The Akirinyaga tribe of Central Kenya used to make bututia, a fermented drink produced from finger millet. During significant events like harvesting and when the rains were thought to be approaching, this product was highly popular and consumed. The ladies would make the bututia, package it in gourds, and deliver it to the field workers who were males.
The first step in making bututia is to winnow the millet to get rid of any dirt or extraneous objects. Following the millet’s crushing using stones, water is combined with the flour. After the combination is allowed to ferment for three days, the product is known locally as kimera. To create a uniform end product, kimera is diluted in warm water and filtered. Bututia is the filtrate that is left behind, and to preserve its freshness, it is stored in a cold, dry location.
Before drinking it, the amount of land that needed to be prepared was determined using bututia. To keep it cool, a gourd full of bututia would be partially buried a few meters in advance of the starting site. After that, another gourd was buried and bututia was consumed via funnels built from banana leaves, or “mbari,” as they are called in the area. People were encouraged to keep working and make the most of their available time by this. Men used to travel from one farmhouse to another as part of the communal process of preparing the land.
The growing inclination towards standardized items puts this product in danger of being extinct. The product has also suffered from the shift in social attitudes toward individuality.
