User:Kirimi Murithi

'By Kirimi Murithi (mmurithi148@gmail.com)''

Woman survives for 130 years old and looses memory of main national occurences but has a rich cultural history.'''

It’s on a hot Wednesday afternoon and a motor bike ride is the ultimate transport option for us. As we ride from Mikinduri Market we negotiate several bends then take on a foot path that leads us to the homestead of Nkoroi M’Ikunyua a woman who has survived to tell legends of the yester years.

It’s here in Mayowe Village of Anjuki location in Tigania East District where she was born in the early 1880’s but she can’t really recall the exact year. All she confirms is that she is older than the first President of Kenya Jomo Kenyatta.

This fact I confirmed from the elders after she disclosed her age set which is ‘Michubu Nkuru’ since all generations in the Meru Community are classified in age sets each running 30 years. She has survived to see four age sets and tells the story as if it were yesterday.

Nkoroi was born in a family of four among them two girls and two boys by the late M’Ikunyua Kiramunya. All his brothers and sister died several years back.

She had a family with two children who she says died at tender ages but sarcastically I inquire and informed that his younger son died in 1997 at the age of 63.

Like a grandmother telling tales and advising her great grandchildren we partake to know how life was those years.

Like every community life begins at conception, tradition was not forbidden and discipline was a must in the family. A young girl was not supposed to get pregnant when at her father’s house.

If this happened young men of her age set would take her to the river bed and squeeze the little foetus out before it was old enough to be seen by parents. The girl could then be washed clean to avoid her being an outcast in the community.

In times of courtship Nkoroi says a man was not allowed to visit the girl’s home during the day. Sex was not forbidden as long as she never became expectant. The young girl had the obligation of serving her boyfriend with food and no one else could have done so.

“When a young man visited the family of the girl he intended to marry, he would be escorted by others of his age set and on reaching at the gates they would madly scream to alert the women and parents who then took off leaving the homestead under the care of the young man” says Nkoroi.

After spending at least three nights the young man after making the decision to marry would organize for her loved one to be circumcised.

Circumcisers whether of men or women were not paid but were given grinded porridge.

After the girl healed the young man took her away to his home and was free to have as many children as they wished. Men married only two wives.

According to grandma when a woman gave birth a he goat was slaughtered by the husband as a sign of appreciation.

On very rare occasions did the families then slaughter cows, but they used to feed of fresh blood of the animals and just incase one of the cows died regardless of what had caused death the clan was invited to share the meat.

It was a golden past, they never used sufurias but clay pots. Their meals were freshly indigenous and comprised of blackbeans, millet, yams, grinded porridge, bananas, cowpeas, arrowroots and fresh cow blood.

Nkoroi affirms that this is the source of her strength because apart from maize which has added to her recipe she has stuck to those types of food. She rarely falls ill due to the type of diet she has stuck to.

Before the coming of the whites, their hygiene was maintained by water only. Cow fat was their treasured body lotion after it was thoroughly shaken in a gourd and in times of excess it was taken to the market for exchange with other goodies that were not available in the home.

Barter trade was their main form of trade. Gakoromone, Muthaara, Kunati, Mikinduri and Kathama were the main markets and they dealt with various commodities.

Entertainment was their way of bringing the community together; they sang Nkiro songs and young men from separate clans wrestled in contests which were used to promote peace and integration among the Meru community.

In case of death of a family member there were no burials and the woman who had been bereaved used to carry the corpse and throw it into the bushes to be fed upon by the hyenas.

A striking believe those days is that if one had indulged in sorcery acts the hyenas never ate his body. “If this happened a witchdoctor was called to cleanse the body and by six in the evening you could come across the hyenas wooing around searching for the body. The following day you could not trace even a piece of a bone”, says Nkoroi.

Tales never ended and a woman who had handled the body needed some cleansing also. Unless this was done she was not allowed to indulge into any community activities or even fetch water from the river when other women were fetching. “She could not even cross the road when cows were crossing. It was a norm”, affirms Nkoroi.

Some men called ‘Mwenji’ normally outcasts of the clan or family used to cleanse the women by having sex with them.

Animal skins played an essential role in the community those days. Thinned skins were used to wrap new born children and were used as sanitary towels just in case women experienced their menses.

“The skins used for holding menses were never washed in water. We used to apply fat and then dry them in the sun. It was a norm to wash them because we believed it would bring a misfortune to the family”, she ascertains.

Husbands normally swapped wives where one could sleep with his friend’s wife once he visited the home with plenty of yams. The husband would leave the home in disguise that the wife’s ‘Bankiro’ had come home.

Granny Nkoroi cannot recall when education was introduced in their community but claims her younger brother M’Nchebere M’Ikunyua was the first to attend a missionary school.

Before then she says young children spent their days in the open fields grazing. Women were staying at home tending the farms whereas elder men spent most of their time seated in the jury house (currently known as Njuri Ncheke Shrine)chatting and listening to cases.

Nkoroi says the current generations have trampled upon the good olden days of the past and perverted the traditions of the community due to education.

She however urges the young people to intellectually dedicate themselves into it because it is the only way to survival and the world is generally competitive.

“In our days we used to do things wholly dedicated and used to give our all into whatever we did, likewise, young people who have many more years to live need to dedicate their whole energy into what they are doing to earn their living. Life is difficult and if only you are tough it’s when you will make it”, advises our grandma.

Surviving all these years in a lonely house is not possible, but due to a good neighbor Mrs. Beretina Kobia, Nkoroi has had to share all the joys and pleasures of the world and she may be the next oldest woman living in Kenya.

Mrs. Kobia undertakes all the responsibilities including washing her, feeding and maintaining her general welfare a task which very few can undertake even if it were for their own elderly parents.

“It only takes a great heart and dedication to care for Nkoroi, there are ups and downs but I have made her feel she really belong to this world all these years. She has made me learn a lot and would not desire to depart from her when she has not educated me more”, says Mrs. Kobia

“She moulds many people’s character and her advice has changed many especially the youth who have indulged into drug abuse and other vices”, she adds. Kirimi Murithi (talk) 16:12, 23 October 2011 (UTC)