Unlike The Masai, The Wa Kikuyu
Have A Fairly Good Idea Of Agriculture, And Grow
Crops Of M'tama (A Kind Of Native Grain From
Which Flour Is Made), Sugar-Cane, Sweet Potatoes,
And Tobacco.
The Wa Kikuyu have the reputation of being
a very cowardly and treacherous people, and
they have undoubtedly committed some very
cruel deeds.
A friend of mine, Captain Haslem,
with whom I lived for a few months at Tsavo,
was barbarously murdered by some members of
this tribe. He left me to go up to the Kikuyu
country in charge of the transport, and as he
was keenly interested in finding out all about
the tropical diseases from which the animals
suffered, he made it his custom to dissect the
bodies of those that died. The superstitious
Wa Kikuyu were fully convinced that by this
he bewitched their cattle, which at the time were
dying in scores from rinderpest. So - instigated
no doubt by the all-powerful witch-doctor - they
treacherously killed him. For my part, however,
I found them not nearly so black as they had been
painted to me. I had about four hundred of them
working at one thing or another at Nairobi and
never had any trouble with them. On the contrary
I found them well-behaved and intelligent and
most anxious to learn.
As is the case with all other African races,
the women of the Wa Kikuyu do the manual
labour of the village and carry the heavy loads
for their lords and masters, the bundles being
held in position on their back by a strap passing
round the forehead.
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