Kunde

The History of Kunde: The Bean That Made Dry Land Livable

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There are few foods as modest and yet as quietly heroic as kunde. It does not boast like maize or demand attention like coffee. But it thrives where almost nothing else will. In Kenya’s most unforgiving landscapes—where rains fail, soils are thin, and the sun writes cracks in the earth—kunde lives. It doesn’t just survive. It holds entire communities together.

Vigna unguiculata, known more widely as cowpea, is one of Africa’s oldest and most adaptable legumes. It tolerates drought, matures quickly, and gives everything: edible leaves, nutrient-rich seeds, and leftover vines that double as fodder. It even heals the land. As a nitrogen fixer, kunde literally breathes life back into depleted soils.

So what does this humble bean have to do with the history of East Africa?

Everything.

known locally as “kunde” (Kikuyu), “likhuvi” (Luhya), “a lot-bo” (Luo), “nthooko” (Kamba), and “egesare” (Kisii), 

A Seed, Charred and Ancient

In July 2024, archaeologists published what may be the most important update in East African agricultural history in decades. Deep in the Chelelemuk Hills, at a site known as Kakapel Rockshelter, researchers uncovered the earliest direct evidence of domesticated plant farming in equatorial East Africa. Their paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B Goldstein et al., 2024, details the recovery of a single charred cowpea seed, burned but intact, buried in a hearth used some 2,300 years ago.

That seed—more than any document, oral history, or linguistic reconstruction—confirms that farming had reached the interior Lake Victoria Basin long before colonial timelines suggest.

Kunde had arrived.

West African Origins, East African Transformations

Cowpea is thought to have originated in West Africa, domesticated by communities who understood its value generations before the invention of writing. From there, it moved slowly eastward—across rivers, forests, and savannas—until it found new soil in what is now western Kenya.

Proposed spread of cowpea from its origins of domestication. Dashed circles indicate likely centers of domestication. Colored circles on the map indicate the geographic area from which most of the minicore accessions assigned to that subpopulation originate. Arrows indicate the proposed routes of spread and are labeled with likely transporters (italicized) or location and date (not italicized)

At Kakapel, the seed was found alongside Urewe ceramics, typically associated with the early Bantu expansion. These weren’t just potters. They were migrants, bringing with them language, technology, and food. Kunde was part of that package.

But here’s the twist: the seed didn’t spark an agricultural revolution overnight. Early farmers still relied heavily on wild foods. The local foragers, likely Kansyore fishers, didn’t vanish. They adapted. Kunde was an addition to the menu, not a replacement.

Which makes its story even more compelling.

Kenya’s Most Underappreciated Crop

Fast forward to the present.

In counties like Kitui, Makueni, Migori, and Kakamega, kunde continues to be a lifeline. It grows in fields too dry for maize. It produces in weeks what other crops take months. Its leafy greens end up in stews across the country, and its beans pack more nutrients than most imported “superfoods.”

Kunde feeds people and goats. It feeds the land. It feeds history.

And yet, despite its ecological and nutritional importance, it rarely features in agricultural marketing or urban grocery aisles. It is a crop of the margins—rural, subsistence-driven, female-led. But that is precisely why it has endured.

A Bean with a Memory

The story of kunde is not just botanical. It is historical. That seed at Kakapel carries more than calories. It holds memory. Memory of trade and travel. Memory of adaptation. Memory of a continent that farmed long before it was surveyed and carved into colonies.

In a time when climate uncertainty looms, and food systems struggle to keep up with demand, the lesson from Kakapel is clear: survival lies in resilience, not in uniformity. Kunde is resilient.

It is the food of foragers, herders, and farmers. It bridges Iron Age migration and modern subsistence. It is both ancient and urgently contemporary.

It is, quite literally, the bean that made dry land livable.

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