The Forgotten Kikuyu Second Birth Ritual: Why Did This Ancient Ceremony Vanish?
Kikuyu people: Ceremony of the
second birth
Routledge, writing in the early
1900s, noted that all the Kikuyu clans in his locality took their male children
through a ceremony that re-enacted a birth. He termed it appropriately ‘second
birth’ and was perplexed by it. He noted that “the symbolical second birth is
perhaps the most mysterious of the Kikuyu rites…” Routledge tried to get to the
bottom of the rite, but much as he tried, the Kikuyu would not let him in on
it. He even offered to be taken through the rite himself, while his wife offered
to be one of the birth attendants. Routledge records that “no amount of
bribery or use of personal influence prevailed to permit either of us to
witness it.” The European couple was, however, fortunate to have among their
servants “natives who have freed themselves from tradition,” who described the
procedure, having gone through the ceremony themselves.
For those who have read my writings about the Kikuyu having come from ancient Egypt, this rite is not as mysterious as Routledge would have us believe. Before we look at the significance of this ancient rite, let us discuss it in some detail.
Detail of the Ceremony
Routledge's informant, being a man,
gives the impression that only boys were taken through this rite. The rite was
performed when the boy could be trusted with herding goats, which by today’s
reckoning would be about 10 years of age. According to Cagnolo, even girls were
taken through the rite. It seems he too was perplexed by the objectives of the
rite, which it seems were to legitimise the original birth "for reasons
only known to the mother."
A day was appointed by the boy’s
father for the rite. It could be any day, as long as the goat for the rite could
be availed and the presence of the participants guaranteed. If the boy’s father
was not alive, another man represented him. The same case applied to the
child’s mother. Any non-biological couple that acted in this way was accorded
the same respect as the real parents of the boy in the future.
On the appointed day, the hut for
the rite was swept clean, with everybody attending to their duties as usual.
The animal was killed late in the afternoon by someone other than the boys' father. The gut and intestines were kept aside. Later in the evening,
the boy, his would-be mother, and her birth attendants entered the hut. No man
was allowed in, just like in the case of a real birth. All the boy’s ornaments
were removed. The woman sat on a piece of hide in a birthing position, and the
boy sat in front of her but between her knees. A piece of the skin from the slaughtered
goat was passed over one shoulder and under the other arm of the boy. The woman
then pretended to be in labour and made the necessary sounds. At this point the
guts and intestines were passed round the woman and to the front of the boy.
One of the women in attendance cut the gut, soiling the boy in the process.
Perhaps that was the signal for the boy to utter a cry like a newborn, sending
the attendants into ululation, exactly the way they would have sounded when
celebrating the birth of a real baby. The birth attendant and the ‘mother’ of
the ‘baby’ bathed the boy who spent the night in that hut with his ‘mother’ all the way through to the third day.
On the third day, visitors came to
see the ‘newborn’ with presents, and there was much feasting. That night, the
father also spent the night in the hut, marking the end of the ceremony. The
boy was now a full member of the community.
If a child died before going through
this ceremony, the community was not involved in his burial. His mother
disposed of the body without help before being cleansed for handling a dead
body.
This rite likely originated from women, reinforcing the deep respect Kikuyu society held for them. The ritual instilled lifelong reverence, shaping social dynamics in meaningful ways. Indeed, the respect accorded to Kikuyu women was great, and such a ceremony would only have served to increase it. This ceremony cannot have served the interests of men in any perceivable way.
The Kikuyu came from Egypt
I have state elsewhere in my writing on the Kikuyu that when they came from Egypt, the retinue had many women from the Pharaoh’s harem. Having come from Egypt, these women would only marry someone who was ‘a son of the sun,’ since they were ‘daughters of the sun. Upon arriving in Mount Kenya, such men were scarce, as many already had wives from Egypt. The women had no recourse other than to marry the local men. But here was the catch. The locals were ‘inferior,’ so to speak, and the only way to bring them culturally to the level of the women from Egypt was to take them through a ceremony of ‘second birth,’ where they would be adopted by ‘a son and daughter of the sun.’ This would be followed closely by the circumcision rite.
How this rite is connected with
migration from Egypt
Of course I should supply some
evidence; otherwise, all this would be pure conjecture. Here we go:
· Matriarchal Leadership: All Kikuyu clans are headed by women, and according to the myth of origin, Gikuyu and Mumbi had only daughters, and Gikuyu had to sacrifice to God Ngai in order to get men to marry his daughters
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