Mekatilili Wa Menza-The Giriama Wonder Woman
Early on story
In the 13th Century, there lived a Prophetess from the Giariama community by the name of Mepoho, her prophecies were warnings of of impending danger to her people. These prophecies were passed on quietly for many years.
the story
In the heart of the coastal lands of Kenya, where the sun paints the skies with a brilliant orange hue each evening, there lived a woman whose name would echo through history—Mekatilili wa Menza. she was born in the 1840s,around 600 years after Prophetess Mepoho’s death.Her village was small, nestled between the thick, green forests and the endless stretch of the Indian Ocean, but her influence would span far beyond these boundaries.
From an early age, Mekatilili had been taught the ways of her people. Her grandmother, a wise and fearless woman, often spoke of the ancestors’ strength, of how they had fought against invaders, and of how the earth itself was sacred, to be defended at all costs. Mekatilili grew up knowing that strength was not measured by the size of a warrior’s spear but by the courage in one’s heart.
Metalili grew up in a family with 4 brotheres,Nzai, Hare, Kithi, and Mwarandu, and one sister.
One of her brothers, Kithi was captured by Arabs Slave Traders when they had gone to trade at Kilifi with her other brothers. She remembered Mepoho’s prophecy about the coming of the strange people who had hair like sisal fibres and moved in flying vessels as well as those moving on the water and on land. She also remembered that the coming of these strangers would begin the erosion of the Giriama Cultural traditions. The prophecy came true when the British colonial government started started building the railway,Imperial British east African Company (IBEA)
Mekatili was married, had a son Katilili hence her name which meant ‘Mother of Katilili’. She was widowed, and this gave her more freedom to move around as a woman leader, telling her people to resist the British. The IBEA was planning to move them from their land near the Sabaki river as well as force the much hated ‘hut tax’ on them. Mekatilili used that reason to call meetings with the Kifudu funeral dance, at the end of which she would encourage her people to resist and swear oaths. She is also said to have had mysterious powers that came from the kaya, the Giriama shrines.
One day, a British administrator, Arthur Champion held a meeting at Chakama kwa Hawe Wanje to encourage the Giriama youth to join the British army. With a hen and her chicks in hand, Mekatilili attended the meeting and challenged the Administrator to snatch one of the hen’s chicks
The angry mother hen pecked at Champion, humiliating him in the process. This was a demonstration of what would happen to him if he attempted to take away the Giriama youths. Champion shot dead the mother hen at which Mekatilili responded with a fiery slap. The administrator’s bodyguard responded by recklessly firing on a group of youths killing them. This sparked the Nyere and Giriama War.
As a result of that occurrence, Mekatilili together with Wanje wa Mwadorikola were arrested and sent to Kisii to be locked in prison.
On 14th January,1914 they escaped under mysterious circumstances and walked for more than seven hundred kilometres from Kisii to Kilifi without the knowledge of the colonialists. She was recaptured on 16th August,1914 after much resistance in which many of her people were shot, their houses burnt and their kaya bombed. She was exiled in Kismayu, Somalia where she escaped yet again under unknown circumstances. This time, the British were too busy with the World War and left her alone. Mekatilili died of natural causes in the 1920s.
Years later, the struggle for independence grew stronger, the spirit of Mekatilili was called upon once again. Her legacy became a beacon of hope, a reminder that the resistance of the people, led by women like her, would never be silenced.
The wind carried her name across the land, and the people she had once led kept her flame alive in their hearts.
In memory of Mekatilili wa Menza, there is a statue in her honour in Malindi, Kilifi County. The County also holds the popular and vibrant Mekatilili wa Menza Festival annually.