Mbeere Naming Ceremony

Songs were used to finalize Giriama naming ceremonies and they also marked the beginning of the birth process for the Mbeere community. When a mother was in labour, other women would come to her side to help her through the process. They would chant poetry in unison to soothe the mother and get her into a calm state of mind. This was also a way of the women sharing in her pain and letting her know that she was not alone.

Once the child was born, cutting of the umbilical cord would be accompanied with ululation from the women present. It was taboo for the men to be present during childbirth, especially the father. These ululations would alert the father that his child had been delivered. Four ululations would be given for a boy and five for a girl.

Ariririririri!
Our child is here!

A song would ensue thanking the ancestors for safe passage of the child and congratulating the mother for a job well done. Similar to the Giriama, Mbeere children were named after their grandparents. This system of naming is important in continuity of the clan’s life and to identify members of one clan to each other. The midwife, who was usually an elder woman in the homestead, would be the one to give the child its name. However, there were exceptions to this rule.

If a woman had suffered successive miscarriages or loss of several infants, the newborn would not be named after a person but an object of little importance such as Mati (leaves) or even Iriga (nameless). This was a result of the parents worrying that this child would not survive either and therefore did not want to form too close an attachment to them.

Encounters with wild animals could also prompt some names. The name Nyaga was given to a child whose parents had encountered an ostrich during pregnancy. Other such names included Njue (rhino), Ireri (baboon), and Njagi (zebra).

Once the name was selected, singing would be taken up once more to praise the youngest member of the community and let the mother know that she would not be alone in raising this child. When need arose, these women would rally behind her and support her.

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