Draft:Koony People

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  Please read and apply WP:MOSHEAD 🇺🇦 Fiddle^Timtrent Faddle^Talk to me 🇺🇦 10:23, 20 September 2024 (UTC)

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The Koony (El Gonyi) are a Kalenjin-speaking tribe of Kenya that live on the south-eastern and eastern slopes of Mount Elgon Kenya, and the Kitale plateau. This territory is in both the current Bungoma and Trans Nzoia Counties. They belong to the collective tribal group known as the Sabaot, which they share together with the Sabiiny (Sebei), Pook (Book), Bong'omek, Somek, Mbayyek, and Sooryek. They, together with the other Sabaot sub-groups belong to the Kalenjin ethnic group that also includes the Nandi, Pokot, Sengwer, Keiyo, Kipsigis, Marakwet, Tugen, Lembus, Terik and the Ogiek. The Kalenjin in turn belong to the Southern Nilotic group (formerly Southern Nilo-Hamites).

Etymology

The Koony call themselves "Koony (Koonjek)," sing. " Koong'iin (Koong'iindeet). The Koony were generally called "Elgon Masai," or " Elgonyi," by the Europeans.

The Koony where also known by several other misnomers, which included; Kony, Elgonyi, Elgoni, El Kony, El Konyi, il-Kony, Gondjek, Kony-Jek, Sabaut, Sabaiyot, Elgon Masai Dorobo and Elgon Masai.

History

The ancestors of the Koony, and the other Sabaot and Kalenjin tribes, came from the north. There is a distinct tradition to this effect. The tribes which later came to form the current Koony, Sabaot or the Kalenjin migrated from northern Africa as one group and followed the Nile Valley. They later came and settled on or around Mount Kamalinga on the north-west of Mount Elgon. This legend was reinforced by the Lako (Book) claim that they and the Nandi once lived on Mount Kamalinga, forty-five miles north-west of Elgon, and that the Nandi lived on the east side of that mountain, and they on the west. (C. W. Hobley, British East Africa: Anthropological Studies in Kavirondo and Nandi, 1903, p.332.). From there they migrated south- east, to Mount Elgon, and while settled here, split up into more or less separate divisions. The first seceders appear to have been the Pokot, who broke off at a time when the group language was in a very unformed state, having then no secondary suffix, a peculiarity still retained in Pokot. At a somewhat later period, i.e., after the adoption of a secondary suffix, the tribes who now compromise the eastern Kalenjin moved away, these branches being now represented by the Marakwet, Tugen and the Keiyo. Another branch that comprised the Kipsigis and Nandi moved southwards and settled in Kericho and Nandi, respectively.

While these migrations were in progress, part of the original stock stayed on or around Mount Elgon, where they are still found; they comprise the Koony (El Gonyi), Sabiiny (Sebei), Book, Somek, Bong'omek, Mbayyek, and the Sooryek. The Terik, later hived off from the Bong'omek and migrated southwards in search of water and grazing, and eventually settled in those places.

Mode of Subsistence

The Koony were heirs to an ancient culture that had its beginning in pre-Christian times and shared generic features with the ancient Semitic tribes described in the Old Testament. The basic economy of this ancient culture was what the anthropologists called pastoralism, that is, the people were dependent on raising livestock for food — cattle, sheep, and goats in varying proportions. The animals ate the natural grass and foliage, which meant that the flocks and herds had to be moved to where grass, water, and salt were available. This in turn meant that often the people had also to move. The amount of movement, whether it is almost daily or only seasonal, depended on local conditions, but they could not live long in one place before the grass was eaten by their animals. They were therefore called nomadic pastoralists.

The Koony were, like other pastoralists, a tribe of military herdsmen, who regarded cattle as their chief possession. During the day-time the cattle were herded in the grazing-grounds (liimoosyek) by a herdsman (mesewoondeet), who was generally a small child. At night they were shut up in an enclosure (sicheetaap tuuka). The cattle were frequently driven to salt-licks (ng'eeny'ta, pl. ng'eeng'wek). If there were none near the grazing-grounds, the women fetched salt from the caves (kepeneet,pl. kepenoosyek ), of which there were great numbers on the escarpments of Mount Elgon; the salt could be cut out in slabs and resembled soapstone. Cattle were bled periodically and the blood was drunk.

Goats and sheep were herded separately from the cattle, and at night slept in a compartment of the owner's house, called mchooruut.

The Koony did not have villages, but lived in small groups of huts (kooto, pl. kooriik), which consisted of the dwelling-house, granary, and cattle-enclosure, The dwelling-houses (Kooto) were built of wattle and daub: the inside walls were plastered with cow-dung. The hut was divided into two parts, the people's part (Kiitookit) and the goats' part (mchooruut). The walls were about 4 feet high. The door (kurkeet) was made of wicker-work hurdles (teembeet) which were plastered with cow-dung. The front door was called kurkeetaap taay, the back door kurkeetaap let. Adjoining the hut was the cattle-enclosure (sicheetaap tuuka), made of branches of trees and thorns.

The Koony cultivated small fields of a quarter to half of an acre. The initial work of clearing a plantation (mbareet), such as cutting off the boughs of trees, and ringbarking large trees, was done by the men; the actual cultivation was done by the women, The implements used then were the hoe (mukoongeet), the axe (ayyweet), and a large knife rootweet.

Due to the Koony pastoralism nurture, the tribe was scattered and occupied a wide tract of country. The whole of Trans Nzoia was their tribal homeland and they grazed their livestock in the whole of Kitale plateau and the north-eastern part of the neighbouring Bungoma and were rich in cattle.

Geographical Divisions and Government

The Koony did not have a centralized government. The country was divided into several territorial divisions called pororyeet (pl. pororyoosyek). Each pororyeet was further divided into districts called Kooreet, pl. Koorootinweek, and named after the rivers. In 1913, the tribe had nine pororyoosyek which were named as Kipsartuuk, Kamatimbai, Kiboriit, Chebokos, Kapsot, Mokokir, Kapsawuriria, Somekek and Chemnyokoosya. By then, Kapsawuriria was extinct. (Kenneth R. Dundas, The Wawanga and Other Tribes of the Elgon District, British East Africa, 1913, p.64.).

As already shown above, the Koony did not have a centralized leadership or Government. The leadership or government was in the hands of the chiefs of the divisions, who were called mokoryoondeet (pl. mokoreenik). Each chief had a head-man (mokoryoondeet nyee mining') ; each kooreet was in the charge of a captain, called olaitaryaandeet (pl. olaiteraak), who was responsible to the mokoryoondeet nyee mining'. The mokoryoondeet was not of necessity a seer (Woorkoyoondeet).

The pororyeet was the focal element in the territorially based social groups. Each man was specifically a member of one pororyeet, to which he owed allegiance, and each pororyeet therefore had not only a clear geographical delimitation but also a social boundary. Each pororyeet had a ceremonial center and a meeting place (usually under a large fig tree). It had its own judges or elders ( kiirwookiik ), and, most important of all, its own military. Each pororyeet formed a battalion or regiment in military operations, fighting under its own leaders. Indeed, the term pororyeet in other Kalenjin tribes has reference to the military unit. Weatherby (1962a: 201) says: "The territorial military divisions of the tribe are known as Bororiosiek. Bororiet ... is related to a word 'Boriet' which implies 'fighting.' " Huntingford (1953:8) equates the word with the Masai word for age-set, ol-poror, and the Luo word for "to be equal."

The pororyeet also had a measure of political authority in the form of a council kook or kookweet and of elders or judges kiirwookiindeet (pl. kiirwookiik), which met at a place specially set aside for such activity. Such councils served as courts in which disputes were heard and resolved. Administrative matters as decisions regarding the performance of rituals were subject to such discussion.

The importance of the pororyeet as a social unit was best expressed by the fact that, though a person could transfer his allegiance from his natal pororyeet to another, he did so by means of a special ceremony; membership was thus not casual. A man's pororyeet affiliations were normally those of his father.

References

Eastern Uganda : an ethnological survey, by C.W. Hobley.

Kavirondo, by C.W. Hobley.

Notes on a Journey Round Mount Masawa or Elgon

The Wawanga and Other Tribes of the Elgon District, British East Africa.

Modern Hunters: Some Account of the Kamelilo-Kapchepkendi Dorobo (Okiek) of Kenya Colony

Miscellaneous Records Relating to the Nandi and Kony Tribes.

The Political Structure of the Nandi-Speaking Peoples of Kenya.

The Southern Nilo-Hamites: East Central Africa Part VIII

Tribal Names in the Nyanza and Kerio Provinces, Kenya Colony.

[10]Sabaot people

[11]Kalenjin people