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The Kuria people are an indigenous ethnic group residing primarily in the Kuria District of Tanzania and the Trans Mara District of Kenya.
They are part of the larger Bantu-speaking community and have a population of approximately 300,000 individuals.
Here’s an overview of the Kuria way of life.
Kuria Family Structure
Traditionally, the Kuria people base their social organization on the family unit. Households were patrilineal, and the father was the head of the family.
Kuria Clans
The Kuria are divided into clans (Ibiaro) which vary in traditional practices, language, and rule of laws.
The clans include; Abagumbe, Abairege, Abanyabasi, and Abakira who live in Kenya.
The Abapemba, Ababurati, Abakira, Abamera, Simbete, Abanyabasi, Watobori, Abakunta, Wiga, Kaboye, Abakenye, Abagumbe, and Wasweta, Abatimbaru live in Tanzania.
Totems
The Kuria had two Moieties called the Monyasae and Monyasae. The clans identified themselves with either of the moieties. The clans also had totems.
They included; the elephant, leopard, hyena, zebra, baboon, and hippopotamus.
Dialects
The Kuria Kenyan dialects are Bugumbe, Bwirege, Nyabasi, and Bukira, and are closely related.
They can easily understand each other but still distinguish themselves in speech.
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Age Sets
Young men among the Kuria people underwent circumcision as graduation from childhood to adulthood.
They would later identify themselves with an age set (esaro). Traditionally, girls also went through circumcision to be able to identify as a woman ready for marriage.
Teenagers aged thirteen and above were circumcised and qualified into an age set. The men would then be identified as Abamura.
When a girl was married, she would change her age set group and identify herself with that of her husband. The men were not allowed to marry from the same age set.
Naming System
Culturally, the Kuria had a unique way of naming. For one, they named children according to an event during birth.
Some of the events were natural occurrences like lightning (Nkobha), Earthquake ( Kirigiti), Rain (Wambura/ Nyambura), and Floods (Nyamanche).
More so, they named their newborns after animals or birds. Names belonging to ancestors were also given.
This happened in situations where a dead grandfather or mother requested to be named after.
Additionally, the Kuria had unique names only given to firstborns. They include; Chacha, Marwa, and Mwita, for boys, and Robi, Gati, and Bhoke for girls. These names were relevant because they corresponded to the greetings the father and mother of the child would address.
For example, the father was greeted; Isa-Marwa, Isa-mwita, or Isa-chacha. The mother would be greeted as Nyamwita or Nyachacha. This was also relevant in girl names.
Marriage/Courtship
Marriage among the traditional Kuria was a merry-making event. Fathers arranged marriage for their sons.
They choose a girl for their son to marry. The groom was expected to pay dowry that included twenty to twenty-five cows to the bride’s family.
Family members helped in case the groom couldn’t pay the dowry. Each family member would contribute a cow.
The marriage would occur three months after the dowry had been paid. The girl had no say in the decision of her marriage.
She was valuable since the dowry given meant more wealth for her family. A man was considered wealthy and accorded respect according to the number of wives he had. It meant that the man had a lot of cattle to give a bride price.
Additionally, the Kuria was known for ‘lesbian’ marriages (Quasi-matriarchal system).
These marriages ensured that a barren woman had children and a woman without a son had a male child.
An older woman would marry a young woman who would get pregnant by random men.
Polygamy
Polygamy was a common practice among the Kuria. A man's social status was gauged according to the number of wives he married. It was a sign of prestige.
Gender Roles in Marriage
According to the Kuria culture, roles were defined according to gender. The men were the decision-makers responsible for providing for and protecting their households.
They also built houses, hunted, farmed, and herded cattle.
Women were housewives who would stay in their bomas, looking after the elderly, cooking food, and caring for the children.
They also made tools and equipment for the household through molding.
Widows
Women endured much criticism and were looked down upon after their husbands died.
Traditionally, a widow belonged to her husband’s family, and they got to decide her fate. Frequently, she was married to one of her deceased husband’s brothers, cousin, or uncle.
Inheritance
Many African cultures considered inheritance patrilineal, and it was no different among the Kuria.
A woman’s position was with her husband, but when he died, her sons were the ones to inherit wealth.
In a case where she didn’t have sons, she could marry a surrogate mother, which was only possible before her husband’s death.
A woman was considered childless if she had no sons.
Death
The Kuria believed in life after death. To them, the deceased joined the ancestral world and became one of them.
This event was validated through a dream or vision. The deceased spoke to the family members to confirm their arrival in the spirit world.
When a father died, he was buried on the right side of the cowshed, while the mother was buried on the left side.
The bodies were buried so that both legs and hands were tied and buried within two hours after death.
However, burial rituals vary according to the situation in which one died. For the elderly, the ancestors were invoked to accept the spirit which longed to join them.
If the cause of death of a person was not known, they were buried with a traditional herb said to cause calamity to the perpetrator.
Those who died by an animal attack or drowning were presumed to bring bad omen. They were buried where they met their death and near the river where they died.
They believed that if the bodies were brought back to the homestead, other family members would die the same way.
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