Now. The intended community in study to widen our stretch of putting Saniaga in context was Kipsigis. Not after deep in its literature convinced by T. Towett that; if the Kipsigis divided themselves into previous tribal units there would be no one called Kipsigis. To go ahead then and camp in 'tribal' homogenous groups as J. Osogo did in Luhya with little kinship diggings left us with starter works that are more or less political grounds, failing to satiate the interpersonal clarion: know your history.
In a second-hand book, H. Mwanzi (1977) is criticized by a previous reader who noted in a black pen; 'Your PhD thesis carries with it anti-Kalenjin connotations. You appear a piece designed to rob the Kalenjins of their splendid past of great social, political and religious past. It amounts to the view that all that the Kipsigis practice is a legacy bequeathed to them by the Bantus. It cannot be.' Ahead, it adds, 'The Kipsigis history has been studied out of context. I have always wondered why you found it convenient to write other people's history and not your Maragoli tribe…' before the crier throws a tantrum.
Had these herald historians aired more of kinship ties and in the verbose of refuting other authors narrowed down to clans, there would be as many town halls discussing their works. The collective works, done, lacked an owner. You do not say you are a Luo when you meet a Luo. You say you are a JaUgenya or NyarAlego. In the nicety of the discussion you head to family names and forth, arousing bonds, least talking about your initiation rites. There may have been limits of the time, desire to 'harmonize' the new tribal brandings which till date, begs us to paint a more clear view of ourselves.
It was an African affair and deeply a Talai clan achievement when the long distance legend runner, Eliud Kipchoge, ran against time on 12th October 2019. This special challenged dubbed INEOS 1:59 was intense, of professional pace setters (involving Blacks and Caucasians), one of its own, the son of soil on track, every eye shifting between clock and step. He made it finally and it was a national celebration in Kenya. Celebrations in Kalenjin went on, even longer, because of his clan, the widespread Talai. It was as if Okonkwo has once again thrown down Amalinze the cat, the nine clans and more are happy, and the glory of his people is back.
It is true that the Kalenjin community, as Luhya, is a coat of many colours. T. Towett warned that 'an attempt to analyze the numerous Kipsigis clans is similar to analyze a bucketful of sand.' But we are not lazy, let us grasp the lasers and start work, magnifying both the rough and fine gravel. The many clans should not discourage us. Studying a few of them will make the story incomplete. Till each soul is quenched, ancestry is traced and ambitions instilled can we wholesomely imagine the future. Sooner there will be little to do with indigenous and community specific cultural practices. If that is what held us together then it was a weak link, underscoring the test of time. When we know we are not of yesterday. Neither of today.
It is how it is approached that informs or causes reaction. In Nandi there are clans as Baswetek, Baguserek, Papasik, Kapchemuri, Kaparangwek and several others that are not only found in Maragoli, Kisii and Kipsigis. In Maragoli terminologies they are consecutively vaSweta, vaGusero/vaMasero, vaVavayi, vaMuri and vaRangi respectively. And many others whose names were changed or acquired other identities through sub-clans. In Pokot a clan could change its name if misfortunes followed it. If a clan says it does not marry with another it should be taken as a way of hinting to a near ancestor. One clan that is found in near all Kalenjin sub-tribes and is integral to understanding Kipsigis alike is the Talai.
Talai (Tala is said to mean meek people), is traced to a mixed origin of Sigilal Maasai and Tugen. Also traced to Rendille, Galla and Oromo just to tell how the past appears a single homestead of present East African 'Tribes'. You will read in some excerpts that it is the royal Orgoiyot family, the ruling clan. In Pokot, its sub-clan, the Cheposait was prophetic. Self-entitlements that are not part of this search for in one way or another they are largely lacking in effect. Communities existed statelessly, clan elders and warriors working together to maintain law and order, and instead of forming tense allegiant nations, preferring to split up the way of Maragoli, Kuria, Suba and Gusii at Goye circa 1560. It was but a Laibon kingly post that was borrowed into the Nandi and later in Kipsigis.
Nandi and Kipsigis, we are educated, were together and got split by Maasai attacks. Nandi by now were known as Chemwal. Kipsigis would acquire their name after, interacting with the Gusii, south where they had moved to. Here, giving rise to half casts, the Kipsigis. Why, despite the huge Gusii influence they did not later make Kipsigis Kisii speakers was due to ongoing intermarriages with Ogieks, Kalenjin speakers. Two, the Kipsigis still in touch with former relatives the Nandi, they would still marry from them. A reason why language is called mother-tongue and not father-tongue. The coming of Orgoiyot in Nandi was also received in Kipsigis, who now occupied the beautiful green lands in Belgut, Bureti and Sotik.
It happened that a Maasai woman called Moki Chebo Cheplabot ran away to hide in Mogobich valley caves during one of the Chemwal-Maa wars. She was pregnant and the woman was said to be of Laibon house, making her children possibly royal. In such wars women and children were part of loot, worthy to keep, to raise and increase one's tribe. She delivered twins and they were raised in Talai-Nandi as the clan presently is known as. These children might have been known as Chepcheblabot clan, courtesy of their mother. Not when they had an adopted father and siblings too. Talai Kutwo became their 'house' as Talai oor Mwendo remained the original Talai.
It was not the first time the Chemwal were meeting and interacting the Maasai through fights. We are told of a group called Maliri that socially evolved at Omo valley with a fraction called Pokotozek that as it stands lead to the birth of Kalenjin. When Pokotozek disturbed the Oropom (also known as Dorobo/Ogiek) in their wonderings, they met Maasai at Baringo which it is said they defeated them. By there being other successive raids/interactions over the generations between the Kalenjin and Maasai, adoption of Chepcheblabot could be as well be welcoming a kin, long lost. The presence of Talai in other clans of Kalenjin may not be necessarily the recorded version of Talai of Nandi moving there in nineteenth century but a welcoming of kins lost through natural and man-caused upheavals. Kaap Turgat sub-tribe of Talai-Nandi is not only found in Kipsigis but also in Tugen. Not necessarily professing the same totem, the sun.
Of Talai of Marakwet, their totem is the Lizard. Of Pokot, their totem is the crow. Similar to Saniak of Marakwet whose totem is monkey (with sub tribes who regard bees) and those in Pokot venerate red ants. The Talai (Oor Mwendo) have KaapChesaniak sub-tribe that is of the widely known sun totem. In other instances morning sun is differentiated from midday one. The point here is that variance in totems is equal to a new identity hard to know whether original or break away. Where if I am made to make a conclusion, the Saniak of Marakwet (Sengwer included) do not only sound original because Marakwet is averagely 'pure' of the Kalenjin sub-tribes but because of the early interactions with Ogiek ('followers' of bees for honey), a contemporary of Sirikwa, indigenous communities of East Africa, together with Khoisan. It agrees to a second version of the Talai descent that says 'Talai clansmen were adopted to Nandi from Segelal Maasai who were adopted by Maasai from Marakwet faction, the Sengwer, who also happen to be adopted from Sirikwa.
When the Nandi and Kipsigis refer to Kakipoch (of the Age/Set of Maina I) the way Maragoli community speak of Murogori, they are simply magnifying but a pebble in the said bucket of sand. And they can be right if they say the sand is as a result of shredded pebbles. The Terik had mass exited to Nandi, the remnants associating to give rise to Tiriki, numerous to claim indigenous by themselves, as the Kipsigis desire. Same case to Maragoli and the first four clans. If it should be repeated, D.O. Lihraw (2010) illustrates: Two Tachon (Sirikwa descent) families of Wambilianga and Mabia down River Nzoia met a Kussien hospitable group of people led by Osokwani circa 1600. As they lived together at Goye (in other citations Ramogi hills), here a Kisii proper community arose, giving rise to not only Maragoli, but also Suba, Haya, Ziba and Kuria identities. It was Murkal, come Murogori II, descendant of Wambilianga that lead his community to Kobujoi as the rest split before a back turn to present Maragoli hills. Wambilianga and Mabia were of the house of Bisino, of the house of Saniaka of the house of OluTachoi of the house of Kimakwei of the house of Samoywa, Samoywa of Nachambo, Nachambo of Murkal. When in some quotas it is said each of Luhya tribes is related to Maragoli, it is by the first Murkal, (Murogori I) and by that accommodates many clans that later history stereotyped of their becoming.
Later in colonial Kenya the Talai Kipsigis suffered displacement (1934) to Gwassi in South Nyanza due to their allegiance to Orgoiyot Kipchomber Arap Koilegei. This Orgoiyot found the British government micromanaging him, dropped their 600 yearly rupee pay to play diplomatic. His brother back home, in Nandi, Koitalel Arap Samoei (both are sons of Orgoiyot Kimnyole) had battled the colonial government for ten years, to be killed by a bullet in 1905. The prophets had not said how unfair these intruders would be that a fight could be the only way to preserve one's dignity. Only if their blacksmiths could make guns!
In Gwassi it was expected that these Talais would be Luonized as they suffer the tsetse stings. Three years earlier the Maragoli had been allocated a similar harsh zone in Kanyamkago. The difference being that one had been compelled, another too stateless to remember why when in the neighbourhood there were untouched thickets yet. And Talais of present, with various reasons, are in far apart parts of the world.
With Thanks
Lung'afa Igunza
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