11.3 Kenya East Africa

Objectives 1. Identify the ways people make their livings in rural areas of Kenya. 2. Describe why Kenyans are moving to cities 3. Explain how people who have moved to the city maintain family ties.

Journal  1/30 How do you stay in touch with friends and family members after one of you moves? How do you cope with feeling homesick when you are away from home?

Journal  1/31 Describe an example of harambee in your community.

Activity Begin three columns. Label one male, one female, and one for both Suggest words or phrases that describe differences and similarities between the ways men and women in Kenya live. Aspects common to both sexes can be in the both columns. A= columns identify more than four unique facts each for males and females and more than three that they share. B= webs identify four unique facts each for males and females and three they share. C=webs identify three unique facts each for males and females and three they share.

Background  The Samburu—Although the vast majority of rural Kenyans are farmers, a small percentage continues to live as nomadic herders. About 70,000 members of the Samburu ethnic group continue to live much as their ancestors did. The Samburu herd cattle, sheep, and goats in northern Kenya. Milk is their main food, but they also augment their diets with the protein-rich blood of the herds. The semi desert land limits farming, but on the Lorogoi Plateau and in the Karisia Hills, some Samburu grow small crops of sorghum, corn, and vegetables.

Biography  Ngugi wa Thiong’o (born 1938) Kenya’s best-known writer, Ngugi was Thiong’o, was born into a Kikuyu community in the highlands of Kenya. He attended a colonial school and earned degrees from universities in Uganda and Great Britain. In 1964k he wrote his first novel Weep Not, Child. Tough Ngugi wrote in English, the novel tells the story of a Kikuyu family during Kenya’s struggle for independence. In his other works, he often deals with the social, moral and racial issues that confront a young nation. After 1977k Ngugi began publishing works in Swahili or in his native Kikuyu language. This made his writing much more accessible to most Kenyans. Whether writing in English, Swahili, or Kikuyu, however, Ngugi’s novels and plays have always been part of the African tradition that calls upon the power of literature to combat injustice.

Review 11.3 Complete 1-5