Intangible Heritage, Identity, and Archaeology at Kaya Mudzi Mwiru

Historians and oral traditions claim that Mijikenda people of the Kenyan coast settled in their present homeland sometime in the sixteenth-century, after migrating from Singwaya (Shungwaya). Recent research at two ancient Mijikenda settlements (kayas), including archaeology as well as the analysis of intangible clues; however, indicate that Mijikenda settlement may have occurred prior to the sixteenth-century. There is further evidence of contact between the inhabitants of kayas and the wider Western Indian Ocean and continental hinterland. This paper considers whether the elaborate traditional ceremonies associated with kayas are fabrications aimed at reinforcing
claims of settlement longevity and that migrations never took place. In the paper, I argue that it is time for Africanist archaeologists (especially archaeologists working on Bantu Africa) to look beyond artifacts in reconstructing settlements in eastern Africa.