Rendille of Marsabit, Akamba of the Chyulu Hills Near Mombasa, and Embu to the South- East of Mount Kenya All Grow Marketable Varieties
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CHAPTER ONE CULTIVATING MIRAA IN THE NYAMBENE HILLS Mutuati’s neck of the woods is bedecked with the bee’s knees...Luscious khat plantations! —M’Mucheke, May 2001. The Nyambene Hills Miraa is cultivated in a few parts of Kenya: Rendille of Marsabit, Akamba of the Chyulu Hills near Mombasa, and Embu to the south- east of Mount Kenya all grow marketable varieties. Some miraa is harvested from wild trees growing on the slopes of Mount Kenya near Timau, and from those in forests near Kericho and on the slopes of Mount Elgon. None of these locations can compete in quan- tity—and, most would say, quality—with miraa grown on the Nyambene Hills.1 Shambas (‘farms’) there have long been planted with miraa, and the resident Tigania and Igembe have honed the tech- nique of its cultivation to a fine art. The Nyambenes offer Kenyan miraa its ancestral home. This mountain range runs northeast of Mount Kenya (see map 1), and forms ‘an elongated, extruded vol- canic feature, which rises sharply above the surrounding plateau sur- face to a height of about 8,200 feet at its southern crest’ (Bernard 1972: 18). Goldsmith describes its appearance thus: The Nyambene region has a rather fantastic appearance. When viewed from afar the hills and caldera form a geometry of soft curves, angles, and conical shapes. Tropical alpine forest caps the peaks and upper hillsides of the range. The plains below are punctuated with lunaresque massifs dominated by the Gibraltar-like silhouette of Shaba imposed in front of the hills of Samburu country in the distance. The local farms situated in-between the forest and the plains resemble small jun- gles, a dense riot of vegetation with the crooked boles of mwenjela (Cussonia holstii ) trees projecting above the canopies like fringed stovepipes. (Goldsmith 1994: 1) 1 In some of the literature, e.g. Bernard (1972), Nyambene is spelt ‘Nyambeni’. 28 chapter one One photograph (plate 2) taken above Nkinyang’a shows the stun- ning views to the northern savannah from the Nyambenes, and con- trasts the fertile land of miraa production with the arid land of much of its consumption. As long as the rains come—not a certainty, although the Nyambenes are blessed with a good amount of rain (see Bernard 1972: 19–23)—the northern slopes of the Nyambenes offer farmers highly fertile land, and different ecozones provide var- ious options for possible crops.2 Nyambene farmers have an average land holding of three acres although shambas of even one acre in high zones can provide for a family, such is the fertility (Goldsmith 1994: 77). The Nyambenes are within Meru North district, the headquarters of which are located at Maua, the largest town in the district. It had a population of 15, 475 in 1999 (1999 Population and Housing Census: Central Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance and Planning), and is set at a high altitude surrounded by tree and tea-clad hills. The town consists of many shops and stalls, a Methodist-run hospi- tal, bars and restaurants, and a bank, most of these situated along the main road to Meru, the biggest town in the region. Maua has a large Somali presence due to the miraa trade. Other large Nyambene towns are Kianjai, Muthara, Kangeta, Lare and Mutuati (see map 2). The Nyambene Meru The Meru are Bantu-speakers who inhabit the mainly fertile region between the Tana and Uaso Nyiro rivers to the northeast of Mount Kenya.3 They are thought to have reached the region in the mid- 2 See Bernard pp. 27–32 for a detailed description of various ‘ecologic regions’ on the slopes of Mount Kenya and the Nyambenes. 3 There is a wide ethnological literature on the Meru of Kenya. The work of the former District Commissioner of Meru, Lambert (e.g. 1956) is interesting as he played quite a part in Meru history. Laughton (1944) is a brief ethnographic overview of the Meru. More substantial is Bernardi (1959) on the Meru religious dignitary called the Mugwe. This book inspired the structuralist analysis of the Mugwe’s left hand by Needham (1960) (see also Mahner 1975). More recent is the work of Fadiman (e.g. 1982, 1993) that presents a vast amount of oral testimonies by Meru elders. His work is criticised by Peatrik (see next footnote). A short book on Meru customs by Nyaga (1997) is also criticised by Peatrik, being ‘une tentative parmi d’autres de christianisation des mœurs meru’ (Peatrik 1999: 29). Rimita (1988) is more interesting, providing details on various Meru rites of passage as well as the njuri ncheke. Most comprehensive is Peatrik 1999, which focuses on the Tigania and Igembe rather than other Meru groups. See also the recent thesis by Lamont (2005)..