The Kenyan coast has a popular heroine and she is a very important figure in the country's history, because as well as being a courageous and charismatic woman, she was one of the first 'pasionarie' to rebel against British colonisation and the harsh conditions of work and earnings in the fields in the early 20th century.
Mekatilili Wa Menza, who died in August 1924 after a lifetime of service to her people, has always been celebrated around mid-August, with important events and traditional festivals that, both last year and this year, were not organised due to the restrictions of the pandemic.
This clearly does not prevent us from remembering her and the celebrations of the past in which we ourselves participated (read one of our reports on the great Bungale festival of 2011 here https://www.malindikenya.net/articoli/notizie/reportage/nel-cuore-dei-mijikenda.html).
Mekatilili was a Mijikenda woman born in the late 19th century in the hinterland of Kilifi. The Mijikenda are the ethnic group comprising the nine tribes that live from the regions north of Malindi to the Tanzanian border. The Giriama and the other eight tribes that make up the Mijikenda (Chonyi, Kauma, Kambe, Ribe, Rabai, Jibana, Digo, Duruma) remember her as the first 'warrior' to fight the British authority and to give a fighting start to the independence movements throughout Kenya.
She led a handful of representatives of the peasants of Malindi and the surrounding area who rebelled against the taxes imposed by the then empire, going so far as to slap a British officer in public. For this and for planning an attack on a settlers' vehicle, she was twice locked up in the detention camp (a kind of concentration camp) in Kisii, Maasai land. Both times she managed to escape and while the first time she was captured, the second time, after nearly 1000 kilometres on foot, she returned triumphant to her people, welcomed as a queen. Eventually, after the First World War, the coastal governors of the British Empire came to terms with her and the local farmers and gave them better treatment.
Mekatilili is also considered one of the national heroines, officially recognised by President Kenyatta as one of the symbols of the country's independence and her ebony statue is displayed in Malindi in a small temple in Uhuru Garden Square. His personal grudge with the Queen's subjects who ruled Kenya arose when two of his brothers were picked up by British soldiers in the hinterland of Kilifi.
Mekatilili is buried in Bungale, an inland village not far from Marafa, famous for its Hell's Kitchen.
The cultural association MADCA will, as usual, organise interracial prayers and a private peace ceremony.
Some representatives of the preservation of Mijikenda traditions will move to another place sacred to their ethnic group, namely VItengeni, an inland village in Kilifi, which lies beneath one of the landmark hills for coastal animist worship, Mwangea Hill.