Sunday morning. 4 hours. 4 Matatu changes (Mombasa –>
Nyali –> Bamburi –> Mtwapa –> Kikambala) and a 4 km hike under the
scorching sun later (Btw I’m not making this up, it actually was 4 of
everything). Sweating and out of breath, we finally arrived at the Mirimaminne
Cultural Centre. Was it worth the trouble? You be the judge.
We were welcomed by a traditional welcoming song and dance
that is performed to welcome guests, and a platter of gargantuan fruits. We
were given fresh coconut juice as the centre’s director – King Kamala – gave us
a brief history about Mirimaminne village and the inception of the Cultural
Center. The word Mirimaminne means 4
hills and is home to approximately 1000 people. The village is composed of Chonyis who are part of the Mijikenda
community. In brief, the Mijikenda’s are indigenous people and are the dominant
community in the coastal region of Kenya. It is composed of 9 sub tribes and is
believed that they originated from 9 brothers who were sons of the same father.
This family is said to have migrated from the Congo forest back some time
during 1400 – 1500.
As for the cultural centre, it is the brain
child of Charles Kamala otherwise known as King Kalama, he started the Centre in order to
preserve the culture, as sadly he has witnessed its disappearance. The cultural
centre is a community based organization (CBO) and is certified by the Ministry
of Culture and Ministry of Tourism.
Coconuts (Right
platter) – called Madafu in Kiswahili
Mangoes (Left
platter) – Embe
Sour soap/Thorny
apple (green spiky fruit) – Tomoko/Stafeli
[Note: Sour soap isn’t sour, its actually really sweet]
Baobab Fruit (Big
Brown Pod) – Mabuyu/Mibuyu
For size context
What Mabuyu looks like when cut
Perhaps the prickly apple is a cousin of the apple after all
Here I'm standing with fellow FSD intern Michiyo (Left) and King Kamala (Middle)
King Kalama explained
to us that for him the definition of ‘culture’ is “the art of a particular
group of people, this could be their music, their art, their beliefs, their way
of cooking, their way of dressing”, in essence culture is a way of life.
It was at this point where we asked King Kalama if there was
a meaning behind the clothes he was wearing. He proceeded to explain that every
component of his headgear and the accessories he was wearing and holding have a
meaning. “Some people believe in Christianity and others Islam, but here, we believe
in spirits” he explained. So for example, the headgear is made of:
- Ostrich feathers to represent the bird spirit
- Skin of the Colombus monkey to represent the animal spirit
- Shells, to represent the sea spirit
Likewise, the
necklaces are made up of seashells to represent the sea spirits. King Kamala
collected the shells himself and fashioned them into the necklaces that are
thought to keep bad spirits at bay.
Woman removing coconut
fibers on a spiked wooden post; the fibers (seen on the ground) are then used
for firewood or for washing dishes, whereas the coconut milk and coconut flesh are
heavily featured in their cuisine. Additionally it can also be used to make oil.
Women pounding maize using mortar and human-sized pestles
Maize in the process of being pounded
The men are playing a traditional game called Chigogo. The board is made out from coconut wood, which is distinguished by the vertical veins in the bark
Whilst playing Chigogo, the local men like to drink palm
wine – Mnazi – which is drunk out of
a goblet (see below). King Kalama explained that “a palm tree is like a cow”
you tap the tree once in the morning and again in the evening. The juice will
be very fresh in the morning and takes just 1 day to ferment. A bottle of palm
wine goes from 40ksh – 100ksh, the equivalent to $0.45 - $1.14 depending on stocks.
It is so important that when a couple gets married, “palm wine must be included in the dowry”. Another
name for Mnazi is Kazama meaning “money in the form of wine”.
Palm Wine is drunk
from out of this goblet which is made from a fruit (which one K.Kamala
did not say). At the end of a straw, a piece of coconut fiber is attached to
filter out any particles and the occasional bee that “gets drunk off palm
wine”. Moreover, before you take your first sip of palm wine, it is custom to
pour the wine on the ground 3 times as it is a way of remembering the dead.
A traditional
Mijikenda house. It is thatched from top to bottom and features no windows.
Inside the house, it
was stuffy and very dark. It was also filled with smoke as one woman was making
Ugali (a maize-based staple food) in the far corner. Meanwhile, the woman close
to the door was grating Coconuts, whereas the two women in the middle were busy
grinding the maize that had been pounded earlier.
We didn’t notice these when we walked into the
house, but as we were going out King Kalama made sure to explain to us what
they were and why they hung them on their doors. He told us that when a newborn
is welcomed into the world the baby’s grandfather would make these in order to
announce the sex of the baby. The bow and arrow signifies a baby boy as it
represents his future role as the ‘procurer’ and breadwinner of the family.
Whereas, the bundle of wood signify a baby girl as it represents her future
role as the ‘caretaker’ of the family and as the person who will be responsible
for collecting firewood.
Next we were taken to
see the fortune teller and the medicine man of the village. We were informed that
the “fortune teller foretells problems”, requiring a 50ksh fee. Once, your
problem is identified the villager is then taken to a healing place. The
healing place being the baobab tree.
The spike on
the ground in between the white lines mark the gate pass into a sacred territory. One
must pass through this in order to visit the sacred Baobab tree as beyond the
gate pass one is safe from bad spirits.
The Medicine man
knocking on the Baobab tree. The Baobab tree is considered very important as it
is believed that it contains the collection of all Mijikenda spirits. In order
to approach the tree, one must remove one’s shoes as a sign of respect.
This small one-person
hut on the periphery of the village is called a Kaya. Its doors usually remain closed. When the door is open it
signifies that someone has passed away. The Kaya also marks the burial place
for villagers.
This is a Makuti workshop. Makuti is dried palm
leaves and it can be fashioned into numerous items. It is the main income
generating activity of many locals and is used to make brooms and to cover
houses. A lot of hotels along the Kenyan coast line use Makuti for roofing
instead of tiles. This is because the material lets the breeze through whilst
simultaneously “cools the sunlight before it reaches you”.
Our tour continued on
to a small Museum that contained artifacts that have been donated by many of
the village elders for display. This bowl contains a mish mash of accessories.
This little tool was very interesting and it
reminded me of a tweezer, but when asked what it was, King Kalama replied that it
is used to remove eyelashes! As one is considered more beautiful when they have
few to no eyelashes. Talk about different standards of beauty.
Currency used in the colonial era
Zawadi means ‘gift’ and is also a girl’s name meaning ‘gift from
god’
This is the gift shop that displays a selection
of goods that have been hand made by either King Kamala himself or by the
villagers
Ugali and green peas
kindly cooked for us by the village women and served in wooden bowls. The
villagers believe that anything made of wood isn’t poisonous as they can (in
theory) ingest it. I was really surprised to learn that it is custom for the
family to eat separately. The mother eats with her daughters, whilst the father
eats with his sons.
To conclude this lovely afternoon, King Kalama
said that the villagers will be performing a couple of traditional songs and
dances.
I had the pleasure of
witnessing and participating in the dancing. The fist dance they performed is
one that is performed during the time of a solar eclipse. It is so that
sunlight will return as soon as possible as “without sunlight everything dies”.
The second dance, where the dancers go round and
round in a circle is a dance that asks the rain spirits for rain. The last
dance is about bees, the dancers shake their heads and their bodies first to
the left and then to the right in order to mimic how one would shake their head
in order to shake off a bee.
The beautiful
landscape on our way back home. Thanks for reading and making it to the end of
this long post. This visit exceeded my expectations, I learnt so much about
Mijikenda culture and King Kalama made it fun as well.
Note: This blog post has been updated. Previously I thought that sour soap was also called prickly apple, I have since confirmed that instead, it is called thorny apple.
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