It is worth noting here that the wordMogai,if
not the sacrosanctity, originated with the Maasai
wordEnkai and was appropriated by both the
Gikuyu and Kamba. The Supreme Being is also
known asMungu, Murungu, Mwene-Nyaga,or
Mulungu, a variation of a word meaning God,
which is known to be in use as far south as
Zambia among the Zambesi and is sometimes
dubbedMwathaniorMwathi(the greatest ruler),
derived from the wordgwatha, meaning to rule or
reign with authority.
At any rate, Gikuyu proceeded to the designated
spot, where he found a stunning woman who
Mogai had provided as his wife. Gikuyu named her
Moombi, which means molder or creator, and
together they had nine daughters. When Gikuyu
expressed his desire that his daughters have
husbands, Mogai instructed him to sacrifice a lamb
and a kid under the homestead’s big mokoyo tree,
pouring the animals’ blood and the fat on the trunk
of the tree. Then the family was to make a bonfire
under the great fig tree and burn the meat as a sac-
rifice to God—and sacrifices and supplication were
always the purview of the family because no indi-
vidual could petition the Almighty. Gikuyu did as
directed. Then, per Mogai’s decree, he took the
womenfolk home. Subsequently, he alone returned
to the mokoyo tree, where he found nine handsome
men for his daughters. They married and procre-
ated, and this is how the Gikuyu people multiplied
and filled the land.Ongoing Impact
For the Gikuyu people, the question of land
tenure is singularly vital to the people’s existence432 Mount Kenya
Kenya’s highest mountain,and the second highest in Africa after Kilimanjaro,Mount Kenya lies just south of the equator in central
Kenya and is variably referred to as“The Mountain of Mystery,” “The Place of Light,”or“Mountain of Brightness.”
Source: National Geographic/Getty Images.