Originally posted by jm:
quote:
Originally posted by Koi:
pls njira kuhanda ithaga nikii. arafu makinya mashio mothe ni mandui..
Tene .. our fore fathers used to practice what we call shift-farming .. where they used to go to the forest.. clear some bush and plant their food crops.. until the land exhausts it nutrients .. they they move on to another patch of forest , clear it etc etc..
Now in order to avoid someone else from farming on yr shamba .. one used to "book" it by planting a banana leaf (ithigi) or some kind of indicator that that shamba is booked.
Now fast forward to Kikuyu marriage...
Kuhanda ithigi ni ta ku-book muiritu nigetha ndakenderio (for lack of a better word) mundu ungi.
.. mwanake anyitanaga na arata ake magathii o kwaa muiritu mari na something small ... a token of payment. Mwanake akariririo ni spokesman wake makauga ati mari na interest na muiritu fulani na nimarenda mahande ithigi .. nigetha magacoka kuu mari na athuri a kwao makimenye mucii na maracie...
In todays world .. ithigi is anything from 3 to 10k in an envelop ...