Mijikenda peoples

Mijikenda ( Swahili: " the nine cities ") is a collective term for the tribes of the Digo, Chonyi, Kambe, Duruma, Kauma, Ribe, Rabai, Jibana and Giriama on the Kenyan coast and the northernmost part of the coast of Tanzania. The term is used by these nine groups since about 1945 as a self-description. The Swahili foreign name Nyika / Wanyika ( " people from the hinterland " or " Bushmen " ) is now considered outdated and pejorative.

In the English literature terms such as Mijikenda, Nika or Nyika can be found for the people of the coastal region identified above.

The individual strains are similar culturally. They speak different, each other and the Swahili similar Bantu languages. The tribes practicing agriculture and operate extensively trade. While for the Duruma animal husbandry is an important source of income that Dido prefer to live from fishing. Many of the Mijikenda ( Nyika ) are Muslim, some are Christian and a quarter maintains its traditional faith.

The Mijikenda reached the end of the 19th century. Due to drought and famine ( 1898-1900 ) from fortified villages in the hinterland of Mombasa and Malindi in their present settlement area on the coast Their origins are not clearly known; own myths lay near the origin of a Shungwaya State referred to in today's Somalia, whose historical existence is, however, occupies only sparse.

2008, some of the Mijikenda Kaya forests with their holy places have been declared World Heritage Site.

Swell

• RF Morton, in: The International Journal of African Historical Studies, Vol 5, No. 3 (1972 ), pp. 397-423: The Myth of Shungwaya Miji Kenda Origins: A Problem of Late Nineteenth - Century Kenya Coastal History
• Mike Davis: The Birth of the Third World, ISBN 3-935936-43-5 (p. 208)