Mugo Kibiru

Mugo Kibiru or Cege wa Kibiru is a famous prophet from the Kikuyu tribe who lived in the 19th century.

He prophesied the arrival of the white man in Gikuyu land before their arrival. His prophecy was that there would come people who would have bodies like kiengere (a small light coloured frog which lives in water) and whose dress would resemble ciĩuhuruta (butterflies). They would carry magical sticks which would produce fire. Further he prophesied the coming of the railway line that would stretch from one body of water in the east to another in the west and the train which he described as an iron snake that would spit fire. Further this snake would "eat" people and "vomit" them out. He also predicted the coming of the famine that would signal the coming of the strangers with bodies like kiengere.

The Sacred Tree

He foretold that a fig tree at Thika, 26 miles north of Nairobi, would wither and die on the day that Kenya gained independence. Kibiru also prophesied that Kenya would become a white man's colony, but that one day white man would return the land to Africans. He foresaw the coming of the railway which he described as an iron snake with many legs, like an earthworm. Kibiru's prophecies prove to be so accurate that for many years the tree at Thika was regarded as sacred. Even the white men took the prophecy seriously, for they built the tree up with earth and put a concrete wall around it so that it would not fall. These measures were doomed to fail. Shortly before Kenya gained independence, the tree was struck by lightning and it began to wither rapidly. By the day Kenya officially became independent, it had decayed completely, fulfilling the prophecy made over seventy years before by Kibiru.

Literature

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o - The River Between

Mugo wa Kibiru has been used as a secondary character, as 'Waiyaki's fore-father' who foretold 'The Modern Prophesy' which is a major cause of conflict in this novel. This creates suspense with the question 'Is Waiyaki the foretold savior of the tribe?'.^[1] The River Between, Heinemann 1965, Heinemann 1989, ISBN 0-435-90548-1

Mugia, D. Kinuthia – Ũrathi wa Cege wa Kibiru [1979]

C(h)ege son of Kĩbirũ or C(h)ege wa Kĩbirũ, later called Mũgo wa Kĩbirũ prophesized the coming of the white man to the Gĩkũyũ nation, saying there would come people who’d have bodies like kiengere, a small light coloured frog which lives in water and whose dress would resemble ciĩuhuruta (butterflies). They’d carry magical sticks which would produce fire.

Controversy

Some scholars cast doubt on these prophecies on account that Mũgo wa Kĩbirũ must have known some of the things from Gĩkũyũ who might have travelled to the coast for trade purposes, and certainly it would have been easy to know about guns and clothing from the Arabs and whites at the coast but the railway line (built 1896–1901) and the train are a different proposition. Leakey says that trade contacts existed between Arabs and the Kikuyu for a while, it is possible that these contacts existed only in certain parts of the Gĩkũyũ nation and not everywhere. Boyes in his accounts testifies that he was the first white man that the Gĩkũyũ he came to rule had ever seen and that he was an object of a lot of curiosity. He even further goes on to use a trick to show his white powers, by shooting a hole through a soft barked tree.

References

↑ The River Between, Heinemann 1965, Heinemann 1989, ISBN 0-435-90548-1

Kenyatta, Jomo - Facing Mt. Kenya (1938)
Mugia, D. Kinuthia - Ũrathi wa Cege wa Kibiru (1979)

External links