Njuri - I think you should read that link - it has everything about Kalenjin warfare/attitudes - and should explain many stuff people dont like me writting about
You can replace Kikuyus - with Luos/Gusii - here to understand things like Kiambaa church
https://danielsanthropology.com/rites/04/Chapter04.htmlThe Kipsigis valued warfare against the Maasai not only because of the potential for greater spoils, compared to raiding the Gusii or Luo, but also because the Maasai shared the greatest number of conventions about the conduct of hostilities.12 Throughout the accounts of the few survivors of the precolonial period runs the feeling that battle with the Maasai was the purest form of combat. Stress is placed on the norms against killing older people or children (the latter were taken captive), against sexual assaults on captured women, and on the many signs of surrender or truce recognized by both sides. It is reported, for example, that any Maasai who, having lost his weapons, climbed a tree during the battle was considered to have retired from the field and was not attacked even if the rest of his group were defeated. similarly, although an enemy would be killed on sight if found near a Kipsigis settlement, a Maasai who performed an act of truce would be received as a guest and rarely threatened or molested.
In contrast to this, warfare against the Gusii and Luo was much less regulated. Although some signs of surrender were recognized, informants claim that men were not taken alive. Unlike the Kipsigis, the Gusii and Luo were extremely reluctant to move about at night because of the fear of supernatural agents, a difference which gave the Kipsigis a great tactical advantage. Kipsigis informants describe raids against Gusii compounds at night in which they set fire to the roofs and slaughtered people indiscriminately as they tried to escape their houses. The Kipsigis also enjoyed success against the Luo by raiding domestic settlements at night.
Accounts of warfare with these groups lack the ambivalence between hostility and respect used in discussing the Maasai. As far as I can determine, these tactics have given the Kipsigis a reputation among the Gusii and Luo, not as superior warriors, but as something akin to barbarians.
Nevertheless, the Kipsigis recognized the Gusii as extremely dangerous in open battle because of their large numbers. They do not, however, speak of individual acts of bravery by Gusii warriors. It has been reported that Gusii men sometimes entered battle with their women behind them chiding them to attack. This would have been an intolerable offense to any self-respecting Kipsigis warrior (i.e., a "graduate" of the initiations). The Kipsigis opinion of the Luo was much more disparaging. In discussing combat against them, the Kipsigis cite numerous instances of what they consider cowardice.13
Different attitudes toward each of these tribes can also be seen in the treatment of captives. It is widely recognized that certain clans are of Maasai origin and that throughout the Kipsigis expansion Maasai captives were incorporated into the Kipsigis tribe. Women and children were also taken in wars with the Gusii, as were Gusii individuals who had fled from witchcraft in their own tribe. During the Kipsigis expansion southward a large number of Gusii families were out off and isolated in the hills east of Bomet. This group was assimilated en masse. These Gusii were so numerous that in several cases they succeeded in re-establishing their own descent group identifications within Kipsigis society. Thus there are today several ortinwek recognized to be derived from Gusii descent groups, The most prominent of these are Boguserek, Kamurwachi, Kamogu, Motoborik, and Narachek. Members of some of these ortinwek, which are still heavily represented in the eastern parts of Bomet Division, today retain a few Gusii practices.14
No clans are recognized to be of Luo origin to my knowledge and, consistent with their general opinion of this tribe, my informants insisted that very few Luo, even women or children, were incorporated into the Kipsigis.
Incorporation into Kipsigis society was marked by the ng'woset ceremony performed by the captor on his return from battle or as soon thereafter as possible (in order to establish undisputed claim to the captive). Children were adapted as members of the captor's family and became part of his oret (specific cases are known in which a Gusii mother and her children were adopted into different Kipsigis families). Older girls and women were adopted with slight variations in the ceremony as wards so that although they were incorporated into a captor's household they could also be married by him.15 Once "naturalized" by ng'woset, the captive had full rights of membership in Kipsigis society. If the captive was a child, he or she was initiated at the appropriate time with other children. Once they had learned Kipsigis customs and language (even if never losing their original accents) they were not discriminated against.16
When first contacted by the British, the Kipsigis had thus secured a strong position in the area. The Maasai were receding before the superior numbers of the Kipsigis (supported by a mixed economy in the rich soil of the hills that allowed a denser population than did pure pastoralism), and the Gusii and Luo had been driven out of the natural boundaries of the local ecological zone (the Gusii confined to a separate plateau area, and the Luo limited to the lower, drier Kano Plain). Kipsigis successes against the Gusii and Luo were due to a series of factors: a high level of aggression on the part of individual Kipsigis warriors, superior military organization based on age-grades, a lack of the intra-tribal hostilities found in these other two tribes (which the Kipsigis did not know about), and a willingness among the Kipsigis to take advantage of Gusii and Luo trepidation about fighting at night.
Topic: Pundit-Nandi made and Destroyed Kalenjin,a sad legacy (Read 4468 times)