Meru people
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 2,700,603 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Kenya | |
| Meru County | 1,356,301 |
| Tharaka Nithi County | 365,330 |
| Languages | |
| Kimîîrú | |
| Religion | |
| African traditional religion,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Kikuyu, Embu, Mbeere, Kamba, Kisii, other Bantu peoples | |
| Person | Múmîîrú |
|---|---|
| People | Amîîrú |
| Language | Kimîîrú |
The Meru, Amîîrú, "Ameru" or Ngaa people are a Bantu ethnic group that inhabit the Meru region of Kenya on the fertile lands of north and eastern slopes of Mount Kenya, in the former Eastern Province of Kenya. The name "Meru" refers to both the people and the region, which for many years was the only administrative unit. In 1992, the Greater Meru was divided into three administrative units: Meru Central, Meru North (Nyambene), and Tharaka-Nithi (Tharaka and Meru South). After the promulgation of a new constitution in Kenya on 27 August 2010, the Greater Meru was further re-defined and now consists of the twin counties of Tharaka-Nithi and Meru. The Greater Meru covered approximately 13,000 km2 (5,000 sq mi), stretching from the Thuci river, on the border with Embu County in the south, to the border with Isiolo County in the north.
The Ameru people comprise nine sections: the Igoji, Imenti, Tigania, Mitine, Igembe, Mwimbi, Muthambi, Chuka and Tharaka. The Tharaka live in the semi-arid part of the greater Meru and they, together with the Mwimbi, Muthambi and Chuka, form the Tharaka-Nithi County. The Ameru are however unrelated to the Wameru of northern Tanzania, other than both being avid farming Bantu communities.
The Ngaa people known as Meru speak the Kimîîrú language. Kimîîrú, Kikamba, Kiembu, Kimbeere, Kisii and Kikuyu share critical language characteristics. The Kimîîrú language is however not uniform across the Greater Meru but comprises several mutually intelligible dialects depending on the section from which the speaker originates. More importantly, each of the dialect is a reflection of previous migratory patterns, the level of intra-community interactions, and the influences of other adjacent Bantu, Nilotic and Cushitic communities. As a whole language scholars have demonstrated that the Kimîîru language exhibits much older Bantu characteristics in grammar and phonetic forms than the other neighbouring Bantu languages.
The Ngaa people are of Bantu origin. Like the closely related Kikuyu, Embu and Mbeere they are concentrated in the vicinity of Mount Kenya. The exact place that the Ameru ancestors migrated from after the initial Bantu expansion from West Africa is uncertain. Some authorities suggest that they arrived in their present Mount Kenya area of in habitation from earlier settlements further to the north and east, while others argue that the Meru, along with their closely related Eastern Bantu neighbors the moved into Kenya from points further south.
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Wikipedia