Recently, a group of elders from Kirinyaga county filed a petition at a constitutional court seeking to have Akirinyaga people registered as an independent tribe, and not as part of the Agikuyu community.
The elders under Kenya Indigenous Languages Forum (KILF), claim their language and culture are on the brink of extinction if they continue being dependent on the Gikuyu language.
The elders note that they are not out to promote tribalism but want to save their children so that they do not suffer from inferiority complex when they are speaking.
"Instead of our children being taught in Gikirinyaga language, they are learning Gikuyu language. If that continues, our Akirinyaga people may be extinct in future," one elder said recently at a local radio station.
That said, does this argument by the Akirinyaga elders hold any water? Well, methinks it is neither here nor there for the following reasons.
1. Could be a diversionary tactic
At the moment, anyone in Kenya will tell you that their immediate problems is not language and what have you. This is simply a petty issue that could have been brought forward to make Kirinyaga residents forget the real problems that they are faced with.
2. Ethnic groups are not defined by language and dialects only
There are other deeply embedded norms, traditions and other culturally meaningful systems that define a people. Slightly different values, behaviour and word choices are normal with regional differences occasioned by physical or cultural barriers like mountains, rivers, stereotypes and so on.
A society has to have a complete cultural system that defines every aspect of their lives; religion, marriage, kinship, rites to be fully recognized as a tribe.
3. Gikirinyaga has at least two dialects
This has left some wondering should the government recognize Gikirinyaga as a language on its own, will the books be written Kigichugu or Kindia. This is because Kirinyaga people from Gichugu and Ndia do not speak the same way.
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