The Mijikenda occupy the coastal strip extending from Lamu in the north to the Kenya/Tanzania border in the south, and approximately 30km inland. The Giriama are among the largest of these ethnic groups. They inhabit the area bordered by the coastal cities of Mombasa and Malindi, and the inland towns of Mariakani and Kaloleni.
The Giriama is one of the largest groups of the Mijikenda people in the back-up area of the Northeast coast of Kenya. The Giriama are subdivided into clans which include Thoya, Mweni, Nyundo, Nyale and so on. The Giriama are a peaceful people who practiced active resistance against the British.[2]
In recent years, the Giriama have extended their living space down to the coast. They are now a big part of service employees in the growing tourism centres. Education programmes initiated by the state included building of central primary schools alongside the coast street. School attendance has become compulsory even for girls up to an age of 12 years. The continuous migration of Giriama to places such as Takaungu and Mtwapa has allowed them to get access to paid labour, hence they have become part of manpower resources, which were once dominated by the Chonyi. The relationship of the Giriama to other Mijikenda groups such as the Ribe, Rabai, Digo and Duruma is rather loose. The Kamba and Jibana have mixed with the coastal population in recent decades. Only a very few villages could sustain them. The Kauma have also been assimilated. The area around the Kilifi Creek is inhabited by Giriama up to nearly 90 percent.[3]
Background
The Giriama people are one of the nine groups which make up the Mijikenda, a Coastal Bantu community which means nine villages and is believed to have migrated from Shungwaya, a place near Fort Dumford in present-day Soma (Temu, 1971, p.167). The other villages are the Digo, Duruma, Rabai, Ribe, Kauma, Kambe, Chonyi, and the Jibana. The Giriama migrated from Shungawa in which they further migrated towards the coastal region of Kenya due to conflicts with other Kenyan communities. “They lacked any cooperative political organization until the late 1940s, when they assumed a collective political identification by choosing the name Mijikenda and forming the Mijikenda Union.” (Brantley, 1981, p.6). At the top of the Giriama hierarchy are the ‘Kambi’ which are the council of elders who reside “in Kaya Fungo as the highest court of appeal for all social, political and civic matt” (Temu 1971, p.167). Below the Kambi on the hierarchy are the spiritual leaders who are tasked with spreading the influence of religion and spirituality to the people of Giriama and practicing rituals.[citation needed]
The Giriamia had a very strong sense for agriculture and were very adept at farming, rearing cows, growing millet, producing cotton and fishing in the Indian Ocean. They were often involved in foreign trade of the goods they produced such as iron in exchange for clothes from the Swahili and Arabs. The people of Giriama have gained a reputation of resistance as they have a long history of rebelling against pressure by foreigners including the “Galla, the Swahili, the Maasai, the Arabs and the…and under pressure at times they have migrated to new lands, other times they have negotiated with their oppressors, and they have occasionally violently resisted.” (Beckloff, 2009, p.11). in 1914, the British colonial government aimed to exploit the Giriama as a source of labour to work building the plantations of the coast of Kenya in which the people of Giriama resisted. However, "due to the overwhelming technological advantage of the British, the revolt was brought to a relatively quick and bloody end. In many ways the Giriama have never recovered from this blow".[4]
Giriama uprising
Giriama's involvement in the Kenyan resistance of the 1912 is of great historical significance as it inevitably shaped Giriama's history and culture. The British colonial government was attempting to find a source of labour for rapidly emerging cash crop plantations on the coast of Kenya for environmental benefits such as water quality, soil improvement and salinity mitigation. As such, the colonial government aimed to "organize all Giriama [though] their traditional political organization, based on councils of elders, reflected regional and economic differentiation" through a practise of co-optation, which amounted to forced labour.[5] The people of Giriama did not approve of the policies of the colonial government which instigated a rebellion against the British influence. The people of Giriama did not have the appropriate society in order to effectively rebel against the British as "it has long been assumed that societies need hierarchies, bureaucracies, and stratifications in order to rebel, but when the Giriama rebelled they had none of these organizational forms".[6]
The initial Giriama response to these colonial policies was based on past pressures "on their whole way of life by strangers who were probably perceived by them as independent or semi-independent warlords; men who pillaged and abused the people in order to enrich themselves and perhaps also the other strangers who now lived on the coast".[7] The Giriama were confronted with the "sudden arrival of these powerful foreigners who imposed taxes, censuses, forced labour, new rules, and regulation of commerce [which] was bound to be extremely upsetting. Moreover, the newcomers showed no respect for the Giriama or their institutions as was clearly shown by the lack of sensitivity on the question of the kay".[8] The Giriama council of elders were unsuccessful in rescinding the British policies as they could not draw on an effective military system, rather it was “neither permanent, aggressive, nor particularly strong. Nor did they draw on a political bureaucracy to organize all Giriama-their traditional political organisation. (Brantley, 1981, p.2).
Culture
Kinship and language
Their language is called Kigiriama, or Kigiryama, and is a sub-language of the Kimijikenda. The nine Mijikenda groups speak closely related languages, all types of Bantu language, which is the same group to which the more widely known Swahili belongs. The Giriama have numerous affinal terms which represents the importance of kinship in the Giriama community. “First, siblings, parallel cousins and cross cousins may all be referred to by the same term. Second, there is bifurcate merging in the immediately ascending generation, such that a father and father's brother are called by the same name, but not the mother's brother; and that a mother and mother's sister are called by the same name, but not the father's sister. Marriage may occu’r with all cousins except a patrilateral parallel cousin, and into all clans except the patri-clan”(Parkin, 1991, p.236)
The Giriama people have their own unique lifestyle and kinship in which they have their own unique languages, affinal terms and marriage tradition. The two traditional main languages that is spoken in Giriama are KiGirimia and KiSwahili which are both very similar linguistically. The Giriama use their language of kinship to how importance of family and relationship where the “terms of address between alternate generations are reciprocated by members of the same sex or are reciprocally equivalent between members of different sex…between adjacent generations, certain terms are reciprocal or reciprocally equivalent, e.g. mother's brother/sister's son, parent-in-law/daughter's husband, but are otherwise reciprocated with different terms. The eldest of a group of brothers is commonly addressed with respect forms and behaviour, unlike other brothers who use familiar forms. (Parkin, 1991, p.236). The Giriama have numerous affinal terms which represents the importance of kinship in the Giriama community. “First, siblings, parallel cousins and cross cousins may all be referred to by the same term. Second, there is bifurcate merging in the immediately ascending generation, such that a father and father's brother are called by the same name, but not the mother's brother; and that a mother and mother's sister are called by the same name, but not the father's sister. Marriage may occu’r with all cousins except a patrilateral parallel cousin, and into all clans except the patri-clan”(Parkin, 1991, p.236)
Traditions in the Giriama community
Through Giriama culture, many of the Giriama people “organize themselves in family groups that are strongly patrilineal.” (Beckloff, 2009, p.12) This form of Giriama tradition started from Giriama's long history which dates to 150 years ago where the Giriama establishment was located in cities called Kaya.“These cities were governed by elders who exercised a great deal of sway over Giriama life and beliefs…by the time of British colonization these kaya remained largely as cultural symbols inhabited by only a few elders. (Beckloff, 2009, p.12). Overtime, much like communities the Giriama has also developed their culture to adapt to their surrounding as other “the Giriama have since significantly expanded the area they inhabit and any central governing systems have disappeared. This leadership has been replaced by homestead elders making decisions that govern their families and in contemporary households, a patriarch and his wives and sons and their wives and children live together as a homestead composed of several houses. (Beckloff, 2009, p.12). Like many communities, the men are traditionally responsible for taking care of the family by providing food and working in which the wives mothers and female members of the families were tasked with household duties such as maintaining the houses. Ultimately, the culture in Giriama is heavily emphasised on the younger generation and their unconditional respect to their elders as the elders are portrayed to be the wisest amongst the Giriama community.[9]
Dress and weddings
The Giriama people have adopted their own traditional method that is arranged by the parents where the bride is ‘priced’ and given to their sons. Marriage may occur with all cousins except a patrilateral parallel cousin, and into all clans except the patri-clan (Parkin, 1991, p.236) The price would typically be in the form of liquor. Like many other wedding traditions, a Giriama wedding consists of music, dancing, gifts and the fathers-in-law would bless the new couple by spitting water onto the chests of the couple. The people of Giriama have a variety of fashion as traditionally they were involved in foreign trade, trading their iron for foreign clothing wear. “Although some of the younger generation have adopted Western dress, most Giriama still wear imported cloth wrappers; the elders wear a waist cloth and carry a walking stick; and some Giriama women still wear the traditional short, layered skirts which resemble ballet tutus. (Brantley, 1981, p.6)
Economy
The Giriama are mainly farmers. The Giriama produced numerous goods that would boost its economy through the distribution of reared cow, goats and sheep. The Giriama also grew numerous crops that would be essential for the foreign market such as cassava, maize, cotton, millet, rice, coconuts, cassava and oil palms.[10] The majority of the trade that Giriama involved with was with the Arabs and Swahili which they trades their grown crops and essential materials such as iron for foreign goods such as beads and clothes from overseas.
Religion
Majority of the Giriama adhere to their traditional beliefs or Christianity. A minority practice Islam.[10] The Giriama people experience spirit possession.[11][verification needed]
There are numerous religions and traditions that the people of Giriama people practice. Some people follow the traditions of the past whilst some indulged in the faith of Islam or Christianity after the influence of the foreigners such as the British or Arab. The Giriama people traditionally believed in the spiritual god ‘Mulingu’ and the religion “lacked priests, territorial or spirit-possession cults, or even an innovative leader to translate old customs, such as the eradication of witchcraft” (Brantley, 1981, p.4). Instead, traditional Giriama religion revolves around the “realms of conversion practices, spirit discourses and spirit possession, divination, ritual code switching, and other ritual forms” (McIntosh, 2009,p.4).
Through their belief In Mulingu, the Giriama people would carve hardwood in the shape of human beings called Vigangon which would be offered as sacrifices to Mulingu to oppose calamities such as sicknesses and environment dangers. Traditional Giriama religion is still being practiced today, however majority of the Giriama people have converted to either Christianity or Islam. Giriama have long been pressed to convert to Islam by Swahili and Arab patrons, employers, and prospective kinby-marriage, but for at least forty years, these pressures have taken supranatural as well as social forms.. (McIntosh, 2004, p.93).
The Kamba or Akamba people are a Bantu ethnic group who predominantly live in the area of Kenya stretching from Nairobi to Tsavo and north to Embu, in the southern part of the former Eastern Province. This land is called Ukambani and constitutes Makueni County, Kitui County and Machakos County. They also form the second largest ethnic group in 8 counties including Nairobi and Mombasa counties.
Mijikenda are a group of nine related Bantu ethnic groups inhabiting the coast of Kenya, between the Sabaki and the Umba rivers, in an area stretching from the border with Tanzania in the south to the border near Somalia in the north. Archaeologist Chapuruka Kusimba contends that the Mijikenda formerly resided in coastal cities, but later settled in Kenya's hinterlands to avoid submission to dominant Portuguese forces that were then in control. Historically, these Mijikenda ethnic groups have been called the Nyika or Nika by outsiders. It is a derogatory term meaning "bush people."
The Swahili people comprise mainly Bantu, Afro-Arab and Comorian ethnic groups inhabiting the Swahili coast, an area encompassing the Zanzibar archipelago and mainland Tanzania's seaboard, littoral Kenya, northern Mozambique, the Comoros Islands and Northwest Madagascar.
Kenya is a multilingual country. The two official languages of Kenya, Swahili and English are widely spoken as lingua francas; however, including second-language speakers, Swahili is more widely spoken than English. Swahili is a Bantu language native to East Africa and English is inherited from British colonial rule.
Takaungu is a historic Swahili town located on the Kenyan Coast between Mombasa and Malindi, in Kilifi County.
The Pokomo people are a Bantu ethnic group of southeastern Kenya. Their population in Kenya was 112,075 in 2019. They are a distinct ethnic group with their own sub-clans/tribes. Despite their proximity, they are not of the nearby Mijikenda people. They are predominantly agriculturalists and both freshwater and ocean fishermen living along the Tana River in Tana River County. They speak the Pokomo language, which is similar to Swahili.
The Chonyi, also referred to as Achonyi, are one of the smaller tribes of the Mijikenda on the coast of Kenya.
The Digo are a Bantu ethnic and linguistic group based near the Indian Ocean coast between Mombasa in southern Kenya and northern Tanga in Tanzania. In 1994 the Digo population was estimated to total 305,000, with 217,000 ethnic Digo living in Kenya and 88,000 in Tanzania. Digo people, nearly all Muslims, speak the Digo language, called Chidigo by speakers, a Bantu language.
The Segeju are a Bantu ethnolinguistic group mostly based in Tanzania's Tanga Region and Kenya's Kwale County. Most Segeju reside in the small coastal strip between the Tanzanian city of Tanga and the Kenyan-Tanzanian border. However, some Segeju have migrated to urban areas in other parts of Tanzania or Kenya, in hopes of better employment opportunities and quality of life. Segeju migration to urban areas often results in severance of community ties, leading to a lack of transmission of important cultural traditions and language.
The Kuria people (also known as the AbaKurya, are a Bantu community in Tarime District of Mara Region in Tanzania and southern Kenya. Their homeland is bounded on the east by the Migori River and on the west by the Mara River estuary. Traditionally a pastoral and farming community, the Kuria grow maize, beans and cassava as food crops and coffee and maize as cash crops.
Mnyazi wa Menza, also known as Mekatilili Wa Menza or Mekatilili (1860s-1924) was a Kenyan independence activist who led the Giriama people against the colonial administration of Kenya between 1912 and 1915.
Digo (Chidigo) is a Bantu language spoken primarily along the East African coast between Mombasa and Tanga by the Digo people of Kenya and Tanzania. The ethnic Digo population has been estimated at around 360,000, the majority of whom are presumably speakers of the language. All adult speakers of Digo are bilingual in Swahili, East Africa's lingua franca. The two languages are closely related, and Digo also has much vocabulary borrowed from neighbouring Swahili dialects.
The Bajuni people are a Bantu ethnic group who live primarily in the Bajuni Islands and the city of Mombasa in Kenya. They are a minority tribe in Kenya.
The Embu are a Bantu people inhabiting Embu county in Kenya. They speak the Embu language as a mother tongue. To the south of Embu are to be found their cousins, the Mbeere people. In essence Embu county encompasses the ethnic Kîembu dialect, from whom the Embu county's name derives, and the Kimbere dialect spoken by their Mbeere counterparts who inhabit the lower reaches of the county. Historically, both were just referred to as the Embu people. To the west, Embu neighbours are the closely related Kikuyu in Kirinyaga, Nyeri, Kiambu, Muranga and Nyandarua counties. The Meru people border the Embu to the East.
Thomas Johnson Kuto Kalume was a Kenya politician and the first clergyman to be elected Member of Parliament (MP) in the history of the National Assembly of Kenya.
Kigango is a carved wooden memorial statue erected by the Mijikenda peoples of the southeastern Kenya coast. The vigango, which can be stylized, abstracted human-form effigies and are placed vertically rising out of the earth, honor a dead member of the secret Gohu society, or the "Society of the Blessed".
Mwanzele is a dance style originally performed during funerals by the Mijikenda tribe of the Coast Province of Kenya.
A kaya is a sacred site of the Mijikenda people in the former Coast Province of Kenya. Often located within sacred forests, a kaya is considered to be an intrinsic source of ritual power and the origin of cultural identity; it is also a place of prayer for members of the Mijikenda ethnic group. The settlement, ritual centre, and fortified enclosure associated with the forest are also part of the kaya. In the present day, the kaya is also referred to as a traditional organizational unit of the Mijikenda. Eleven of the approximately 60 separate makaya have been grouped together and inscribed as the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Fingo is a protective talisman of the Mijikenda people in Coast Province, Kenya. Fingo are believed to attract guardian spirits (djinns). It is commonly buried in the kaya. Kaya elders take care of the fingo, which is said to have come from Shungwaya, the ancestral home of the Mijikenda. Considered to be interesting objet d'art, many fingo are stolen, while others are lost. The Giriama use large stones as fingo while other Mijikenda use a large pot of medicine. The pottery vessel contains not only medicine but also magic charms. It serves to protect the kaya and its inhabitants, one buried at the entrance and exit of each kaya.
The Wanga kingdom is a Bantu kingdom within Kenya, consisting of the Wanga (Abawanga) tribe of the Luhya people (Abaluyia). At its peak the kingdom covered an expansive area from Jinja in west to Naivasha in the East African Rift. The Wanga kingdom was a significant African empire and the most organized structure of government in pre-colonial Kenya politically, economically, and militarily.
References
Brantley, C. (1981). The Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800–1920. University of California Press.
Beckloff, R., Merriam, S. (2009). LOCAL AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE CONSTRUCTION AMONG THE GIRIAMA PEOPLE OF RURAL COASTAL KENYA. The University of Georgia.
McIntosh, J. (2004).RELUCTANT MUSLIMS: EMBODIED HEGEMONY AND MORAL RESISTANCE IN A GIRIAMA SPIRIT POSSESSION COMPLEX. The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Mar., 2004, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Mar., 2004), pp.91–112.
McIntosh, J. (2009). The Edge of Islam: Power, Personhood, and Ethnoreligious Boundaries on the Kenya Coast. DURHAM; LONDON: Duke University Press.
Parkin, D. (1991). The Sacred Void: Spatial Images of Work and Ritual among the Giriama of Kenya (Cambridge Studies in Social and Cultural Anthropology). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Patterson, D. (1970). The Giriama Risings of 1913–1914. Boston University African Studies Centre.
Temu, A. (1971). THE GIRIAMA WAR, 1914–1915. Journal of Eastern African Research & Development. Gideon Were Publications.
↑ Reluctant Muslims: Embodied Hegemony and Moral Resistance in a Giriama Spirit Possession Janet McIntosh The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 10, No. 1 (Mar., 2004), pp.91-112
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