Page 53 - Msingi Afrika Magazine Issue 25
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Community
Mūkūrwe-inī, Nyeri, Kenya
Author and administrator of Gĩkũyũ Centre for
Cultural Studies, Kĩgongona kĩa Ũũgĩ wa Bũrũri Witũ.
A modern Gĩkũyũ Shaman and Priest after the order of
Melchizedek. A Mũnjirũ wa Mbarĩ ya Kĩragũ.
Email: muiniwagicandi@gmail.com
a beehive, (hollowed out log)
and rolled down a hill where
he crashed down to his death.
Kūgaragario na mwatū. Since
the murder victim had been
eaten by hyenas, more often
than not the Kīama commuted
the death sentence by arguing,
“Oh! Why give this man to the
hyenas too? Let us not give
to the hyena twice. Tūtikūhe
hiti keerī” the reasoning was
that the Council held itself
long time ago in the recycle back into the ecosystem partly responsible for not
land of the Gīkūyū all the minerals and substances having resolved the matter
A people before the carried by the body. before it escalated into murder.
coming of the tree frogs, The Kīama feared that the
ciengere, it was normal to If a man in Gīkūyū society community’s collective guilt
dispose of the dead by leaving committed a heinous crime like would not be atoned by merely
the dead body in the forest for murder that required the death committing another man to the
the hyenas to feed upon. Even penalty to be passed upon hyenas. The man was allowed
today, vultures and hyenas him by the Council, Kīama, to go into exile leaving the
still perform this cleaning up the usual sentence was for community to heal from the
process in the wild and thus the criminal to be put inside
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