Embu people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (324,092 ) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Kenya | |
| Languages | |
| Kiembu | |
| Religion | |
| Christianity, African Traditional Religion | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kikuyu, Meru, Mbeere, Kamba, other Bantu peoples |
The Embu are a Bantu people inhabiting Embu county in Kenya. They speak the Bantu Embu language as a mother tongue. To the south of Embu are to be found their cousins, the Mbeere people. In essence Embu county encompasses the ethnic Kîembu dialect (Embu proper), from whom the Embu county's name derives, and the Kimbere dialect spoken by their Mbeere counterparts who inhabit the lower reaches of the county. Historically, both were just referred to as the Embu people. To the east, Embu neighbours are the closely related Kikuyu in Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga and Nyandarua counties. The Meru people border the Embu to the East.
The Embu are of Bantu origin. They inhabit the southern windward slopes and farmlands of Mount Kenya. Along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the Kikuyu, Mĩĩrũ, Mbeere and Kamba the Embu are believed to have entered their present habitat from the coast of East Africa, where they had settled early on after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa.
The migration to Mount Kenya was occasioned by inter tribal conflicts with the coastal Swahili and Mijikenda communities. Linguistic evidence suggests their migration from as far as the Kenyan Coast, since the Mĩĩrũ elders refer to Mpwa (Pwani or Coast) as their origin. These conflicts forced them to retreat northwest to the interior of Kenya, and they settled by the slopes of Mount Kenya. They were to refer to this location as the place of the Lord, the owner of the snow ("Nyaga") or ("Njerũ" meaning white) – hence the name "Mwenenyaga" or "Mwenenjerũ".
Embu mythology claims that the Embu people originated from Mbui Njerũ in the interior of Embu, close to Rũnyenje's town. The mythology claims that God (Ngai) created Mwenendega and gave him a beautiful wife by the famous Mbuĩ Njeru waterfall – hence her name "Ciũrũnjĩ" or "Nthara". The couple was blessed with wealth, and their descendants populated the rest of Embu.
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Wikipedia