page_title: Mijikenda peoples
section_title: Culture
hierarchical_section_title: Mijikenda peoples / Culture
caption_attribution_description: English: A replica of a Giriama hut at the Sarova White Sands Hotel in Mombasa, Kenya. Українська: копія традиційної хатини народу гір'яма (одного з 9 міджікенда) на території готелю "Білі Піски" (White Sands Hotel) у місті Момбаса, Кенія
context_page_description: Mijikenda are a group of nine related Bantu ethnic groups inhabiting the coast of Kenya, between the Sabaki and the Umba rivers, in an area stretching from the border with Tanzania in the south to the border near Somalia in the north. Archaeologist Chapuruka Kusimba contends that the Mijikenda formerly resided in coastal cities, but later settled in Kenya's hinterlands to avoid submission to dominant Portuguese forces that were then in control. Historically, these Mijikenda ethnic groups have been called the Nyika or Nika by outsiders. It is a derogatory term meaning "bush people."
  The nine Ethnic groups that make up the Mijikenda peoples are the Chonyi, Kambe, Duruma, Kauma, Ribe, Rabai, Jibana, and Giriama. They are the northern Mijikenda while the Digo are southern Mijikenda. the Digo are also found in Tanzania due to their proximity to the common border.
context_section_description: Each of the Mijikenda groups has a sacred forest, a kaya, which is a place of prayer. Eleven of the approximately 30 kaya forests have been inscribed together as a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Sacred Mijikenda Kaya Forests.  Mijikenda people are also known for creating wooden kigango funerary statues which have been displayed in museums around the world and sold in the international art market. These artifacts were at one time legally sold by reputable art galleries and curio shops during the early 1970s to the 1990s; however, other kigango statues were found to have been stolen from cultural sites and illegally sold.
  Each Mijikenda ethnic group has its own unique customs and dialects of the Mijikenda language, although the dialects are similar to each other and to Swahili.
caption: Replica of a Giriama hut
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