First peoples and first colonialists

[aeichener]

I know I should be as polite to answer Kamalet's question first. (The short answer is a resounding "yes"; the long answer takes some more time).

But when looking around the 'Net for some more info on the Sengwer people (I briefly met David Yator Kiptum in Nakuru 2004, where he visited his Ogiek activist colleagues), I found this strange gem:

"The influence of white settlers on the Sengwer peoples

It is believed that the first white people came to Sengwer land around 1600. The Sengwer feared them because they thought these people were the children of the lightning who came to grab their land and animals. The strong age-group, Pkoimet, started to fight with them and chased them away. After this the Arabs and Wa Swahili came to exchange their beads for ivory. "

At first sight, this might sound like a retrograde projection of later experiences into early, posthumously glorified times of The Great Ancestors ("chased them away"). After all, didn't British colonisation only start in the late 19th century? And didn't the few earlier influences stay limited to the coastland? (Mombasa's Fort Jesus comes to mind)
But a historian will not too easily disparage sources just because they contradict a preconceived notion. And here is what I found in another place:

"1608-18 Several Portuguese expeditions failed to find gold and silver"

If this short notice is not limited to Mozambique, then it might seem that the exclusively oral tradition of the Sengwer hunters-gatherers might be correct and trustworthy after all... for over 400 years.
:-)
And if anybody would like to research further, this bibliography could help.


Alexander

[aeichener]

Somewhat fitting to the topic, I wish to lift a quotation from an another meanwhile vanished thread (old Nation Forum from 31.03.2005). It was a contributor named Riwam in the thread "Know your country" who wrote there poignantly and astutely:

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who was in kenya a thousand years ago?
most tribes you would easily recognize trooped into this area in waves during most of the last millenium. they displaced, assimilated and to some extend annihilated some bushmanoid tribes . examples of these hunter/gatherer communities were the gumba, athi, dorobo, ngulia and ogiek.
it is suprising that some groups like the masai have taken the mantle of 'indigenous' to describe their status in kenya, and therefore needing special rights. these guys are relatively new in kenya, and their status for the last 500 odd years was akin to that of colonizers.
lets spare a thought for 'real' owners of kenya.

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