John Tyman's
Cultures in Context Series
AFRICAN HABITATS : 
FOREST, GRASSLAND AND SLUM 
Studies of the Maasai, the Luhya, and Nairobi’s Urban Fringe
PART TWO : THE LUHYA
11. SHELTER : 098-123
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098. Long ago in the west of Kenya people sought safety in numbers and clustered together in walled villages for protection. Settlements were surrounded by a strong mud wall with a ditch outside it. Outside that there was a thick hedge formed by a ring of euphorbia trees tall enough to hide the homestead. During the period Kenya was ruled by Britain, cattle raiding was suppressed and people ceased to bother with walls and ditches, but most compounds have a hedge of sorts, to keep cattle out of vegetable gardens and the like.
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099. The Luo live close to Lake Victoria, with the Luhya on their north and the Nandi to the east. Luo homesteads ranged in size traditionally from 2 to 20 buildings arranged according to a well-established pattern. When establishing a new home a man first decided on the position of the fence and the gate. He then built a house for his first wife opposite the gate, close to the fence, and another one for himself in the middle of the compound. When he took a second wife, her house was built to the right of the first wife (as viewed by a person entering the gate) and the third wife's house was built on the left; and so on. Each wife would also have at least one granary beside her house.
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100. Young unmarried men traditionally slept in a hut close to the gateway, and the unmarried girls stayed with an old woman in a nearby village, or with their grandmother if she lived inside their father's compound. When the boys grew up and found wives of their own, they built houses outside the fence -- the first son on the right (as you leave the gate) and the second on the left. Recently, though, with the trend to build permanent homes of brick and steel in place of several mud walled huts, many families now build just two permanent homes: a big house for the husband, wives and children; and a smaller one for their grown-up sons.
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101. Though the Luhya once lived in large fortified villages their settlements are scattered today, with each family living on its own land. The basic social group is the extended family -- consisting of a husband, his wives and their unmarried children. The number of houses built depends on the size of the family.
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102. The houses of the Nandi, like those of the Luo and the Luhya, are scattered across their fields and meadows in small clusters of buildings. They are round in shape, with sloping cone-shaped roofs of thatch with overhanging eaves. (Cross section of a Nandi house: courtesy of “African Traditional Architecture” by Kaj Andersen)
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103. Posts are first dug into the ground 20 or 30 cm apart. Thinner horizontal pieces of lighter material are fixed across the uprights, both inside and out. The roof is framed in lighter material.
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104. The spaces between the uprights and the cross pieces are packed with clay. The walls are then plastered, inside and out, with a mixture of clay and cow dung (the straw in the dung binding the mixture together). 
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105. The roof is thatched with grass or reeds, depending on what is available.
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106. There are no chimneys. The smoke simply finds its own way out through the thatch.
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107. Lime is sometimes added to the plaster to stabilize it, and decorative patterns may be applied to the outside of the house.
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108. Thatching is in most cases a strictly utilitarian exercise, to shelter the occupants from the sun and the rain with no attempt at decoration.
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109. In some Luhya households, though, the thatch was stepped ... in this case over an experimental square frame.
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110. There are doorways front and back. Doors today are made from sawn timber, but in the old days doors were made of wickerwork. The walls of the house will be resurfaced every year (usually at Christmas) and floors are touched up every month. They are smeared with cow dung to cut down on dust and the resultant infections from the insects that hide there.
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111. The thatch, too, would have been replaced periodically … typically every 4 or 5 years.
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112. The grass with which houses were roofed traditionally was grown on the owner’s own shamba. Now, though, with the need to grow more food from smaller holdings, roofing with grass is no longer the norm.
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113. Instead corrugated iron is often used today, and such houses are no longer round.
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114. A few householders even recycle tin cans, flattening them out and attaching them as shingles.
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115. The granaries (actually corn cribs) start out as large purpose-built baskets which can be purchased locally.
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116. The roof of the crib is assembled on the ground, tied to the top of the basket, and then thatched.
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117. The house is typically divided into three rooms. Inside the front door you'll find the living room (the only one with a ceiling). (Plan of typical Nandi house: courtesy of “African Traditional Architecture” by Kaj Andersen)
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118. This is the room where meals are eaten and visitors entertained.
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119. The fire-place in the kitchen behind will typically have three stones (or clay cones) ... since it is difficult to balance anything properly on four.
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120. It will be equipped also with a series of pots in which water and foodstuffs can be stored prior to use.
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121. Chickens will wander in and out, and may well lay their eggs here.
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122. The bedroom opposite will have a fire of its own for warmth; but it is difficult to fit rectangular bed frames into a space with curved walls. 
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123. Today, outside the house but inside the fence there will likely be a toilet, a “bathroom”, and a rack for dish washing. 
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AFRICA CONTENTS


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