The Nine Daughters and Their

Husbands
According to the existing myths of the tribe, Gikuyu and Mumbi
the first parents of the tribe bore nine plus one daughters and
no sons. This was at their home at Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga in
Muranga. Gikuyu then prayed to God and God asked him to
make a burnt offering of a goat under the Mukuyu tree and
return in the morning. On return the following morning he
found nine young men waiting whom he took to his daughters
and each took one for a husband. These nine went on to
establish what are the cornerstones of the tribe the nine plus
one clans. The clans are ‘nine with the fill’ not because
Wamuyu’s clan, the Aicakamuyu was the fill but because the
Gikuyu do not count their offspring exactly for fear they might
perish. The myth is not clear whether there were actually nine
young men or ten. Remember the Gikuyu will not count exact
numbers of people or livestock due to superstition. So it is not
at all clear whether Wamuyu refused to marry because there
was no husband for her or because she had to wait as some
people who tell the myth say that she was too young to marry.
 In order to deconstruct the story of Wamuyu, we have to
understand the dynamics of family life as presented by the first
family. Look at them. They have nine grown up women who are
all married to “goats” They shortly all go away one after another
with their husbands to settle elsewhere. This aging couple had
no son who could bring a young woman to take care of them.
This was a serious matter as there were no old people’s homes
then. One of the girls, certainly the one who either loved them
more than she loved herself or was favored of the father and
mother must have decided – to hell with the “goat of a husband”
and decided to stay and take care of the aging couple. This girl,
Wamuyu, as she has been called, rather than being an outcast as
some people have suggested was probably the most beloved,
the most caring and possibly the richest of the ten daughters of
Mumbi as she would have inherited Gikuyu’s property. That is
why even being single she is recognized as the mother of a full
clan in its own right, the Aicakamuyu.
According to the existing myths of the tribe, Gikuyu and Mumbi
the first parents of the tribe bore nine plus one daughters and
no sons. This was at their home at Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga in
Muranga. Gikuyu then prayed to God and God asked him to
make a burnt offering of a goat under the Mukuyu tree and
return in the morning. On return the following morning he found
nine young men waiting whom he took to his daughters and each
took one for a husband. These nine went on to establish what
are the cornerstones of the tribe the nine plus
 one clans. The clans are ‘nine with the fill’ not because
Wamuyu’s clan, the Aicakamuyu was the fill but because the
Gikuyu do not count their offspring exactly for fear they might
perish. The myth is not clear whether there were actually nine
young men or ten. Remember the Gikuyu will not count exact
numbers of people or livestock due to superstition. So it is not
at all clear whether Wamuyu refused to marry because there
was no husband for her or because she had to wait as some
people who tell the myth say that she was too young to marry.

BY: Gabriel Perez

Alister Jhon Espanola