When I started this thesis in August 2008, I went to Oslo and came back to Nairobi in December of the same year. Between January 2009 and August 2009 before going back to Oslo, I determined to answer only one question. Where could I centre the living vernacular study? Having satisfied myself that the study of transformation of traditional architecture would lead to a study of a living vernacular in its current form, I determined to do a reconnaissance pilot study in order to come up with a plan on how to study this living vernacular. I realized that the Kikuyu traditional architecture in its original form as described by Cagnolo (1933) and Leakey (2007) was not available for study anywhere in a living form other than in their museum form at the Bomas of Kenya and cultural centers like Riuki. I also knew from oral history and from readings that the 1952 state of emergency wiped out all the existing traditional homesteads in Central Province and that the new homesteads that came up from 1958 onwards were on a practically new slate after the land consolidation exercise. I realized that the proper retelling of the story of Kikuyu traditional architecture hinged on the explanation of the dramatic events that followed this watershed moment in Kikuyu history and that the vernacular that emerged must be linked closely to this event.
Everywhere I went in central Province, the story always started in the same way. “We moved here in 1959 after having been in such and such village. Prior to that our grandparents or great grandparents lived around such and such a place of the land of such and such clan”
I travelled widely using my network of friends and relatives in the various regions within traditional Kikuyuland. In Kirinyaga I visited two homesteads and their neighbours and then went to Tetu where my sister is married. I visited Karatina area and Othaya area next to Mukurwe-ini. In all the places visited, there was a commonality in the way the homestead is laid out. It is always near the access road. You come into a usually bare earth open space, Nja, around which are various structures. There is always a main house, an external kitchen and animal shelters. There are seats in the Nja where visitors are welcomed usually under a tree. There are sanitary facilities well removed from the Nja. The Nja is indisputably the centre of the homestead in configuration and in activity pattern. I realized that since all these characteristics seem common, and that all the homesteads look different, taking any homestead from Kirinyaga, Murang’a, or Kiambu would still find these same characteristics. I therefore decided to look
3 http://mukuyu.wordpress.com
for something else that distinguishes the homes. It turned out that the technology used in the making of the walls was a good distinguishing characteristic. There were houses done in the original mud and wattle style and smeared with cow dung and ashes which all looked somehow older. There were houses done in off-cut wood or sawn timbers which seemed of indeterminate age, houses in dressed stone that looked much newer and lastly houses with sun-dried mud blocks with various kinds of finishes that looked of a later style. The material used in the making of the main house also seemed to co-relate closely with income levels of the households. In Kiambu, timber and stone was prevalent with few houses in mud and non in sun dried blocks a pattern seen in most other areas visited. Two areas stood out in having the widest spectrum of styles present together in the same area and those were in Lower Murang’a and lower Nyeri or Mukurwe-ini.
In Mukurwe-ini, the 1958 typologies were in abundance and it was therefore easy to tell the comprehensive story of the development of typologies and technologies here or in Murang’a. Being my home, Mukurwe-ini presented itself as the better option because of contacts and the need to have a friendly study group that would allow me into their private lives like bedrooms. My own home in Ndia-ini would have been okay except that there was the question of too much familiarity and emotion that could possibly blind my objectivity. Ndia-ini also lacked a well established tradition of sundried blocks which is fast developing a fascinating style in lower Mukurwe-ini. An area ten kilometers further from home and having the entire range of styles presented itself. This place, Mihuti, in lower Mukurwe-ini was perfect for me and I had enough contacts who could accept me and who were eager to show me around without being too familiar.
Within Mihuti itself, it was not even necessary to take a very wide area.
Taking Mihuti Centre which stands on a former Mau-Mau village, an area of two or three kilometers radius gives you so many configurations of homesteads that all you have to do is choose according to the various styles defined by
technology. Several homesteads having the various typologies of 1958 were included and then several homesteads that showed the various solutions and characteristics of the area, In total a detailed study of about fifteen homesteads was undertaken though only ten have been included in the monograph. It was assumed that there is a common story binding Mukurwei-ini architecture with the wider Kikuyu architecture and that there is also a particular story specific to Mukurwe-ini and Mihuti and this has come out of this study.
1.4.5 Methodology
The Archival Information
I first came across the Father Cagnolo’s book, (Cagnolo, 1933) as a small boy growing up with Mwalimu Francis Mwangi’s library and seeing the pictures became very interested in finding out more about Kikuyu traditions. I was
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fascinated by the attire of the people in those pictures who were said to be my ancestors. After completing a bachelor’s degree in architecture I began to develop a deeper interest in Kikuyu culture. As far back as 1986 I acquired a copy of Gathigira’s Miikarire ya Agikuyu (1935) and began my own collection inspired by my father’s calling it Kamenju Series A. Around this time I developed my Gikuyu reading skills by reading a monthly Gikuyu na Mumbi magazine published then by Gakaara Press in Karatina. Series A has since then steadily grown to a modest Kikuyu library. Mwalimu Francis Mwangi was a teacher and schoolmaster from Ndia-ini who began teaching at Tumu-tumu in 1935 and who brought up his children in a Christian anti traditional manner. His copy of Elspheth Huxley’s 1939 novel, Red Strangers had at the back a series of black and white photographs of traditional Kikuyu life which brought out vividly the homestead. The book was presented to him “with many thanks for all your help in teaching me Kikuyu” by a Jean Clark Wilson in April 1940. Two photographs in particular were of special interest to this study as they showed
‘Family Dinner Round the Hearth: Old Style’ and ‘Family Dinner around the Table: New style’. (Fig. 4.44) These photographs suggested the central theme of the study – transformation. It is a contrast that echoes p’Biteks 1989 epic, Song of Lawino and Song of Ocol. Some of the photographs if not all were taken around Nyeri Consolata Mission area as the form of Githuri hill is visible in one of the photographs. I realized that is was possible to derive a great deal of information from a careful reading of these early photographs Mwalimu Francis Mwangi’s collection also included Part 1 of The Book of Civilization, (Paterson , 1934). After registering for my PhD in the Oslo School of Architecture the AHO Library was able to get on loan using the inter-Library network, Part Two of The Book of Civilization which deals with transformations in the economic front. The library staff was also able to track down some very rare books dealing with the hygiene and gender aspects of the transformation of the traditional house through colonial efforts like Cleanliness in the Home (Holding, 1951). Many of these were originally in Mwalimu Mwangi’s library but were unfortunately lost a long time ago. I was also able to acquire using my PhD book allowance, Leakey (2007) three volume box set in its new edition, and for an arm and a leg, Routredge (1910) volume With a Prehistoric People from antique booksellers in London who deal with rare collections.
The Leakey books are no longer available in the University of Nairobi Library or in any of the other local Universities and neither is Routredges’s book which is available for view only at the National Archives, Nairobi. The Library of the British Institute of East Africa in Nairobi was most helpful. Not only does it have a copy of Routredge’s book but it also has lots of literature relating to the Kenya history and especially for this thesis, covering the Mau-Mau villagization program.
The Department of Architecture of the University of Nairobi and the Kenya National Library services turned out a blank as far as literature on the Kikuyu traditional architecture is concerned. Even Anyamba (1994), is unavailable though Professor Tom Anyamba is the current Dean of the School of the Built Environment at the University of Nairobi.
Books in the Kikuyu Language like Gathigira (1935), Williamson (1958), and Kago (1958) which describe Kikuyu traditional architecture are unavailable in most local Libraries though Kago (1958) is still in print and available in some Nairobi bookshops. The largest bookshop in Nairobi, “Inama Bookshop” with branches in almost every downtown street, and major towns sometimes turned up a surprising gem as it is an incredibly rich bookshop. Inama is Kikuyu for “bend down”, as the books are displayed on street pavements and one has to bend or squat in order to search its database. Many of the books in the Kamenju Series, have been collected over time from Inama Bookshop and combined with the Mwangi collection were the main source of all the Kikuyu literature cited.
The Nyeri Consolata mission was most helpful and it is there at the convent that I unearthed Conquest for Christ in Kenya, Mathew (1952), the title
clarifying in my mind one of the transformative pillars of David Livingstone.
The Field Work
The study of homestead environments presents a difficulty in definition and delineation of the extent of a homestead and by what term it will be referred. The terms, housing, dwellings, homestead, are often used interchangeably and yet there are certain distinctions. The distinction between House and home among the Kikuyu will be dealt with in more detail in a later chapter.
“The notion of dwelling does not assume that the physical unit of a house defines the experience of home. Houses are commodities produced and marketed in many contemporary societies for financial profit within particular economic and technological constraints” (Lawrence, 1995).
Because of this, Anita Larsson’s (1984) description of Tswana dwellings in Botswana as ‘Rural Housing’ is somehow deficient and does not capture the entire dynamics of traditional African dwellings. “All houses are dwellings; but all dwellings are not houses. To dwell is to make one's abode: to live in, or at, or on, or about a place” (Oliver, 2003). Dwellings incorporate the intangibles that are not easily measurable and even delineating the extent of dwelling may be a challenge. The homestead however is slightly different and may be defined with the little fences or markers which sometimes are very subtle but they are there and are known and understood as delineators. These little fences though not necessarily having anything to do with ownership come much closer to defining what is being referred to in Mukurwe-ini as homesteads as opposed to the more amorphous term, dwelling. In Kikuyu the difference between homestead and
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dwelling is in the intonation of the kwa and kwaa respectively as kwa Njuthubu with definite boundaries and kwaa Njuthubu with indefinite borders and an indefinite number of aaa’s. In this thesis, the more definite kwa with one a has been chosen for study over the less definite kwaa. Kwa means Joseph’s own place while kwaa is a more collective feel as for lands held eg. by a sub-clan.
The analytical tools used in the homesteads were taken from Roderick Lawrence’s discourse on the methodology of “Deciphering Home” (Lawrence, 1995). He lists them as:
1. What are the units of analysis?
Who actually resides in the dwelling? The idea of domicile.
This was expanded to incorporate not just humans but whatever animal life was in domicile.
2. How does one delimit the subject of study.
What conceptual, material, and behavioral boundaries relate to the definition of home?
This was adapted to mean the various tangible and intangible structures that define the homestead.
3. What characteristics are common to the homes and daily lives of people in a specific locality ? Given that the concept of home transcends the material culture of housing units, larger built environments and domestic activities, it is necessary to identify and study both the tangible and intangible constituents of interpersonal relationships.
This was adapted to mean the social interactions of the people with the spaces.
4. How does one account for consensual meanings and uses as well as individual differences?
This was taken to mean the diverse points of view and subjective meanings found in the study group
5. How can a temporal perspective be applied?
It is necessary to complete an historical analysis of extant residential environments by field work and the study of
documents, as well as the study of domestic and daily life, human ideals and values.
This was adapted as is and the environments were all studied within the concept of an evolving time span and connecting to the links in the great chain of being.
The multi dimensional nature of home “transcends quantitative, measurable dimensions and includes qualitative subjective ones, it is a complex, ambiguous concept that generates contention”. It is “a complex subject which cannot be studied adequately by applying traditional academic theories or methods that
rarely transcend disciplinary boundaries or sectorial approaches” (Lawrence, 1995)
As has been stated, all the field work was done in Kikuyu country and most of the interviews were in the Kikuyu language of which the author is fluent in.
The language used with most of the youth however was like, “taimagini akinikatia without shame mzee ari o haha. Tamaka!!” - a new fangled Kikuyu which is a mix of Kikuyu, English and sometimes Kiswahili, and described by Wanjau G. wa (1998) as the colonial cock still crowing in one’s head. A variant of it in the urban context it is called Sheng and can be very complex. English was in some rare occasions also used.
I was introduced to Mihuti area by my brother Edward Gicinga who had links with the villages in Mukurwe-ini through his preaching work as an elder of the PCEA church. Lydia Ngira, who is their cousin and married in that area became the principle informant and took me around introducing me to her neighbors who include my elementary school teacher, Nyaga wa Mwai. A formal visit was made to the local Chief and the research explained to him. He is used to dealing with all manner of researchers who come on and off from Nairobi and he had no problem with the research. Once word spread that the Chief knew and was behind the research, the villagers were more cooperative. They were able to entertain me in their homesteads and let me do my sketches and photographs.
The villagers are not very happy with someone measuring their compounds and I could see in the first homesteads that the measuring tape caused a lot of tension and so gave it up. I began drawing up the compounds through estimations but later acquired a laser distance meter that was less intrusive. As I kept coming back into the homesteads and bringing the villagers copies of the photographs I had taken, they became more open and less and less suspicious. At the end of the study, I can safely say that I have made very many good friends in the
homesteads studied and even beyond, and have a very good picture of how the homesteads are built and lived in.
In the countryside, the people are very suspicious of anyone who travels alone and they also say, ‘mundu umwe ndeheragirwo njira’, or ‘no one moves aside for a lone traveler’. The principle informant, Mrs. Ngira could not always accompany me after the initial introductions as she had a home and other affairs to manage. The idea of just moving around, ‘mururo’, and doing ‘nothing’ the whole day, is not appealing to rural people. I therefore made sure that I travelled with one or two other companions. Sometimes I used the students on attachment at Wajee Nature Camp as companions and this was very effective. I was particularly happy to have the companionship of a young female student as this removed any fear of my sitting down with people’s wives and daughters in their kitchens and living rooms while their men were away. As a lone ranger, this would have been inappropriate and even dangerous. Other times, the use of the local motor bike taxi men as assistants was necessary and they were very
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obliging so long as they were paid for their time. Being on good terms with the young men motor bikers is absolutely essential not only for information and companionship but also because they are the real security regime in the rural areas rather than the police and the administration.
The decision not to present the work in mechanical drawings but rather in a freehand style was very deliberate. I was impressed by Larson (1988) and the way she was able to present the Tswana homesteads. I saw that her drawings communicated a quality of the hand-made architecture that somehow gets lost with the finesse of the technical drawings. Since I did all the field sketches myself and only used assistants as plops and as companions, I was able to have a feel of the material which is not possible from research assistants that are sent to the field and who then bring the data to the researcher for interpratation.
Interviews
They say in Kikuyu that ‘mundu mugi ndari muhere wa uhoro’, meaning literally that a clever person is easy to instruct but also suggesting that a clever person need not be told everything. They say this to mean that one has to be observant and not necessarily ask needless questions – ta mwarimu, like a teacher. For this reason it was necessary to sit down with the respondents and learn to observe and not merely ask pre-determined questions structured in a strict questionnaire. A list covering the household characteristics and the important points to be covered in each interview was in my pocket notebook and after the bio data of the homestead had been discussed, the discussion was
They say in Kikuyu that ‘mundu mugi ndari muhere wa uhoro’, meaning literally that a clever person is easy to instruct but also suggesting that a clever person need not be told everything. They say this to mean that one has to be observant and not necessarily ask needless questions – ta mwarimu, like a teacher. For this reason it was necessary to sit down with the respondents and learn to observe and not merely ask pre-determined questions structured in a strict questionnaire. A list covering the household characteristics and the important points to be covered in each interview was in my pocket notebook and after the bio data of the homestead had been discussed, the discussion was