Akamba History Lesson

By Muli wa Kyendo

I promised to make this blog a place to discuss, among other things, life in Africa. Let’s talk about life.



History Lies Under Our Feet

The Akamba, the fourth largest community in Kenya, belief that Mulungu, or God, is a spirit. In the beginning, Mulungu created Mundu, Man and his wife, Kiveti. Mundu and Kiveti, like Mulungu, were spirits. When God had finished creating them, he dropped them from heaven to earth with their cattle and a stool for the Mundu. They landed on a rock on small mountain called Nzaui, a place which exists up to now. And the Akamba will tell you that, if you doubt, the story, you can visit Nzaui and you will see for yourself, the footprints of Mundu and Kiveti and their animals.



The First Prayer on Earth

Nzaui was a beautiful place, teeming with wildlife and all kinds of plants just like the Garden of Eden of the Bible. Mundu and his wife got very handsome boys, but they didn’t have girls. This problem made them decide to talk to Mulungu. And Mundu told God that He, God, had given them a beautiful, rich land and handsome boys, but He had not given them girls for their sons to marry. This was the first prayer that humans made to God.



God heard Mundu. He brought rain which was so heavy that it produced anthills. Then God came down from heaven, took clay from the anthills and created another man and woman. The Man of Clay and his wife produced beautiful girls whom the sons of Mundu and Kiveti married. Mundu paid the dowry with the cattle that he had brought from heaven. And thus the Man of Clay and the Man of Spirit mixed. Man therefore became part spirit and part clay, when he is today.



The story goes ahead to show the increase of human population, dispersal and growth of languages away from Kikamba (which was the language that Mulungu gave Mundu and Kiveti), the fall of Man and human Redemption by Mulungu.



Genesis of Genesis?

This story is intriguing in many ways. One, it points out why Man is both spirit and clay in a very believable man. In Genesis, the Bible confirms the existence of the two clans—the Clan of Spirit and Clan of Clay. It says that the children of the gods (Clan of Spirits) saw that the daughters of men (Clan of Clay) where beautiful and married them.



Secondly, archaeologists say that the Garden of Eden was most probably located in Kenya. In deed, Kenya is today, the official “birth place” of human beings.



Third, it was this same place that so fascinated the explorer missionaries that they returned to the US of America determined to come back to set up a church at Nzaui in a hinterland country they called Ukamba Province. It was also the place where the Akamba traditional religion was—and still, is—strongest.



This is, of course the life we live, upon history that we don’t talk about. I may add that only a few kilometers away, going by the current political boundaries, is the place where the Ethiopian eunuch was reading the Bible as he travelled on a mule. His story is told in the Bible. To the north is Mt. Kenya, the world famous spiritual mountain known by the Akamba as Kinyaa. The mountain’s pyramid-like peaks are said to have inspired the Pharaohs of Egypt to build their inimitable pyramids when they tired of coming down to worship at the mountain. Its forests of rare trees are said to have provided the timber for King Solomon’s temples.

And its upon our soil that the workers of King Solomon travelled to famous Sofala - The City of Gold – to the South.

It’s unfortunate that many people don’t know our country’s great contribution to history. May be Barack Obama would be happy to know what his Father Land has given to the world.

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