Since our British colonial masters brought us the so-called civilization, many Kenyan communities, save for a few, have abandoned their traditional cultures to embrace the western ways.
Kikuyus, for example, have abandoned their traditional culture almost in its entirety. In fact, apart from the few elderly members of the community, the rest knows very little about the rich Gikuyu culture.
Having said that, let's focus on traditional Gikuyu greetings and rules that governed them according to Gikuyu Centre of Cultural Studies.
1. Greetings between an older person and a youngster, it is the older person who is supposed to initiate the greetings. Today, it is either way where for instance you will hear a young man greeting an elderly man like, 'habari yako mzee' and other stuff like that.
2. Greetings between male and female, the male initiate the greeting. Today? It really doesn't matter who initiates the greetings. They even say, 'ngeithi ti ucuru'. Some young ladies even have a fallacy that when a man greets them, he wants to lay them.
3. It was not proper for a girl to look at an older man in the eyes during greetings. Instead, the girl was required to look aside or below. Today they not only look them in the eyes but also hug and kiss.
4. It was also culturally wrong for young men to meet their mother’s gaze while answering greetings. Instead one was to look away while answering.
Note that the term 'mother' in Gikuyu culture referred to any woman who was old enough to be your mother. Today, this no longer makes sense to anyone seemingly.
5. Women, while greeting each other, were supposed to raise their hands and tap each other’s palms while girls could do all manner of 'cheeky tricks' with their fingers and arms.
6. Men, while greeting one another, were supposed to grip each other’s right arm firmly and not hand greeting. Today, many men greet like women and vice versa.
7. Men and women were not allowed to share hand greetings.
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