THE AGIKUYU NUMBER SYSTEM
Alot has been written about the Gikuyu language. But little effort has been directed to the research on the Kikuyu number system. This, in my speculation, is informed by the (mis)belief that the Agikuyu, and by extension most traditional African societies, had no credible counting system.
Nothing could be further from the truth. How did we count our thousands of goats if we didn’t have a number system? The Agikuyu, for example, had a complex initiation system that required advanced numbering system. They also had a strict ruling system where power changed from one ruling generation to the other after 25-30 years. The climax of this power handover ceremony was the sacred ituika ceremony which mirrors the Heb-Sed festival of ancient Egypt. How could the Gikuyu carry out such elaborate ceremonies without a number system? The long and short of it all is that the Agikuyu had a number system that radically differs from Western ones.
Features of the Kikuyu number system
1.Embedded into the way of life
The Gikuyu number system, just like our art, was embedded in our way of life. The numbers were not an abstract system of theorizing about abstruse matters. Thus, to understand the system, one has to study the Gikuyu way of life first, their cosmology, their religion their worldview. This will be illustrated further down.
2.The magical “nine full”
The Agikuyu counted one to ten in various ways which I will describe later. The number 9, which denotes fullness, was a sacred one among the Gikuyu. The House of Mumbi had 9″ full” daughters upon which the tribe is founded. A man was denoted by number 5 at birth. A woman was denoted by number 4. If you add 4 and 5, that makes nine which denotes fullness.
How did the Gikuyu arrive at 9 as a sign of fullness? Could the nine ” full” daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi, on whom the Gikuyu society is founded, be a hidden symbol for the 9 planets, with Gikuyu and Mumbi representing the sun and the moon respectively?
Could the Gikuyu number system be a carryover of ancient memories of creationism? But I must admit that this myth has a lot of similarities with other myths.
3.Odd and even numbers
The Gikuyu numbering system accorded odd numbers to male gender and even numbers to the female gender. When a boy was born, his arrival was announced to the world through 5 ululations by women. For a girl, it was 4.
After the birth of a boy, the mother went into seclusion for 5 days. For a girl, this was 4.
The Gikuyu traditional male sitting stool- njung’wa-had 3 legs. The one for women- giturwa-had 4 legs.
Number 1, an odd number, represented man, the first creation. Number 2, an even number, represented the woman, the second creation. When taking out dowry, one wasn’t allowed to take an odd number of items eg 7 goats since women were represented by even numbers.
There are other numerous examples which I may not have the space to cite here.
Up Next- The Agikuyu Clan based number system