INTRODUCTION

The Kamba or Wakamba people are a Bantu ethnic group who live in the semi-arid formerly Eastern Province of Kenya stretching east from Nairobi to Tsavo and north up to Embu, Kenya. This land is calledUkambani which is currently constituted by Makueni County, Kitui County and Machakos County.

Sources vary on whether they are the third, fourth or the fifth largest ethnic group in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Kikamba language as a mother tongue. The Kamba are predominantly based in Machakos, Kitui and Makueni Counties of Kenya.

 ORIGIN

The Kamba are of Bantu origin. Like the closely related Kikuyu, Embu, Mbeere and Meru, they are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Kamba’s ancestors migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa is uncertain.

Some argue that the Kamba are a relatively new ethnic group, having developed from the merger of various Eastern Bantu communities in the vicinity of Mount Kilimanjaro around the 15th century. They are believed to have reached their present Mbooni Hills stronghold in the Machakos District of Kenya in the second half of the 17th century.

LANGUAGE

The Kamba speak the Kamba language (also known as Kikamba) as a mother tongue. It belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo language family.

Population;

The total population of the Kamba stands at approximately 4.1 million. The Kamba are also called Akamba or Wakamba.

RELIGION AND BELIEFS

Like the Maasai and the Agikuyu, the Akamba believe in a monotheistic, invisible and transcendental God, Ngai or Mulungu, who lives up in the sky (yayayani or ituni). Another venerable name for God is Asa, or the Father. He is also known as Ngai Mumbi(God the creator) Na Mwatuangi (God the finger-divider). He is perceived as the omnipotent creator of life on earth and as a merciful, if distant, entity. The traditional Akamba perceive the spirits of their departed ones, the Aimu or Maimu, as the intercessors between themselves and Ngai Mulungu. They are remembered in family rituals and offerings / libations at individual altars. Akamba people are also well known through the witch craft.

TRADITIONS AND CUSTOMS    

In Akamba culture, the family (Musyi) plays a central role in the community. The Akamba extended family or clan is called mbai. The man, who is the head of the family, is usually engaged in aneconomic activity popular among the community like trading, hunting, cattle-herding or farming. He is known as Nau, Tata, or Asa. Naming of children is an important aspect of the Akamba people. The first four children, two boys and two girls, are named after the grandparents on both sides of the family. The first boy is named after the paternal grandfather and the second after the maternal grandfather. Girls are similarly named. Because of the respect that the Kamba people observe between the varied relationships, there are people with whom they cannot speak in “first name” terms.

 MUSIC, SONGS AND DANCE

The Akamba people’s love of music and dance is evidenced in their spectacular performances at many events in their daily lives or on occasions of regional and national importance. In their dances they display agility and athletic skills as they perform acrobatics and body movements. The Akamba dance techniques and style resemble those of the Batutsi of Rwanda-Burundi and the Aembu of Kenya. The earliest, most famous and respected traditional Kamba soloist who can be documented was Mailu Mboo. Dances are usually accompanied by songs composed for the occasion (marriage, birth, nationally important occasion), and reflect the traditional structure of the Kikamba song, sung on a pentatonic scale. The singing is lively and tuneful. Songs are composed satirizing deviant behavior, anti-social activity, etc. The Akamba have famous work songs, such as Ngulu Mwelela, sung while work, such as digging, is going on. Herdsmen and boys have different songs, as do young people and old. During theMbalya dances the dance leader will compose love songs and satirical numbers, to tease and entertain his / her dancers

TRADITIONAL CUISINE

The woman, whatever her husband’s occupation, works on her plot of land, which she is given upon joining her husband’s household. She supplies the bulk of the food consumed by her family. She grows maize, millet, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beans, pigeon peas, greens; arrow root, cassava, and yam in cooler regions, as this were their staple foods.

Housing and clothing

The women in modern Akamba society also dress in the European fashion, taking their pick from dresses, skirts, trousers, jeans and shorts, made from the wide range of fabrics available in Kenya. Primarily, however, skirts are the customary and respectable mode of dress. In the past, the women were attired in knee-length leather or bark skirts, embellished with bead work. They wore necklaces made of beads, these obtained from the Swahili and Arab traders. They shaved their heads clean, and wore a head band intensively decorated with beads. School children, male and female, shave their heads to maintain the spirit of uniformity and equality. The Akamba of the modern times, like most people in Kenya, dress rather conventionally in western / European clothing

 GOVERNNCE AND LEADERSHIP

Before colonialism akamba had they leaders like; Syokimau, Syotune wa Kathukye, Muindi Mbingu, and later Paul Ngei, JD Kali, and Malu of Kilungu. Ngei and Kali were imprisoned by the colonial government for their anti-colonial protests. Syotune WA Kathukye led a peaceful protest to recover cattle confiscated by the British colonial government during one of their raiding expeditions on the local populations Muindi Mbingu was arrested for leading another protest march to recover stolen land and cattle around the Mua Hills in Masaku district, which the British settlers eventually appropriated for themselves. JD Kali, along with Paul Ngei, joined the MauMau movement to recover Kenya for the Kenyan people. He was imprisoned in Kapenguria during the fighting between the then government and the freedom fighters.

MORDERN CULTURE

Today kamba people have embraced the western way of living in terms of clothing, housing, religions and style of living.

Citation: www.everyculture.com, www.informationguide.com