The Agumba (also Gumba) people were an ethnic group who inhabited the forests of Mount Kenya, but are now either extinct or assimilated.
Sources
The Agumba people are known of only through the oral tradition of the Kikuyu, Embu, and Meru peoples.
Origins
Routledge notes that the traditions collected among the Kikuyu were "definitely to the...effect that the A'si preceded the Agum'ba and that the latter two people lived side by side in villages". However, according to Meru traditions, the Agumba predated the Athi people in their areas of occupation. A specific instance of tradition relating to rituals also seems to affirm this fact, "A-Athi traditions suggest (that rituals) were adopted ('bought') from earlier hunting peoples whom they encountered as they entered the forest. Neither instance seem to provide a point of origin beyond their presence on Mount Kenya.
Language
The Agumba of Meru tradition spoke a Kalenjin dialect that bears similarity to present-day Okiek languages. The 'Doko' with whom they bear close resemblance spoke Maasai but were thought to have been Cushitic speaking.
Record of time
The Agumba appear to have made use of an 'age' system to define time. The first recalled of these ages is the Manjiri and is in Kikuyu tradition associated with a narrative; "When God had finished the world He spoke to the first man, Mam'-ba. Mam'-ba told his son N'ji-ri to separate the dry land from the waters. N'jiri dug channels, and when he came to the sea built up a bank of sand. The second age, Mandoti, is remembered in Kikuyu tradition as the age of evil doers. According to Kikuyu tradition, the people increased greatly during the third age - Chiera.
A separate instance of Kikuyu tradition states that the Athi lived with the Agumba. They lived together, though separately, but it would appear that some families at least were assimilated into Agumba society...
Smearing with red-earth became fashionable during the age known as Masai while the Kikuyu are said to have come during the age known as Mathathi. Traditions indicate that they had splintered off from the Kamba.
Way of life
The Bantu migrants found a unique way of life being practiced by the Gumba when they first arrived.
Subsistence
The Agumba are remembered as being short hunters who used bows and arrows. They are also remembered as beekeepers. The Agumba of Kikuyu tradition may have been pastoralists, or perhaps adopted pastoralism, when they met the 'Asi' for it is noted that they "took charge of the herds" as the Athi wandered off, far and wide.
Shelter
According to certain Kikuyu traditions, the Gumba dwelt in caves, or pits dug in the earth. Routledge captured traditions that describe a distinctive housing system. The Agumba are said to have,
Iron
Routledge states that their informants advised them that Agumba "used bows and arrows, and also had other weapons". They note that in their estimation "they must therefore have possessed iron". However, when they excavated a few of the saucer shaped depression's said to have been former Agumba residences, they only came across fragments of obsidian. They note that the British Museum confirmed that this had been worked by hand. They also found, at the same depth of three feet, fragments of pottery, the charcoal remains of fire and banana seeds. They make note that after the excavation and as they were setting up tent, pieces of obsidian kept coming up in the surface soil.
Contemporary understanding of the Agumba is that they were iron and pottery makers. Within Kikuyu tradition, they are understood to have taught the iron-making skill to the Kikuyu. The working of iron was still practiced by some families living near the deposits described below. At the time of record, this tradition seemed so natural as to be "obviously the outcome of practice". The iron produced by these families was a "very pure form of steel, that (could) be drawn into wire or fashioned into cutting instruments".
Deposits
Routledge observed and described some deposits which, it was noted, were the only deposits in Kikuyu. It was stated that the only other deposits were located 50 miles away near Kilimanjaro; however, to derive metal from that source required trade with the Akamba or Masai which as of the early 20th century, at least in Routledge's eye's seemed "never to have existed to any appreciable extent". The workings are described as follows;
Ritual
The Agumba of Meru tradition are said to have known and made use of cursing rituals, a practice that they taught to the pre-Meru clans.