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Every
Sengwer family has its own clan name. In general, clan names give security
since members of the same clan name have to help each other and can not be
ennemies. The name is chosen according to an event. History of the clan name Talai: at a time, a bird warned the people to escape because a rock would fall of the sky. Most people did not listen to the bird; they were covered by the rock and died. The only ones who survived were those who listened to the bird and they were named Talai. |
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The
clan name indicates people who belong to the same ancestors. If people
want to marry, the first thing they must do is to check the clan name and
totem of each other. If they are from the same clan name and totem, they
can not marry. If they are from different clan names and totems, old men and
women will look into the past of these people to check if the two clans or
totems married before and if these marriages gave healthy chidren who
lived long. If so, the marriage is authorised. On the contrary, if
previous similar marriages brought problems, the people are not allowed to
marry. Besides, a man can not marry a second wife if she has the same totem as the first wife. |
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The
totem can also give other restrictions. For example people who have the
totem "buffalo" are not allowed to kill and eat buffalo. |
Before the colonial time, Sengwer used to be hunters, gatherers and honey collectors. They also cultivated and kept animals.
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Hunting
was the main occupation of the Sengwer community. It was the main source
of daily food for the families. Different tools wer used to hunt: spears
and poisoned and unpoisoned arrows for example. People could be directly
involved in hunting or they could use traps. |
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When
hunters were directly involved, there were two technics: - Sakas: a group of people organised a hunting. Before the planned day, some people looked for foot prints of wild animals in the forest to find the richest place. In the forest, hunters divided themselves into five groups: in front, in the middle, on the two sides and behind. This type of organisation was appropriate in the plains for big animals such as elephants and buffalos. - Kwo: this hunting was done by an individual man and his wife. It was mainly done early in the morning or late in the evening. It targeted animals which either were going to their hiding place after grazing or coming from hiding looking for food. It was also an opportunity to check the traps. |
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The use of traps was mainly the work of and individual man and his wife. They laid various types of traps, depending on what type of animals they were looking for, and laid them on the routes used by the animals. For big animals such as elephants and buffalos, a deep hole was dug along the path of the animals and the soil was taken away. Then pieces of strong cut trees were sharpened and placed strategically on the trench which was later covered by sticks and grass. |
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Gathering
was mostly done by women. According to the season, they went to the forest
or to open land to collect some fruits they picked from trees. Some of the
fruits was used mixed with honey and eaten as a whole meal. |
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Besides
fruits, Sengwer were very good at collecting honey. Men collected honey in
the forest. They could used beehives they themselves made or get honey out
of natural places like holes in trees or places under stones. Honey was very important for Sengwer peoples. There were different ways of using honey besides using it as food: - honey could be mixed with water as a daily drink (mainly for breakfast), and beer could even be made out of it (for marriages and other ceremonies). - honey also played a major role in the marriage ceremony. Before marriage, honey was given to the mother of the girl as part of the dowry. The night before the marriage, both wife and husband had to smear honey on their future house, each starting in a different direction until they met and united. - honey was also used as a medicine to repulse animals. People put on their body a mixture whose strong smell repulsed mosquitoes. It also worked as a vicks for relieving muscle pain. Another smelly mixture was spread around the compound so as to keep wild animals at distance. |
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A
variety of millet and sorghum was cultivated by the Sengwer peoples. They
used shifting cultivation and changed their place of cultivating every
three years, but the houses stayed at the same place. They used different instruments for digging, clearing and cutting. Transplanting and harvesting was mostly done by women and children because men were oft away hunting. |
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It
is not clear when the Sengwer started keeping animals. There is a story that a long time ago, the Maasai asked the Sengwer to lend them a quiver. When they return it, they told the Sengwer that a lizard escaped from the quiver. The Sengwer told the Maasai that they had now lost their food and that the Maasai should give them part of their food, a cow. This could be the first introduction of cows among Sengwer. Another story relates that Sengwer had some cattle at the end of the 19th century but that the Karamojong and the Maasai stole the animals from them. Other say that cows, goats and sheep came with the arrival of white people in the early 1900's. |
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Besides honey and fruits the Sengwer mainly ate meat, sutek (the soup of an animal), porridge and ugali made of millet and fruits. They only had breakfast and dinner but served food and drinks when visitors came. |
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The
Sengwer had different kinds of houses: - Chemukukun: this is the main house, where the father stays. It includes a kitchen. - Chepnepis: it is the house for children and the grandmother. - Aripcho: it is the house for the blacksmith who makes arrows, spears, bows, quivers, beehives...It is also the place where men visitors are welcomed. - Kerio: it is a house used for emergency. It was constructed when people had to run away from danger. The first two houses wer permanent while the last two were temporary. The houses were mainly built by men, women assisted them by looking for grass to cover the roof and by putting mud on the walls.
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It
is believed that the
first white people came to Sengwer land around 1600. The Sengwer
feared them because they thought these people were the children of the
lightning who came to grab their land and animals. The strong age-group,
Pkoimet, started to fight with them and chased them away. After this the
Arabs and Wa Swahili came to exchange their beads for ivory. |
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At
the beginning of the 20th Century the Europeans came again. Because they
were accompanied by Africans this time, the Sengwer did not start to fight
with them. But some women remember that they were very afraid of this
strange people and runned away to avoid meeting them again. This gave the
Europeans space to settle themselves and start farming. |
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The
Sengwer did not know that their land had been divided by the colonial
government and given out from 1911 to the white settlers. When the
Europeans settled themselves and the Sengwer got used to them, they
started to get in contact with each other. The Europeans were very kind to
the Sengwer because they wanted the Sengwer to help them with making the
poles for fencing and giving them milk. They leased land to the Sengwer
for one or two cows in a year. As soon as the whites got some bulls
through this land leasing they started to breed cattle themselves, so that
they did not need the help of the Sengwer people anymore. |
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Around
1930s the whites were well settled and started to chase away the Sengwer
and other tribes like the Pokot who used to graze with their animals on
Sengwer land. Little by little, the Sengwer came to understand the
situation, but it was to late. They were pushed from the fertile places to
other places where it was difficult to cultivate (hills or forest). The
Europeans tried to force the Sengwer to work for them and to build the
railway. But the Sengwer felt bitter because they had been chased away
from their land and were treated irrespectfully (it is said that the
whites used to pull the hair of the Sengwer out of their heads), so most
of them refused to work for the whites. As a consequence the whites
attracted other tribes to work for them. |
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The
Sengwer did not participate actively in the struggle for independence
because of their ignorance about the situation, the lack of education and
of leadership. Besides, they were mainly concentrated on getting their
land back. |
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The
Sengwer chiefs: Arap Kamuseng, Arap Kapelio, Kiptise and Arap Tuikong
complained through the Court about the lost of their land. They informed
the land commission in 1932 about their problems, but until
today they didn’t get back all their original land. |
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At
independence in 1963 every tribe wanted to celebrate their freedom on
their traditional land. The Sengwer thought their land was given back.
They were invited by some whites to come and play the traditional guitar.
Later, after Uhuru day, they realized their original land was given to
other tribes like Nandi, Marakwet, Pokot, Kikuyu, Luhya and Kisii, mainly
to the people who worked for the whites. These tribes took the leadership
and started to oppress the Sengwer. Assimilation started, cultural
practices were influenced and the social economic status did not improve
like it did for the other tribes. It brought misunderstanding within the
community. So for the Sengwer there was no difference between the colonial
and Kenyan government. They were very confused because they heard every
tribe got back their original land, but because of their ignorance how to
get the land back others took the advantage and got the land. |
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During
the reigning time of Kenyatta (1963-1978) most land was given to his
tribe, Kikuyu, his friends and powerful, popular people in order to get
votes. A good example for this is when in 1971, both Kikuyu and Sengwer
danced for the President to ask for their land. After this the Kikuyu got
land back, the Sengwer however did not. |
The
consequences of losing land for the Sengwer were not only losing a place to live
but also a place to hunt, to collect honey, and to find their traditional
medicines.