4.1 Maasai ethnic depictions of the Kamba
4.1.5 The Kamba as “unsuitable” to marry Maasai women
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cattle, cooking, shopping, fetching water and firewood. Going back to the Nkata‟s case, she is clearly a „busy‟ woman, constantly on the move selling milk to the Kamba and fairly „open-minded‟ but who takes cattle keeping as a very noble activity. To her, farming activities were tiring and less prestigious, which also reflected her attitude towards the Kamba.
Examination of the household gendered division of labour in the two groups revealed how women‟s activities, largely dictated by the modes of subsistence, are constructed and categorised into „light‟ and „hard‟ work. None of the Maasai women respondents took their workload as „light‟. However, they were unanimous on one thing; that Kamba women did
“much more”. It is worth noting here that some Maasai men did not just say that Kamba women were “hardworking” which would be a positive attribute, but rather “overworked”.
Putting it this way, the Maasai insinuated that the women were not just responding to the labour needs of their households but rather as a consequence of an oppressive Kamba patriarchal system. By so doing, the Maasai kill two birds with one stone. On the one hand, to make Kamba men unattractive to Maasai women as potential suitors, and two, to distract the attention of Maasai women from their own men who were said to be “more oppressive” and
“very restrictive”. It was also argued that Kamba men are “very uncaring...they leave their women at home, go to towns looking for jobs, they don‟t care, most us (Maasai men) stay here with our wives” (Nkari, Imaroro, 19/05/2000). Nkari‟s comments are also double-edged in that he underscores the point that Kamba men are irresponsible and at the time pours scorn on migrant wage labour, which he dismisses as an indicator of „modernity‟.158
In a nutshell, these depictions of women‟s work influence cross-ethnic relations particularly in curtailing agnatic kinship. As evident in the text, the notion that Maasai women are “lazy” has to be understood within the context/social milieu in question. It is argued that the idea of survival through cultivation of the soil scares Maasai girls.
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are to be found everywhere in Maasailand today and in the past, seldom does one find a Luo woman who is married to a Maasai.”159 This preference for circumcised women explains why intermarriage between Maasai men and Chagga women160 is quite common along the Kenya-Tanzanian border and inside Tanzania.
In spite of cherishing the notion that Maasai women are lazy, their „beauty‟, among other things, has always drawn Kamba men to Maasai women. According to the Kamba however, there has always been barriers erected by the Maasai to block such intermarriage. First, there is the issue of male circumcision. The Maasai, just like the Kikuyu in the past, circumcise men in such a way that a small piece of flesh called enteleliai is left hanging below the penis.
This is meant to maximise pleasure during sex. In fact, among the Kikuyu of Murang‟a this form of circumcision is still common, and this flesh is called ngwati (“holder”). In traditional Kamba society, this form of circumcision, perhaps copied from the Maasai, was also common in the past and the piece of flesh is called nthui, which literally means “scratcher”. Now that the Kamba do not carry out this form of circumcision anymore, young Maasai women are discouraged from marrying men “who are not properly circumcised” and therefore would not satisfy their sexual desire.
Apart from circumcision, the Maasai adopted other measures to exclude Kamba suitors. Kyuli (Kamba) narrated how unmarried Maasai girls would wear ornaments worn only by married women in order to masquerade as “untouchable” when visiting Kamba homesteads. Often, the Kamba knew this trick but aware that Maasai men could be extremely violent if their women were molested, the girls would be given the benefit of doubt. This confusion explains why Anne Mwende (Kamba, Emali) could not tell the marital status of the Maasai girl who used to bring milk to her. She simply said: “With the Maasai, you never know”. Stressing how difficult it has been for the Kamba to marry Maasai women, a 75 year old Kamba noted: “The only Maasai women I know that were married by the Kamba are those that were raided in Ukavi (Maasailand) during cattle raids” (Maithya, Ngaakaa, 29/08/2000). He referred me to one of these women but when I visited her, she insisted that she was Kamba. Among the Maasai, there are also many women who were raided from Ukambani before and during the colonial period.
“I cannot marry a Kamba”
I would like to discuss a Maasai actor, Ms Patricia Toine, a school teacher, whose father is Maasai but who has a Kamba mother. She put it simply: “My mother is a Muukamba (Kamba)
159 The Luo circumcise neither women nor men.
160 The Chagga commonly practice female circumcision.
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but I wouldn‟t marry in Ukambani...a Muukamba? nooo!” (Toine, Simba, 14/06/2000). Her reasons are that she considers herself a Maasai and therefore would not marry from where her mother came from. She is adamant about this issue of lineage noting that “we don‟t follow our mother‟s traditions...the father decides”. “Decides” here has at least two meanings. One, that in a patriarchal society descent is traced following the male line and two, that on matters of marriage, „the father‟ is the determining factor. She also said that her mother does not say
“very positive things about Ukambani161...she tells me that if Ukambani was good, she would have married there”. She continued “…Maasai ladies are not interested in marrying in Ukambani because of hardship…in Ukambani you have to cultivate, you have to work hard...Maasai believe that Kamba are ever poor...as a woman,162 you don‟t feel secure”. She stressed “shortage of land” and “fear” that a potential Maasai father-in-law may have to support the family into which their daughter married when it “should” be the other way round.
She said that her maternal uncles “are always coming for help from my father.. we hardly get anything from them...may be some beans when they harvest which they rarely do.” For all these reasons, she had decided to identify herself with what she was convinced was a higher status group. What is more, as a teacher, Patricia is regarded as a „high achiever‟ among the Maasai. This would probably not be the case in Ukambani. This evidence appeared to negate conventional assumptions that children of mixed ethnic families can choose to be “one or the other at different times” (Cottam and Cottam: 2001: 196). While that remains an option, some attention has to be drawn to the social profile of the ethnic groups involved.
Other barriers
Regarding female circumcision, it would be important to note that although there are still pockets among the Kamba where women go through this rite, the practice has decreased substantially. The Kamba herdsboy, Mutua, who worked for a Maasai pastoralist and whose experience is discussed in chapter five, cited circumcision of Maasai women as the main reason why he would not want to take a Maasai wife. Due to social transformation and change of attitudes occasioned by Christianity and schooling, very few Kamba men today would specifically seek to marry a circumcised woman. If anything, such women are a laughing stock in the Kamba society. But for those „few‟ who seek Maasai women, there is another barrier. Bridewealth among the Maasai, usually paid in cattle, is often out of reach. To make
161 The respondent made reference to territory and ethnicity interchangeably, appearing to suggest that being Kamba also embodied all that was associated with Ukambani e.g. the „hard‟ farming activities, crop failure and shortage of land.
162 Asking her whether she was restricting herself to Maasai women, she clarified that “all” women, including those of Kamba descent, feel insecure marrying Kamba men.
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matters worse, it is „fixed‟ only in theory. A Maasai father can demand several heads of cattle simply to disqualify a suitor he does not want. In fact, many murran I talked to lamented over the „competition‟ posed by senior Maasai elders who have a lot of cattle at their disposal and who are constantly seeking their third or fourth wives. In one case, Nkari, a Maasai elder, narrated how he had to assist his 23 year old son to marry a girl who was being sought by
“another man of my age”.163 They ended up giving 11 heads of cattle for the girl, which, he said was exorbitant. In addition, they had also given two sheep, sums of money, honey and sugar. Incidentally, Kenyan newspapers are awash with reports in which state officials and also relatives have to intervene to „rescue‟ school girls married off usually to old „rich‟ Maasai men. In short, courtship and marriage among present day Maasai is a far cry from the picture painted by Sankan (1971: 45-49).
Increasingly, fathers make unilateral decisions without due consultation with their spouses other elders, their age-grades or relatives. Looking at marriage arrangements among the Maasai, one could authoritatively question Peil‟s and Oyeneye‟s (1998: 66) thesis that in most African societies, cross-ethnic marriages are “still viewed” as joining of lineages and more premised on character and ancestry rather than wealth. In any case, bridewealth has never been one of the least considerations in marriage among most African groups.
Using the example of Spanish America, Banton (1983: 113) shows how different groups with different privileges and status were favoured or disfavoured in the selection of mates with whites having more room for manoeuvre. This may also apply to the Kamba-Maasai affinal relationship in that it has not been necessarily „ethnicity per se‟, as actors often implied, but rather a question of material endowment and fear of the unknown. By asking for more cattle, the Maasai have not been necessarily blocking the Kamba from marrying their daughters but out of what a Maasai elder called “uncertainty”. He explicates: “when you give your daughter to the Kamba, you see, you do not know what will happen, she might be mistreated, overworked...we don‟t like that” (Solinketi, Sultan Hamud, 26/06/2000). Asking him why the Maasai have fewer reservations about their daughters getting married to the Kikuyu, he cited their long history of interaction and similarities in the manner in which boys and girls were circumcised, and summing it up by saying that the Maasai treat the Kikuyu as “our cousins”.
He added that the Kikuyu “respect” them while the Kamba do not. This issue of “respect” is revisited in chapter five, six and eight.
Another barrier identified was the age at which Maasai girls marry. Given that they are normally ready for marriage after circumcision, which is carried out between the ages of 12
163 About 70 years.
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and 16, many Kamba men said that by the time these girls “look marriable”, say at age 18, they are already people‟s wives. Mutua made fun of the Maasai saying that “they marry girls who have no breasts,” to stress their apparent young age. Let us now look at it from the reverse side. It is safe to say that Kamba women have always married Maasai men. Mutui noted that the Kamba never mind the animal wealth they get from their Maasai in-laws. For the Maasai, what the Kamba ask for bridewealth is “cheap” particularly because many Kamba ask for goats164 which are the least valued in a Maasai herd.
These affinal relationships have also been used by the girls‟ relatives to access land in Maasailand. It was uncommon to find Kamba women married to the Maasai who had not drawn their next of kin to Maasailand. The kin could be given a small plot for cultivation or certain grazing rights. These relatives of hers also stand a better chance of being loaned cattle by the Maasai if theirs are wiped out by drought or if they need cows for milk. Nevertheless, Mutui averred that for most Kamba, a girl married to the Maasai is treated as “lost” in spite of the gains in livestock and land. Actually, it would be misleading to imply that Kamba women have no reservations about the Maasai. In many cases, Kamba parents may be willing to have their daughter marry a Maasai only for the girl to object. Kamba women are discouraged by the possibility of having to be circumcised and by what another called the “very strict culture”
involving dressing styles, a meat and milk diet, piercing of earlobes, milking of cows and fears based on “sharing of wives”. Concern was expressed regarding what was perceived as the peripheral position of women in the Maasai society. A Kamba lady, Margaret who lives in Loitokitok, said that she loathed the sight of a Maasai woman with a donkey following her husband to the trading centre where the man buys what the family needs. After moving from shop to shop and through the open air market, the goods are loaded on the donkey which the woman accompanies home while the man stays in the market centre. But while Margaret finds the idea of not providing money to the woman to do the shopping herself and at her own time
“oppressive”, Mwende, another Kamba noted: “that is the only nice thing Maasai men do to their women (laughs)...how many Kamba men can take their wives to the market centre for shopping?” What one sees as dominance and oppression is to the other an expression of care and empowerment.
Not least are the „concerns‟ expressed by Maasai girls and their parents regarding „work‟. It was stressed that Maasai women are used only to “light work”, and were therefore unwilling to marry Kamba men who would subject them to farm labour or leave them to “fend for
164 In the traditional Kamba society, only livestock , farm produce and honey could be given as bridewealth.
Asking for goats (browsers), instead of cattle, has been influenced by decreasing grazing land.
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themselves”.165 Some women (e.g. an aunt to one of my respondents) left their Kamba husbands and returned to their Maasai families and remarried. Reasons given included, language barriers, “too much work” in the farms, no cattle to milk and lack of “respect”.
Inhibitions discouraging cross-ethnic, racial and religious marriages are not a new subject. In Kenya, it is not uncommon to hear people say why they would not marry a man or woman from certain ethnic groups. Reasons advanced range from “rigidity of culture” among the Luo,
“temper” and “oppression of women” among the Kisii and the Meru, “witchcraft” among the Kamba, “laziness” among coastal communities, “backwardness” among the Maasai to
“money greed” among the Kikuyu. And as noted, the stereotypes are often based on certain plausible notions. Indeed, Peil and Oyeneye note that although many members do not fit the stereotyped models, “there is often some basis of truth which supports the stereotype” (1998:
86). Perlmann notes that ethnic stereotypes are “assumed to be somehow inherent in the nature of the group, perhaps in its biological make up” (1988: 4). What is more, these stereotypes are not confined to larger social units. Within the groups themselves, there are regionally or clan based biases. A Kamba from Makueni will tell you about the “spoilt”
women of Kangundo and Masaku.166
Elsewhere, barriers are often erected to discourage Muslim women from marrying non-Muslims, Christians against non-Christians, Protestants against Catholics (e.g. Northern Ireland) and blacks against whites (e.g. in the United States, South Africa and the United Kingdom). In many African societies, marriage inhibitions across ethnic groups are quite common. In some extreme cases, like in Rwanda, intermarriage between Hutu and Tutsi, though not categorically prohibited, was treated as something out of the ordinary (Eller, 1999).
And just like in the Kamba-Maasai case, stereotyping enhanced difference by undermining cross-ethnic affinal relations. In general, cross-ethnic marriages will be higher among people who are least subject to the control of kin. Besides, where marrying outside the group is allowed, some groups will be more preferred than others. Kamba men would rather a Maasai woman than a Kikuyu (although they are culturally closer) where as, Maasai men would rather marry a Kikuyu woman than a Kamba.
It has also been stressed that while interethnic marriages constitute an important form of social exchange, conversely, they could be instrumental in ethnic conflicts. Banton (1983:
165 In reality however, Maasai women are just as „hardworking‟ as their Kamba counterparts. To stress “light work” the respondents would conveniently exclude activities like cattle herding which has increasingly become a woman activity as children are sent to school. Worse still, in some cases, the girls are not sent to school or are forced to drop out to fill this labour gap.
166 Kangundo and Masaku constitute some of the most „developed‟ areas in Ukambani. Apart from coffee growing and a higher level of urbanisation and an early exposure to a cash economy, nearness to Nairobi and higher literacy rates makes these areas „stand out‟ in Ukambani.
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113), for instance, argues that interethnic marriages can become a fundamental form of competition and exclusion.
4.1.6 “The Kamba like women”
If you were to ask a Kenyan, leave alone a Maasai, what the Kamba are „known for‟
(stereotyped), you would most likely be greeted with a smile. For the question brings to mind witchcraft, appetite for women and cowardice. For the time being, I restrict myself to the issue of women. Stories told about the abortive coup of 1982167 assert that when armed soldiers stormed rich Kenyan-Asian neighbourhoods in Parklands, Pagan and Westland‟s in Nairobi, the Kikuyu were busy looting valuables e.g. jewellery and hard cash, the Luo were struggling to carry televisions, hi-fi systems, videos and sofa sets, while the Kamba targeted women.
When the coup was finally quelled, the story goes that the Kamba soldiers had “nothing” to show for it. In everyday life, it is said that when several Kamba men sit together, they are likely to talk about women while the Kikuyu would be talking about ways of making money as the Luo exchange notes on their real and imagined academic credentials. A Kenyan will not believe you if you dismiss these generalisations. Having been a particularly interested party in stereotypes during fieldwork, what struck me most is not that Kamba men like women or spend lots of time talking about them but rather how convinced the non-Kamba groups are about it.
In their depiction of Kamba sexual life, the Maasai are relatively more reserved. Whereas the Kamba portray Maasai‟s sexual practices as unsavoury, the Maasai simply put it that Kamba men have appetite for women. These two versions expose certain differences. In their stereotype, the Maasai exclude Kamba women. Two, while the Kamba see Maasai
„promiscuity‟ as largely restricted within the Maasai society, Kamba men were said to be
„dangerous‟ to any woman irrespective of her ethnicity. In fact, a Maasai school teacher averred that one reason why the Kaputiei Maasai were unwilling to stop female circumcision was the “imminent threat” posed by Kamba men.
Strange enough, when I started inquiring about incidences that would support Maasai depictions of Kamba men, hardly anyone came up with a credible observation. Instead, I was confronted with narratives that involved Maasai men and Kamba women. This was interesting as Maasai men had tended to „exonerate‟ Kamba women. In Emali, a Kamba chief told me how he had to resolve a sexual dispute where a prominent Kamba businessman‟s wife had a Maasai lover.168 The businessman reported that the love affair had resulted in the infection of
167 In reference to the Kenya Air Force abortive coup detat staged in August 1982.
168 Maasai men were said to lure Kamba women with money in exchange for sexual favours.
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his wife with a venereal disease. After he was infected with the disease, apparently by his wife, he beat her up to reveal where she had got it from. That is how a Maasai man came into the picture. After the treatment of the disease, the man came to the chief to seek his intervention.
When the chief asked him what he expected his office to do, he was quoted as having said:
“The man who has done this to my wife is a Maasai, you must do something”. The chief said that it was quite unlikely that the Kamba man would have reported the incident to him if the one accused was another Kamba. He noted: “He knew that he could very easily get a handsome compensation from the suspect...he also knew that the Maasai have fear for authorities” (Chief, Emali, 21/08/2000).
The chief decided not to act, arguing that his being a multiethnic locality, the Maasai would have protested against any move that would have jeopardised their “name”, dignity and possessions. Apart from the monetary motive, the wronged man appeared to have been keen to paint the Maasai as people infested with all sorts of diseases, which fits into an earlier assertion that they were a “risk group”. The chief could not clarify why the Maasai “feared”
authorities for this claim went contrary to Maasai reputed courage, pride and readiness to defend their interests. Chapter seven, which examines how the Kamba and Maasai relate with the state, sheds more light on this.