Lumbwa people

The Lumbwa (also Lumbua, Umpua, Humba and Wakwavi) were a pastoralist community inhabiting southern and northern portions of Kenya and Tanzania respectively. The term Lumbwa was used in reference to sections of the Maa-speaking Loikop communities from at least the mid-19th century but also and commonly to the Kalenjin speaking Kipsgis community for much of the late 19th to mid 20th century.

Sources & Historiography

Early missionary sources & oral accounts

The journals, letters and published articles of the first three missionaries of the Church Missionary Society in East Africa; i.e. Johann Ludwig Krapf, Johannes Rebmann and Jakob Erhardt written during the 1840's and 1850's contain the earliest references to the Lumbwa[1] though certain Meru[2] traditions point to even earlier use of the term in reference to an East African pastoralist community.

Krapf arrived at the East African coast in December 1843 and made his first foray into the hinterland in January 1844, whereupon he immediately came across reports of the nearby "Okooafee" and their southern neighbors the "Quapee". Within a year he had worked out that these two groups were in fact the same people at which time he began referring to them as Wakuafi in his writings. In 1852 he learned that the Wakuafi referred to themselves by the name Iloikop.[3] At this time, the Swahili name Wakuafi was used to represent all Iloikop peoples though it later narrowed to represent only the non-Maasai sections of Iloikop. It is suggested that the term Humba (or Lumbwa) was likewise a Bantu word used by Bantu of the interior in reference to the same group of pastoralists.[3]

Later accounts & interpretations of early missionary sources

Late 19th century

The accounts of missionaries and explorers in the 1870's and 80's generally concurred with the writings of the early missionaries though distinctions between Maasai, Wakwavi and Lumbwa begin appearing in the writings.

In his early accounts, Thomas Wakefield wrote of the "poor Wakwavi...having long since been robbed of their cattle by the Maasai, were compelled to turn their attention to agricultural pursuits" and in the same account gives a distinction between Wakwavi and Kipsigis stating that "the Wakwavi of Ndara Serian" continued to raid Lumbwa (Kipsigis) for cattle. Charles New in 1873 also concurred with his predecesors assertion that both Maasai and 'Wakuavi' called themselves Orloikob which he translated as "possessors of the soil" and that both groups were pastoralists. James Last who was stationed at Mamboia in central Tanzania during the 1880's also concluded as Krapf had done that "Humba" was an equivalent term for "Kwavi". He also concurred with earlier descriptions of both peoples as pastoralists.[3]

Joseph Thompson's account

Joseph Thompson in his account 'Through Maasai Land' which was published in 1887 made an observation that was a subtle but significant depature from previous accounts, he noted about the country "...however, we are including several isolated areas occupied either by tribes wholly different from the Masai, or by the agricultural Wa-kwafi, who are mere off-shoots of the Masai." thus inverting previous understanding of Wakwavi/Maasai relationship.[4] This inversion of the order laid out by Krapf, Rebmann and other explorers would become the standard interpretation in years to come, possibly as a result of actual changes on the ground brought about by the reduction of the larger Iloikop society to mere scatterlings and the consequent subsumption of the larger Iloikop identity by the Maasai.[5]

Early 20th century

By the early 20th century, Maasai identity was distinct apart from Wakwavi though they were still unclear about the distinction between Iloikop and Lumbwa. Thomas Wakefield in his accounts published in 1904, distinguishes the Wakwavi and Maasai stating 'the Wakwavi and Maasai are cognate races, but mutually hostile. They are alike in physique, manners and customs, modes of life, weapons and war, and spend their time in cattle-lifting and in murdering all who happen to fall across their war path. They are not always distinguished by the natives about here, "Wakwavi" being almost the synonym for "Maasai" and vice-versa."[6]

A.C.Hollis writing on the Maasai in 1905 identifies two divisions among the Maasai; some living in British territory and "who called themselves Il-Maasae" and another section "...who were called 'L-Oikop or Il-Lumbwa [who] lived in German East Africa" as agriculturalists.[7] In his account of the Nandi, published also in 1905, he notes extensively that the Nandi referred to the Kipsigis as Lumbwa.[8]

Contemporary interpretations

The focus of some contemporary scholarly accounts touching on the Lumbwa is the distinction between Maasai and Iloikop where the Maasai-centric understanding of Iloikop identity is being challenged.[9]

Etymology

It is at this time unclear what the name means though it has been suggested that the term Humba (or Lumbwa) was a Bantu word used by Bantu of the East African hinterland in reference to Iloikop pastoralists.[3]

The names recalled in Meru tradition i.e. "Umpua," "Umbua," "Mbumbua," and "Lumbua" all sound like reasonable variations of Lumbwa though the strongest evidence linking the Meru Umpua to the Lumbwa is language (below).[10]

Way of Life

Pastoralism

Fosbrooke who conducted many interviews among the Maasai in various parts of East Africa in the decade to 1948, noted that his informants told him repeatedly that they shared a common pastoralist origin with the "Lumbwa" who they told him had only recently taken up agriculture.[11]

Cattle pens

The archaeological/landscape feature commonly referred to as Sirikwa holes are found in Meru where they are known as "Agumba holes".

Traditions captured in Igoji and Imenti associate these with the Umpua of that area, cattle keepers who kept livestock in pits at night. These holes were dug by the herders themselves and were gradually deepened as mud was removed after the rains.[10]

Appearance

Igoji and Imenti informants in Meru recall that the Umpua were "tall, slender, cattle keeping people [who] wore shoulder-length hair, plaited into braids.[10]

Language

In 1969 in Mwimbi, Meru, an aged informant claimed to remember four Umpua words which had been sung in songs about the Umpua when he was a child. These were agenge, uii, chito and ngeta; meaning one, two and the last two both meaning man. These words largely have the same meaning in Okiek and to a lesser extent modern Kalenjin.[12]

Dispersal

Kipsigis

Prior to and through the early 20th century, the Kipsigis people were referred to as Lumbwa by the Nandi and other Kalenjin speakers.[8]

Nandi

In the account of the settlement and formation of the Nandi community, two streams of clans are said to have come from Lumbwa. The initial group forms part of the first stream of settlers in Nandi and includes the Kipamwi, Kipkenda and Kipiegen along with the Kipoiis who came from Elgon. The second stream came purely from Lumbwa and includes the Tungo, Kipaa, Kipasiso and Kapchemuri (Chemuri) and the Elgoni (Kony)[13].

Kwavi

The Kwavi of Tanzani are often called Lumbwa

References

  1. ↑ Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.173-174 [online]
  2. ↑ Fadiman, J., When We Began There Were Witchmen, University of California Press, 1994, p.82 [online]
  3. 1 2 3 4 Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.174
  4. ↑ Thompson, J., Through Maasai land: A journey of exploration among the snow clad volcanic mountains and strange tribes, Royal Geographic Society p.238 [online]
  5. ↑ Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.186-187
  6. ↑ Wakefield, T., Missionary & Geographical Pioneer in East Equatorial Africa, 1904 p.80 [online]
  7. ↑ Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.188
  8. 1 2 A. C. Hollis. The Nandi: Their Language and Folklore. Clarendon Press: Oxford 1909, p.306
  9. ↑ Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.173
  10. 1 2 3 Fadiman, J., When We Began There Were Witchmen, University of California Press, 1994, p.86
  11. ↑ Falola, T., & Jennings, C., Sources and Methods in African History: Spoken, Written, Unearthed p.189
  12. ↑ Fadiman, J., When We Began There Were Witchmen, University of California Press, 1994, p.88
  13. ↑ Huntingford, G.W.B, remars upon the history of the Nandi, 1927[online]
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