African Legends in 60 Seconds · Episode 6

Mekatilili wa Menza

A true Giriama story, Kenyan coast, 1913 to 19192:14Learn Kigiriama

Kanga print style picture of Mekatilili dancing the kifudu, a Giriama woman in a red top, red headscarf and layered yellow skirt, arms spread wide, with dotted palm trees behind her.

Words from the story, in Kigiriama

Read it, then say it

Say each word out loud as you read it. Pronunciation audio is coming soon.

mwanamuche
= woman
Mekatilili, a Giriama mwanamuche who led her people. Written as in the Giryama New Testament (Matthew 9:20).
kaya
= sacred forest home
The sacred forest home of a Mijikenda people. Kaya Fungo is the Giriama one, where the people swore their oaths.
mudzi
= home
Home or homestead, where she walked back to from Kisii. Mudzini means at home (Giryama New Testament, Luke 15:6).

Read along

The story

They sent her away twice. Twice, she came home.
On the Kenyan coast, in Ganze, lived a Giriama woman, a mwanamuche named Mekatilili wa Menza, mother of Katilili.
By 1913 the strangers were taking the young men away to work, taxing every hut, and reaching for Giriama land.
So Mekatilili went from village to village. She danced the kifudu, a dance for funerals, and wherever she danced, the people came.
At Kaya Fungo, the sacred forest home of the Giriama, the kaya, the people swore not to serve the strangers. Women took one oath, and men another.
What was said there stays in the forest.
In October 1913 the strangers arrested her. She spoke her mind to their officer, and did not take it back.
They sent her far to the west, to Kisii, for five years.
Within months she escaped, and walked home across Kenya, back to her mudzi on the coast.
The strangers answered with fire at Kaya Fungo, and sent her away again, to Kismayu.
In 1919 they let her go home. She came back to the kaya, and led its women until she died.
Today her statue stands in Malindi, and every August, the coast dances for her. Mekatilili wa Menza. The woman they could not keep away.

About this story

This episode is history, not legend. Mekatilili wa Menza was born Mnyazi wa Menza at Ganze, on the Kenyan coast. In 1913 she went from village to village speaking against the colonial administration's demands for young men's labour, and at Kaya Fungo the Giriama swore not to serve it. She was arrested in October 1913 and deported to Kisii, in the far west of Kenya, but escaped and walked home in 1914. In August 1914 Kaya Fungo was partly destroyed and she was deported again, to Kismayu. She was released in 1919 and led the women's council of the kaya until her death around 1924. Her statue stands in Malindi, unveiled in 2010, and the Mekatilili festival is held there every August. Some details are told differently in different sources, such as her part in the oaths, the date of her escape and the date Kaya Fungo was burned. The video follows the historians, mainly Carrier and Nyamweru (African Affairs, 2016) and Cynthia Brantley's history of the Giriama, and the Kigiriama words are written as in the Giryama Bible, without tone marks.

We tell it here to remember a woman who would not stay away from her people, and to learn a few Kigiriama words along the way. Giriama elders and Kigiriama speakers are the best guides to her story and her language, and their corrections are welcome.

Quick quiz

How many words do you remember?

What does mwanamuche mean?

What is the kifudu that Mekatilili danced from village to village?

What does mudzi mean?

0 of 3 answered

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