It is made from woven sisal fibers with decorations of different colors to signify social status and also purpose it is intended for. The item of expression is referred to as a ‘Kiondo’. A brightly colored Kiondo was used to attend dowry ceremonies, and the number of different colors used in its creation signified the amount of work that had gone into it and the bride’s class (Nwauche, 2017). For centuries, the Kiondo has existed in my tribe has remained influential in dowry ceremonies. It is also used to carry goods from the marketplace, store valuable items, and give young women a gift.
According to Nwauche (2017), there have been patenting issues, where British tourists reproduced it in the U.K. as an original item for sale in the European market. The Kenyan government held sway in the international court of arbitration, preserving it as a community treasure of the Kikuyu community. As a young adult, I had the opportunity to use the Kiondo in my own dowry ceremony. It was exciting to acknowledge the significance it held in my own community because my contingent would not have been accepted as culturally correct by the bride’s family without the ‘Kiondo.’ In conclusion, despite the changing societal values, the insistence on the Kiondo as an essential item in the dowry process has taught me the importance of maintaining cultural objects. I had the chance to learn that local women are tasked with its production, but it is also being woven for sale to urban residents without access to materials and skills of weaving.
References
Nwauche, E. (2017). Traditional cultural expressions in Africa. In The Protection of Traditional Cultural Expressions in Africa (pp. 11-51). Springer, Cham.