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Kenya - people & society
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Photo: Edward Millard/Oxfam |
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Kenya is home to people of many different ethnic origins. About
two-thirds speak Bantu languages, and are mostly from three ethnic
groups – Kikuyu, Luhya, and Kamba. Other peoples include the
Kalenjin, Luo, Maasai, Turkana, and, on the coast, the Mijikenda.
Most people in the north-east of Kenya are Cushitic speakers; they
make up less than three per cent of the population, but live in
one third of the country. Kenyan Asians and Arabs make up only a
small proportion of the population, but they have a lot of commercial
power.
Seventy per cent of the population are Christian, 19 per cent are
animist, and six per cent are Muslim.
Most people live by farming or, in drier areas, by herding livestock.
Other people work in Kenya’s industries, some of which are
the most developed in East Africa: milling maize and wheat flour,
spinning and weaving cotton, making household goods, refining cane
sugar, and brewing beer. In towns, increasing numbers of Kenyans
work in small businesses (as metal-workers or market traders, for
instance). This is known as jua kali, or the "hot
sun", under which they work.
Sport
Kenya is perhaps best known internationally for its athletes, especially
middle- and long-distance runners. Kip Keino, Henry Rono, Moses
Kiptanui, and Wilson Kipketer have won many Olympic medals between
them, and Joyce Chepchumba won the Women’s London Marathon
in 1997 and 1999. Her compatriot, Tegla Loroupe, broke the world
record for the marathon in 1999. Football is popular and played
in most schools, alongside netball, basketball, and volleyball.
Arts and crafts
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Photo: Geoff Sayer/Oxfam |
Kenyan craftworkers make some distinctive products. Many of the
carved wood statues are copies of the Makonde style of carving which
is practised on either side of the Tanzania-Mozambique border. Soapstone
is also carved into decorative and useful items. Another familiar
item is the kiondo, a basket made of sisal (a plant fibre).
Maasai people produce stunning jewellery, often made from brightly
coloured beads and silver.
Kenya’s best-known author is Ngugi wa Thiong’o. He wrote
originally in English, but since 1977 has chosen to write instead
in his native Gikuyu language.
Music
Kenyan popular music has been dominated by the guitar ever since
the instrument was taken up by freed slaves. For a long time, Kenyan
music tended to be based on church music, European dance music,
and the music of other African countries. During the 1960s, however,
Kenyan musicians began to develop their own pop-music style known
as benga. They adapted traditional dance rhythms and the
sound of traditional instruments such as the nyatiti (a
lyre). The most famous benga group is Shirati Jazz, which
was at the heart of the "benga boom" in the 1970s. Most
Kenyan music is a combination of many different styles.
Introduction
|| History
|| Geography
& Environment
People &
Society || Factfile
|| Oxfam in Kenya
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