The Nandi are part of the Kalenjin, a Nilotic tribe living in East Africa. The Nandi ethnic group live with close association and relation with the Kipsigis tribe. They traditionally have lived and still form the majority in the highland areas of the former Rift Valley Province of Kenya, in what is today Nandi County. They speak the Nandi dialect of the Kalenjin language.
Etymology
Before the mid-19th century, the Nandi referred to themselves as (pl. ) or Chemwal (pl. ) while other Kalenjin-speaking communities referred to the Nandi as . It is unclear where the terms originated from, though in early writings the latter term was associated with which means camel in Turkana and suggestions made that the name could be an "...allusion to the borrowing, direct or indirect of the rite of circumcision from camel riding Muslims". Later sources do not make similar suggestions or references to this position.
The name Nandi came into use after the mid-19th century and more so after the defeat of the Uasin Gishu and the routing of the Swahili and Arab traders. The name is thought to derive from the similarity of the rapaciousness of the warriors of the mid-1800s to the habits of the voracious cormorant which is known as in Kiswahili.
Nandi position and facet to Kalenjin
The Nandi people are one among a group of communities that share cultural traits and a Southern Nilotic language known as Kalenjin. The dialects are seen as being distinct languages, thus for instance the Nandi speak the Nandi language which may or may not be mutually intelligible with another Kalenjin language. The Kalenjin ethnic groups inhabit the highlands of East Africa in African Great Lakes Region. They include: the Nandi, Kipsigis, Tugen, Keiyo, Okiek, Marakwet, Sengwer, Sabaot, Terik, Pokot and Sebei. The confederation came about as a result of the upheavals of the First and Second Mutai.
The Kalenjin languages are broadly similar with most of the dialects being mutually intelligible. The Nandi use Kalenjin nomenclature, which is similar across most communities apart from the Marakwet where names of persons may be inverted gender-wise; certain folklore indicates that this may have been as a result of a genocide that targeted either the males or females of Marakwet. Kalenjin mythology was broadly similar and is thought to have stemmed from an earlier worship oriented at the sky, later turning its focus of worship to the sun. This change may have radiated from the Kibasisek clan originally from Marakwet. Today most Nandi are either Protestant Christian or Catholic as are most Kalenjin.
The Nandi experience contributes a great deal to commonly perceived Kalenjin heritage as well as to contemporary Kalenjin culture. Many customs are shared across Kalenjin communities though circumcision is absent in some communities. Kalenjin can traditionally marry from within Kalenjin as if it were within each individual's community. Oret (clan) membership cuts across the various communities with Nandi and Kipsigis ortinwek ties being particularly intricate thus making both seem as a single identity even to date.
History
A totality of various traditions making up the narrative of the Settlement of Nandi seem to date the origin of a differentiated Nandi identity to the early decades of the nineteenth century and no later than the latter decades of the eighteenth century. The development of the Nandi identity is intrinsically linked to the settlement of Nandi County.
19th century
Settlement of Nandi
Within Nandi tradition, the existence of a differentiated Nandi identity is understood as a distinct process through which various Kalenjin and Maa-speaking clans came to occupy the present day Nandi county. The traditional Nandi account is that the first settlers in their country came from Elgon during the time of the Maina and formed the Kipoiis clan; a name that possibly means 'the spirits'. They were led by a man named Kakipoch, founder of the Nandi section of the Kalenjin and are said to have settled in the emet (county) of Aldai in south-western Nandi.
Studies of the settlement pattern indicate that the southern regions were the first to be settled, the emet of Aldai on the west and the emet of Soiin on the east, being the first to be established. It has been conjectured that the first pororosiek were Kakipoch in Aldai and Tuken in Soiin.
It is notable that Sirikwa holes (known to the Nandi as mukowanisiek) were almost non-existent in the areas first settled, being only present on the Nandi escarpment itself. They were however found in great numbers in the northern regions of Nandi.