Nthaka: The Warriors
During the late 1700s and most of the 1800s, the Meru-speaking peoples endured an era of internecine war.[2] Twice yearly, at the beginning of each dry season, warrior bands set off from every ridgetop to raid the livestock of adjacent areas. Raiding was universal, continuing until onset of the rains. The prize was livestock, particularly cattle, as well as the chance for every warrior to earn not only glory but also wives. As a result every Meru male spent his entire youth in preparation for the warrior years, and every Meru community lived in constant expectation of attack.
Yet, although totally militarized, the Meru waged sharply limited forms of war. Every conceivable type of military action was regulated by a rigid but universally accepted series of military conventions ("ancestral traditions"), intended both to provoke the violence necessary for successful livestock rustling and limit it at levels tolerable to the society as a whole.