The Kikuyu share common historical roots with the Kamba, Embu, Mbere, Tharaka, and Meru. All of these groups date back to a prototype population known as the Thagicu. Migrating from the north, the Thagicu settled in the Mount Kenya region sometime between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. As splinter groups formed, one of the groups migrated south and settled on the southwestern slopes of Kirinyaga (Mount Kenya).
There were additional Bantu migrations from the north-east, followed by periods of settlement, intermarriage, and further splintering of the Thagicu in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The Kikuyu trace their descent from one of the splinter groups that settled at the convergence of the Tana (Thagana) and Thika rivers.
The kikuyu moved to the highlands once they started practicing crop agriculture. While the Kambas and Tharakas were into animals husbandry, hunting and gathering.
Semi arid environment was ideal for them. Rika ria chuma, was when the kikuyu started smelting metals and it’s in this period that the kikuyus started tilting soil.
Rika ria Ndemi saw the massive clearing of forest land on the Aberdares and Mt. Kenya slopes.
Ndemi saw the expansion of kikuyu settlement Southwards to Kiambu.
From the settlement at Ithanga, subgroups migrated in several directions, some north to Nyeri, others northeast to Kirinyaga, and some south to Murang’a over the next two centuries. Some migrated further south than Murang’a, toward Kiambu, in the eighteenth century, and came into contact with a hunting people they called the Aathi. They intermarried with the Aathi and acquired land from them in exchange for goats.
Most of the Southern Kikuyu (Kiambu Kikuyu) are mixed. They have athi and maasai genes which were gained through intermarriages. Murang’a Kikuyu are considered to be a ‘pure’ breed as they were not in contact with other tribes hence there were few or no intermarriages.
The Miiru came from meroe after outwitting the sand nigger there and travelled past lake turkana down to nyambene hills. They displaced kikuyu southwards up to kerugoya and settled between river Thuchi and the pastoralist tribes on the other end. I got to mention that their leader was the legendary prophet, seer, judge, soldier, general, magician, priest, orator, chairman of the joint politburo of the meru clans, his royal highness chair of the Central Committee of Njuri Ncheke, his holiness KOOME NJUE. [SIZE=1]F[SIZE=1]r[/SIZE]om whom H.E. General Munya is descended[/SIZE]
Are you implying Kikuyus in Nyeri are nilotes? Most Kikuyus carry maasai genes but the level is significantly low. The average Kikuyu has a genetic makeup of over 78% southeastern bantu.
73% of Gĩkũyũs carry the paternal haplogroup E1b1a - Bantu
20% of Gĩkũyũs carry paternal haplogroup E1b1b - Cushitic
2% of Gĩkũyũs carry the paternal haplogroup A - Khoisan
2% of Gĩkũyũs carry the paternal haplogroup B - Pygmy/Hadzabe (Almost all East africans have pygmy blood.)
Most Nyeri kyuks have at least 40% Maasai blood. The ones in Kieni have at least 25% Turkana blood. The ones in Laikipia are cross- breeds of Kikuyu of Kikuyu and Dorobo.
My grandfather was Maasai, he told me that that his great-grandfather told him that the original Dorobo were the Khoisan Bushmen. Can anyone confirm this?