Recommended listening: Mijikenda Songs
Story
Over a thousand years ago on a coral outcrop off the coast of Kenya, a woman founded a city. The details of her foundation are mostly lost to history, but her name lives on in the memory of her descendants: Mwana Mkisi. To this day, certain people living on Mombasa Island can point to where her city was, and can remember the name she gave it, Kongowea. Mwana Mkisi was a pagan queen, representing the robust religion of the local Bantu people (the ancestors of today's Swahili peoples). Her royal line was eventually overtaken by the coming of Islam to the island a few centuries later, which led to the installation of the island's other historic dynasty, the Shirazi. Although no architecture of her city remains, the archaeology of the island and later historical chronicles suggest that industries included iron smelting and fruit farming, while the islanders had to import grain from the mainland. They used dogs for hunting but had no large pack animals to aid in agricultural labour, instead relying on human ingenuity to stake a claim in their economic network. It's possible that the ivory trade for which the island would later become famous also started in this period.
Kongowea was one of many city-states that were built along the eastern coast of Africa in this period. Some of them were already Muslim by Mwana Mkisi's time, due to the influence of Arab traders who spread their religion, but Mwana Mkisi was still a follower of the old religion in which women played prominent leadership roles. In the past, scholars have tried to argue that the native Bantu peoples of Africa did not settle city-states on their own until the coming of Arabs from the urban Middle East. Mwana Mkisi's legacy stands in proud defiance of these colonial narratives; she and other Bantu leaders like her founded city-states on the African coast before Islam ever came to their shores. While details of her actual life are scarce, she holds a central place in Swahili identity on the island to this day, representing half of their dual heritage as Bantu people who follow Islam. The most important old families on the island, known as the Thenashara Taifa or Twelve Nations, still trace their lineage to Mwana Mkisi and her rule, hearkening back to the importance of matrilineal descent in the city's earliest days.
We find the city's founder here standing proudly in front of a settlement not far from the water. Although she rules over an island, she is far from isolated. Rather, she is part of a network of trade stretching into the Central African mainland, up and down the east coast, and beyond into the Indian Ocean. She is wearing a hando, a special skirt associated with the Mijikenda peoples, a group of nine related Swahili tribes who live on the east coast of modern-day Kenya. Although today they are made of cotton strips, hers is made of barkcloth. The modest length suits a woman of her age and stature, while the red colour indicates a connection to the spirits. Older women with important religious roles generally wear red hando because they are in a position to pass down knowledge of the spirits to their daughters and granddaughters.
Mwana Mkisi's very name suggests a sacred role for her in the modern Swahili imagination and perhaps extending into the distant past when she lived and breathed. "Mkisi" is a word which personifies "the holy", tied to ideas in central African religious thought about the essential life-giving power of the divine. The name "Kongowea" similarly has religious undertones, referring to the very essence of order in civilization. As Prita Meier writes, "These ancient and still active concepts remind us that Mombasa is still connected to non-Islamic systems of signification." In a place that has been Muslim for hundreds and hundreds of years, the memory of Mwana Mkisi is a testament to both her central role in history as the founder of Kongowea and of the harmony between the pre-Islamic past and the global culture of Islam among the Swahili peoples.
Kongowea was one of many city-states that were built along the eastern coast of Africa in this period. Some of them were already Muslim by Mwana Mkisi's time, due to the influence of Arab traders who spread their religion, but Mwana Mkisi was still a follower of the old religion in which women played prominent leadership roles. In the past, scholars have tried to argue that the native Bantu peoples of Africa did not settle city-states on their own until the coming of Arabs from the urban Middle East. Mwana Mkisi's legacy stands in proud defiance of these colonial narratives; she and other Bantu leaders like her founded city-states on the African coast before Islam ever came to their shores. While details of her actual life are scarce, she holds a central place in Swahili identity on the island to this day, representing half of their dual heritage as Bantu people who follow Islam. The most important old families on the island, known as the Thenashara Taifa or Twelve Nations, still trace their lineage to Mwana Mkisi and her rule, hearkening back to the importance of matrilineal descent in the city's earliest days.
We find the city's founder here standing proudly in front of a settlement not far from the water. Although she rules over an island, she is far from isolated. Rather, she is part of a network of trade stretching into the Central African mainland, up and down the east coast, and beyond into the Indian Ocean. She is wearing a hando, a special skirt associated with the Mijikenda peoples, a group of nine related Swahili tribes who live on the east coast of modern-day Kenya. Although today they are made of cotton strips, hers is made of barkcloth. The modest length suits a woman of her age and stature, while the red colour indicates a connection to the spirits. Older women with important religious roles generally wear red hando because they are in a position to pass down knowledge of the spirits to their daughters and granddaughters.
Mwana Mkisi's very name suggests a sacred role for her in the modern Swahili imagination and perhaps extending into the distant past when she lived and breathed. "Mkisi" is a word which personifies "the holy", tied to ideas in central African religious thought about the essential life-giving power of the divine. The name "Kongowea" similarly has religious undertones, referring to the very essence of order in civilization. As Prita Meier writes, "These ancient and still active concepts remind us that Mombasa is still connected to non-Islamic systems of signification." In a place that has been Muslim for hundreds and hundreds of years, the memory of Mwana Mkisi is a testament to both her central role in history as the founder of Kongowea and of the harmony between the pre-Islamic past and the global culture of Islam among the Swahili peoples.
Artist's Comments
As always with African entries in the Women of 1000 series, this illustration was a crash course in the history of a country I never learned about in school. Of all the continents, Africa is the one about which I have the least background knowledge, and so it always takes me awhile to research these illustrations. Mwana Mkisi's name is first attested in writing in the 19th century, but her foundation of Kongowea is roughly dated to the 10th century. Kenya is such a diverse country, and Islamic influence has been in the area so long, that it was a challenge to attempt to reconstruct what she and her city might have looked like a thousand years ago. The coral architecture for which some of the Swahili city-states would become famous hadn't quite taken off yet, so I went with huts inspired by those of the Giriama people, one of the nine Mijikenda tribes. I chose the Mijikenda as the basis of this illustration because they are Swahili people associated with the area whose traditional dress does not seem to have any obvious Islamic influences. The hardest thing to research for this picture was definitely the clothing!
I'm not completely satisfied with this illustration, and the substandard quality of the university scanners doesn't help with that impression. I will probably rescan this for higher quality next time I am home. However, I loved learning about Mwana Mkisi, and I hope you do too! Thanks to Dr. Y from the blog African Heritage for answering my question about the antiquity of cotton in the region, and for my friend Sacha with her help problem-solving during the pencil stage of this picture. Here's to another year of Women of 1000 AD! ~ January 27, 2019
I'm not completely satisfied with this illustration, and the substandard quality of the university scanners doesn't help with that impression. I will probably rescan this for higher quality next time I am home. However, I loved learning about Mwana Mkisi, and I hope you do too! Thanks to Dr. Y from the blog African Heritage for answering my question about the antiquity of cotton in the region, and for my friend Sacha with her help problem-solving during the pencil stage of this picture. Here's to another year of Women of 1000 AD! ~ January 27, 2019
Resources
Want to learn more about Mwana Mkisi and other Swahili women? Here are some recommended resources.
Swahili Port Cities: The Architecture of Elsewhere by Prita Meier
This book provided me with a lot of the information I used to create this reconstruction and situates the history of Mombasa within its larger context.
"The Swahili Community of Mombasa, 1500-1900" by F. J. Berg
Although this article mainly deals with the later history of the island, it also provides useful information about Mwana Mkisi.
"Traditional/Cultural Mijikenda Dress" by Doris Kamuye
This webpage compiles information about the hando and was the basis of my information about how to dress Mwana Mkisi, including the information that she would have worn her hair in cornrows. The style of the cornrows was inspired by this photograph of a Swahili woman in Dar-es-Salaam in 1900. Check out this modern interpretation of the hando too.
"African Barkcloth: Tradition, Innovation and Change" by Sarah Warden
You can read more about the many uses of African barkcloth on this page from National Museums Scotland.
"Swahili Culture Guide - The Rise and Fall of Swahili States" by K. Kris Hirst
This collection of articles takes you through an overview of the medieval Swahili states' culture and history. You can also watch this video from John Green's Crash Course series which covers the basics of Swahili city states.
Swahili Port Cities: The Architecture of Elsewhere by Prita Meier
This book provided me with a lot of the information I used to create this reconstruction and situates the history of Mombasa within its larger context.
"The Swahili Community of Mombasa, 1500-1900" by F. J. Berg
Although this article mainly deals with the later history of the island, it also provides useful information about Mwana Mkisi.
"Traditional/Cultural Mijikenda Dress" by Doris Kamuye
This webpage compiles information about the hando and was the basis of my information about how to dress Mwana Mkisi, including the information that she would have worn her hair in cornrows. The style of the cornrows was inspired by this photograph of a Swahili woman in Dar-es-Salaam in 1900. Check out this modern interpretation of the hando too.
"African Barkcloth: Tradition, Innovation and Change" by Sarah Warden
You can read more about the many uses of African barkcloth on this page from National Museums Scotland.
"Swahili Culture Guide - The Rise and Fall of Swahili States" by K. Kris Hirst
This collection of articles takes you through an overview of the medieval Swahili states' culture and history. You can also watch this video from John Green's Crash Course series which covers the basics of Swahili city states.