
to adulthood. Traditionally, both boys and girls
underwent this ritual cut. Mary doesn’t specify
whether this is the case today. (Girls no longer
undergo the cut among the Agikuyu of the writer’s
Kiambu district).
After circumcision, the initiates were put in
seclusion through out the period of recovery.
They were taught in groups. The girls by an elderly
woman and the boys by an elderly man. The teaching
was aimed at preparing them to be responsible
men and women in community.
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