Lumbwa people
The Lumbwa were a pastoral community which inhabited southern Kenya and northern Tanzania. The term Lumbwa has variously referred to a Kalenjin-speaking community that lived on Mount Kenya, portions of the Maa-speaking Loikop communities since the mid-19th century, and to the Kalenjin-speaking Kipsgis community for much of the late 19th to mid-20th centuries.
By the late-19th century, the term as an identity was largely out of use, but had taken on pejorative connotations related to agricultural work. In the present day, it bears pejorative connotations related to animal sacrifice and blood-brotherhood.
Etymology
In Maasai the term Ilumbwa means 'well-diggers'. Within the Maasai pastoral culture of the 19th century, the term Lumbwa and other related terms would acquire pejorative connotations. This was related to what was seen as degrading agricultural work.The term Humba was used by various Bantu-speaking communities of the East African hinterland to refer to 19th century, Iloikop pastoralists.
In present-day central Tanzania, the Loikop were known to their Bantu-speaking neighbors as Ilumbwa because they occupied the dry steppes dotted with ancient wells.
Names in Meru tradition sound like variants of "Lumbwa".
History
Post-1507
Osório's account of the Battle of Brava bears striking similarity to conquest narratives contained within the Meru peoples origin narrative, Mbwaa. Osório's account states that following the sacking of this city, about 4,000 Bravanese and perhaps a related hinterland population moved inland into what is today the country of Somalia.The Ngaa traditions of the Meru people of Kenya indicate that the Ngaa moved through arid country following the conquest. Certain elements of the A-Athi traditions suggest a period in northern Kenya or southern Ethiopia. These narratives concur with Yaaku traditions that state that the people that would be known as Yaaku moved south, from southern Ethiopia to Mount Kenya.
The sum of these narratives and accounts tie in with numerous reports in the late 19th century of a people who were commonly known as Doko, who occupied regions south of Kaffa in Ethiopia. No accounts of the extent of their territory were recorded - though what was, portrayed a region that did not seem politically united at that the time. It was suggested that the Doko were perhaps wandering hunters. It was believed that their territory stretched as far as Mount Kenya which appears to have been confirmed when John Gregory reported meeting a few Doko individuals in regions around Laikipia. He termed these, the Doko of Laikipia, whose accounts seem to relate with those of the population commonly known as Agumba in the folklore of many central Kenya communities.
Yaaku interaction
oral history describes the arrival of their ancestors at Mount Kenya where they interacted with a community referred to as Lumbwa. The narratives relating to the arrival of the Ngaa state that there were two communities resident at the mountain at the time of their arrival. Both these communities appear more readily distinguished internally than externally. These traditions state that;Way of life
According to Igoji and Imenti in Meru, the Umpua were "tall, slender, cattle-keeping people wore shoulder-length hair, plaited into braids". The pastoral tradition it appears, would be maintained into the 20th century. Fosbrooke noted that his subjects repeatedly told him that they shared a common pastoralist origin with the "Lumbwa", who had adopted agriculture only recently.Igoji and Imenti traditions aver the 'Umpua' of the region, kept their livestock in pits at night. These 'holes' were dug by the herders and were gradually deepened as mud was removed after the wet season. They associate the archaeological landscape feature commonly known as Sirikwa holes that are found in Meru County, where they are known as "Agumba holes", to this community.
It is believed that the Lumbwa spoke an archaic Kalenjin language best represented by the Okiek dialect in the present day. This is evinced by four Umpua words recorded in Mwimbi, Meru in 1969. An elderly man said that he remembered that they had been sung about the Umpua when he was a child and are: agenge, uii, and chito and ngeta. The words have substantially the same meaning in Okiek and, to a lesser extent, in modern Kalenjin.
According to Meru traditions, the Umpua and the Agumba, a hunting community living next to them, "waged no war and...gave honey for milk". These traditions do not suggest the herder-hunter client relationship that developed among many pastoral and hunter communities of the region in later times.
Bantu interaction: c.1730
According to Fadiman's account, the traditions emerging from the period of the 'Mukuruma, Michubu and subsequent age-sets ' are told from the perspective of 'single clans, as they advanced upward into the forests or across the Tigania plain'. He notes that an analysis of the traditions indicate that the incoming communities met three non-Bantu cultures then resident at Mount Kenya. These included;- Small groups of Eastern Cushitic-speaking peoples within the woodland zone, along the mountains arid base and into the Tigania plain
- Small groups of Kalenjin-speaking peoples, inhabiting the star-grass zone and lower fringes of the montaine forest
- Somewhat larger communities of Maa-speaking peoples within the Tigania Plain and adjacent grasslands, north of the mountain itself
The accounts of interaction described in every region is identical: the Lumbwa fighting to preserve their herds, the migrants battling to seize them. In every case victory came through Meru numerical superiority, and by the end of the 1700s—except for children and captives adopted into Meru clans—the Agumba and Umpua were gone.
The dates and directions of expulsion vary slightly among Meru regions. The Lumbwa of Imenti, for instance, are said to have been pushed northeast, onto Mount Kenya's northern plains, where they held out until scattered years later by raiding Maasai. Others were gradually forced up the mountain. Initially they attempted to shelter their herds in pits dug deep in the forests and when this no longer proved possible, they fled. The Lumbwa of Mwimbi are said to have fled south.
Kagairo
Certain elements of the narrative are similar to Meru narratives of a period recalled as Kagairo. They note that sometime, "perhaps in the late 1730s" the original Ngaa nucleus separated into two segments, each of which took on an identity of its own. One was known as Mukunga and the other as Murutu. Both these sections are said to have moved in their traditional direction of march. At a point that tradition places near today's Ntugi Hill, however, they fragmented once more. The Muku-Ngaa appear to have divided into four or perhaps five smaller sections.Meru traditions states that one section of the Muku-Ngaa sections moved northward toward the heavily forested mountains of the Nyambeni range, which stretches northeast from the base of Mount Kenya. Three others are said to have moved west, into the foothills that make up the lowest portions of modern Igoji, Abogeta, and Abothoguchi. The final group drifted south sometime in the 1880s eventually entering that part of the Mwimbi region that lies adjacent to modern Muthambi, seizing this area from the early Cuka.
The directions of dispersal and order in which they are narrated bear similarity to the extent/grazing grounds of the 'Wakuafi' whom Krapf writes about in 1854, stating that;
Krapf states further on that "regarding Oldoinio eibor it is necessary to remark that by this term is meant the Kirénia or Endurkenia, or simply Kenia, as the Wakamba call it..." He does however specifically reference a community referred to as Lumbwa present in the general Laikipia region about the mid-19th century when he notes that: "To the North-East of the Neiwasha are the tribes Sukku, Sodeki, Walúmbua, Nganassa, Ndoizo, Lekipia, whence there is a journey of 24 days to Barawa on the Somali-coast...".
Iloikop wars: c.1830
Narratives recorded by MacDonald regarding the Iloikop wars state that at the time of fragmentation of the Loikop peoples, there was a certain internal jealousy that gradually developed into open conflict. MacDonald noted that;Thompson writing in 1883 also recorded accounts of the conflict, stating;
Stigand also made note of the decision and intention of the Laikipiak to "attack and completely overwhelm the southern Masai...that they might cease to exist as a tribe". However, "when the southern Masai heard that they were coming, they combined together and came forth to meet them. They met the Loikop north of Nakuru...". Stigand gave a detailed account of the battle, one that has been retold since within a number Kenyan of communities.
Thompson later recounts a trek past 'Giligili' where he noticed "an ernomous Masai kraal, which could not have held less than 3000 warriors, and then some distance beyond appeared another of equal, if not larger dimensions." On inquiry, Thompson learned that these were the respective camps of the Masai of Kinangop and Kapte, on the one hand, and the Masai of Lykipia on the other. He was told that this was; "During one of their long periods of deadly fighting, in which they thus settled down before all their cattle, and fought day after day, till one gave in".
The Meru 'Lumbwa dispersal' and 'Kagairo' narratives both indicate that a community referred to as Lumbwa moved in a southward direction. These narratives seem congruent with certain Kalenjin origin traditions recorded by Chesaina that place the 'Lumbwa' in a general south-west direction of northern Mount Kenya regions as well as the accounts regarding the Iloikop wars. Chesaina notes that the Kalenjin traditions state that,
Late 19th century
By the late 19th century, the term Lumbwa primarily referred to the Kipsigis community. Kipsigis traditions recorded by Orchadson state that the Kipsigis and Nandi had been a united identity through to the early nineteenth century. About this time they moved southwards through country occupied by Masai, "probably the present Uasin Gishu country" where they accidentally got split in two by a wedge of Masai who Orchadson records as being "Uasin Gishu living in Kipchoriat valley". Accounts from Hollis however refer to a "branch called 'L-osigella or Segelli took refuge in the Nyando valley but were wiped out by the Nandi and Lumbwa...It was from them that the Nandi obtained their system of rule by medicine-men.No date is given for this migration. However, Dobbs made notes on the initiation age-sets of the Lumbwa. He noted that the oldest age-set he could get notes on were the Maina who were initiated around 1856. None of this age-set or the following were alive at the time. He noted that the oldest interviewees and indeed the oldest Lumwba individuals at the time were between 64-67 years. He noted that they had been initiated in 1866 when they were about twelve to fifteen years old.
In spite of the oldest interviewees being alive at the time of the Maina initiations, Dobbs notes that "Although I made the most careful inquiries,I could find out nothing whatever about any circumcision age prior to 'Maina' ".
The totality of both narratives are however in congruence with the large scale movement of pastoralists from the plains into the forested areas, assimilation of forest-dwelling communities and wide-spread identity shift. A widespread trend across the region during the 19th century.
Decline of Lumbwa identity
Eliot, giving an 'account of the British East African Protectorate', stated that the inhabitants of the Lumbwa region "are closely allied to the Nandi, and speak almost the same language. They came from the north, and were formerly nomads".The Kipsigis traditions recorded by Orchadson concur on a united identity, and also give the early nineteenth century as the date of fragmentation.
According to a popular Kalenjin narrative of origin recorded by Chesaina, the Kipsigis and Nandi were a united identity for some time following a prior separation from other Kalenjin-speaking groups. They lived at Rongai near Nakuru as a united group for sometime before they were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors, notably droughts and invasion of the Maasai from Uasin Gishu.
These traditions, in toto, point to a north, north east direction of origin for the Lumbwa, subsequently followed by fragmentation of the community somewhere around Nyando Valley.