You are singing the 'sanitized' Kabete version. The Muranga/Metumi version goes liked this:

"Ndathiire kurira mwere gatitu, Ithanga
Ngikinya kiura na ikinya, kiari kia mbarika
Kiurua kianjirire atiri; nginyukia ngwire...."


One question though: are there Nilotes and Cushites any south of Tanzania?


This an interesting thought. I know of no Cushites or Nilotes south of Central Tanzania (there are Nilotes in the north regions).

It seems like this part of Africa was the point of a massive 'clash of civilizations' in the recent past. The Nilotes, Cushites and Haamites arriving from the North, the Sahel and the Arabian peninsula clashed with the Bantu arriving from the South and West.

The result is, us, the strange mixture of peoples, languages and cultures that we are trying to unravel here.

A young historian will one day make a name for herself by focusing on this subject.

Njunge, you have introduced an interesting angle here. It is very true that the naming patterns in Gikuyuland can be very revealing of the past. I wish somebody could do an anthropological mapping. The names that recall the earliest ancestors of the Agikuyu are found in the Kiambu area:
- Tene – Watene
- Mathathi – Mathathi
- Ndemi – Ndemi, Mutemi etc
- Iregi – Iregi, Wairegi

One the other hand the Maina, Mwangi, Irungu (the generations that followed Tene, Iregi, Ndemi and Mathathi, are found mostly in Muranga

In Nyeri you find names like Ndungu (from Mutungu/small pox), Ngunjiri, Maathai, Wangombe, Nyookabi/Wamaitha, Muriiithi etc that recall more recent events like the smallpox epidemic around 1850’s and the conflict and intermixing with the pastoralist Purko and Laikipiak Maasai and Samburu around the same time - as the Gikuyu pushed north along the Nyeri valley in search of good land.

This process of expansion ‘kuuna ithaka’ existed until the Whiteman interfered. In fact you could say it never ended, the reason we have such a huge Gikuyu diaspora today.

Wakanyugi, Why do you make so much out of Ithanga? This seems to have been merely a place of dispersal of the Thagicu that became Kambas, Gikuyus, Embus, Merus?

Lol, Wakanyugi has list of theories without backup

@Wakanyugi, to put the discussion in greater perspective, we must recall that dispersals occurred frequently and thus we have many dispersal points. what historians focus on are the major dispersal points involving tribes/dialect communities, but not on minor dispersal points where clans and even blood brothers parted ways. Sagana/Tana river was the main migratory path with the source being the true north. families and dialect communities settled along the river once they felt they liked the place and were no longer interested in venturing further. The dense forest along the river was dangerous and so migrants had to stick to the river. as the late migrants moved along the river, they would stop for refreshments and rest (R&R) and their tribesmates would come to the river to welcome them (guthagana) hence Thagana River. Those who chose to remain started work immediately of cutting down trees and settling down others moved on after the rest. These minor dispersal points are rarely focussed on but still remain in orature. Ithanga was a dispersal point for the GEMA (include Akamba here). Ithanga could be from the word assembly like sand (ta muthanga) that is an assembly of many particles. At this assembly the last major migratory path for the clans was mapped out. Assuming the Gikuyu myth is not accurate then Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga might have been the assembly point for the Gikuyu where the leader Gikuyu formerly decided to delink Gikuyu from Thagichu (by pronouncing them as mbari ya Gikuyu that later became muhiriga wa Gikuyu then ruriri rwa Gikuyu) and start his tribe and dispersed his family in the directions where they Gikuyu settled.