Monday, 17 February 2014

In Search of History - Hyrax Hill


A weekend of history is never a bad idea. Suprisingly Kenya has alot to offer in terms of archaeology. Not much exploration has been done in this department but what has been found is remarkable to the extent that we have been called the cradle of mankind.
the skull is 1.8million years old

Archaeological research shows that the hill has been a seasonal settlement for prehistoric people for at least 3,000 years, as revealed by the numerous sites around the hill, that belong to different time periods. The earliest finds date to the Neolithic period. There is evidence in the form of beach sands that a Lake once extended probably as fresh water right to the base of the hill; turning the hill into a peninsular or even an island. The mighty prehistoric lake is believed to have covered the valley from Nakuru to Lake Elementaita about 8,500 years ago. Traces of it have been found at Hyrax hill, the Wakumi Burial site, Gambles cave and other places.
The hill was given its name during the early part of the 20th century. It was prompted by the abundance of hyraxes (Procavia Capensis) which lived in the rock fissures.
As a region of archaeological interest, Hyrax hill was first noted by the East African Archaeological Expedition of 1926, led by L.S.B. Leakey. In 1937, Mary Leakey undertook some archaeological surveys on the hill. Since then, research has been intermittent with major undertakings in 1965 by Ron Clarke.
The Hyrax hill was gazetted as a National Monument by the Kenya Government in 1943. The recognition followed 4 years after first archaeological excavation on the hill. Work was done by Dr. Mary Leakey between 1938 and 1939. Since then Hyrax hill has been a renowned archaeological research area and reference point for investigations of prehistory of East Africa.
The Hyrax hill museum is a former farmhouse ceded to the monument in 1965, by the Late Mr. A. Selfe. A small museum was opened here where artifacts from the Hyrax hill site and other sites in the central Rift valley are displayed.
At Hyrax hill, some sites have been excavated and left open for public exhibition. The site provides scenery of lifestyles and achievements of distant ancestors with its well-preserved and laid out exhibits.

The Sirikwa  people
Before the Maasai era, Sirikwa had been the dominant population of the western highlands of Kenya. The Sirikwa region extended from Sotik in the south through Kericho, Nandi and Uas Nkishu to the slopes of Mount Elgon and Cherangani hills in the north and to the North end of the Mau Hills and Nakuru in the east. The so-called "Sirikwa holes" are common in much of the western highlands of Kenya and the Hyrax Hill near Nakuru. 
These livestock-herding people had a long lasting relationship with the Ogiek of the forested areas they lived in. This relationship contributed to the history of the highlands from past centuries to recent times. John Sutton writing in the Kenya Museum magazine Kenya Past and Present in an article titled "The Sirikwa and the Okiek in the history of the Kenya Highlands" has stated:   "It is not suggested that the Sirikwa of old were Okiek or a branch of them. By speaking of relationship, perhaps even a symbiosis, a definite contrast in economy and ecology is implied. It was a contrast between those who inhabited the forest and knew and exploited its products, and those who pastured cattle, goats and sheep on the adjacent grass-lands — a situation inviting exchanges and mutual respect and communication through a shared language. That was an early form of the Kalenjin tongue. "

In explaining the disappearance of the Sirikwa in the same magazine, Sutton has noted: 
The Sirikwa have not simply died out, or been the victims of massacre in the Maasai era, as some have mainly imagined. Rather they were assimilated into the newly emerging ethnicities of the 17th and 18th centuries, thereby losing their Sirikwa identity. Some, especially in the Nakuru area, would have been absorbed into the expanding Maasai groups and lent their experience of the region's ecology and resources, and of methods of tending cattle and small stock there . . . The Sirikwa language, it can be inferred would have been an early dialect of Kalenjin. That is the only reasonable deduction from the overall distribution of Sirikwa remnants, which are mostly in distinctly non-Maasai territory now populated by Kalenjin, and in particular from the telling strength of memory of the Sirikwa and accurate understanding of their archaeological relics — provided by Kalenjin elders.

Due to this historical consciousness, when Kenya became independent, the name Sirikwa was chosen by the Kalenjin for the council created to serve the districts of Nandi, Uas Nkishu, Trans- Nzoia and Elgeyo-Marakwet in the Rift Valley. By then Kericho was administered from Nyanza Province. Sirikwa county council was later broken up. 
The Kony sub-group of the Kalenjin people according to their oral tradition extended from Mount Elgon and adjoining Western territory across the Uganda borders to Kapenguria and Kitale and they represent the remnants of the Sirikwa people. The Ababukusu people of Western Kenya's tradition is that in their migration movement into Kenya, they first arrived at Esamoya (Jinja) and changed course and walked backwards through Bugishu (in Uganda) to the northern side of Mount Elgon and then proceeded to Mbayi and Sirikwa where they settled. In those days they were known as Babayi Basilikwa (Babayi of Sirikwa).

the Sirikwa people who are known to have also settled in the areas of the North end of Mau Hills and created the so-called "Sirikwa holes" in much of the Western highlands of Kenya and the Hyrax Hill in Nakuru, were assimilated into the newly emerging Maasai and other ethnicities of the 17th and 18th centuries thereby losing their Sirikwa identity. These Maasai ethnicities included the Keekonyokie section of the Maasai who before colonial appropriation of their land in 1905 occupied the Kinangop (Kinopop) area of the Nyandarua range [a range adjacent to Murang'a, Othaya and Tetu areas of Nyeri and neighboring Laipikia plains formerly homes to Laikipiak (Wakuavi) Maasai. In these Agikuyu areas, the name Thirikwa (Sirikwa?) is found as a male name.




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