In his 1907 book The Man-eaters of Tsavo and Other East African Adventures, J. H. Patterson has a chapter titled “THE SWAHILI AND OTHER NATIVE TRIBES” in which are to be found descriptions like these:
“Of the many tribes …perhaps the most extraordinary-looking are the Wa Nyika… They are exceedingly ugly and of a low type.”
“the Wa Taita are essentially a peace-loving and industrious people”
“(the Wa Kamba) are a peace-loving people, though when driven to it by hunger they will commit very cruel and treacherous acts of wholesale murder.”
“Nothing ever seems to damp the spirits of the Swahili porter.”
“The Wa Kikuyu have the reputation of being a very cowardly and treacherous people… but on the contrary I found them well-behaved and intelligent and most anxious to learn.” (I can live with that!)
“the Kavirondo are the most interesting. They are an industrious, simple people, devoted to agriculture and hospitable in the extreme—a little addicted to thieving, perhaps, but then that is scarcely considered a sin in the heart of Africa.”
and so on.
So the Kavirondo brothers are the real OGs, the pioneer shiny eyes!
A part from the so called Wa Nyika,there lived another community called Wangozi(existed along the East Coast of Africa).Nyika is Kiswahili word meaning grassland(savanna)Wa Nyika were the people who lived on the Coastal lowlands and the Nyika Plateau.These are the communities today called Miji Kenda.Wa Nyika lilikuwa jina la kuwadhalilisha Wa Miji Kenda eti wao ni "washamba"na aidha kuwaona kama watu waliokosa "ustaarabu"Majina hayo mengine yalikuwa ya kubeza(madharau)
So we’re going to debate some ignorant white mans opinion on Kenyans on the base of tribes which they used to develop divisions amongst us? Tuko serious?
Hehehe. I guess ni tedium ya ukabila umekuwa kijijini of late. Furthermore ile ukabila ya jokes huwa funny kati yetu, not when used very obviously by a racist.
Lakini bro chukueni sifa yenu bana. We have suffered enough with this “shiny eye” thing!