KENYA

Ancestors and Migrations

Early human settlement in Kenya was marked by a restless migration of peoples in search of hunting grounds, water, pasture, or farmland. Speakers of Cushitic languages arrived from the northeast between three thousand and four thousand years ago. These early settlers made pottery and well-crafted stone weapons and left behind catchments made of stone. They later mixed with the many other peoples who made Kenya their home.

Between about fifteen hundred and twenty-five hundred years ago, people from the land around the Nile River to the northwest moved into the highlands. They were speakers of Kalenjin languages. These people are the ancestors of some of today’s Kalenjin-speaking peoples. At the same time speakers of Bantu languages arrived from the west and south. These people were farmers, herders, hunters, and skilled ironworkers. They spread rapidly, and today their descendents occupy much of Kenya and make up two-thirds of the country’s modern population.

	CLIMATE
	High altitudes keep Kenya’s western and central region fairly cool. The coast is warm and humid, while the north is extremely hot and dry. The rainiest months are April and May, but in some regions a second, lesser rainy season lasts from October to December.

When Bantu-speaking peoples reached the shores of the Indian Ocean, they mixed with earlier Cushitic-speaking settlers and also came into contact with Arab and Persian traders. These traders were Muslims who settled the islands and coasts from around the 700s C.E. onward. The Bantu-speaking Africans thrived on the coast, and their rich culture, influenced by the other peoples who traded and settled there, became known as Swahili (swah-HEE-lee), which means "coastal." The Swahili culture was Islamic. Some of their coastal towns have survived and thrive today: Mombasa (mome-BAH-sah), for example, already a major port by the 1100s; Malindi (mah-LIN-dee), north of Mombasa; and Lamu (LAH-moo), an island settlement with a maze of narrow streets lined with mosques and whitewashed houses.

Other towns now lie in ruins, such as Pate, in the Lamu Archipelago, and Gedi, on the mainland close to Malindi, another ancient Swahili town that still survives. Dhows (Arabic wooden sailing ships) from the Swahili ports traded across the Indian Ocean. The Swahili controlled the export of ivory, animal skins, and farm produce, while inland peoples such as the Kamba transported goods from the interior. From the 1500s onward the Mijikenda (mih-jih-KEHN-dah) people moved toward the coast, coexisting with the Swahili.

Inland more and more peoples were entering the region. During the 1300s Masai (mah-SAI) cattle herders moved into the Rift Valley. The Masai, with the related Samburu people, displaced other tribes as they moved southward during the 1600s. This advance was finally halted in 1830 by the Hehe (HEH-hae) people in what is now Tanzania (see TANZANIA). In the 1500s, Luo (LOO-oe) people moved from southern Sudan to settle around the eastern shores of Lake Victoria, where they lived by farming and fishing. Around the same time Turkana (tuhr-KAH-nah) people moved into northeastern Kenya, around the lake that now bears their name.