African Legends in 60 Seconds · Episode 3
Gikuyu and Mumbi
Words from the story, in Gikuyu
Read it, then say it
Say each word out loud as you read it. Pronunciation audio is coming soon.
Ngai
= God
The creator, said to live on Kirinyaga, Mount Kenya.
kirima
= mountain
mukuyu
= fig tree
The tree where Gikuyu was told to make his home.
Read along
The story
Long ago, on the snowy peak of Mount Kenya, the mountain the Kikuyu call Kirinyaga, lived Ngai, the creator.
Ngai called a man named Gikuyu to the summit, and showed him the land below: rivers, forests, ridges and fig trees.
Ngai said: "Make your home where the great fig tree grows." In Gikuyu, a fig tree is mukuyu.
Gikuyu walked down the mountain, and under the fig tree, a woman was waiting. Her name was Mumbi.
Gikuyu and Mumbi had nine daughters. Nine... and one more.
When the daughters grew up, Gikuyu went back to the fig tree and asked Ngai for husbands.
In the morning, nine young men stood beneath the mukuyu.
Each daughter married, and each began a family of her own.
Those families became the nine clans of the Agikuyu. Every clan still carries a daughter's name.
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