We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2009
The Kaya as sacred centre
In being regarded by Giriama as absolute centre, dependent on no other places nor even requiring that elders live and work within it, the Kaya is clearly seen as an intrinsic source of ritual power as well as providing its elders with legitimacy in their handling of crises affecting the Giriama people as a whole. The Kaya is also regarded as the ultimate reference of their customs and identity. Yet, at the same time, the Giriama have a legend (shared by other Mijikenda peoples) of having migrated to the Kenya coastal hinterland from an original area, Singwaya, in Somalia, and of having had previous Kayas (see Spear 1981: 37 and passim, and Morton 1977 and Walsh 1987 for a critique and summary of the debate on Mijikenda origins). These two claims to autochthony need not be contradictory, for, in their migration southwards from Singwaya in the sixteenth century, the Giriama, and other Mijikenda groups said to come from there, apparently carried with them protective magic called fingo. These objects, which for each Mijikenda group may have been either a large stone, as among the Giriama, or a large pot of medicines, were buried right at the centre of each Kaya as it was settled by the new arrivals.
To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.
Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.
Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.
To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.
