A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-KikuyuBoyes, John
History
A White King in East Africa: The Remarkable Adventures of John Boyes, Trader and Soldier of Fortune, Who Became King of the Savage Wa-Kikuyu
Boyes, John
Africa, East; Kikuyu (African people)
We had had the good fortune to capture the enemy’s chief, who was
brought a prisoner into our camp, and the next morning I consulted with
Karuri as to what was to be done with him, and it was at last decided to
hold a _shauri_ (pronounced _showari_), or council, on the matter. I
asked them what they would have done in a case like this if I had not
been with them, and they replied that they would either have killed him
or made him pay a heavy fine. I pointed out that killing him or making
his people pay a heavy fine would only aggravate the enmity of these
people, and so cause more trouble later on. I told them that it would be
better to make the chief restore everything that had been stolen by
him—not in previous years, but in the raids which had taken place during
my stay among them, and to this course they finally agreed.
Within a few days all the stolen property was restored to its original
owners, causing much rejoicing among them, as they had, of course, never
expected to see any of it again. Of course, I took precautions to see
that no friction occurred during the process of retransferring the
recovered property, and having invited some of the chief men of both
districts to my camp, we got on quite friendly terms. Seeing them
sitting, eating and drinking together amicably, it was difficult to
imagine that they had been cutting one another’s throats only a few days
previously, but the Kikuyu, like many other African races, are
remarkably changeable, and their temper can never be relied upon. As I
learnt during my stay among them, they are both fickle and treacherous,
and had it not been for my own people, I should have run great risk of
being killed on several occasions, through trusting them too much.
I was very anxious to strengthen and maintain my friendship with these
people and the surrounding clans, and, after some discussion on the
matter, found that they had a ceremony, known as Pigasangi, which was
supposed to be mutually binding. If it could be arranged for me to
undergo this ceremony, there was every prospect of a lasting friendship
being formed. This ceremony differs from that of blood brotherhood
chiefly in that, while blood brotherhood establishes a friendly
relationship with the individual, Pigasangi establishes it with the
whole of the tribe or communities represented at the ceremony.
After some days the assembled chiefs consented to take part in the
ceremony, and, accompanied by the natives who had always been friendly
to me, and about fifteen of the old men of the district, I went to the
chief’s village to make the necessary arrangements.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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