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Second Mutai
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Second Mutai
Mutai (Maa; meaning Disaster) is a term used by the Maa-speaking communities of Kenya to describe a period of wars, usually triggered by disease and/or drought affecting widespread areas of the Rift Valley region of Kenya. According to Samburu and Maasai tradition, two periods of Mutai occurred during the nineteenth century. The second Mutai lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s.
The Pokot use the term the "Time the Country Became Dark" to refer to the period during the 1880s and 1890s, when the Pokot area suffered through a number of disasters, including a rinderpest epidemic, other stock diseases, drought, mass starvation, and smallpox.
Prior to the second Mutai, there were two major ethnic groups that occupied the Rift Valley region. On the western highlands of the Rift were the Sirikwa communities. Many were reforming following Sirikwa societal collapse during the first Mutai. Occupying the eastern highlands were the Loikop communities. Their territory stretched north and west of Mount Kenya, and south to Naivasha across the Kaputei plains as far as and possibly past Kilimanjaro.
The language now known as Maa was spoken by the Loikop society while that now known as Kalenjin was spoken by the Sirikwa society, both had multiple dialects. Many individuals, particularly on the borders, were multi-lingual in both languages.
The individuals within both societies self-referenced as "People of the 'mouth'" – Pich-ap Kutit (Sirikwa/Kalenjin) and Enguduk Iloikop (Loikop).
These societies shared a number of cultural aspects, most notably, similar learning systems designed to train young men into a fighting force known as moran/muren and later elders who would guide the community. They also shared similar rituals surrounding initiation as well as day to day cultural practices such as an affinity for bead-work. Each of these societies was composed of what can be understood as tribes which shared common ethnic cultural traits but also had distinct differences in cultural practices.
Both societies practiced a pastoral lifestyle though there were communities such as the Chok section of the re-acculturating Pokot community, that relied on both the rain and elaborate irrigation canals to grow grains.
The Loikop society had expanded their territories in the period leading up to the first Mutai. This expansion was followed by the development of three groupings within the Loikop society. The Sambur who occupied the 'original' country east of Lake Turkana as well as the Laikipia plateau. The Uasin Gishu occupied the grass plateaus of the Uasin Gishu and Mau while the Maasai territory extended from Naivasha to Kilimanjaro.
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Second Mutai
Mutai (Maa; meaning Disaster) is a term used by the Maa-speaking communities of Kenya to describe a period of wars, usually triggered by disease and/or drought affecting widespread areas of the Rift Valley region of Kenya. According to Samburu and Maasai tradition, two periods of Mutai occurred during the nineteenth century. The second Mutai lasted from the 1870s to the 1890s.
The Pokot use the term the "Time the Country Became Dark" to refer to the period during the 1880s and 1890s, when the Pokot area suffered through a number of disasters, including a rinderpest epidemic, other stock diseases, drought, mass starvation, and smallpox.
Prior to the second Mutai, there were two major ethnic groups that occupied the Rift Valley region. On the western highlands of the Rift were the Sirikwa communities. Many were reforming following Sirikwa societal collapse during the first Mutai. Occupying the eastern highlands were the Loikop communities. Their territory stretched north and west of Mount Kenya, and south to Naivasha across the Kaputei plains as far as and possibly past Kilimanjaro.
The language now known as Maa was spoken by the Loikop society while that now known as Kalenjin was spoken by the Sirikwa society, both had multiple dialects. Many individuals, particularly on the borders, were multi-lingual in both languages.
The individuals within both societies self-referenced as "People of the 'mouth'" – Pich-ap Kutit (Sirikwa/Kalenjin) and Enguduk Iloikop (Loikop).
These societies shared a number of cultural aspects, most notably, similar learning systems designed to train young men into a fighting force known as moran/muren and later elders who would guide the community. They also shared similar rituals surrounding initiation as well as day to day cultural practices such as an affinity for bead-work. Each of these societies was composed of what can be understood as tribes which shared common ethnic cultural traits but also had distinct differences in cultural practices.
Both societies practiced a pastoral lifestyle though there were communities such as the Chok section of the re-acculturating Pokot community, that relied on both the rain and elaborate irrigation canals to grow grains.
The Loikop society had expanded their territories in the period leading up to the first Mutai. This expansion was followed by the development of three groupings within the Loikop society. The Sambur who occupied the 'original' country east of Lake Turkana as well as the Laikipia plateau. The Uasin Gishu occupied the grass plateaus of the Uasin Gishu and Mau while the Maasai territory extended from Naivasha to Kilimanjaro.