Anthropos 92.1997: 51-58
Gender Inversion in Nandi Ritual
Jane Tapsubei Creider and Chet A. Creider
Abstract. - An interpretation of the meaning of girls’ initiation
rituals in Nandi society is presented in which emphasis is laid
u pon the role of cheerseet “encouragement” and in which it is
shown that the element of transvestism previously claimed to
be present (Langley 1979) is in fact not present. In addition,
b is argued that girls’ initiation is one of the ways in which
Nandi women have struggled to achieve gender equality with
m en. [Kenya, Nandi, ritual, girl’s initiation, gender equality]
Jane Tapsubei Creider received a traditional upbringing as a
Nandi and is the author of two books dealing with the Nandi:
Two Lives. My Spirit and I (London 1986), The Shrunken
Dream (Toronto 1993); and two stories: The Woman in the Pit,
The Elephant’s Trunk (Toronto 1994). Together the Creiders
have written A Grammar of Nandi (Hamburg 1989) and are
currently working on a dictionary of the Nandi language.
Chet A. Creider, Ph.D. (University of Minnesota, 1973), is
Professor, Dept, of Anthropology at the University of Western
Ontario. - Fieldwork has been undertaken in the Central Andes
(1965/66 and 1967), western Kenya (1970/72, 1979/80, 1987),
Canadian Arctic (1976), and Norway (1985). - Areas of aca
demic specialization: anthropology, linguistics. - Publications
include: Studies in Kalenjin Nominal Tonology (Berlin 1982);
The Syntax of the Nilotic Languages. Themes and Variations
(Berlin 1989); and many articles in journals and books.
1 Introduction
Our primary aim in this paper is to present the
details of Nandi girls’ initiation in sufficient de
tail to be able to refute an incorrect analysis of
these ceremonies in the literature. We also present
and argue extensively for an analysis of our own.
Finally, we briefly consider the function of these
initiation ceremonies in the context of Nandi soci
ety and particularly in the context of male-female
relations.
We begin with a short sketch of Nandi society,
then describe the initiation rituals, present the er
roneous analysis, and give our own analysis. The
rituals discussed here were first described nearly
a hundred years ago (Hollis 1909). They were
a central part of the growing up experience of
the first author in the 1950s and 1960s, and they
continue to play an important, although diminish
ing, role in Nandi society today.
2 The Nandi: An Ethnographic Sketch
The Nandi are the major cultural and linguistic
group living in Nandi District, Uasin Gishu Dis
trict, and Tranz Nzoia District in western Kenya.
In the 1969 census the Nandi numbered about
260,000. Nandi country ranges in elevation from
about 3,000 metres up to 3,200 metres. In most
areas there is an abundance of rainfall, and the
temperature is neither excessively hot nor extreme
ly cold.
In the past and also in the present, the Nan
di had an economy based on cattle-keeping and
the growing of cereal grains (formerly finger mil
let, nowadays maize). Until recently, cattle-raiding
was a major preoccupation, if not occupation, of
young adult males, and although they were egal
itarian and lacked a highly centralised political
organization, the Nandi were an effective military
force against Arab slave traders (who carefully
avoided their territory), their traditional enemies
the Maasai, the British, and also their Bantu and
western Nilotic neighbours (the Luhyia and the
Luo tribes) (Matson 1972).
In the anthropological literature, the Nandi were
first written about by Sir Claude Hollis, whose
work, written in 1909, although dealing primari
ly with the language, contains some ethnographic
reporting. Later the Nandi were studied by G.W.B.
Huntingford (1950, 1953). More recently, mono
graphs have appeared by Langley (1979), focus
sing especially on ritual, and by Oboler (1985),
focussing on the economic situation of women in
contemporary Nandi society.
Despite this comparative wealth of anthropo
logical attention, there has been very little actual
analysis and interpretation of Nandi culture. Hol
lis’ work is very descriptive, and in any event
predates the work of Malinowski and Radcliffe-