The 6 million years old, second oldest in the world, hominid fossil was unearthed in Kenya in the year 2000. This evidence shows that humans have roamed this place since the start of human history. Rich in diversity, Kenya houses up to 42 ethnic groups which all differ in history, culture, politics, economy, and society.
There were three main ethnics groups during the pre-colonial period: Cushites, Nilotics, and Bantu. The Cushites migrated from Northern Africa to East Africa around 2000 B.C. and were the earliest group to settle in Kenya. The Rift cushites were hunters and gatherers while North-East cushites were herders and pastoralists, dealing with agricultural livestock. The next group was the Nilotics, who emerged from Nile Valley. There were highlands nilotes, plain nilotes, and river lake nilotes. Plain nilotes dominated western and northern Kenya, while river lake Nilotes were pastoralists living near lake Turkana, where they also did a lot of fishing. Today, most river lake Nilotes are pastoralists. The last group was Bantu. They migrated to west, central, and eastern Kenya during the peak of Bantu migration in 1000 BC and they are the largest group in Kenya. Bantu were mostly mixed farmers. They cultivate, raised animals, trade among themselves and other for a living. Although they were classified as a group, the Bantu were so diverse that they have 16 different dialects. Other than these 3 major groups, there was the Swahili, which consisted of Persian and Arabian traders and immigrants.
Anciennt Kenya was inhabited by variety of groups that none established themselves as a kingdom. Each group had government represented by groups of elders, but possessed no specific centralized government. Although pre-colonial Kenya did not have any kingdom or great rulers, a kingdom was established in the 18th century called the Wanga Kingdom. Wanga has a centralized system with a king as a leader, whom they call a Nabongo. The predominant religion in Kenya today is Christianity. However, ancient people believe in spirits of their dead ancestors and that they will bring them good luck. Islam was introduced through merchants and immigrants during the 1st to 5th century and by the 8th century, Islam is accepted by some group rulers. Today, Islam is the second ranked religion in Kenya.
Agriculture was the main source of income in ancient Kenya. Cattle livestock played a huge role in Kenya’s history. These cattles were used for investment, symbol of prestige and wealth, medium of exchange, and agricultural work. Furthermore, they were used for performing rituals and sacrifice. Little is known about ancient Kenya’s technological advances except that they were good at cultivation. A lot of countries came to Kenya coast for trade. Especially for gold, ivory, tortoise shell, or even slaves.
There were a lot of websites that offered information about ancient Kenya but none were detailed enough to sufficient what I want to know. More information was focused on colonial or post-colonial period. I think that information was hard to gather because ancient Kenya was so diverse that a website cannot hold all the history of each ethnic group together. Also, when I was researching, the results often came up for the whole African continent, which wasn’t what I was looking for. In conclusion, it was very interesting researching for this assignment, I wish there was more detailed information for me to write about.