The Matelong Family Home on the Web

The second is the family, filial or blood relationship which was markedly classified by a reference to a family oreet (plural oratinwek NOT ortinwek which means routes) defined by "tiondo" or totem (animal) which is actually a misnomer since even the sun is part of the animals. Since numbers are significant for the Nandi and by extent the Kalenjin, there are roughly 16 oratinwek against about 26 tiong'ik because some oreet carry more than one tiondo. Noteworthy is that the Nandi regard the crested crane (Kong'oony) as the first animal to be alloted (keroob) while the hyena (kimageetiet) is reputed as the last to be alloted. In between are other animals. It is important to note that some of the animals that are sacred to the Nandi are not found in other Kalenjin tribes. The converse is also true. Most of what I have put down here was revised from an entry at Kagiptai which seems to borrow from Huntingford who compiled the story from informers that were probably young and didn't have enough information. For in that report, the frog (and there is a particular one revered by this clan) and the bee are grouped as Kipkeda. This is way off the mark since the frog belongs to the oreet of Kuchwa (frog, of the late Bishop Alexander Muge - Kap Kunguren) while the bee (to which the Matelong family belongs) is Kipkenda. To the best of the writer's knowledge the Kipkenda clan is made up of two different bees but is exclusively a bee-clan. The first bee is the 'maimi' bee, the honey-bee which makes honey-combs and deposits the nectar on rock crevices and boondet (hives). The Matelong family belongs to this clan. The second is a special type of a bee, which are called Chep Kaburiinik. These bees are characterised by a 'red colour', non-aggressiveness and 'no-sting', they circulate the sky and usually around mid-day if one shot an arrow, quite a swarm came down with it. Listen to the 'tolololeet' or typical swarm of bees sound. They make their honey in earth (ground)-crevices. The Kap Achoro (Kap Sigoong) family, which is originally from Terik represents this family.

It will not be fair to leave out the importance of oreet, however sketchy. To a large extend, the Nandi peoples' daily life was determined by the oreet. For example, although the Talai clan are revered (even feared), they were not allowed to complete an induction through the rights of passage of men before coming out of seclusion. The most defining distinction, 'kamuiiset and riikset' are excluded from their ceremonial menu. As a result, the Talai, the Mooi Kogo (Chepkogosioot) and Kiboiis (Leelwek) are NOT allowed to be 'matirioot', ostensibly because 'they cannot lead where they didn't go (ma tarei tumdo)! Consequently, during the two critical final ceremonies, sons of these two clans go to sleep at home. It is noteworthy that the Kiboiis (Lelwek) and Talai (Kutoonoi, or kutwo) are of Maasai in origin. On the other hand, traditionally, a Kiptabkei is a 'ng'wan guut' meaning in the case that the community is to pronounce a curse (chubiisiet) on anybody it was their preserve. Additionally, because the Tungo clan is, for purposes of prominence, the 'least important' clan symbol, their daughters are not subjected to the 'cheptab oreet age ne weendi oreet age' paradigm. Consequently, they are allowed to praise their father's tungo..hence the occassional ululation by a tungo girl is unmistakenly interspersed with 'eeeeei tungo goinyoooo'.

Going to Kapkoros was also ordered around the oreet. However, the author does not have details beyond the fact that going to Kapkoros was largely a more or less a tumdo business. Indeed, the Kapkoros ceremonies was more of a political organisational excursion in which bororiosiek took part in prayers that were obviously determined by the clan composition. Additionally, the oreet determined strictly where one could or could not marry from in a classical understanding of the consequences of in-breeding as taught by 'genetic vigour' scholars. Likewise, for example some clans were not supposed to go for koiito, they couldn't be accepted 'ma kii li" again and without the slightest intent to spite the tungo clan is one such. Hence the jest "ki boo the rebei ma soomei". One controversial Kipkenda clan 'don't' which seems to have been overtaken by events is the interesting 'banning' of a Kiptabkei - Kipkenda marriage. This may have been informed, as was always the case, by a repitative disaster which the Kipkenda family attributed to marrying cherereet. Whether this is still the case is not known to the author. However, in a recent event, the Kap Matelong of Rongai in Nakuru gave their daughter to a Kitabkei of Cheptabach in Sireet, Nandi Hills. The couple have since had kids and it would seem safe to bet that they will be happier for many generations to come.

Finally, oreet determined to a large extent the socio-economic lifestyles of the Nandi. In this regard, livestock were not owned by an individual, at least not strictly. With elaborate marking of the livestock, each oreet was allocated a unique way of 'branding' the animals usually with respect to marks on the ears. Thus, Moi (Kong'oony) perforated the ears of their animals as did almost all other Moi oreet. It is this that you find in the 'girls' of this oreet, like my grandmother, who praise their father's household with the ululation 'Kap Bar iit goinyoo'. Other oreet had a similar branding with the ears, either left or right, cutting off of the tip (muut) or mapping 'fingers' on the ears 'sach' and similar marks. Thuis means that in cases where the livestock straight, a man would be able to know that the animal in question belonged to a certain clan and the owner(s) was easily identifiable.

I have attempted to classify the oreet with a deliberate show of an example of a family in the Nandi country. It is not guaranteed that the information is entirely accurate. In the table herebelow, view my attempt at a demographic classification of the clans. Any comments and additions for the families are definitely welcome.