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An Outline of the Descent System of the Teita, a North-Eastern Bantu Tribe

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 August 2012

A. H. J. Prins
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Extract

This paper presents a preliminary account of the results of field research among the Teita, a tribal group not previously studied. It aims at giving a survey of the main structural features of the Teita tribal system and of the genealogical groupings within it. I hope to devote a separate article to a study of residential relations as cohesive factors within the tribal structure.

Résumé

UN APERÇU DU SYSTÈME DE DESCENDANCE DES TEITA

L'auteur traite, d'après les données recueillies au cours d'une étude récente sur champ, du système de descendance des Teita, une tribu bantoue du Nord-Est habitant la colonie de Kenya. Il fait une distinction entre trois principaux groupements sociaux — le kichuku, ou clan, le kivalo, ou lignage principal, le kinyumba, ou famille étendue. Les Teita reconnaissent sept clans, ou ‘nombres’ comme ils les appellent: ceux-ci sont des groupes exogames et patrilinéaux, mais ils fonctionnent essentiellement comme groupes cultuels pour les hommes seulement, et leurs membres ne reconnaissent pas un ancêtre en commun. Le véritable groupe de descendance est le kivalo — un lignage qui s'étend sur quatre générations; les vivalo forment les segments principaux des clans et le kivalo ressemble à un statut légal comme constituant d'une région. Le kivalo agit comme un corps constitué chaque fois qu'un de ses membres a été lésé ou a commis un crime. Le kinyumba est l'unité nucléaire du système de descendance des Teita; il agit comme un groupe constitué en ce qui concerne les droits de propriété des terres et le soin du bétail; ce n'est pas un groupe cultuel indépendant et ne jouit pas de droits politiques. Le kinyumba se dissout à la mort de son chef et de nouveaux vinyumba sont formés et attachés aux fils de l'ancien chef. Le lignage subit ainsi une augmentation de portée et l'on le désigne désormais un nyumba. Le nyumba est un groupe dispersé en dedans de la région, qui se suffit rituellement dans des cas moins importants. Tous les membres d'un nyumba sont tenus à contribuer au bétail de mariage exigé pour un membre quelconque, et tous les membres féminins peuvent compter sur l'aide et la protection du nyumba.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 20 , Issue 1 , January 1950 , pp. 26 - 37
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1950

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References

page 26 note 1 Wray's little grammar is the only source directly dealing with the Teita, though only the Sagalla branch. Wray, J. A., An elementary introduction to the Taita language, London, 1894Google Scholar.

page 27 note 1 Not the governmental unit but the sublocation, which is an original native unit.

page 27 note 1 Statement in English; I am not sure whether the Dabida word for number (mtalo) was used.

page 27 note 3 A Dabida man cannot readily understand a Msagalla.

page 27 note 4 There are types among them which might be described as Hamites. I met some Sagalla askaris who showed a striking resemblance to a few Galla in the Kenya Police, whom I saw afterwards.

page 28 note 1 Acknowledgement to Mr. H. E. Lambert.

page 28 note 2 Plural vichuku.

page 28 note 3 Cf. Malinowshi, , Argonauts, p. 365Google Scholar, and Fischer, , Man, 1938, 181.Google Scholar

page 29 note 1 Though associated with recognized first occupation-sites.

page 29 note 2 The whole of the three Teita Reserves, Dabida, Sagalla, and Kasigao, is divided up into eight territorial locations (mitaa) each with an appointed chief as ruler.

page 30 note 1 Authority, however, is one of the subjects about which I am not well informed.

page 30 note 2 The Wambisha on Mbololo do not use this Kiruma language as far as I know.

page 30 note 3 A synonymous term might be vwenimwana as E. J. A. Leslie has suggested.

page 30 note 4 Some of my informants thought that clan and lineage were both rendered by the word kichuku, but kivalo was specifically clan and not lineage; in fact, the opposite is true.

page 30 note 5 Sometimes, in Mgangi, a whole district bears this kind of name: Gwavweniwalo for instance.

page 31 note 1 That is, not dispersed over different districts.

page 32 note 1 This rule seems to come into operation only at the early death of the father.

page 33 note 1 Eldest sons never move outside the village; in case of strife with their father they usually leave his homestead-duster and move over to the other side of the village.

page 33 note 2 Then they will go and live with their paternal grandmother, who is living near or at their father's homestead.

page 34 note 1 It seems to me that this is perhaps at the root of the fact that the nyumba is a more important group in districts with a shortage of cattle.

page 34 note 2 The last two items are not exclusively or peculiarly characteristic, (d) Usually the father only provides the cattle. (e) Wives of the component vinyumba assist also in building, and even members of the kivalo outside the nyumba might take part in it.

page 36 note 1 P. 35. Dynamics of Clanship.