Kaya Rabai – Prince Willy TSUMA

KAYAS OF KILIFI COUNTY Community Study Informant Willy Prince Tsuma Begonja was born in 1952. His Kaya name is Begonja.He was named after the first European man to be welcomed to Rabai, hence the nickname Begonja. He was born and raised in Bwagamoyo Sub-location, Mwawesa location in Kaya Rabai.

The Mijikenda community of the North Coast is a Bantu ethnic group that has lived for centuries in the coastal region. They are believed to have originated from Somalia at a place called Shungwaya. However, due to the tribal feuds with the Oromo, they migrated to the present-day Kilifi and Kwale counties, where they settled and built a protective setting, led by their elders.

The Mijikenda are talented artisans, praised for their expertise and ability to create sculptures and furniture from wood, metal works, and clay. These provide a striking visual representation of Kenya’s tribal heritage and cultural diversity. The Mijikenda community lives in groups called Kaya, which have different family setups and clans. Their kayas are built in cleared areas, in heavily wooded hills. These areas are considered sacred, and only used to perform their rituals. The areas also serve as the burial ground of their religious leaders and medicine men of their community.

Although the Mijikenda try and protect the forest, the Kayas are being destroyed and cleared for building other tourist sites and development. They are also facing challenges within the communities such as people grabbing their land, including the kaya forests, where malicious people come and cut trees and even try to evict the indigenous peoples. In addition, they are currently facing a major challenge of people who claim to be the kaya leaders and deprive them of the benefits of funding supposed to be for the real kayas. These have greatly impacted on the Mijikenda’s indigenous identity. However, the Kenyan government has recognized the conservation values of these forests and made them “national monuments” to help protect diversity, as they have not been touched for hundreds of years and contain endangered plant species.
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Researching Indigeneity and decolonising evaluation: Activities to enhance the cultural responsiveness of evaluation. Research to understand community protocols, social, cultural and spiritual values and traditional evaluation models in Africa – Study of 4 Kayas of Kilifi County in the Northern Coastal Region of Kenya.

An EvalIndigenous project by Awuor PONGE, PhD and Grace Wanjiru MURIGO. The written report on this project if available on the reports page at www.evalindigenous.net.