The Gicandi is an an ancient Gikuyu composition of enigmatic poetry presented in pubic by two poets in a dialogue of back and forth battle of wits. Composed of reportedly over 150 stanzas, the singer of the Gicandi had to subject himself to an accurate preparation and learn by heart the high number of stanzas containing as many enigmas: this explains why there were very few Gicandi singers even in bygone times and why they have practically disappeared now. These initiated singers made their appearance in the various market places passing from one village to another.
The presentation of the dialogic challenge was made formally by “spreading it”, Kwara Gicandi in an arena in front of an audience. One of the contestants would propose an enigma first, and the other would explain it and propose the next in turn. The competition would go on until one of the two failed to give the interpretation and so lost the game. The losing party handed over his musical instrument to the winner.


The drawings on the Gicandi are as enigmatic as the words and constitute a mnemonic-pictorial system that is the only kind existent among the Bantu tribes and reminds one of the hieroglyphics writing system of ancient Egypt. This kind of memory device uses a pictorial symbolism which proceeds by simplified pictures, tracing only part of an object or a conventional image. A small number of pictures is sufficient to record a happening, suggest to a medicine-man the formula for magical practices and to a singer the object and verses of his song. Kimani Njogu, a modern student of the Gicandi writes that “The performer considers the inscribed text an integral part of his performance and thus would make constant reference to the pictograms in the poem. In most Gicandi performances, the inscribed text and the Gicandi guard itself (with the seeds therein) and the poet’s composition dialogically merge indistinguishably.” The interpretation of this text is complex and beyond the scope of this write-up.
Vittorio Merlo Pick an Italian Consolata missionary has perhaps the most comprehensive documentation of the Gicandi extant. Together with a Gicandi singer, John Kahora he recorded in his book, Ndai na Gicandi: Kikuyu Enigmas, 126 of an originally 150 stanza collection done in the year 1930. Though the Gicandi has a fixed text of which memory is the chief test, like all creative artistic endeavors, it incorporates and calls upon the singer’s own creative explorations. Father V. Ghilardi, another student of the Gicandi wrote, “It is a poem of very high poetry, in which the singer spaces freely, passing from one field to another. He touches on all lightmotifs more or less at length. He passes from feasting to merriment to the darkest sadness, from comical to tragical and from lyrical to gluesome or even apocalyptical expressions. He disdains vulgar themes.” In this role as a creative artist the Gicandi singer acts as a social commentator.
The Gikuyu were always a very cerebral people. While the young grew up with mind games, fairy tales, riddles and enigmas that tested and stretched the limits of their minds, it seems the grown ups deepened these skills in music and poetry heavy in linguistic allegory and symbolism like the Muthunguci, Mugoiyo and Gicukia. The epitome of this kind of creative expression was in the Gicandi and the famed proverbs-rich rhetoric of Elder’s Council meetings, Kiama. The Gicandi itself tells us so in Kahora’s stanza 17;
Anake magiatura njuiri na tuhii tugicirira mburi athuuri makiaria ndundu cia ciira. While the warriors divide their hairs, and the young boys talk about goats, the elders discuss the secrets of the Council.
While Gikuyu neophytes develop and train their memory, wit, shrewdness, richness of imagination, and the spirit of observation through riddles and such famous mind games as Cengerecema, the adepts hone their skills with proverbs, thimo, and follow the Gicandi. The Gicandi singer, Muini wa Gicandi is the Grand Master.
CENGERECEMA (strictly for Kikuyu neophytes)
Witagwo atia? – Cengerecema
Ii cema? – Cema uuthi
Ii uuthi? – Uuthi kagira
Ii kagira? – Kagira nyenje
Ii nyenje – Nyenje wairi
Ii wairi? – Wairi uri nda
Ii nda? – Nda ya mwene
Ii mwene? – Mwene matote
Ii matote?- Matotera thi
Ii thi? – Thi ya murogi
Ii murogi? – Murogi ciari
Ii ciari? – Ciari gatara
Ii gatara? – Gatara hungu
Ii hungu? – Hungu king’uu
Ii king’uu? – King’uira iguru





Great article as always.
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Fantastic!! I will never get enough of this. Always looking forward to this post. I went to Mukurwe wa Nyagathanga in April and got very disappointed. It is dilapidated and very neglected, even the sign post has faded. I wonder why the Muranga County government has not done anything on this sacred place.
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very intrestin article written with a lot of passion.can’t have enough keep going Mukuyu!!!
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I’m just amazed at how this strikes a very similar chord with the Socratic dialectical methods that lend fashion to the Platonic dialectics…albeit in a different style, but seems to be catering for the same ends somehow. Or is it just me?
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No its not just you. I first saw its similarity to the dialogues and then realized that its even more similar to a powerful duet song full of allegory and cleverly woven philosophical dialectic – The Song of Songs otherwise known as The Song of Solomon.
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I actually got goosebumps at first when I saw read this post! I just couldn’t understand how we scavenge for philosophical wisdom from, say, the Greeks, when what would seem to be its esoteric origin of it was/is still right at my own backyard!
Which is why I’m still plagued by this question: Is our own esoteric wisdom (kīrīra) so esoteric that it defeats the very purpose of it being hidden, that even to those of us with genuine yearnings for our own wisdom have to go to foreign gods??
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It is deep yes, but nor beyond the interpretation of serious heirs to the secrets. Those in touch with the Seers know. Kimathi for one was shown the full text.
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I would expect it to be so.
Well, meanwhile, I’m enjoying your blog immensely as I pass by as part of my research.
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Ha! Somewhere the Gicandi mentions the likes of you as a river flowing and collecting what it can absorb and leaving the heavy rocks behind. Enjoy the trip to the great deep ocean.
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Ha ha! The “passing by” is a figure of speech, not literal. I intend to investigate the rock and seek inclusion.
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An elder once told me” Gicandi ti ugo,na ti uraambu, na ti uramati wa mundu” What is the meaning?
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The saying is Gīcandi ti ūgo na ti ūranbu na ti Ūthamaki. Literally The Gicandi is neither esoteric nor grandiose nor kingly neither does it belong to anyone.
1. It is free to anyone even a commoner who sets himself to it.
2. It is not a secret cult as the Ago cult.
3. It is not for self aggrandisement or gain. Ti urambu. It is a gift to society.
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Múkúyú Wanyua Awa
Was this gicandí confusing as it sounds?
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Bwana Mwangi
Our Gīkūyū ancestors were very deep. Wait until I tell you of the Gīkūyū Ndome or Gīkūyū Ūgo or the Ituīka! Wow!!! The depth of the riches …..
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