'Myth' as a Historical Basis of the Meru Folktales: Introduction: Background History of the Ameru The Bantu migration southwards 'Myth' as a Historical Basis for the Meru Folktales Conclusion Bibliography Appendix: Summaries of oral stories and historical creative accounts cited in this paper Story 1 Story 2 Story 3 Story 4 Story 5 Story 6 Story 7 Story 8 Historical creative accounts Account 1 The Mbwa tradition Account 2 The coming of the Meru Account 3 Account 4 Account 5 Abstract Résumé Zusammenfassung

Speranza Muthoni Ndege, Nairobi

'Myth' as a Historical Basis of the Meru Folktales

Introduction: Background History of the Ameru

Historical accounts of the origin of the Amerut state that this Bantu speaking group originated from the Northern part of Africa and not from the Congo forest as was earlier believed. The Bantu love for livestock keeping, farming, organized social, political and religious institutions leaves one to wonder whether this group would have been comfortable living in the rain forest. Be- sides this, Congo forest is inhabited by the Pygmy species, which means the Bantu would have interacted or socialized a great deal with them leaving visible traces of their contact. During my field research not a single informant men- tioned Congo forest or the Pygmies.

The Ameru trace their origin from the North. According to the informants, the Ameru have always been agriculturalists. This means they must have orig- inated from an area where the climate was conducive for farming and livestock keeping. There is no evidence to refute the possibility that the land along the Nile valley had been the most appropriate area for them. A. M. M'Imanyara (1992) states that the Ameru belonged to the Meroitic peoples who lived in the present Gezira region between the Blue Nile and Atbara. In ancient times this was known as 'Island of Meroe'. It had large quantities of iron-ore and plenty of wood, which was used to smelt iron and cook. It was also sold to Egypt. Perhaps this explains why the Ameru engage in the blacksmith profession (see story 1).

D. Nyaga (1997) states that the Meru people could be the descendants of the black Jews called Felasha, who lived in the northern environs of lake Tana in the land known as Meroe, which lay between the river Atbara and what is known today as Blue Nile, in the South of Egypt. The ancient Meroe, as well as other ancient zones like Nubia and Kush, which were adjacent to Meroe, are today re- gions of Sudan. The Jews lived in the Elephantine area of the Nile basin and this was within the influence of the Meroitic people. The Jewish 'myth' mentions that their leader Moses got his wife from among the Cushites (Exodus 2, 15-22)...