African Legends in 60 Seconds · Episode 13

Mwangeka wa Malowa

A true Taita story, 18922:09Learn Kidawida

3D illustration at night, seen over the shoulders of a row of Taita warriors holding bows, Mwangeka in a blue headband among them, looking across a slope to a line of soldiers standing by two camp fires and pale tents beside a red road.

Words from the story, in Kidawida

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mghondi
= hill
Mwangeka led the warriors of Mwanda high on a mountain, mghondi, where the mist hid every path.
ndana
= bow
His brother and the seers warned him, but Mwangeka took up his bow, ndana, and led the charge.
mbanga
= cave
Mnjala wa Ruma led the people up into the caves of Vuria, mbanga, where children were born.

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The story

His warriors came out of the mist, and every caravan on the road feared Mwangeka, until the day British soldiers climbed his hills to find him.
Mwangeka wa Malowa led the warriors of Mwanda, high on a mountain, mghondi, where the mist hid every path.
Far below, the caravan road ran from the coast to Kilimanjaro, and any trader who wanted to pass paid Mwangeka first.
The ones who didn't pay soon saw his warriors coming down out of the mist.
One day in 1892, his men raided a caravan on the road below, and word reached the British in Mombasa.
The British sent soldiers up into the hills, and when they asked the elders below where to look, the elders pointed them to Mwanda.
The Taita say someone even showed them his hidden paths.
His brother Mashika told him not to fight, and the seers warned him he would die, but Mwangeka took up his bow, ndana, anyway.
That night he led his warriors straight at the soldiers' camp. Arrows flew into the dark, and they came right up to the guns.
And there, Mwangeka fell.
His second in command, Mnjala wa Ruma, led the people up into the caves of Vuria, mbanga, and kept them hidden there.
Children were born in that cave, and to this day nobody knows where Mwangeka lies.
But the people of Mwanda still honour that cave, and the man who charged the guns.
A British officer's report dates Mwangeka's last fight to 1892. The people of Mwanda remember a month of war.

About this story

Mwangeka wa Malowa was the warrior leader of Mwanda in the Taita Hills of Kenya, and his last fight is remembered in two ways. A British officer's report of May 1892 records one short night fight, when Mwangeka led his warriors right up to the soldiers' guns. The people of Mwanda remember a month of war, a betrayal that gave away his hidden paths, and the Vuria cave where his people hid and children were born. The film follows the record and tells the Mwanda memory as the Taita tell it, built as a 3D model of the Taita Hills. We followed Bill Bravman's Making Ethnic Ways: Communities and Their Transformations in Taita, Kenya (1998), Grace Harris's fieldwork, the Mwanda tradition recorded by Ephraim Mwaruta, the National Museums of Kenya's telling, and the Taita Bible for the Kidawida words. Mwangeka is said mwah-NGEH-kah, and Malowa mah-LOH-wah.

We tell it here to remember Mwangeka and the people of Mwanda, and to learn a few Kidawida words along the way. Kidawida speakers, Taita elders and historians are the best guides to this story and its language, and their corrections to the pronunciation, the words or the telling are welcome.

Quick quiz

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What does ndana mean?

What does mbanga mean?

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