To all my public and private friends, acquaintances,
official and unofficial partners; be hereby informed that today henceforth, I have
vacated Kikuyu culture. You therefore must immediately cease and desist from identifying
me in public or in private as a member of the Kikuyu tribe.
This permanent and non-rescindable decision
has been necessitated by irreconcilable differences between the traditional
understanding, practice and expectations of a Kikuyu man and my contemporary
understanding and practice of the following cultural elements:
Language: I no longer use the Kikuyu language as the predominant form of
communication. Even when communicating with close family members, I tend to use
Swahili or English. Since the latter is the official language in
Kenya, and I spend over 8 hours daily in the office, I have had no other choice
but to make English my primary language of communication.
Customs
& Traditions: I no longer believe in or support
many Kikuyu traditional practices. I no longer support female circumcision in fact
even male circumcision, flogging dead bodies – which by the way, I now urge of
all Kikuyus to bury instead of migrating to a different villages after a death in the family. Moreover I no longer keep
goats and sheep as a sign of wealth and/or social respect, nor do I live in a
round hut in my father’s compound. I am constrained to see which Kikuyu
customs and traditions I practice.
Religion: I never got the opportunity to practice Kikuyu traditional religion
– never prayed at the big fig tree, or ever faced Mt. Kenya. I like the concept
of Ngai; [the concept of the Absolute Mugai – Sharer, is one I like very much
because as it is rooted in the deeper Ubuntu spirit of interconnectedness), but
no one believes in the Absolute Mugai – Ngai, am left with no
choice but to give up the Kikuyu traditional religion; an important attribute
of Kikuyu culture.
Forms
of Government: I am not a member of any elder’s
council. Am not a junior or senior elder, and do not plan on joining any such
council – just like many presumably Kikuyu men my age.
Social
Organizing: Just like many men my age, I do not
belong to any age-set a constitutive element of the Kikuyu social organizing. As
for my marriage I have yet to officiate it through any Kikuyu traditional
ceremony. For some reason the Kikuyu traditional marriage ceremony had
appropriate practices for same-sex marriage for women but not for men. I guess I
could appropriate the traditional practice as carried out by woman-to-woman
marriages, but I wonder whether that would count as a traditional practice.
Economic
Systems: I do not keep goats, sheep nor have I married
many women to labour in my farm. Instead, I work in a formal organization, and
instead of goats and sheep, I get paid in cash - money. I do not practice traditional
economic system.
Arts & Literature: Lastly, I no longer
partake in Kikuyu cultural music and dances nor do I partake in oral folklore,
or even sit around fire in the evening narrating [wise] sayings and stories to
children. I do not even drink muratina
for crying out loud!
For those who feel being gay is against
Kikuyu [or African – as if there ever is an African] culture, then they now
need to worry anymore. I am not against Kikuyu culture any more than a Luo or
Kamba or Taita or Masai is. I from today henceforth vacate the Kikuyu culture.
