Akamba to the eastern parts of Kenya are a people united under strict traditions and unwavering beliefs. At heart are centralized cultural tendencies with an open-door policy for regulated modernism. Various taboos in Kamba community reveal the little-known values.
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Kamba community with 22 clans and a population of 4.7 million thrives on unique prohibitions, with only a few cutting across the larger Bantu family.
Top 20 taboos in Kamba Community
A good number of Kamba customs are still intact with irreversible punishments for the culprits.
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What are the cultural beliefs of Kamba community? Enlisted are the most outstanding traditions of all time.
1. Inheriting the wealth of deceased parents without elderly oversight
Akamba people insist on the blessings of elders before inheriting the wealth of deceased parents.
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Therefore, an elder must take charge of dividing possessions among immediate family members.
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The interpretation is that a parent who has died might have laid curses on some of their properties. As a result, death would befall those who went against the taboo.
2. Children living in their parents’ inherited house
Children of the deceased are prohibited from residing in a house inherited from their parents.
However, the house can serve several functions among them as a storehouse and shelter for grandchildren and other relatives.
3. Married ladies transferring anything from their parents’ house
The Kamba culture on marriage insists that a lady should not take anything from her father’s home to that of her husband. In essence, marriage is a start of a new life.
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Breaking the taboo could attract serious curses that could as well affect the husband.
4. Having sex in parents’ matrimonial bed
According to the Kamba customs, it is unlawful for children to have sex in their parents’ matrimonial beds.
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The parents’ bedroom should be kept private and confidential, especially among those initiated.
Full list of taboos in Kamba community
What are the cultural events among the Kamba? Most Kamba taboos revolve around cultural events such as birth, circumcision, marriage, and death.
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These traditions are binding for all tribesmen regardless of their age and status in society.
- If someone dies his children cannot move in with a younger sibling immediately
- Engaging in sexual activities when visiting a maternal relative
- Parents are not allowed to build houses on any of their children’s land after the ancestral land has been divided
- Men entering the kitchen anyhow
- Married man entering his parents’ house often.
- Women consuming some meat parts like the head, testes and liver
- Girls cooking while stepping on the cooking stones interpretation is they may never get married.
- Pointing a person with a knife or sword
- A man having sex with another man
- A woman touching her man during her periods
- A person sitting on the chair of the head of the house
- Killing a snake
Kamba witchcraft and sorcery aside, these taboos played a critical role in upholding spiritual purity and moral sanctity.
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The list of top 20 taboos in Kamba community underscores the fabrics of culture and traditions at their best in the era of modernism.
