Mekatilili wa Menza

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Mekatilili wa Menza (born in the 1840s in Mtsara wa Tsatsu; died around 1925 in Bungale ) was a Kenyan freedom fighter against the British colonial power . She led an uprising against the British in 1913.

Life

Mekatilili was part of the Giriama , one of the nine Mijikenda peoples. She was born in the village of Mtsara wa Tsatsu in Bamba . Her maiden name was Mnyazi. She was married and had nine children with her husband Mulewa. Mekatilili was a healer and was a member of the religious women's organization Chifudu.

In June 1913, she gathered young people and women at the Giriama Kaya Fungo, a sacred forest area. There she asked the other Giriama to defend themselves against British proselytizing attempts and to practice their own religion instead. She initiated religious ceremonies and took an oath that the Giriama would oppose British tax policies, forced labor, the transportation of corpses and a nearby rubber plantation. As a result, the village elders refused to attend meetings with the British; the boys worked, avoided working on British farms, and all Giriama refused to pay taxes. This meeting is considered to be the forerunner of the Giriama uprising scored against the British in October 1914.

She and a village elder, Wanje wa Mwadori Kola, were captured by the British in October 1913 and taken to a prison in Kisii around 1000 km away . You were sentenced to five years in prison. From there she managed to escape after six months and returned to the land of the Giriama on foot.

After the uprising, she, her husband, and his second wife Chawe-Dama moved to Gedi . Her husband died and she was taken to Bungale , Malindi District , where she was cared for because of her advanced age, before she also died around 1925.

Appreciation

  • On October 20, 2010, the Uhuru Gardens in Nairobi were renamed Mekatilili-wa-Menza Gardens in her honor and a statue of her was erected there.
  • On August 9, 2020, she was with a Google - Doodle honored.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Tsawe-Munga wa Chidongo: Mekatilili wa Menza: Her movement as a Model for Africa's Feminist Theologians. Paper presented to the 6th International Conference at Kabarak University 12th-18th July 2016. (No longer available online.) Formerly in the original ; accessed on March 30, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / ir.kabarak.ac.ke  
  2. ↑ a b c d Fred Oluoch: The 'mad' Kenyan woman who rattled the British. June 8, 2013, accessed March 30, 2017 .
  3. ↑ In honor of Mekatilili wa Menza. August 9, 2020, accessed August 20, 2020 .
personal data
SURNAME Mekatilili wa Menza
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mnyazi
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Kenyan freedom fighter
DATE OF BIRTH between 1840 and 1850
PLACE OF BIRTH Mtsara wa Tsatsu, Bamba
DATE OF DEATH around 1925
Place of death Bungale , Malindi District