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ABSTRACT
This article explores the transforming meanings of kaya forests in coastal Kenya during first half of the twentieth century. It focuses on the deployment of the kaya–indicating lowland coastal forests with a linguistic connotation of “home” – as discursive tool in the political practices of elder Mijikenda men in their interactions with the colonial state. From the mid-nineteenth- to early-twentieth century, kaya forests were assigned a variety of meanings, including as historical settlements, ancestral graveyards, and ritual sites. By the late-colonial period, the forests and forest authorities – or kaya elders – were central categories of political practice on the Kenya coast. The article argues that elder Mijikenda men and colonial officials generated novel ideas about the significance of the kaya forests as they collaborated to establish bodies of legitimate authority and demarcate lands for colonial forestry projects and development schemes. In the process, they reworked and standardized the meanings attached the forest groves which became a setting for – and symbols of – political action.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 Kenya National Archives (henceforth KNA) CC/12/33: District Commissioner, Kilifi to Chief Ali wa Nyawa 2 December 1954. See also, Ali wa Nyama to District Commissioner, Kwale, 12 December 1954; and District Commissioner to Ali wa Nyama, 17 December 1954 in the same file.
2 See Kilifi District Annual Report 1946, KNA AR/KFI/4/2257; Willis and Gona, “Tradition, Tribe, and State,” 457–8, 465–7.
3 Willis and Gona, “Tradition, Tribe, and State,” 448–73.
4 Willis, “King of the Mijikenda,” 234. See also, McIntosh, “Elders and Frauds,” 35–52; and Ciekway, “Fake Kaya Elders,” 195–233.
5 I refer to Mijikenda speakers to distinguish from the modern Mijikenda ethnic group. While Mijikenda developed as an ethnic identity during the mid-twentieth century, the dialects making up the Mijikenda language have been spoken by communities inland from Mombasa since the beginning of the second millennium. When I refer to Mijikenda speakers, I mean individuals that spoke dialects of Mijikenda. See Nurse and Hinnebush, Swahili and Sabaki, for the linguistic classification of Mijikenda.
6 The two classic texts representing this body of literature are Terrance Ranger’s “The Invention of Tradition in Colonial Africa” and Leroy Vail’s edited volume The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa.
7 Here I draw from a critical review of scholarship on colonial “invention,” by Thomas Spear who argued that the constructivist literature gave too much credence to the capacity of colonial officials and their African collaborators to create and codify custom through policy. See Spear, “Neo-traditionalism,” 3–27.
8 To do so, they rewrote customary legal codes, produced texts in African languages, and organized cultural activities for their ethnic constituencies, such as dances and football matches. See Peterson, Ethnic Patriotism; Lynch, I Say to You; MacArthur, Cartography; and Carotenuto, “Riwruok E Teko,” 53–73.
9 Willis and Gona, “Tradition, Tribe, and State,” 448–73.
10 Greene, Sacred Sites, 6.
11 See for example, Shetler, Imagining Serengeti; Fairhead and Leach, Misreading the African Landscape; Giles-Vernick, Cutting the Vines of the Past; Ranger, Voices from the Rocks.
12 Sunseri, Wielding the Ax, xi.
13 Spear, Kaya Complex; and Allen, “Shungwaya,” 455–85.
14 Spear, Kaya Complex.
15 For debates on Mijikenda origins Spear, Traditions of Origin; Willis, Making of the Mijikenda; and Walsh, “Mijikenda Origins,” 1–18.
16 Ciekawy, “Fake Kaya Elders,” 210; See also, Parkin, Sacred Void and Nyamweru, “Natural Cultural Sites of Kenya,” 270–302.
17 In the 1980s, foreign and local organizations began systematically surveying the locations of kaya forests and in 1992, the National Museums of Kenya established the Coastal Forest Conservation Unit to lead conservation initiatives with support from the Worldwide Fund for Nature. The kayas were further enshrined as protected sites after being recognized by the Kenyan government as national monuments under the Ancient Monuments and Antiquities Act. In 2008, UNESCO designated eleven kayas as part of a World Heritage Site.
18 Mijikenda literally means the “nine towns,” referring to each of the nine kayas of the Mijikenda groups: Chonyi, Digo, Duruma, Giriama, Jibana, Kambe, Kauma, Rabai, and Ribe.
19 Willis, “King of the Mijikenda,” 240.
20 See Helm, “Re-evaluating Traditional Histories,” 59–89.
21 Krapf, Travels, 146; 163; 203–20.
22 Ibid. 176–7.
23 Rebmann to Venn, 21 September 1850. Church Missionary Society Archives CA5/M/2.
24 Krapf, Travels, 212–3.
25 New, Wanderings, 76–81.
26 Willis, “Northern Kayas,” 79–95.
27 Bresnahan, “Contours of Community,” 144–57.
28 Willis, “Northern Kayas,” 96.
29 KNA: PC/Coast/1/3/25: “Sacred Places (Kayas) of Natives,” 13 December 1912 and 31 December 1912; KNA: PRB/KWL/1/124: C.F. Dundas, “The Wadigo.”
30 KNA: PRB/KWL/1/124: C.F. Dundas, “The Wadigo.”
31 Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance, 74–90; 100–3.
32 Ibid., 96–105.
33 Cooper, Slaves to Squatters, 235–40.
34 Willis, Making of the Mijikenda, 92–3.
35 The councils are called ngambi in the Mijikenda dialect, Digo.
36 For historical reconstructions of the age-set system see Spear, Kaya Complex, 58–65; and Brantley, “Gerontocratic Government.”
37 KNA: AR/KFI/1/2226: Kilifi District Annual Report, 1921. See also, Brantley, “Gerontocratic Government,” 248–64.
38 KNA: AR/8/157/2414: Takaungu Sub-District Annual Report, 1912–1913. Diane Ciekawy notes that after initiations ceased in the late 1800s, two different types of kambi elders emerged to act as legal and ritual guides during the colonial period. First were members of secret societies who formed a continuum of ritual knowledge of past kambi elders. The second type consisted of those found on the councils organized by colonial government. Ciekawy found in interviews that many older informants used the term kambi to refer to councils founded under the influence of the colonial administration rather than to informal councils based on lineage. See Ciekawy, “Witchcraft Eradication,” 71–73.
39 The quotation marks represent the categories employed by the colonial government.
40 See Cooper, Slaves to Squatters; Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance, 60–5; and Willis, Making of the Mijikenda, 125–6.
41 Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance, 110–24.
42 See Spear, “Neo-Traditionalism,” 8–16 for an overview.
43 KNA: AR/11/47/2418: Seyide Province Annual Report, 1913–14.
44 Bresnahan, “The Contours of Community,” 117–59.
45 Willis, “Northern Kayas,” 76–78.
46 KNA: DC/KWL/5/1: Kwale Station Diary, June 1924 and KNA: PC/Coast/1/1/199: “Notes on the Wa-Duruma, Kayas, Kambis, Customs.”
47 KNA: PC/Coast/1/1/199: “Info obtained from Mzee Ngoma wa Mwazumu.”
48 Colonial records refer to this kaya as both Mstwakara and Mtsokara. I use Mtswakara (the name now in use) for consistency. KNA: PC/Coast/1/1/199: “Notes on the Wa-Duruma, Kayas, Kambis, Customs.”
49 KNA: DC/KWL/5/1: Kwale Station Diary, June 1924.
50 According to oral traditions many sub-kayas were founded following disputes between kaya leaders. See Willis, “Northern Kayas,” 76–98.
51 Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance, 110–1.
52 KNA: AR/16/49/2431: Seyidie Province Annual Report, 1918–1919; and KNA: PC/Coast/1/1/341: District Commissioner, Nyika to Provincial Commissioner, Mombasa, 16 January 1919.
53 KNA: AR/16/49/2431: Seyide Province Annual Report, 1918–1919; KNA: AR/KWL/XXII/2170: Vanga District Annual Report, 1918-1919; KNA: AR/KWL/XXIV/2172: Vanga District Annual Report, 1920-1921; KNA: PRB/KFI/12/113: Minute No.20/40 “Revival of Native Institutions ‘Kambi’”; KNA: PRB/KFI/12/113: “Kaya Initiation Ceremonies,” January 1925; KNA: DC/KWL/5/1: Kwale Station Diary, March 1924 and December 1924; KNA: PC/Coast/1/1/199: “Notes on the Wa-Duruma, Kayas, Kambis, Customs.”
54 KNA: PRB/KFI/12/113: “Kaya Initiation Ceremonies,” January 1925. Rituals to institute a new kambi entailed four lengthy ceremonies each of which could only take place following a strong harvest. See Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance, 138–40.
55 KNA: PRB/KFI/12/113: Minute No. 20/40 “Revival of Native Institutions ‘Kambi.’”
56 Administrators were less concerned with reinstituting “native” authority in these smaller, more geographically confined groups. KNA: PRB/KFI/12/113 “Kaya Initiation Ceremonies,” January 1925.
57 KNA: AR/KWL/XXXIX/2178: Digo District Annual Report, 1925; KNA: DC/KFI/4/1: Kilifi Station Diary, 21 May 1925; KNA: DC/KFI/4/1: Kilifi Station Diary, November 1925.
58 KNA: AR/KWL/XXIX/2178: Digo District Annual Report, 1925 and KNA: DC/KKWL/5/1: Kwale Station Diary, April 1924.
59 See Willis, Making of the Mijikenda; Brantley, Giriama and Colonial Resistance; and Bergmann, “A Willingness to Remember,” 119–23.
60 KNA: PRB/KFI/12/112: “Native Administration and the Constitution of the Kambi” and KNA: DC/KFI/4/1: Kilifi Station Diary, November 1925.
61 KNA: DC/KFI/4/1: Kilifi Station Diary, 21 May 1925.
62 Sunseri, Wielding the Ax, xii.
63 Mwache forest is located 20 kilometers inland from Mombasa, northwest of Port Reitz creek.
64 KNA: Coast/MP/213: “Agreement of Duruma Elders Witnessed by the Assistant District Commissioner,” 4 June 1908. For signing the agreement, elders received financial compensation plus access to adjacent crown forest land to for firewood and timber.
65 KNA: Coast/ MP/213: Ag. District Commissioner, Mombasa to District Commissioner, Mombasa, 26 July 1912; Ag. District Commissioner, Mombasa to Land Officer, Nairobi, 17 July 1912; Assistant District Commissioner, Mombasa to Assistant District Commissioner, Rabai 30 July 1912.
66 KNA: Coast/ MP/213: Ag. District Commissioner, Mombasa to District Commissioner, Mombasa, 26 July 1912; and KNA: PRB/KWL/1/124: “Notes on Kayas Mtsokara and Duruma.”
67 KNA: PC/Coast/1/2/25: Provincial Commissioner, Coast to District Commissioners, 22 November 1912.
68 KNA: PC/Coast/1/3/25: “Sacred Places (Kayas) of Natives,” 13 December 1912 and 31 December 1912.
69 KNA: PRB/KWL/1/124: “Notes on Kayas Mtsokara and Duruma”; KNA: PC/Coast/2/14/1: District Commissioner to Assistant Conservator of Forests, 5 October 1926 and Assistant Conservator of Forests to District Commissioner, 25 November 1926.
70 KNA: PRB/KWL/1124: Ag. Provincial Commissioner to the Executive Engineer of the Public Works Department, Mombasa.
71 KNA: PC/Coast/2/14/1: “Mwache Forest Reserve,” 20 November 1929.
72 KNA: AR/KWL/XL/2189: Digo District Annual Report, 1936; KNA: AR/KWL/XLI/2190: Digo District Annual Report, 1937; KNA: AR/KWL/XLII/2191: Digo District Annual Report, 1938.
73 Elders argued that the transfer would benefit the Colonial Forest Department since they would obtain 4,500 acres of forest in exchange for 1,500 acres of forest plus 3,000 acres of grassland. In the end, the land transferred amounted to 4,260 acres to the Native Reserve in exchange for an equal amount of land to the Forest Department. KNA: PC/Coast/2/14/1: Secretary of State Approval, 24 January 1938.
74 KNA: AR/KWL/XLI/2190: Digo District Annual Report, 1937 and KNA: AR/KWL/XLII/2191: Digo District Annual Report, 1938.
75 KNA: CC/9/2: “Excision From Forest Reserve – Kwale,” 27 July 1948.
76 KNA: AR/KFI/5/2259: Kilifi District Annual Report 1947; See also Willis and Gona, “Tradition, Tribe, and State,” 458.
77 EATRO, “Tsetse Fly Progress Report,” 6–7.
78 Safari Report: Visit to Kaya Kauma, Singwaya Garashi Location, 12 June 1951, DO/MAL/2/11/3.
79 For instance, as Willis and Gona show, during the final years of British colonialism, kaya elders attended political rallies while adorned in “traditional” kaya attire offered political candidates ritual blessings at the kayas. See “Tradition, Tribe, and State,” 465–67.
80 KNA: CC/12/3: District Commissioner Kilifi to Chief Ali wa Nyawa 2 December 1954; Ali wa Nyama to DC Kwale 12 December 1954 and DC to Ali wa Nyama 17 December 1954.
81 KNA: AR/KFI/5/2266: Kilifi District Annual Report 1954.
82 KNA: AR/KFI/5/2259-70: Kilifi District Annual Reports 1947; 1949; 1952; 1956; 1959. See also Parkin, Palms, Wine, and Witness, 91-95 for discussion of ways that elders, in collaboration with the Mijikenda Union, formed “people’s governments” as alternatives to the state around decolonization.
83 Ciekawy, “Fake Kaya Elders,” 230.
84 McIntosh, “Elders and ‘Frauds’,” 35–6. See also, Willis, “King of the Mijikenda,” 233–50; and Ciekawy, “Fake Kaya Elders and Fake Oaths,” 195–33.
85 See Kibet and Nyamweru, “Cultural and Biological Heritage,” 287–95.
86 KNA: PC/Coast/2/14/1: Memo, 12 June 1937. In correspondence on Shimba Forest, a valuable water catchment area, officials similarly alleviated concerns over the forest’s vulnerability, suggesting that its “sacred” status provided “absolute guarantees” for the forest’s preservation by surrounding communities. KNA: CC/9/2: “Kwale African District Council Resolution No. 13/16,” 17 May 1962.
87 See Shetler, Imagining Serengeti; Greene, Sacred Sites; and Ranger, Voices from the Rocks.
88 See Sunseri, Wielding the Ax; Beinart, Rise of Conservation Politics; Troop, Natures of Colonial Change.