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Within tradition with the Gikuyu community they were agriculturalists. They described them selves as “nyumba ya muro” (the house of the digging stick). The most valuable inheritance that parents could bequeath to their children was their love for land tillage. Parents started to educate their children very early about tilling the land with zeal. In their teaching and example they were helping their descendants to receive a heritage as agriculturalists. Young girls learned from their mothers and other women folk as they accompanied them to the garden.
Besides learning gardening skills, they learnt that they were “njamba cia wira” (excellent workers) who were distinct from ordinary women. These “njamba” were the women within the community who excelled in keeping their gardens very cultivated and always worked fast and efficient. Their granaries always had plenty of food, even during the famine, these women managed to continue having food. It was imbedded in them from a young age that they should aspire to become a “njamba cia wira.”
