Chapter I

The Tharaka: economic and social life The Tharaka are one of nine tribes in wych are divided the Meru, the Bantu-Hamites of Mount Kenya. Administratively, they belong to the Eastern Province, and live in the Tharaka Division of the Meru District. A group of them, the Thagichu, was incorporated in the Kitui District, and another lives in Likoni, Mombasa. In the 1969 census they were 51, 883 (Rep. of Kenya, 1970) in 1944 they were 13, 016 (Lambert, 1947, 2). In the precolonial period they formed a homogeneous tribe. They were having characteristics of political, cultural and linguistic unity sufficiently defined, as to distinguish themselves from the other eight Meru tribes.

1. The Environment Tharaka is a hilly territory that from an height of approximately one thousand metres on the last layers of the massif of the Mount Kenya, slops gradually down towards east, reaching a minimum height of three hundred metres, bordering with the North-Eastern Frontier desert. It is marked by gorges dug by the courses of many rivers, that nearly all descend from Mount Kenya and flow into river Tana. From east to west the most important river are: the Mutonga with its tributaries: Thuci, Tharia, Mara (to which affluents the Ruguti) and the Kitheno; the Kathita with its tributaries: Thingithu, Kuuru, and Thanandu. Further to the east, we have the river Thananga with the Mooku affluent. And lastly the river Ura. Tharaka is strewn over about twenty hills. Some of them are approximately height from 500 to 600 m. from the territory lower level. Therefore they reach about 1.400 1.500 m. of altitude above sea level. The territory is almost entirely covered by the savanna, but along the gorges grow galleries of high trees, and even some hills are covered by bushes. Long time ago the savanna was populated by herds of gazelles, zebras, giraffes, buffaloes, rhinoceros, pythons and hippos. Today the mayor part of these animals have retreated to the Meru National Park, part of which occupies the eastern Tharaka area across river Ura. Tharaka territory presents itself arid in spite of the many rivers that flow across it. This is due to the depth of the gorges in which the rivers are flowing. The climate is hot and dry. The seasonal cycles are divided into four. two rainy and two dry. They alternates in the following way; rainy season, that runs from approximately mid-October to the end of December (Kiatho), dry season, that runs from January to about mid-March (Muratho); rainy season, that runs from June to the end of May (Nthano) and dry season, from the end of June to mid-October (Thano). The period of major heat is in correspondence to the months of February till mid-March, and September till mid-October. The hot seasons reach their climax in the days before the beginning of the two rain season. The coolest months are June and July. The temperature varies sensibly from days to night even simply from sun to shadow. During the rainy season Tharaka is green, while in the other season the dominant colours are the yellow of the dry plants and the reddish-ocre of the dusty earth. With a certain frequency long periods of semi-drought and of drought take place with letal effects on the animals and human beings.

2. The economy The traditional Tharaka economy was, and still is almost integrally today, of subsistence. It is founded on an equilibrated relationship with the environment of which it exploits, without changing it too much, the natural possibilities using elementary but functional technology. From the environmental situation they derive the principle traditional activities: gathering, hunt, apiculture, stock-raising and agriculture. The agricultural activity is relatively recent. In such economy the basic resources are constituted by the land and the livestock. Traditionally land belonged to the tribe. Every had the right to cultivate wherever he liked, as long as the area was free. Generally Tharaka people came to respect certain customs of land tenure that secured cultivating and grazing areas to every clan. The agricultural products were of the extended family. The collective property of the land persisted till 1965, when is Tharaka started the land consolidation according to the governmental Land Settlement Scheme, that assigned the land title deed to the nuclear family. The livestock property was traditionally of the clan. With the progressive disintegration of the traditional social system, this passed to the hands of the extended family, and actually in that ones of the nuclear family. The working tools were personal property and the large part of them made by the owner. The production followed criteria of the division of work according to the sex and age. The working performances followed the principle of reciprocity according to the kinship relationship. Such criteria are still partially respected, though today progressively goes entering the payment of the labourers. The distribution of products essential to survival, in the past run according to the relationship derived from the kinship and the age classes system, following the reciprocity principle. Only the surplus and the artisan products were exchanged at the market. The distribution system has progressively gone corrupting itself following the fate of the resources property system, and of the division of the work.

a. The gathering The economic activity, tied to the collection of spontaneous fruits from the trees or the catching of small insects, has completely disappeared at the adult level of both sexes. Very common instead is still the capture of termites during their nuptial flight. It is officially considered as child activity. Much rare is instead the capture, for alimentary purpose, of the other insects. Only once, in Ntugi, one of the most traditional areas in Tharaka, I saw some children capturing some insects similar to hornets, and eat them at that instant.

b. The hunt

The hunt is practised by the males, excluding the elders. The children hunt birds and small rodents, the adults bigger animals. The adult hunters constitute the big society of hunters (kiama gia waathi). It is an interclanical society of which all can be members and, till some twenty years ago, they were. One entered trough a specific initiation, now practically in disuse, that took place in particular bushes called waathi, closed with magical rites. The society of the hunters was controlled by the society of investigators (kiama gia uthigani). Its members, the investigators (athigani sin. muthigani) were the most excellent and brave hunters. They carried out the role ecological equilibrium upset by the indiscriminate killing of the animals. Actually, such institution has lost any authority. Hunting is regulated by the Kenyan laws, that consider poachers all those who have not got the regular shooting licence distributed by the authorities to those who posses a hunting rifle and pay the prescribed fee. Since no Tharaka practice two fundamental types of hunting: that with the bow and arrow (waathi), and that with the traps (utegi). The first is that held in major consideration and universally practised. The hunting with the how and arrows is a collective activity, eminently social, even if it is contemplated the possibility of individual hunting. The hunting with traps is an activity carried out individually. In both cases, nevertheless, the division of the meat of the prey is subjected to precise rules. The killed animals are the property of the group. Infact the hunters' song says, "The true hunter hunts for the other hunters in eight different places, of the ninth carries (the meat) to the other hunters (that did not take part in the hunting)" (Uu, uu, ukuguimira aathi ngongo inyanya, ya kenda akenukiria aathi) (cfr. pg. ). Part of the killed animals meat is eaten directly in situ by the hunters, the other is carried to their families and to the other people that are linked to them by classificatory kinship relations. The rules for the division of the meat are the following: - A foreleg with the relative shoulder (guoko) are for the one who killed the animal (mutumbiri). - The bacon (rutuo) belongs still to the one who killed the animal. - A part of the legs is given to the classificatory sons and daughters of the age unit (aana ba nthuke) of the hunter who killed the animal. - The one who shot the prey receives also the chest, the posterior with the remaining part of the legs, the skin and tail, which he adorns himself with as a a trophy. - To the other hunters belongs the "meat of the hunters" (nyama cia aathi), that is roasted and eaten together right at the place. This meat consist of: - the remaining complete foreleg - the pluck and the intestines (mara) - the head (kiongo) - if the animal is ruminant, the solid contents of the rumine is squeezed on the skin of the animal and the liquid drunk by the hunters that want it. - Part of the legs is for him who skin the animal (muthinji). - Another part for him who furnished the arrow (in the case that it did not belong to the one that killed the animal). - The other part is for the one who furnished the poison (if it is not of the one that killed the prey or grave the arrow). - These parts are given to the nthaka of the age unit (nthuke) (II) of the hunter who killed the animal, or to the owners of the arrow and of the poison, if these were not of the former.

c. The apiculture

The expression used by the Tharaka to indicate the apiculturist "capturer of bees" (mutegi wa njuki), shows that the Tharaka consider the apiculture an activity related to the hunting with traps (utegi). Apiculture is still today one of the relevant economical activities of the Tharaka. Walking across the savanna, and expecially crossing cultivated fields, we can see some empty logs closed at their extremities by two wooden covers. They are the rudimentary be-hives of the Tharaka. Apiculture is a work of adult men. The honey does not come to be refined. Crude, mixed with some wax and some stunned bees it is placed in a cylindrical container made of skin (giempe gia uuki). A minimal quantity of honey is eaten, while the major part of it is used to prepare hydromel (uuki). This is the traditional drink of the elders and even one of the most important ritual elements of the Tharaka. d. Livestock breeding The savanna environment is suitable to the breeding of the native sheeps and goats. It is less adapted, especially in some places, to the breeding of bigger livestock, wether for the lack of good pastures or for the presence of the tse-tse fly that kill them. In some areas the Tharaka breed the local zebu, small and poorer than the borana cows, that constitute the herd of some of the nomadic tribes in the neighbouring areas. The breeding technics of the Tharaka are that of permanent pasturing. The herds can be made to graze anywhere outside the cultivated fields. This happens even actually after the land consolidation the assignment of the title deed to singles families. The pastoral activity is traditionally of the elders assisted by the uncircumcised boys and the girls not excissed. Apart from the ovine and the bovine, the Tharaka breed chicken. The economical importance of poultry keeping is however of little relevance. The hens produce very few eggs (about eighty per year), that generally are not eaten by anybody. Poultry meat in past times was consumed only by the uncircumcised boys and excised girl, but now comes exceptionally to be eaten also by some adults. The Tharaka do not consider livestock as the usual source of food, but rather as the basic element for social transition (for example like those matrimonial and giudiciary) and for sacrificial rites. As a mere source of food, it is used only in occasion of particular social happenings: feasts, meetings of the elders, etc. Anyhow, even in such cases, the social functions carried out by livestock meat are also as important, if not superior, as that of the satisfaction of the basic need of nutrition. The goats and the sheep are the domestic animals usually immolated in the sacrifices or slaughtered for the celebration of the feasts. The meat of the sacrificed animal is eaten according to the rules of the rite. The animal killed in occasion of feasts comes to be divided under the following rules: - The elders receive the head and the spleen (kiongo, muragi wa rwngu). - The elders (male and female) receive the liver (itema). - The mothers receive the mammaries (nyento). - Uncircumcised boys, who have conducted the herds to graze, receive the testicle (nkai). - The uncircumcised boys and the unexcissed girls that pastured the herds receive some pieces of meat (rutue) and the ribs (mbaru) as a reward.

- He who skins the animal receives the intestins (mara), that he divides with the mothers and the small children. He receives also one of the front legs (kuguro kwa mbere) and the neck (nkingo). - The remnants (ara) and both the hind legs are eaten by all the members of the extended family (mucii). - The neighbours receive as a gift a foreleg (kuguro kwa mbere). The meat is roasted on the embers and eaten not well done. The part of the meat that eaten by the whole family, sometimes is chopped and prepared as a stew mixed with flour of millet and local vegetables, such as the nchugu (caianus indicus) the nthuruku (vigna unginculata) and some herbs. With the fat of the tail (kinyanya) (12) of the sheep is prepared an oil (maguta ma ng'ondu) used as a cosmetic by the women and also a ritual element in some initiation stages. The skin of the goat and sheep in past times was used to make garments: as the pubic rectangle (ntiba) worn by excised girls, the matrimonial apron (kithari) worn by married women, and the front strip (nhio, tail) and the hind rectangle (mburuita, mbaranya) worn by the elders. With the skin of the zebu was made up the clock (nkalionga) worn by the warriors to protect themselves in the battle from clubs or stick blows. The skins still today are used to construct quivers (thiaka) drums, (giempe), and cilindrical containers to keep honey (giempe gia uuki). The horns of the zebu are used as containers or as drinking cups. At present the skins are generally sold to traders who buy them at the principal markets of the Tharaka. As regards the production of milk, it is very scarce in the ovines, that are never milked, and irrelevant also in the zebu: the maximum production rate per animal per day they is of one and a half litre. e. The agriculture The technics of cultivation are those arcaic of the shifting cultivation and the rotational bushfollow slash-and-burn. They are, obviously, differentiated according to the area to cultivate. Along the river slopes, where thick shrubby bushes grow up to two or three metres in height, and between scattered high up, in order to burn the dry grass. This technic has been integrally followed till about the end of sixties when the land started being demarcated. Actually, the rotation takes place inside the boundaries of the private property. The agricultural tools are still those traditional: iron digging stick, the machet (panga), and the iron axe (kathoka). Some individuals, very few, had started using the toothed hoe. The main cultivations are: millet, sorghum, cassava, two local vegetables (nohugu and nthuruku) and some bananas, pawpaws and mangoes. Along the embarkments of the rivers one can find even little tabacco. and sugar-cane fields. The insufficiency of the rains and the absence of the artificial irrigational system makes it impossible to cultivate maize, beans, potatoes, wheat and of other crops that grow well in more elevated areas of the Meru highlands. The principal dishes prepared with these products are: - Irio, made of millet flour, sorghum flour, nchugu, nthuruku, at times grains of maize, plus some leaf of herbs, and rarely pieces of meat, and salt. These elements can be present all together or in part, according to the disponibility. The irio presents itself as a stiff porridge, sometime stuffed with grains and chops of meat. It can be eaten straight away it can be carried during long journeys or at work - Ucuru, porridge made of millet flour or sorghum flour. It is a drink conserved and transported in calabashes (gikiri). It is used the same widely used. - Nkima, dense porridge of millet or sorghum flour. It is used the same way as the ucuru. - Marua, fermented drink prepared with millet flour.

- Ncobi, fermented drink prepared from the sugar-cane juice. The cane can also be chewed expecially during journeys. As was said, the arcaic traditional technics of cultivation are nearly integrally followed today. In the last ten-fifteen years have been started in Tharaka some projects of agricoltural developments at first by the christian missionaries and than by the Kenyan Government. The oldest is the "Nkondi Agricoltural Scheme" of the protestant mission of Marimanti. The most recent is the one of the experimental farm connected to the "Meru Boys' Home". The central Government of Kenya had up in Tharaka some Agricolture Camps. The management was assigned to the Assistant District Agricolture Officers, who are under the Assistant Agricolture Officer, who resides in Chiakariga. He also depends upon the District Agricolture Officer who resides in Meru Tora. The local Government, meru Country Council, organised two small experimental agricoltural farms at the limits of the Tharaka territory, along the road that leads to the centre of Meru District. Anyhow the importance of these agricoltural development structure is still minimal. In 1967 it was started, on large scale, an experiment of cotton cultivation. The results, from the production's point of view, were satisfactory. Unfortunately not as much can be said of its effects on the culture. In a situation of the relative socio-cultural disintegration, as the Tharaka present one, the possibility of receiving sums of money all at once has first of all favoured individualism and alcoholism. Four of five tractor have arrived in Tharaka to serve in the cotton cultivation. Thus the Tharaka have had a sudden passage from the arcaic system, described before, to a mechanized agricolture dependent on external credits. The process of change lacked the necessary passage trough the intermediate technology that could permit the Tharaka to control and construct themselves their agricoltural development. Nevertheless it could still be possible to stimulate a more suitable type of agricoltural development since the effect of the Cotton Scheme is little relevant as compared to the with of the Tharaka territory.

f. The handicraft and the trade Traditional Tharaka handicraft was not very developed. Yet it was functional and efficient for the traditional style of life. Most of the objects were constructed directly by those who were going to utilize them. Some works, like the building of family or public houses, were carried out collectively with a distinction of the roles according to the sex and the age. The materials utilized the handicraft were derived directly from the surroundings. The more usual; wood for bows, arrows, quivers, spears, clubs, drums, beehives, digging-sticks, or for hut construction; agricoltural products, as gourds, to make containers of different size and shapes, even snuffboxes, ornaments and ceremonial masks; clay for making pots, bellows terminal pipes, etc. Other materials were taken from hunting or stoc-raising secondary products: skin for drums, clothing, ornaments and parts of skin for the composed objects; horns to make containers and ornamental object, musical instrument or digging tools; animal teeth as ornaments, trophies or amulets. The handicraft work, as the work in general, was divide according to the age and the sex. Everyone could exchange in the market the exceding manufactured produce. There were people particularly able in the manufacturing of certain objects that they managed to become customers. The only really specialized activity was that of the blacksmith (aturi, sing. muturi). The Tharaka narrate that when they arrived in Tharaka, they met there the Gumbwa, a people who already knew how to work the iron and from when they learnt the art of blacksmith.

In some areas - expecially near Chiakariga, that according to the Tharaka, was the Gumbwa centre - you can find heaps of terra cotta pipes outcropping from the ground. They were the terminals to the bellows made of goat skin, and that the Tharaka attribute to the Gumbwa. The blacksmiths' workshop was made of, and still is today in the major part of cases, by a conical shed roofed with grass. In the centre there were three stones among which was placed some charcoal. The fire was made up by means of the goat skin conical bellow. Fixed at the bases it was having two small boards, that closing themselves, imprisoned the air in the bellow, this with the rapid movement of the hand was compressed and sent in the terra cotta pipe that ended under the burning charcoal. The iron was extracted by means of fusion from the sand of some torrents. The main blacksmith's product were: sword, knives, stilettoes, spears, arrows and digging sticks heads, iron axes cutting and carving wood. These products were commissioned directly by the customers or exchanged directly in the market. The Tharaka traded their products not only in their market but also in those of the other Meru tribes'. usually the women carried the goods while the warriors escorted them to defend them from wild animals and enemies. The colonization introduced the monetary system and gave an impulse to foreign trade. Thus the Tharaka markets were invaded by the foreign industry's by-products. They were sold in the shops of the Indians, Pakistans and also of some African dealers. Thus the local Tharaka market centres today are consisting of some shops (nthuka) and of one or more canteens they sell local fermented beers (ncobi, marua, nuki), imported alcoholic drinks (beer, expecially Tusker) and Fanta, Coca-Cola, Seven-up, Schweppes, etc. These pubs at times can be also restaurants or inns. In the shop they sell most diversified of goods. You can buy medicines for malaria and worms, chewing-gums, cigarettes, sweets, plastic shoes, dresses and gaudy colours cloths; utensils and tools such as aluminium pots, iron basins, knives, axes, hoes, machets, spoons, and also petroleum lamps, candles, chemical products, etc. All of poor quality and at exorbitant prices. In 1969 a machet costed four Kenya Shillings, the equivalent of four working days of a labourer; a spoon costed one shilling, approximately one working day day. The economy of profit has overlapped the traditional one of subsistence and has allowed the industries and foreign trade to suck the little that was available from the population. And it has permitted to the businessmen (only two or three Tharaka and the rest Indians) to concentrate in their hands discrete capital However the phenomenon is still incipient. Neither the trade nor the land privatisation have been able to outline the social classes, but only the economical rise of some individuals.

(12) During the faet food abundance period the shepp stored the fat in their tails: the sheep utilised that during the thin periods. The Tharaka appreciated the fat from the sheep's tail very much. They say that envious one could cut off the shpee's tail of the envied one.