92-445: Modern ethnicities Diaspora Performing arts Government agencies Television Radio Newspapers The Embu or Aembu (sometimes called Waembu ) are a Bantu people indigenous to Embu county . The region is situated on the southern slopes of the former Eastern province . The Embu belong to the northeastern Bantu branch and speak the Embu language known as Kiembu as
184-740: A beautiful wife at Gogo River Salt Lick , in Mukuuri , hence her name "Ciũrũnjĩ" or "Nthara". Gogo River separates Mukuuri Location and Gitare localities at the edge of a ridge called Mûrurîrî. Eminent historian Prof Mwaniki Kabeca (in his 2005 book Mbeere Historical Texts , page 105) narrates that Mwenendega took his cattle to drink at the Gogo Salt Lick and found a girl who refused to talk to him at first. After much cajoling, she spoke with him and made him swear never to tell her negative things or abuse her, as there would be consequences. The woman's parents were not known, and it was, therefore, believed she
276-490: A critical role in the development of the mountain, influencing the topography and ecology amongst other factors. It has a typical equatorial mountain climate which Hedberg described as winter every night and summer every day. Mount Kenya is home to one of the Global Atmosphere Watch 's atmospheric monitoring stations. The year is divided into two distinct wet seasons and two distinct dry seasons which mirror
368-697: A mother tongue. It belongs to the Bantu branch of the Niger-Congo family. Kimeru , Kikuyu , and Kikamba share similar language characteristics. To the west, Embu neighbours are the closely related Kikuyu in Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga and Nyandarua counties. The Meru people border the Embu to the East. Source: The Embu are of Bantu origin.They are also known as the 'Aembu'. They are closely related in language and culture to
460-472: A non-profit organization, has been putting up fences in key areas around the country. As of 2021, 250 kilometres (160 miles) out of a planned 450 kilometres (280 miles) have been constructed in the Mt. Kenya area. The fence discharges an electric shock, but is not dangerous to humans or animals. The main ethnic groups living around Mount Kenya are Kikuyu , Ameru , Embu and Maasai . The first three are Bantus while
552-499: A publication now in the public domain : Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). " Hottentots ". Catholic Encyclopedia . New York: Robert Appleton Company. Mount Kenya Mount Kenya ( Meru : Kĩrĩmaara, Kikuyu : Kĩrĩnyaga , Kamba : Ki nyaaa , Embu : Kirinyaa ) is an extinct volcano in Kenya and the second-highest peak in Africa , after Kilimanjaro . The highest peaks of
644-576: A result of these interactions. The Bantu migrations, and centuries later the Indian Ocean slave trade, brought Bantu influence to Madagascar , the Malagasy people showing Bantu admixture, and their Malagasy language Bantu loans. Toward the 18th and 19th centuries, the flow of Zanj slaves from Southeast Africa increased with the rise of the Sultanate of Zanzibar . With the arrival of European colonialists,
736-478: A series of seven hydroelectric power stations and dams. The density of streams is very high, especially on the lower slopes which have never been glaciated. The ice cap which used to cover the mountain during the Pliocene eroded large U-shaped valleys which tend to only have one large stream. Where the original shape of the shield volcano is still preserved, there have been millions of years for streams to erode
828-785: A significant clustered variation of genetic traits among Bantu language speakers by region, suggesting admixture from prior local populations. Bantu speakers of South Africa (Xhosa, Venda) showed substantial levels of the SAK and Western African Bantu AACs and low levels of the East African Bantu AAC (the latter is also present in Bantu speakers from the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda). The results indicate distinct East African Bantu migration into southern Africa and are consistent with linguistic and archeological evidence of East African Bantu migration from an area west of Lake Victoria and
920-594: A steep pyramidal form. Significant craggy outlying peaks include Terere (4,714 m or 15,466 ft) and Sendeyo (4,704 m or 15,433 ft) which form a pair of twin peaks to the north of the main plug. Together, they form a large parasitic plug. Other notable peaks include The Hat (4,639 m or 15,220 ft), Delamere Peak, Macmillan Peak and Rotundu . The glaciers on Mount Kenya are retreating rapidly. The Mountain Club of Kenya in Nairobi has photographs showing
1012-479: A vast genomic analysis of more than 2,000 samples taken from individuals in 57 populations throughout Sub-Saharan Africa to trace the Bantu expansion. During a wave of expansion that began 4,000 to 5,000 years ago, Bantu-speaking populations – some 310 million people as of 2023 – gradually left their original homeland West-Central Africa and travelled to the eastern and southern regions of the African continent. During
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#17328555916221104-402: Is Kĩrĩnyaga which literally means 'the one with the ostrich'. The ostrich has dark feathers and a white tail– when the bird bends its head to the ground with its tail in the air, its body forms a triangular shape with a white peak, closely resembling the snow capped mountain of Kĩrĩnyaga. The name Kĩrĩnyaga therefore figuratively means 'the one with white tails', referring to the glaciers among
1196-535: Is Ngai or Mwene Njeru ).The Embu name for Mount Kenya is 'Ki nyaga' which means similar to the Kikuyu 'the one with the ostrich'. The mountain is sacred, and they build their houses with the doors facing toward it. The Embu people are closely related to the Ameru and Mbeere people. The Mbeere and Akamba are the settlers of the southeast side of the mountain. The Ameru occupy the east, north, and north-western slopes of
1288-458: Is a stratovolcano that was active in the Plio-Pleistocene . The original crater was probably over 6,000 m (19,700 ft) high; and potentially up to 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high, making the prehistoric Mount Kenya higher than present-day Kilimanjaro . Since it became extinct there have been two major periods of glaciation , which are shown by two main rings of moraines below
1380-467: Is known as the giant rosette, which is exhibited by giant senecio, giant lobelia, and giant thistle ( Carduus ), which use bud leaves to protect their buds from freezing. Giant rosette senecios form single-aged stands that drive community structure over decades. Many plant species in the Afro-alpine zone of Mount Kenya are giant versions of lowland (or temperate) relatives. However, nearer the nival zone
1472-407: Is more intact because it is less accessible and better protected. When the trees can no longer grow the vegetation changes into heathland and chaparral , at around 3,000 m (9,800 ft). Heathland is found in the wetter areas, on the west side of Mount Kenya, and is dominated by giant heathers . Chaparral is found in drier areas and grasses are more common. and bushfires still occur. As
1564-479: Is much wetter than the north, so species more dependent on moisture can grow. Some species, such as African alpine bamboo , are limited to certain aspects of the mountain because of the amount of moisture. The climate of Mount Kenya changes considerably with altitude, forming belts of community types. Around the base of the mountain is fertile farmland. The people living around the mountain have cultivated this cool, relatively moist area for centuries. Mount Kenya
1656-427: Is no formation of new ice. It is predicted to be less than 30 years before there will no longer be ice on Mount Kenya. Glacial retreat and disappearance can be caused by changes in temperature trends, or by a change in precipitation trends. The glacier names are (clockwise from the north): The total area covered by glaciers on the mountain was recorded as about 0.7 km ( 1 ⁄ 4 sq mi) in
1748-1740: Is reconstructed as *-ntʊ́ . Versions of the word Bantu (that is, the root plus the class 2 noun class prefix *ba- ) occur in all Bantu languages: for example, as bantu in Kikongo , Kituba , Tshiluba and Kiluba ; watu in Swahili ; ŵanthu in Tumbuka ; anthu in Chichewa ; batu in Lingala ; bato in Duala ; abanto in Gusii ; andũ in Kamba and Kikuyu ; abantu in Kirundi , Lusoga , Zulu , Xhosa , Runyoro and Luganda ; wandru in Shingazidja ; abantru in Mpondo and Ndebele ; bãthfu in Phuthi ; bantfu in Swati and Bhaca ; banhu in kisukuma ; banu in Lala ; vanhu in Shona and Tsonga ; batho in Sesotho , Tswana and Sepedi ; antu in Meru ; andu in Embu ; vandu in some Luhya dialects; vhathu in Venda and bhandu in Nyakyusa . Within
1840-421: Is restricted to small isolated bunches in the north because of low rainfall. The bamboo is natural, and does not require forest disturbance. Tracks are common through the bamboo. Bamboo suppresses other vegetation, so it is uncommon to find trees or other plants here. Above the bamboo is the timberline forest. The trees here are often smaller than the trees in the forests lower down the mountain. The forest here
1932-402: Is surrounded by forests. The vegetation in the forests depend on rainfall, and the species present differ greatly between the northern and southern slopes. As time has passed the trees on the edge of the forest have been logged and the farmland has encroached further up the fertile slopes of the mountain. Above the forest is a belt of African alpine bamboo . This zone is almost continuous but
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#17328555916222024-453: Is the plural of the word 'umuntu', meaning 'person', and is based on the stem '--ntu', plus the plural prefix 'aba'. In linguistics, the word Bantu , for the language families and its speakers, is an artificial term based on the reconstructed Proto-Bantu term for "people" or "humans" . It was first introduced into modern academia (as Bâ-ntu ) by Wilhelm Bleek in 1857 or 1858 and popularised in his Comparative Grammar of 1862. The name
2116-453: Is the richest District in Kenya The district is home to Mount Kenya to the north. This is a tourism attraction with many foreigners and local people visiting its slopes. Numerous expeditions set out each year to scale the slopes to the mountain top. This climb is not easy and calls for great stamina and resilience. Legend has it that one man Munyao did scale the mountain to the peak and hoisted
2208-854: Is typical for their vegetation band. The highest peaks are Batian (5,199 m or 17,057 ft), Nelion (5,188 m or 17,021 ft) and Pt Lenana (4,985 m or 16,355 ft). Batian and Nelion are within 250 m (270 yd) of each other, separated by the Gate of the Mists gap of 5,144 m (16,877 ft). Other peaks around the central plug include Pt Piggot (4,957 m or 16,263 ft), Pt Dutton (4,885 m or 16,027 ft), Pt John (4,883 m or 16,020 ft), Pt John Minor (4,875 m or 15,994 ft), Krapf Rognon (4,800 m or 15,748 ft), Pt Peter (4,757 m or 15,607 ft), Pt Slade (4,750 m or 15,584 ft) and Midget Peak (4,700 m or 15,420 ft). All of these have
2300-888: The Congo rainforest by about 1500 BC and the southern savannas by 500 BC, while the eastward dispersal reached the Great Lakes by 1000 BC, expanding further from there as the rich environment supported dense populations. Possible movements by small groups to the southeast from the Great Lakes region could have been more rapid, with initial settlements widely dispersed near the coast and near rivers, because of comparatively harsh farming conditions in areas farther from water. Recent archeological and linguistic evidence about population movements suggests that pioneering groups would have had reached parts of modern KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa sometime prior to
2392-656: The Democratic Republic of the Congo alone. The larger of the individual Bantu groups have populations of several million, e.g.the large majority of West Africa, notably the most populous African nation Nigeria , Rwanda , Tanzania , Uganda , Kenya , Burundi (25 million), the Baganda people of Uganda (5.5 million as of 2014), the Shona of Zimbabwe (17.6 million as of 2020), the Zulu of South Africa (14.2 million as of 2016 ),
2484-667: The Indian Ocean slave trade . The Swahili culture that emerged from these exchanges evinces many Arab and Islamic influences not seen in traditional Bantu culture, as do the many Afro-Arab members of the Bantu Swahili people . With its original speech community centered on the coastal parts of Zanzibar, Kenya, and Tanzania – a seaboard referred to as the Swahili Coast – the Bantu Swahili language contains many Arabic loanwords as
2576-464: The Kikuyu , Meru , and Kamba . They inhabit the southern windward slopes and farmlands of Mount Kenya . Along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the Kikuyu , Mĩĩrũ , Mbeere and Kamba the Embu are believed to have entered their present habitat from the coast of East Africa, where they had settled early on after the initial Bantu expansion from Cameroon . The migration to Mount Kenya
2668-676: The Kingdom of Matamba the Kuba Kingdom , the Lunda Empire , the Luba Empire , Barotse Empire , Kazembe Kingdom , Mbunda Kingdom , Yeke Kingdom , Kasanje Kingdom , Empire of Kitara, Butooro , Bunyoro , Buganda , Busoga , Rwanda , Burundi , Ankole , the Kingdom of Mpororo , the Kingdom of Igara , the Kingdom of Kooki , the Kingdom of Karagwe , Swahili city states , the Mutapa Empire ,
2760-642: The Luba of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (28.8 million as of 2010 ), the Sukuma of Tanzania (10.2 million as of 2016 ), the Kikuyu of Kenya (8.1 million as of 2019 ), the Xhosa people of Southern Africa (9.6 million as of 2011), batswana of Southern Africa (8.2 Million as of 2020) and the Pedi of South Africa (7 million as of 2018). Abantu is the Xhosa and Zulu word for people. It
2852-521: The National Party governments adopted that usage officially, while the growing African nationalist movement and its liberal allies turned to the term "African" instead, so that "Bantu" became identified with the policies of apartheid . By the 1970s this so discredited "Bantu" as an ethnic-racial designation that the apartheid government switched to the term "Black" in its official racial categorizations, restricting it to Bantu-speaking Africans , at about
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2944-648: The Tana , the largest river in Kenya, and the Ewaso Nyiro North. The Mount Kenya ecosystem provides water directly for over 2 million people. The rivers on Mount Kenya have been named after the villages on the slopes of the mountain that they flow close to. The Thuchi River is the district boundary between Tharaka Nithi and Embu. Mount Kenya is a major water tower for the Tana river which in 1988 supplied 80% of Kenya 's electricity using
3036-570: The Zulu Kingdom , the Ndebele Kingdom , Mthethwa Empire , Tswana city states , Mapungubwe , Kingdom of Eswatini , the Kingdom of Butua , Maravi , Danamombe , Khami , Naletale , Kingdom of Zimbabwe and the Rozwi Empire . On the coastal section of East Africa, a mixed Bantu community developed through contact with Muslim Arab and Persian traders, Zanzibar being an important part of
3128-419: The 1980s, far less than that recorded by the first observations, made in the 1890s. Although Mount Kenya is on the equator the freezing nightly temperatures result in periglacial landforms. There is permafrost a few centimetres (inches) below the surface. Patterned ground is present at 3,400 m (11,155 ft) to the west of Mugi Hill. These mounds grow because the repeated freezing and thawing of
3220-412: The 3rd century AD along the coast and the modern Northern Cape by AD 500. Cattle terminology in use amongst the relatively few modern Bantu pastoralist groups suggests that the acquisition of cattle may have been from Central Sudanic , Kuliak and Cushitic -speaking neighbors. Linguistic evidence also indicates that the customs of milking cattle were also directly modeled from Cushitic cultures in
3312-795: The 9th and 15th centuries, Bantu-speaking states began to emerge in the Great Lakes region and in the savanna south of the Central African rainforests. The Monomotapa kings built the Great Zimbabwe complex, a civilisation ancestral to the Shona people. Comparable sites in Southern Africa include Bumbusi in Zimbabwe and Manyikeni in Mozambique. From the 12th century onward, the processes of state formation amongst Bantu peoples increased in frequency. This
3404-450: The Aembu people, not only had sixteen wives and many children, but he was also a respected administration officer for the colonial government and independent Kenya. An entire village bears his name, and a school is named after him. The Embu were fierce warriors who, although rarely raiding other tribes, always stood firm in defense of their territory and people. Many occasions are on record where
3496-562: The Bantu expansion, Bantu-speaking peoples extirpated and displaced many earlier inhabitants, with only a few modern peoples such as Pygmy groups in Central Africa, the Hadza people in northern Tanzania, and various Khoisan populations across southern Africa remaining in existence into the era of European contact. Archaeological evidence attests to their presence in areas subsequently occupied by Bantu speakers. Researchers have demonstrated that
3588-578: The Embu had to fiercely repulse Kamba and even the dreaded Maasai invasions. They also rose against the British in the Mau Mau fight for Kenya's independence. The fact that the tribe was and continues to be considerably small explains their relatively small impact on the history of Kenya. A captivating photo of Embu warriors hangs at the Izaak Walton Inn in Embu, named after Izaak Walton, an English gentleman who
3680-477: The Embu natives. Bantu peoples The Bantu peoples are an indigenous ethnolinguistic grouping of approximately 400 distinct native African ethnic groups who speak Bantu languages . The languages are native to countries spread over a vast area from West Africa, to Central Africa, Southeast Africa and into Southern Africa. Bantu people also inhabit southern areas of Northeast African states. There are several hundred Bantu languages. Depending on
3772-507: The Karue hill. The Kirimiri hill is also nearby. Though not open for tourism, it is home to a diverse array of wildlife.The hill is home to natural forests which are indigenous to the region. The hill is suitable for hiking purposes as there are no life-threatening wildlife.Embu is home to Mwea National Reserve. Best known for the diversity of bird species in the reserve. Ancient caves are also found in Embu, commonly referred to as 'Ngurunga ya Ngai' by
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3864-614: The Khoisan of the Kalahari are remnants of a huge ancestral population that may have been the most populous group on the planet prior to the Bantu expansion. Biochemist Stephan Schuster of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and colleagues found that the Khoisan population began a drastic decline when the Bantu farmers spread through Africa 4,000 years ago. Before the Bantu expansion had been definitively traced starting from their origins in
3956-529: The Maasai are Nilotes. The mountain is as an important aspect of their cultures. They arrived in the Mount Kenya area in the last several hundreds of years. The Kikuyu people live on the southern and western sides of the mountain. They are agriculturalists , and make use of the highly fertile volcanic soil on the lower slopes. They believe that God, Ngai or Mwene Nyaga , lived on Mount Kenya when he came down from
4048-771: The Masinga Reservoir. The rivers in the northern part of the mountain, such as the Burguret, Naru Moru, Nanyuki, Likii, and Sirimon flow into the Ewaso Nyiro. The rivers to the southwest, such as the Keringa and Nairobi flow into the Sagana and then into the Tana. The remaining rivers to the south and east, such as the Kathitâ (Largest River in Meru), Mutonga, Nithi, Thuchi, and Nyamindi, flow directly into
4140-421: The Tana. Mount Kenya has several altitudinal ecological zones, from the savanna surrounding the mountain to the nival zone by the glaciers. Each zone has a dominant species of vegetation. Many of the species found higher up the mountain are endemic, either to Mount Kenya or East Africa. There are also differences within the zones, depending on the side of the mountain and the aspect of the slope. The southeast
4232-436: The Zanzibar Sultanate came into direct trade conflict and competition with Portuguese and other Europeans along the Swahili Coast, leading eventually to the fall of the Sultanate and the end of slave trading on the Swahili Coast in the mid-20th century. In the 1920s, relatively liberal South Africans, missionaries, and the native African intelligentsia began to use the term "Bantu" in preference to "Native". After World War II ,
4324-441: The alpine zone, and other sightings are remembered in names such as Simba Tarn (simba means lion in Swahili ). Several bird species live in the Afro-alpine zone, including sunbirds , alpine chats and starlings and the raptors, augur buzzard , lammergeier and Verreaux's eagle , the latter of which specializes in hunting hyraxes. Birds are important in this ecosystem as pollinators. The climate of Mount Kenya has played
4416-479: The altitude increases the temperature fluctuations become extreme and the air becomes thinner and drier. This region is known as the Afro-alpine zone. The environment here is isolated, with the only similar area nearby being the Aberdares , which are 80 km (50 mi) away. Many of the species here are endemic, with adaptations to the cold and fluctuating temperatures. Typical plants here include giant groundsels (senecios) and giant lobelias. The region where
4508-555: The area. Cattle terminology in southern African Bantu languages differs from that found among more northerly Bantu-speaking peoples. One recent suggestion is that Cushitic speakers had moved south earlier and interacted with the most northerly of Khoisan speakers who acquired cattle from them and that the earliest arriving Bantu speakers, in turn, got their initial cattle from Cushitic-influenced Khwe-speaking people. Under this hypothesis, larger later Bantu-speaking immigration subsequently displaced or assimilated that southernmost extension of
4600-494: The base to the peak. The lower slopes are covered by different types of forest. Many alpine species are endemic to Mount Kenya, such as the giant lobelias and senecios and a local subspecies of rock hyrax . An area of 715 km (276 sq mi) around the centre of the mountain was designated a National Park and listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The park receives over 16,000 visitors per year. Mount Kenya National Park, established in 1949, protects
4692-624: The capital Nairobi . Mount Kenya is the source of the name of the Republic of Kenya. Mount Kenya is a volcano created approximately 3 million years after the opening of the East African Rift . Before glaciation, it was 7,000 m (23,000 ft) high. It was covered by an ice cap for thousands of years. This has resulted in very eroded slopes and numerous valleys radiating from the peak. There are currently 11 small glaciers , which are shrinking rapidly, and may disappear by 2050. The forested slopes are an important source of water for much of Kenya. There are several vegetation bands from
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#17328555916224784-431: The centre of the mountain which have an Alpine appearance due to their craggy nature. Typically of Alpine terrain, the highest peaks and gendarmes occur at the intersection of ridges. The central peaks only have a few mosses , lichens , and small alpine plants growing in rock crevices. Further away from the central peaks, the volcanic plugs are covered in volcanic ash and soils. The vegetation growing on these peaks
4876-412: The country's athletic team has immensely utilized the altitude and climate advantage of Embu through doing practices especially at Kigari teachers college and its environs, area that is at the slope of Mt. Kenya. These have gone on to win prestigious awards in the Olympics and competitive world marathons. Clans And Lineages Embu lies on the windward slopes of Mount Kenya . It remarkably occupies
4968-412: The definition of "language" or "dialect" , it is estimated that there are between 440 and 680 distinct languages. The total number of speakers is in the hundreds of millions, ranging at roughly 350 million in the mid-2010s (roughly 30% of the population of Africa , or roughly 5% of the total world population ). About 60 million speakers (2015), divided into some 200 ethnic or tribal groups, are found in
5060-440: The ecosystem. Some smaller mammals, such as the groove-toothed rat , can live here by burrowing into the giant senecios and using their thick stem of dead leaves as insulation. The Mount Kenya mole-rat Tachyoryctes rex occurs at high altitudes, living in visible mounds. Leopards are resident in the alpine zone. Other mammal species are only occasional visitors. Remains of elephants, monkeys, and bongo have been found high in
5152-588: The fierce debate among linguists about the word "Bantu", Seidensticker (2024) indicates that there has been a "profound conceptual trend in which a "purely technical [term] without any non-linguistic connotations was transformed into a designation referring indiscriminately to language, culture, society, and race"." Bantu languages derive from the Proto-Bantu reconstructed language, estimated to have been spoken about 4,000 to 3,000 years ago in West / Central Africa (the area of modern-day Cameroon). They were supposedly spread across Central, East and Southern Africa in
5244-482: The glaciers have recently retreated from is nival zone . It is the area that plants have not yet been able to colonise. The flora found on Mount Kenya varies with altitude, aspect, and exposure. As the altitude increases, the plants have to be more specialised, with adaptations to strong sunlight with ultraviolet , lower mean temperatures, and freezing night temperatures. Plants in the Afro-alpine zone have overcome these difficulties in several ways. One adaptation
5336-554: The glaciers. The lowest moraine is found at around 3,300 m (10,800 ft). Today the glaciers reach no lower than 4,650 m (15,260 ft). After studying the moraines, Gregory put forward the theory that at one time the whole summit of the mountain was covered with an ice cap , and it was this that eroded the peaks to how they are today. The lower slopes of the mountain have never been glaciated. They are now mainly cultivated and forested. They are distinguished by steep-sided V-shaped valleys with many tributaries. Higher up
5428-418: The ground draws in more water. There are blockfields present around 4,000 m (13,123 ft) where the ground has cracked to form hexagons. Solifluction occurs when the night temperatures freeze the soil before it thaws again in the morning. This daily expansion and contraction of the soil prevent the establishment of vegetation. Mount Kenya is the main water catchment area for two large rivers in Kenya;
5520-419: The hillside. This area is therefore characterised by frequent deep fluvial V-shaped valleys. The gradual transition from glaciated to the fluvial valley can be clearly observed. Rivers that start on Mount Kenya are the tributaries of two large Kenyan rivers: the Tana and the Ewaso Ng'iro rivers. A lot of Mount Kenyan rivers flow into the Sagana which itself is a tributary of the Tana, which joins at
5612-411: The incorporation of Khoekhoe ancestry into several of the Southeast Bantu populations ~1500 to 1000 years ago. Bantu-speaking migrants would have also interacted with some Afro-Asiatic outlier groups in the southeast (mainly Cushitic ), as well as Nilotic and Central Sudanic speaking groups. According to the early-split scenario as hypothesized in the 1990s, the southward dispersal had reached
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#17328555916225704-518: The larger ethnolinguistic phylum named by 19th-century European linguists. Bleek's coinage was inspired by the anthropological observation of groups self-identifying as "people" or "the true people". That is, idiomatically the reflexes of * bantʊ in the numerous languages often have connotations of personal character traits as encompassed under the values system of ubuntu , also known as hunhu in Chishona or botho in Sesotho , rather than just referring to all human beings. The root in Proto-Bantu
5796-442: The local and national economies, preserving an area of great scenic beauty, conserving the biodiversity within the park, and preserving the water catchment for the surrounding area. Kenya's government has announced a project to discourage animals from straying into small holdings surrounding the Park and devastating crops, which will see the Park enclosed by an electric fence with five electrified strands. Kenya's Rhino Ark Trust,
5888-500: The most prime fertile lands of the Kenya highlands. Two seasons are enjoyed each year, and the weather is favourable for diverse agricultural activities. The main food crops grown are maize, beans , yams , cassava , millet , sorghum , bananas and arrowroot , among others. This, alongside the domestic livestock of cows , goats, sheep and chicken, keeps the people well fed throughout the year. Instances of drought or famine are extremely rare. Embu county has repeatedly been ranked among
5980-417: The mountain and described what they considered to be the crater . In 1893 Gregory's expedition reached the Lewis Glacier at 5,000 m (16,400 ft). He confirmed that the volcano was extinct and that there were glaciers present. The first thorough survey by Europeans was not undertaken until 1966. The peaks of Mount Kenya are almost all of volcanic origin. The majority of the peaks are located near
6072-436: The mountain are Batian (5,199 metres (17,057 feet)), Nelion (5,188 m (17,021 ft)) and Point Lenana (4,985 m (16,355 ft)). Mount Kenya is located in the former Eastern and Central provinces of Kenya; its peak is now the intersection of Meru , Embu , Kirinyaga , Nyeri and Tharaka Nithi counties, about 16.5 kilometres (10.3 miles) south of the equator , around 150 km (90 mi) north-northeast of
6164-447: The mountain at the beginning of time. The Maasai name for Mount Kenya is Ol Donyo Keri , which means 'mountain of stripes', referring to the dark shades as observed from the surrounding plains. At least one Maasai prayer refers to Mount Kenya: God bless our children, let them be like the olive tree of Morintat, let them grow and expand, let them be like Ngong Hills like Mt. Kenya, like Mt. Kilimanjaro and multiply in number. Mount Kenya
6256-421: The mountain at the time of the first recorded ascent in 1899, and again more recently; the retreat of the glaciers is very evident. Descriptions of ascents of several of the peaks advise the use of crampons, but this is true only in some cases and at higher elevations. Every year there is less new snow accumulating in winter than melting in summer, even on the Lewis Glacier (the largest of them) in winter, so there
6348-413: The mountain most of the precipitation falls as snow. Combined, these water sources feed 11 glaciers . The current climate on Mount Kenya is wet, but drier than it has been in the past. The temperatures span a wide range, which diminishes with altitude. In the lower alpine zone temperature usually do not go below 12 °C (54 °F). Snow and rain are common from March to December, but especially in
6440-405: The mountain symbolically represent a crown on God's habitation. Kikuyu used to build their houses with doors facing the mountain. The Kikuyu name for Mount Kenya is Kirima Kĩrĩ Nyaga (Mt. Kirinyaga), which literally translates to the mountain that has the "Nyaga" – Ostriches. The mountain, therefore, is locally accepted as 'God's Resting Place' or 'Where God Lives'. The Kikuyu name for Mt. Kenya
6532-411: The mountain, in the area that is now moorland, the valleys become U-shaped and shallower with flatter bottoms. These were created by glaciation. When Mount Kenya was active there was some satellite activity. The northeastern side of the mountain has many old volcanic plugs and craters. The largest of these, Ithanguni, even had its own ice cap when the main peaks were covered in ice. This can be seen by
6624-414: The mountain. They are generally agricultural and also keep livestock and occupy what is among the most fertile land in Kenya. The Meru god Murungu was from the skies. Their name for Mt. Kenya is Kirimaara , which means 'mountain with white features'. The Maasai are semi-nomadic people, who use the land to the north of the mountain to graze their cattle. They believe that their ancestors came down from
6716-550: The national flag during the independence day on 12 December 1963. Other attractions in the region are the huge Karue hill towering high along the Embu-Meru highway. Made of a huge crested rock, at the top of the hill are two unique eucalyptus trees. From the summit there are views of the far reaches of Embu. Nearby to this hill are two waterfalls close together which color the sky white as their waters fall down, then marry to form one big Ena river that then meanders downstream to encircle
6808-460: The north and east, while others argue that the Embu, along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbours the Kikuyu, and the Meru moved into Kenya from points further north. The Embu are cash crop and subsistence farmers who also rear cows, goats and sheep. A man's riches were formerly judged by how many wives and children he had. For example, Senior Chief Muruatetu, probably one of the most famous of
6900-466: The peaks of the mountain. Translated to the Kamba language, kĩrĩnyaga, would be ki nyaa . This is the name that Ludwig Krapf was given when he sighted the mountain from Kitui (in Kamba county). He recorded it as Kenya. It became the name of not only the mountain but also the country. The Embu people live to the south-east of Mount Kenya, and believe that the mountain is God's home (the Embu word for God
6992-542: The plants decrease in size again. The majority of animals live lower down on the slopes of Mount Kenya. Here there is more vegetation and the climate is less extreme. Various species of monkeys, several antelopes, tree hyrax, porcupines, and some larger animals such as elephants and buffalo all live in the forest. Predators found here include hyenas and leopards, and occasionally lions. There are fewer mammals found at high altitudes on Mount Kenya. The Mount Kenya hyrax and common duiker can live here, and are important to
7084-983: The range of Cushitic speakers. Based on dental evidence, Irish (2016) concluded: Proto-Bantu peoples may have originated in the western region of the Sahara , amid the Kiffian period at Gobero , and may have migrated southward, from the Sahara into various parts of West Africa (e.g., Benin , Cameroon , Ghana , Nigeria , Togo ), as a result of desertification of the Green Sahara in 7000 BCE. From Nigeria and Cameroon, agricultural Proto-Bantu peoples began to migrate , and amid migration, diverged into East Bantu peoples (e.g., Democratic Republic of Congo ) and West Bantu peoples (e.g., Congo, Gabon ) between 2500 BCE and 1200 BCE. Irish (2016) also views Igbo people and Yoruba people as being possibly back-migrated Bantu peoples. Between
7176-566: The region between Cameroon and Nigeria, two main scenarios of the Bantu expansion were hypothesized: an early expansion to Central Africa and a single origin of the dispersal radiating from there, or an early separation into an eastward and a southward wave of dispersal, with one wave moving across the Congo Basin toward East Africa, and another moving south along the African coast and the Congo River system toward Angola. Genetic analysis shows
7268-428: The region surrounding the mountain. Currently, the national park is within the forest reserve which encircles it. In April 1978 the area was designated a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve . The national park and the forest reserve, combined, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997. The Government of Kenya had four reasons for creating a national park on and around Mount Kenya. These were the importance of tourism for
7360-469: The richest counties in Kenya and recent demographic surveys have ranked it among counties with longest life expectancy. With the advent of colonialism , many cash crops were introduced. For long these have offered a lucrative alternative source of livelihood for the people. The most widespread cash crops to date are coffee, tea, miraa(khat) and macadamia nuts . These are mainly grown for sale with little being processed for domestic consumption. Embu district
7452-520: The same time that the Black Consciousness Movement led by Steve Biko and others were defining "Black" to mean all non-European South Africans (Bantus, Khoisan, Coloureds and Indians ). In modern South Africa, the word's connection to apartheid has become so discredited that it is only used in its original linguistic meaning. Examples of South African usages of "Bantu" include: [REDACTED] This article incorporates text from
7544-593: The sky. They believe that the mountain is Ngai's throne on earth. It is the place where Gĩkũyũ, the father of the tribe, used to meet with God. Thus according to the Kikuyu records, Gĩkũyũ is the first person on Earth to ascend the mountain. 'Mwene Nyaga' in the Kikuyu language can also translate as the "Owner of the Ostriches" or "Owner of the white patches (of snow)" where 'Mwene' translates to 'owner', and 'Nyaga' to Ostriches or white patches. The snow (in Kikuyu: Ira) caps of
7636-455: The slopes of Mount Kenya. They were to refer to this location as the place of the Lord, the owner of the snow ("Nyaga") or ("Njerũ" meaning white) – hence the name "Mwenenyaga" or "Mwenenjerũ". Embu mythology claims that the Embu people originated from the current Mwenendega grove in the interior of Embu, close to Rũnyenje's town. The mythology claims that God ( Ngai ) created Mwenendega and gave him
7728-402: The smoothed summit of the peak. Circular hills with steep sides are also frequent in this area, which are probably the remains of small plugged vents . However, as the remaining mountain is roughly symmetrical , most of the activity must have occurred at the central plug. The rocks that form Mount Kenya are mainly basalts , rhomb porphyrites , phonolites , kenytes and trachytes . Kenyte
7820-519: The so-called Bantu expansion , comparatively rapid dissemination taking roughly two millennia and dozens of human generations during the 1st millennium BC and the 1st millennium AD. Scientists from the Institut Pasteur and the CNRS, together with a broad international consortium, retraced the migratory routes of the Bantu populations, which were previously a source of debate. The scientists used data from
7912-502: The wet and dry seasons in the Kenyan lowlands. As Mount Kenya ranges in height from 1,374 to 5,199 m (4,508 to 17,057 ft), the climate varies considerably over the mountain and has different zones of influence. The lower, southeastern slopes are the wettest as the predominant weather system comes from the Indian ocean. This rainfall supports dense montane forests on these slopes. High on
8004-517: Was enraptured by the fresh trout available in the fresh rivers flowing through Embu. The Ruvingacĩ and Kavingacĩ 013 Rivers border Embu town to the west and the east respectively and are a key source of domestic water to many Embu families. Embu region has for long been known as having very conducive altitude and climate that produce highly superior human body system. There has however been very little or no efforts in engaging young people from this area in sporting activities to tap this advantage. However,
8096-539: Was first reported by Gregory in 1900 following his study of the geology of Mount Kenya. The geology of the Mount Kenya area was first described scientifically by Joseph Thomson in 1883. He saw the mountain from the nearby Laikipia Plateau and wrote that it was an extinct volcano with the plug exposed. However, as he had only seen the mountain from a distance his description was not widely believed in Europe, particularly after 1887 when Teleki and von Höhnel ascended
8188-600: Was occasioned by intertribal conflicts with the coastal Swahili and Mijikenda communities. Linguistic evidence suggests their migration from as far as the Kenyan Coast, since the Mĩĩrũ elders refer to Mpwa (Pwani or Coast,) as their origin, Felix Chami says "Pwani" is the Punt of ancient the Egyptians. These conflicts forced them to retreat northwest to the interior of Kenya, and they settled by
8280-557: Was said to be coined to represent the word for "people" in loosely reconstructed Proto-Bantu, from the plural noun class prefix *ba- categorizing "people", and the root *ntʊ̀ - "some (entity), any" (e.g. Xhosa umntu "person" abantu "people", Zulu umuntu "person", abantu "people"). There is no native term for the people who speak Bantu languages because they are not an ethnic group . People speaking Bantu languages refer to their languages by ethnic endonyms, which did not have an indigenous concept prior to European contact for
8372-445: Was sent by God. Then one day the two, now man and wife, had a ceremony, where Ndega broke his promise and reproached his wife. It rained heavily, and the floods drowned the old couple. Their children survived and their descendants filled the land of Embu.The couple was wealthy, and their descendants populated the rest of Embu. Other authorities suggest that they arrived in their present Mount Kenya homeland from earlier settlements to
8464-449: Was the result of several factors such as a denser population (which led to more specialized divisions of labor, including military power while making emigration more difficult); technological developments in economic activity; and new techniques in the political-spiritual ritualisation of royalty as the source of national strength and health. Examples of such Bantu states include: the Kingdom of Kongo , Anziku Kingdom , Kingdom of Ndongo ,
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