48K views · 38K reactions | The aftermath of World War I left...

Shot in 1919, this rare film invites us into a Kikuyu council meeting. Elders sit in a circle wrapped in blankets while two younger men slide thin sticks across the grass probably some arithmetic? The sticks probably serve as a public ledger, helping everyone track livestock, bridewealth, or tax shares in real time. It is a brief but vivid glimpse of grassroots governance and everyday mathematics in Central Kenya before colonial rule reshaped local authority. Watch how each bundle of sticks draw