Academic literature on the topic 'The Meru people of Kenya'

Les systèmes de classes d’âge est-africains ont le plus souvent été considères comme caractéristiques des peuples pasteurs, et leur raison d'être serait d'ordre essentiellement rituel. L'étude d'un tel système chez les Meru du Kenya, qui sont surtout agriculteurs, montre qu'il n'en est rien. De surcroit, la recherche des règles principale et secondaires de recrutement des classes permet de mettre au jour tant le fonctionnement effectif de ces systèmes qui sont en réalité articulés par les générations, que les rapports qu'ils entretiennent avec les autres sphères de l'organisation sociale. Enfin le recoupement des traditions orales par les archives coloniales permet de dégager des dynamiques démographiques et des évolutions historiques inédites pour ce genre de systèmes<br>East african age-classes systems have mostly been studied among pastoralist peoples, and have been regarded as a kind of organisation more involved in ritual matters than in anything else. The study of such a system among the Meru of Kenya who are mainly agriculturalists, shows that this kind of organisation is not linked with an economical specialization. Moreover the search of the rules which operate into the class system, allows to explain the working of these classes, which in fact are generation based, and the ways they are related to the other aspects of the social organization. Eventually, an unusual historical and demographical approach of this kind of structure is brought by the cross-study of the oral traditions and the colonial archives

The thesis analyzes the Muslim presence and representations of Islam among the Meru people of Kenya in the 20th century. The circumstances leading to the establishment of pioneer Muslim communities by the 'Swahili', the Nubians and the Mahaji, in Meru are examined. The rejection or acceptance of Islam by the people of Meru is linked to theories of conversion. The main emphasis is on the local manifestations of Islam. Case material from Meru town and the neighbouring areas is cited. Local representations of Islam and Muslim identity are analyzed in relation to the oppositional dyad of Dini / Ushenzi. The thesis argues that the opposition of Dini to Ushenzi has continuously impinged upon the local manifestation of Islam in Meru. Examples of how this stereotyped notion is transposed from its coastal cultural milieu and applied in a 'fossilized' form by Muslims in Meru are given. The shift in the early 1960s from the previous emphasis on distinctions between the three Muslim groups, to the need for a common Muslim community identity, is linked to the post-independence social-economic crisis that threatened the presence of Islam in Meru. The mechanics of the construction and consolidation of an urban Muslim community identity are examined. The analysis of the internal dynamics of the emergent urban Muslim community focuses on the notion of the propriety of religious practice and behaviour. An examination of the influence of Tabligh during the last decade, (1980- 1990) reveals an increase in the Muslim activities in Meru. Throughout the 1980s Islam spread slowly, almost unobtrusively, in the rural areas in the northern part of Meru. The analysis of the forces underpinning this process; and the resultant dilemma of conflicting identities of individual converts living in the rural areas, is placed within the local social context.

Les missionnaires furent confrontes a la necessite de "vernaculariser" leurs institutions. Des le xixes. Les sieges occidentaux des missions avaient fixe a leurs pasteur ou a leurs pretres l'objectif de creer des eglises noires. De plus, apres la premiere guerre mondiale, les missions furent confrontees a un phenomene de "conversions en masse" de fideles venant essentiellement pour profiter de leurs structures scolaires, afin d'acquerir un nom europeen ou adopter des habits occidentaux. . . Cette situation peu satisfaisante a amene les missionnaires a definir des strategies pour transformer ces opportunistes en "vrais chretiens". Ainsi, dans la province centrale du kenya, les missionnaires ont tente de "vernaculariser" leurs eglises en participant a la diffusion d'ideologies ethniques chretiennes. L'ethnicite n'est pas cependant une creation coloniale, un pur produit des blancs. Les africains reprennent certains elements qui leur sont imposes par le pouvoir colonial et les retravaillent en fonction notamment de leur passe. Differents groupes sociaux construisent des ideologies identitaires, certaines plus marquees que d'autres par les doctrines missionnaires, qui entrent en concurrence pour cristalliser des identites dites ethniques. Cette recherche tente de definir le role des chretiens dans la formation des identites contemporaines kikuyu et meru. L'etude des meru montre que une profonde collaboration sinon une subordination des actions missionnaires en matiere d'ethnicite aux politiques administratives. Cette unite des forces coloniales n'empeche pas les meru de profondement modifier l'identite qui leur etait proposee dans un sens que les europeens n'avaient guere prevu. La recherche sur les kikuyu tente de decrire la competition qui a oppose differentes eglises et associations politiques pour enoncer l'identite kikuyu contemporaine<br>Thsi thesis is interested in the understanding of the construction and reconstruction of ethnicity in the central region of kenya showins that it is a process determined by specific historical contingencies in specific situations. The case studies about the meru and the kikuyu deduce that the creation of the ethnic conciousness was initiated at the beginning of the century by groups of "culture brokers", mainly white missionaries and their converts. Government policies of indirect rule furnished recognized tribes with territories in which ethnic connection was the key to obtaining access to the services of the colonial state. The educated elites succeeded in shaping the ethnic identities because of the support of ordinary people who needed the support of traditional values at a time of rapid social change. The case study about the meru describes a deep collaboration if not subordination of the missionary policies to the administrative policies. In spite of this unity of the colonial forces, the meru modified their ethnic identity in a way that the europeans didn't have imagined. The research about the kikuyu is showing the competition between varius churches and political associations in order to enunciate the kikuyu contemporary identity

This is a historical ethnography about age-class formation among the people known as the Imenti and Tigania Meru of central Kenya. By re-examining social anthropology’s long standing study of societies with age-sets or age-­organisation, this research focuses on the problem of historical perspective which such forms of social organisation inevitably provoke. Ethnographers writing in the 1990s, like their counterparts in the 1950s, seemed convinced that the contingent, uncertain, and often <i>ad hoc </i>nature of age-class formation meant that such forms of social organisation were fated to disappear. This thesis aims to overturn such an assumption by presenting differing ethnographic contexts where debate about age-classes’ viability in the present led to community wide reappraisals of traditional and modem categories of thought. By the time of fieldwork in 2001-2003, the formation of Meru age-classes fed into intense debates about what constituted ‘tradition’ and an authentic construction of local social identity. Research in two fieldsites, Imenti and Tigania, allowed for comparison between one segment of the Meru where such organisation is seen as defunct and another section where it is vicariously implicated in local politics. Age-classes, it is argued in the Meru context, are both social formations and tropes within the makings of a local political imaginary. National concerns such as the 2002 General Elections could be locally reinterpreted as power struggles between the generations, such that the transfer of power at the state level was likened to generational succession, a pressing local issue which was still left unresolved when the author left Kenya. Such debates also surfaced in the controversies of differing styles of traditional and modern male circumcision, mirroring a similar debate about clitoridectomy which has come and gone since at least the 1930s. The thesis also examines the uses of Kimeru - the local language - in literacy programmes, where debates and arguments about traditional and modern categories of thought were inscribed within a wider construction of culturally entangled moralities. Examinations of how Meru’s vernacular modernity required a familiar vocabulary to express itself, drawn from tradition, was made through examining forms of popular music.

The thesis sets out to examine the utility of remote sensing techniques in helping to define recommendation domains relatively homogeneous agricultural areas - to act as foci for agricultural development planning in lower Meru, Kenya. Recommendation domains are used in farming systems research (FSR) for agricultural research and development initiatives enabling greater participation from rural producers within the development process. Recommendation domains are defined by agricultural potential (agro-ecological zones) and farming systems (agro-economic groupings). A multilevel approach incorporating Landsat MSS data, 1:50,000 stereo panchromatic air photography, large scale aerial colour slide photography and ground surveys is used to collect data on the farming systems of the study area. Relatively homogeneous farming patterns are identified and mapped using a number of different computer software packages. These patterns are related to previously identified zones of agricultural potential (agro-ecological zones) to define recommendation domains for new agricultural development initiatives in the area. Several domains are identified for specific attention. Recommendations are made which are relevant to both national and district level agricultural planning in Kenya. It is suggested that future development programmes should focus on areas undergoing population movement and cultivation change since without careful planning these changes are likely to detrimentally affect the local farming systems and natural environment.

The thesis examines how far women's farming groups are able to foster self-reliance among peasant farmers in Tharaka Division, a semi-arid region of Kenya. This is a particularly impoverished, drought prone part of the country where population pressure is resulting in intensified land use. In the past development policies have increased the vulnerability of peasant farmers making local people increasingly dependent on cash cropping and off-farm sources of income. Many households are headed by women, and the majority of farms are managed by women. Three aspects of women's farming groups were investigated: participation; extension and innovation; and access to development resources. A comparison is made between the economic and social status of participants and non-participants in women's farming groups. If it is the case that poor women are excluded from these groups, then a policy of targeting agricultural services and inputs to women's groups actually discriminates against resource-poor farmers. The study compares the number of extension visits received and innovations adopted by participants and non-participants. It questions whether the dissemination of information takes place through groups, and whether or not groups facilitate innovation. It examines the distribution of services and inputs to groups by government and non-government development agencies, and identifies those factors determining which groups receive assistance. The study concludes that women's farming groups have the potential to foster self-reliance amongst peasant farmers. However at present poorer women do not join groups because of severe time constraints created by competing labour demands. Any policy supporting women's farming groups can only be consistent with a "people-centred", participatory approach to development when these constraints are overcome and poor women, particularly female heads of households, are able to participate. Present policy is biased in favour of groups from more fertile areas. It is necessary to formulate policy appropriate to dryland areas where women's farming groups may provide a valuable mechanism for reducing vulnerability and ameliorating the effects of drought and famine.

Die Studie bietet Einblicke in die Geschichte des kenianischen Hochlands aus linguistischer bzw. dialektologischer Perspektive. Als Grundlage dient eine Fülle an empirischen Sprachdaten für alle Varietäten, die unter dem Label Central Kenya Bantu (E50) zusammengefasst werden, darunter Gikuyu, Kamba und Meru. Die Dissertation gliedert sich in drei Teile: Mithilfe von Dialektometrie und multidimensionaler Skalierung werden die Sprachdaten in einem ersten Schritt einer umfassenden quantitativen Analyse unterzogen (dialektologische Vermessung). Dadurch lässt sich die phonologische und lexikalische Ähnlichkeit zwischen den Sprachen und Dialekten ermitteln. Dies ergibt eine Klassifikation des Zentralkenia-Bantu, die eine synchrone Dreitteilung in „Western“, „Eastern“ und „Kamba“ zeigt. Die qualitative Analyse untersucht in einem zweiten Schritt, inwiefern Vererbung und Sprachkontakt zum synchronen Profil der zentralkenianischen Bantusprachen beigetragen haben. Ein letzter Schritt gleicht die linguistischen Ergebnisse mit historischen Erkenntnissen aus den oralen Traditionen der Region ab. So können einige der sozio-historischen Prozesse spezifiziert werden, die in den vergangenen 500 Jahren prägend für die Region rund um den Mount Kenya waren.<br>This study provides insights into the history of the Kenyan Highlands from a linguistic (dialectological) perspective. It relies on a vast amount of empirical language data that covers all varieties subsumed under the label Central Kenya Bantu (E50), among them Gikuyu, Kamba, and Meru. The thesis is divided into three parts: The first part offers a thorough quantitative analysis (dialectological survey) by means of dialectometry and multidimensional scaling. Here, it is assessed to which degree the different varieties share their phonological and lexical inventory. This allows us to establish a synchronic classification of Central Kenya Bantu showing a split into the groups Eastern, Western, and Kamba. Second, the qualitative dialectological analysis investigates the ways in which inheritance and language contact contributed to the synchronic profile of Central Kenya Bantu. Finally, the linguistic findings are correlated with historical accounts gathered through a study of local oral traditions. This enables us to specify some of the socio-historical processes that shaped the various communities in the vicinity of Mount Kenya over the past 500 years.