In this paper I consider
kithitu (pl.
ithitu) among the Kamba, a ‘Bantu speaking’ people in Central Kenya.
Kithitu is a kind of magical medicine (
muthea) in a broad sense. Its form is a medicine container, such as an animal's horn or a human tibia, in which magical medicine is packed. Medicine is mainly made from plants, but it is very difficult to know the constituents of medicine because secrecy about the ingredients is strictly kept.
There are many kinds and many uses of
ithitu among the Kamba, but in this paper I examine Kilonzo's
kithitu which is very well-known in the northern part of Kitui District. There are many oral traditions and much gossip about the
kithitu in which its potency and the people's fear of it are always expressed.
Here I consider how the Kamba explain the various qualities and power of the
kithitu, including:
1. The owner must keep his
kithitu in the bush (
kitheka) far away from his homestead (
musyi). If he puts it in his homestead, the people of his homestead will die because of the strong effective power of the
kithitu.
2. After using the
kithitu, the owner and the persons concerned must not leave it without wiping off their eyes, hands and the soles of their feet with a mixture of juice from some plants and the soil of an ant hill, or with
mwoyo (the undigested contents of a goat's stomach), because they have to cleanse the destructive power of the
kithitu before coming back to their homes.
3. The
kithitu sometimes comes near to the owner's homestead from the bush and cries like a man asking a goat's blood to drink. On such occasions, the owner must kill a goat and take the blood to the
kithitu immediately. It is said that if he neglects this, all the members of his homestead will die.
4. The owner of strong
kithitu can not have his real sons. It is believed that his real sons die young one after another because he always uses the
kithitu.
5. The
kithitu is used in oaths as
kuya kithitu (to eat
kithitu). It has the power to judge the truth. The accuser and the accused go to the bush and each of them swears over the
kithitu, saying that if he tells a lie the
kithitu may kill him. But people don't swear over the
kithitu directly without
kusuna kavyu (to lick a hot knife), ordeal as the first step, because the
kithitu is so dangerous that a liar is killed with it. Swearing over the
kithitu is connected with law, morals, values, legal procedure, clan conferences (
mbai), political power and so on.
The
kithitu is used as
uoi (magical power to knock down an enemy or a rival). When some person encounters serious difficulties brought by his enemy, he visits and asks the owner of the
kithitu to kill his enemy. The owner chants a spell against the enemy, striking the
kithitu with a twig.
The Kamba categorize
uoi into two parts:
Uoi wa mundu ume (
uoi of man) and
uoi wa mundu muka (
uoi of woman). The
kithitu belongs to the category of
uoi of man. It has the characteristics shown below:
(1) A person who wants to use the
kithitu must pay money to the owner. It costs about three hundreds shillings (equivalent to about fifteen thousands yen).
Kuthooa kithitu (to buy
kithitu) means to use
kithitu as
uoi.
(2) Women and children cannot approach and use the
kithitu because administering it is always attended by some danger and secrecy. Only the male adults can use it.
(3) It is forbidden to use the
kithitu without socially justified reasons. To use
kithitu is basically permitted by the society, but only if people follow the prescribed pattern of usage. The
kithitu as
uoi is deeply related to the kamba magico-religious beliefs a
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