Being a big history buff, I'm very interested in finding out about how slavery affected Kenyans and Kenyan tribes. I'm also keen to make sure that we don't forget this important history that connects us with black people all over the world some of whom were kidnapped and stolen from us.

So I've been doing some research and this is what I can find so far.

Would appreciate Wazuans who are in the know sharing more content here.

Kikuyu People

Mustapha Olpak - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mustafa_Olpak was an Afro-Turkish writer and activist whose ancestors were Kikuyu people who were sold into slavery in 1890 to Turkey. His book Kenya-Girit-İstanbul: Köle Kıyısından İnsan Biyografileri has been compared to Alex Haley's Roots.

Kamba People
There is a group of Afro-Paraguayans who were descended from Kamba people and have managed to maintain their culture. They are called Kamba Kua and Kamba Kokue in Paraguay. Here's some links to them
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op4-nZypCQ

The e-book called “The Discovery of Lake Rudolf and Lake Stefanie” by Ludgwig von Hohnel which describes Count Samuel Teleki’s travel to Lake Turkana between 1887 and 1888.

On Page 284, it says “Abdullah had bought 200 Slaves from Kikuyuland and Kambaland on his way from the coast to Lake Baringo”.

On Page 302 there is an account of the Count Teleki’s caravan being offered slaves for sale in Kikuyuland including a young woman with a baby at her breast and with a three year old little boy at her hand all of who were then bought by Jumbe Kimameta for twenty rings of iron wire and twenty strings of Masai beads all of which were approimately equal to the value of 1 Dollar.

Here being clear evidence of slave dealing in Kikuyuland.

But we've heard how the southern Kikuyu sold Maasai refugees

I have read the book and it states clearly that the slaves were wakamba or maasai or those captured/ escapees from trading caravans. Note that whenever the kikuyu raided other communities they killed the men and old women and took away the young women. And those captured could not be taken as wives by their captors but were seen as property. So yes kikuyus had slaves but those slaves were not kikuyus.

Pg 340

whats your source for this information?

I wonder how many Kenyans were sold into far away lands in this way and where they now are. Apart from the Kamba Kua and Kokue of Paraguay and Mustapha Olpak do we know of any others? There must be a lot more in Arabia, India, Pakistan and around such areas. The Sindh area of Pakistan has a large Afro population which most likely came from East Africa

[quote=mv_ufanisi]It is claimed that one if the reasons that the population of East Africa never was that big was because of the endless slave trade. Given that the east African slave trade started about 700 or so years before the West African one, we must have lost a huge number of people to the Arab caravans.

Unfortunately this history is very hidden and we dont really learn about it in Kenyan history. I remember seeing a black emirati in Dubai and wondering if he might be descended from Kenya.

Here's a story about a Siddi in Pakistan who was the first to be nominated to their parliament. https://www.google.com/a...amp/world-asia-45099970[/quote]





There isn't much in our oral history about slave raids so they probably never happened.

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