Kaya (Mijikenda)

The Kaya or Makaya are forest areas and abandoned settlements of the people of the Mijikenda of Coast Province of Kenya. Until the beginning of the 20th century they were fortified villages, since they were, however, abandoned by its inhabitants. The remains were transformed into sacred places of ancestor worship. Committee of tribal elders make since that the surrounding forests are obtained. Through this practice, the Kaya are now almost the only areas in the coastal region, where the once rich forest cover has not gone through agriculture and settlement.

2008, ten of the approximately 50 known Kaya by UNESCO declared World Heritage Site.

Description

The Kaya forests are mostly located on low hills in the hinterland of the Kenyan coast, spread over 200 kilometers. No one is further than 35 kilometers from the coast. The size varies between 30 and 300 hectares. The forest is botanically diverse tropical rainforest and belongs to the ecoregion of northern Zanzibar - Inhambane rainforest. The forest often ends abruptly at agricultural land on which cashew, mangoes and coconuts are grown.

In the woods there are the remains of the former villages. Usually only a few buildings have been preserved, but the basic structure can still be clearly seen. The places were in a clearing and were surrounded by a circular palisade. Access was through wooden gates in exported as dry wall sections. At the gates led well-defined ways, all of which were once secured to the defense with additional gates. The houses were in a ring on the inside of the palisades, so that the center remained free. In him either a grove or a thatched hut ( Moro ) stood as a meeting place. There sacred objects ( Fingo ) had been buried according to oral tradition in founding the places.

After the villages were abandoned, lived individual tribal elders there for decades. During this time, the ceremonial places of assembly and worship places were transformed. It cemeteries were created, and the forests were used for prayer and for the collection of fruit, herbs and the like. The tombs, shrines and ceremonial individual buildings are carefully preserved to this day. In some cemeteries, tribal elders are today buried and erected in their honor grave stones ( Vigango ).

Religious significance

The forests and the remains of the villages are well protected by its status as sacred places. Prohibitions are deforestation, the use as pasture and the hunting of certain animals. This is ensured by the elders, who can appoint guards not only, but also have the authority, at Forbidden deforestation, etc. to impose undue conduct penalties. Basically, all members of the tribe may enter the Kaya, to pray under the guidance of the elders or to hold religious ceremonies.

The Mijikenda, unless they are converted to Islam, traditional worship the spirits of the ancestors and believe in a monotheistic God ( mulungu ).

History

The history of the colonization of the Kaya is passed on orally. According to these stories, the agriculture based Mijikenda came in the 16th century from a country or Singwaya Shungwaya, which is north of Tana accepted in today's Somalia. There they were of the living as shepherds Akwavi - Masai, Galla ( Oromo ) or the Orma been the displaced. The original settlers were initially based on the parallel to the coast ridge six settlements, later had three more to come. From these nine villages, the division is still used today in the Mijikenda clan derives metonymically. In the following centuries the individual Kaya had blossomed, and the inhabitants have developed their own languages ​​and customs.

While arise from the legends start up times for the villages 1560-1870, this can not confirm entirely from other sources. The historiography of the Swahili coastal cities reported an influx of Mijikenda in the 17th century. Also linguistic investigations seem to support about this time the close unity of the clans and their formation.

More recently, however, also argued that the designation as Mijikenda may be more a construct of the Arab and Swahili culture on the coast is to delineate this. In addition, archaeological investigations have evidence revealed that some of the Kaya were inhabited since the Middle Ages.

Since the 19th century, the population decreases in the villages. A clear reason for this can not account for itself, the economic environment favors probably a migration to surrounding farms and in the coastal towns. Until 1940, most Kaya were deserted. The intensive farming and deforestation of the surrounding area at the same time religious protection of forest areas has led to the current structure with the sharp contrasts between plantations and forest. However, it must be assumed that the pressure of the demand for firewood and the desire for expansion of cultivation and settlement areas have since led to a gradual reduction of Kaya. Due to lack of cartographic collection This however does not understand in detail.

Threats and conservation

The Kaya are the intensely touristy coastal region. Especially the very coastal lying forests are subject to considerable pressure to cut down parts in favor of holiday resorts. At other places, licenses were granted for the mining of ore. Given the otherwise largely disappeared rain forests and the wood is more valuable. At the same time the homogeneity of the Mijikenda society decreases, and thus inevitably also the reverence for traditional rules. It is reported that individual grave stones were stolen and sold to collectors.

In times past, the Kaya forests were protected only by the traditions. Since the early 1990s there have been efforts for legal protection. These were originally made ​​by environmentalists, who pointed to the particular ecological diversity and the occurrence of particularly endangered species.

Now most of Kaya are reported either as nature reserves or, more recently as national monuments. However, the implementation of these rules and cooperation with the local elders is still a task for the coming years.

In connection with the application as a World Heritage Site 36 Kaya had initially been proposed. Because of the incomplete protection concepts, the Kenyan government in 2008 reduced its proposal to only 11 sites, one of which was still ruled out of the World Heritage Committee. The Kaya Kinondo, a few hundred meters away from the beach and about 35 km south of Mombasa, was severely damaged by a hotel construction. In addition, in its territory corals are mined in a quarry.

World Heritage Sites

Ten of the Kaya were appointed in 2008 as a World Heritage Site. Below are four of the original Kaya, who bear the name of one of the nine clans.

• Kaya Fungo the Giriama: bears the name of the founder, and Fungo is on the Nyika Plateau
• Kaya Jibana: about 30 kilometers inland from Mombasa
• Kaya Kambe: about 2 km seaward of Kaya Jibana
• Kaya Ribe: is not the only one on a hill, but at the confluence of two rivers

As a "secondary" Kaya are those referred to, which were colonized by individual clans later.

• Kaya Kauma
• Three of Ribai Kaya: Kaya Mudzimuvya, Kaya and Kaya Bomu Fimboni form a contiguous forest area on the eye-catching line of hills, about 30 kilometers above Mombasa
• Two of Duruma Kaya: Kaya Kaya Gandini Mtswakara and lie 23 kilometers west of Mombasa on the river Mambone