mũthamaki

Kikuyu

Etymology

From gũthamaka (“to jurisdicate”).[1]

This term dates back to the late 19th century at least, where von Höhnel (1894) referred to the term as Samaki,[2] which was later translated into English as chief.[3]

Hinde (1904) records muthamakki and muthamaki as equivalents of English captain and chief respectively in “Jogowini dialect” of Kikuyu.[4]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /mòðàmákì(ꜜ)/
As for Tonal Class, Benson (1964) classifies this term into Class 3 with a trisyllabic stem, together with kĩgokora, mbarĩki, thimiti, and so on.

Noun

mũthamaki class 1 (plural athamaki)

  1. an individual with influence,[1][7] who played the role of spokesman and primus inter pares in Kikuyu society before the colonial period,[8][7] strictly controlled by his peers (Muriuki 1974:132)[7]
  2. ruler[1]; king or queen[1]

Derived terms

(Phrases)

  • mũthamaki wa bũrũri
  • mũthamaki wa cira
  • mũthamaki wa rika

(Proverbs)

  • mbu ya arũme ĩtĩkagio nĩ athamaki

(Nouns)

  • ũthamaki class 14

See also

References
  1. “mũthamaki” in Benson, T.G. (1964). Kikuyu-English dictionary, p. 490. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
  2. Leakey, L. S. B. (1977). The Southern Kikuyu before 1903, v. III, p. 993. →ISBN
  3. von Höhnel, Ludwig (1894). Discovery of Lakes Rudolph and Stefanie: a narrative of Count Samuel Teleki's exploring and hunting expedition in Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1887 & 1888 / by his companion Lieut. Ludwig von Höhnel, Translated by N. Bell (N. d'Anvers), vol. 1, p. 359. London.
  4. Hinde, Hildegarde (1904). Vocabularies of the Kamba and Kikuyu languages of East Africa, pp. 12–13. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
  5. Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1981). "A Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns: A Study of Limuru Dialect." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 22, 75–123.
  6. Yukawa, Yasutoshi (1985). "A Second Tentative Tonal Analysis of Kikuyu Nouns." In Journal of Asian and African Studies, No. 29, 190–231.
  7. Mugu, Muturi Anthony (2014). Antonymy in Gĩkũyũ: a cognitive semantics approach, p. 44.
  8. Karanja, James (2015). The Missionary Movement in Colonial Kenya: The foundation of Africa Inland Church, p. 26. Göttingen: Cuvillier Verlag. →ISBN

Further reading
  • Muriuki, Godfrey (1974). A History of the Kikuyu, 1500-1900. Nairobi: Oxford University Press. →ISBN
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