User:Mjbergner/Kaya (Mijikenda)

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A kaya (plural makaya or kayas) is a sacred site of the Mijikenda people in the former Coast Province of Kenya. Often located within sacred forests, a kaya is considered to be an intrinsic source of ritual power and the origin of cultural identity; it is also a place of prayer for members of the Mijikenda ethnic group. The settlement, ritual centre, and fortified enclosure associated with the forest are also part of the kaya. In the present day, the kaya is also referred to as a traditional organizational unit of the Mijikenda. Eleven of the approximately 60 separate makaya have been grouped together and inscribed as the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Geography
More than 50 makaya have been identified within the Kwale, Mombasa, and Kilifi counties. In fact, the National Museums of Kenya have identified 60 unique makaya since the early 1990s. They measure between 30 and 300 hectares each. These are scattered over what remains of the Mosaic Eastern Arc Mountain forest ecoregion, which spreads for 900 kilometers from Mozambique to Somalia. Still, they are concentrated within a hinterland stretch of 200 kilometres (120 mi) in the southern coastal plains area of Kenya, between the towns of Mombasa and Kilifi. While visitors are not allowed to enter most makaya, Kaya Kinondo, a 30-hectare forest on Diani Beach, allows visitors and falls under the auspices of the Kaya Kinondo Ecotourism Project. There are specific rules that visitors must adhere to when visiting Kaya Kinondo, including a dress code, no disturbing of the natural flaura, no photography, no speaking too loudly, and no fondling one another.

'Mijikenda is a word that refers specifically to the nine original sub-ethnic groups and their corresponding makaya'' settlements, including the A'Giriama, A'Kauma, A'Chonyi, A'Kambe, A'Dzihana, A'Rihe, A'Rahai, A'Duruma, and A'Digo. Other scholars distinguish these nine groups as simply the Giriama, Rabai, Chonyi, Kauma, Kambe, Jibana, Ribe, Duruma, and Digo. Furthermore, Miji- literally means villages and -Kenda means nine in Bantu languages. The Duruma and Digo makaya are distinctly southern settlements of the Mijikenda, separated from the other seven of the initial makaya.'''

'Research supports the hypothesis that the initial kaya'' settlements tend to be concentrated in the somewhate constricted, eastern ridge-forest environments of the coast because of the presence of two river systems, the Rare and the Galana rivers, as well as fertile land for pastoralism and agriculture. But the nine initial makaya could also be concentrate in these areas largely due to the security it provided from the surrounding outsider settlements of the Swahili, the Waata, the Kwavi, and the Wasegeju. Initially, the Mijikenda peoples migrated to this coastal Kenya region in the late 16th century from their former Shungwaya homeland to the north.  Ultimately, by the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, these ten initial settlements had been largely deserted by the Mijikenda peoples as they migrated to different regions and established succeeding kayas.'''

History
It is understood that the Mijikenda kaya settlements of the Kenyan coast were founded at the same time as the Swahili settlements, but more has been published about the Swahili compared to the Mijikenda. Additionally, some archaeologists believe that the makaya were established in this area beginning in the ninth century, possibly making them even older than the Swahili coastal settlements.

Culture
Rain prayers, peace prayers, political stability prayers, and prayers for economic stability are all examples of ritual practices of the Mijikenda that occur at kayas, even in the present.

'''A kaya has a specific layout that is pretty generalizable according to scholars who study them. They are usually surrounded by a dense forest and have two pathways on either side leading to several wooden gates fortified with stone. The number of gates on these pathways varies from kaya to kaya. The fingo is displayed at the first gate on each pathway, on the right hand side. The more important and often older makaya had bigger ritual symbols called mafingo, which could be up to 2 meters in height. At the end of the pathways, there is a broad expanse with a moroni, a large house that resembles a dome, in the middle situated between a fig tree and a baobab tree, mugandi and muyu respectively. '''

Makaya are also considered the resting place for the founders of Mijikenda peoples, called Korma or spirits.

Wildlife
Each sit of the makaya has a unique makeup of flaura and fauna, not one like the other.

Archaeology
'''Archaeological studies such as that of Henry Mutoro's, published in 1987, have taken place at the makaya. Mutoro surveyed and excavated eight different makaya, including the Singwaya, Bate, Kambe, Mudzi Mwiru, Mudzi Mpya, Bomu, Fungo, and Dagamra. For each of these kaya, Mutoro and his team embarked using a closed traverse method in order to map it's boundaries and several tools such as ranging poles, an alidade, a plane table, a plumb bob, a compass, and a thirty meter tape. He was able to produce both contour maps, individual settlement maps, and maps that show the distribution of makaya across the region.'''

'''Excavation posed a difficult task for Mutoro and his team because remains are buried on the site and he feared that they would accidentally exhume the dead. For example at the Singwaya site they planned to excavate the midden, also known as the dzala, but had to avoid the vikango, or kaya grave posts, by subdividing the area into small 1 x 1 meter squares. These excavations revealed several artifacts, including....'''

Conservation Efforts
'The conservation of the makaya'' has been a difficult task for the modern day Mijikenda community and other locals, due to environmental threats and a lack of adequate preservation policy. One example of this is with the Kaya Mrima in Kwale, which was threatened by a Canadian mining firm that would surely cause irreparable damage to the site. Additionally, one of the inadequate conservation policies created is entitled the Antiquities and Monuments Act of 1983, which aimed to protect Kenyan heritage but falls short as it is open to interpretation. Still, organizations such as the Coastal Forest Conservation Unit, established by the National Museums of Kenya, have been working to conserve the makaya and garner awareness from the local community.'''

'The Krapf Memorial Museum in Rabai created a Kaya replica so that non-Mijikenda visitors, who are not allowed to physically enter the makaya'', would be able to engage with the historical site at a distance. But, the exhibit only lasted from 2001 to about 2003 because it was considered inauthentic.'''