ABSTRACT
Age and generation systems of Eastern Africa offer an unusual opportunity in anthropology to think over the plurality of time, its combination and discord, the tensions between the dynamics of the society and the becoming of the individual; and the question of the longue durée and history, of event and historical consciousness. Classes were distributed alternately in two streams, named Kiruka and Ntiba in Tigania, or Ntangi and Mbaine in Igembe, all symbolically associated with the sun or with the rain. As the ruling class, the ‘Fathers of the country’ governed the society through councils; they also controlled the class of the warriors which often included their own sons, as long as this class was recruiting. Differences of opinion appeared also to be related to historical events, mainly to the deep crisis and lasting conflict that developed during the 1930s–1950s between the colonial administration and the Meru people, and also among the Meru themselves.
