We read in GHC books that Mijikenda's origin was at a place called Shungwaya in Southern Somalia. The syllabus must have changed only by name, publisher and coloured images to Social Studies in 2002 but not content perse. A good title for the subject because Geography, History and Civics (GHC) are, to summarize, influential factors to people's way of life. Which a primary school pupil should be taught in its active (and present) form to gain interest. Not necessarily to understand because it takes relearning to internalize. This could be long after school. Where one can partially thank the system for the knowledge provided and also question it for giving a narrow view altogether.
Take the case of Shungwaya. As is it of Mount Elgon and Yimbo to Luhya tribes. Talk of the Misri that is somewhere between the White and Blue Nile in Ethiopia. Where it is not necessarily 'origin' but 'recent home'. As the Maragoli people now settled in South Nyanza can claim Vihiga to be 'original home'. To avoid a stagnant history where despite the many dispersals happening at present, we are stuck to an origin that is but a book origin. A zero acceleration to our tribesmen working in the youngest South Sudan nation.
For there is a debate whether the Mijikenda came from Shungwaya or by similar lexical and association with Swahili they adopted their oral history. But the Swahili will say their Shungwaya is Unguja island and two, say Mijikenda are children of their father's sister. What a confusion to clans and tribes who by the tossings of life find little interest and time to speak of, document and propagate their genealogy.
Genealogies are not simply literal lists of ancestors, writes Thomas Spear, but models of society that both state and explain historical developments and social relationships in terms of reproductive model. Which makes Saniaga Oral Genealogy an encompassing yet dynamic exercise. For the Digo who might not tell the births and places where ancestors were at it might appear as if they are an indigenous coastal tribe whennn they may be not as researchers stand at awe in wait for archaeological magics.
For legend sake, it was the murder of a Galla tribesman by a Mijikenda youth and failure to pay compensation that lead to the historical enmity and persecution of these two tribes that once lived together with others; Wa- Taita, Swahili and Pokomo. If we have to believe in legend, then Spear (1978) strengthens it thus; Legend is a character of social institutions providing a basis for the identity of a people and legitimizing the major institutions in a society. It is not a reason to smile yet. Factors associated with coining legend are always a pull to one's side. Legitimizing oneself above the other. Is it not legend that has kept us reconsidering beliefs and history? Had the foremost ethnographers not been partisan or shallow to document rigid binaries it would be a more clear endeavor so far.
More than 10,000 years ago, all African people lived as neighbours courtesy of glottochronology and lexicostatistics. Afro-Asians when split into two: Nilo Saharan and Niger-Congo, the first group to head East, the land of bushmen were the to be Shungwaya people - Mijikenda, Swahili, Oromo (Galla) and Pokomo. We should not believe that they are necessarily the very people we are talking of here. We were not there. No one saw them move. We are only trying to organize ourselves.
We have the mythological Waata (Watwa), Maumba, Alangulo and Sanye who were first before Mijikenda. The Mijikenda would not be quick to call others Bushmen and Savage as they themselves are WaNyika. Of the bush. Mijikenda is a later political coinage rather than genealogical rooting for nine clans: A - Giriama, Digo, Duruma, Chonyi, Ribe, Rabai, Kambe, Kauma and Djibana. On surface value it is so. But come to ask of the origins of Rabai, Kauma and Duruma there is no Shungwaya myth. Rabai are linked to the Chagga tribe. As Dawida and Shangala of Taita are now vaTaita, so are the three clans. How about the many other clans who have for generations now lived in 'Mijikenda land' but not counted in the nine? Who is documenting for Tswaka, the tenth dialect of Mijikenda?
The Digo, of the six Shungwaya allied major clans, were the first to leave. Their movement leading to Shimba hills. And later down to the Indian shores of Msambweni. Their two main cultural centres are Kaya Kwale and Kaya Kinondo in the two areas respectively. These treasured cultural centres at first were magic forts to secure themselves from enemy attacks. The Kaya Revolution was a Waata tribe idea, it is thought. They would also bury their dead here - in these holy forests. Much as they did not live in the Kaya. Fetching wood is still a prohibited act to retain the intactness. And maybe to protect them from human population and development menace, they are now gazetted as Heritage Sites. For how long is a matter of renewed treasure for indigenous knowledge against the modern day dollar love.
From the Kayas, the Digo interacted and intermarried with neighbours, opting for town life as Swahili's had earlier settled. Uungwana and Ustaarabu ideologies adopted to sustain castes. The Indigenous Swahili were not different from Mijikenda of 'the bush' as a new royal and entitled mixed colour race sprung when Persian merchants married Swahili women. Ushenzi was to desire equality or such want for better treatment because even the town religion warned you not to. A knife on things that held us together. Where land was community it was now time that the influential would take the best zones to themselves.
Whereas other stories would be quick to conclude the Swahili and their Language Kiswahili are Arab effects at East African coast, Oral Genealogy evidence turns the view down. Thanks to generations that passed it. It is read that long then (C.1520) an influential merchant Sultan Ali bin Seliman the Shirazi (Persian) docked at Kilwa island. Here a hunter zanj man called Muli (Mrimba in another version) welcomed him and would give him his daughter for marriage. The grandson of Muli born at Kilwa was called Sultan Mohamed bin Ali whom by inheritance gained Kilwa. In this manner, bringing 'strange foreign jewels on a mournful silent shore' did new men come to marry and live with the daughters of the Swahili. While for more jewels, slaves, ivory, gold, cloves and such they brought in their relatives, the Bajuni said to be the remnants, for more trade both at coast and inland. These inner routes slightly spread Muslim which was confined to the coast. When early explorers arrived, the Swahili were better placed to lead ways as they had hints and contacts to places as Wanga and Buganda.
The Digo, split between Muslim kadhi and Kaya rulings would slowly lose respect for Kaya which symbolized the old while they, now dressing as Swahili chanted Allah and not Mulungu God. One of the oldest mosques stands at the estuary of Kongo river, a beautiful beach side for South Coast tourists. It must have been beautiful to lazy on the shores and walk in for five prayers in a day. The first converts were mature men who took Muslim on face value but insisted on traditional ways of association and conflict resolution. Their children born, passionate to raise mosques here and there, for greater rewards who knows where in after life, were not less termites in dry season. It is common site in Kwale to see falling mosques, abandoned, lost meaning. It would be early in time to compare them with the churches in Maragoli that are more of buildings than fellowship centers.
With Thanks
Lung'afa Igunza
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Very rich reading.
ReplyDeleteI am James Kemoli Amata, Umulogooli, Ummasero, mwifa Munondi
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