In the weeks past we have been introduced to the thirteen East African tribes which make up the majority in Kenya. There are an additional 21 minority group tribes that we will meet over the coming weeks. As they are the minority, there is limited information readily available on these tribes, so our posts on them will be comparatively shorter.
The Aweer are a distinct hunter-gatherer-culture and indigenous people in East Africa. They are found primarily in Kenya, but their homeland extends into Somalia. These are the famous indigenous hunters in the hinterland of Lamu, who are often called by the derogatory term "Boni".
We found a particularly intriguing Anweer quote from an excerpt from Livingtime which says:
The Euro-American image of time is a machine, a factory assembly line chucking
out identical hours, each unremarked and indistinguishable. Worse than that, it
has insisted that its time is the time, and that indigenous peoples all over the
world lack a ‘proper’ sense of time. It is not a lack. Rather they have
cultivated a far more subtle and sensitive relationship to time and timing.
3 comments:
What does "Boni" mean? I can't think of a single reason they should be called by a deragotory name? Can you enlighten us for that reason?
My Church, -Stow On The Wold Baptist Church, in Gloucestershire, England-, have supported the Aweer work of the Wycliff Bible Translators for the last twelve years, and although we heard of the change of the name, no one seems able to answer why it seems to be derogatory......
It is a demeaning name which other tribes use in reference to the Aweer People. It means people without a permanent home. "Wa buni" meaning they always on the move. The swahili translation of word itself is okey but when refered to the Aweer its degrading. Furthermore the Aweer do not have the word Boni in their language. They call each other Aweer which carries more Honor. People who really need to gain their respect should refer to them as the Aweer. The language is known as Af-Aweer.
Mr. Delo Ware
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