Long before the Mau Mau etched their mark on Kenya’s colonial struggle, a barefoot grandmother from the Giriama people of coastal Kenya was already blazing the trail of defiance.
Her name?
Mekatilili wa Menza—a name every Kenyan should know by heart.
As a son of the Mijikenda, part Chonyi through my father’s lineage, this isn’t just history for me.
It’s heritage.
It’s marrow.
And as I write this, it’s also the spirit animating the protagonist of my historical fiction trilogy: the Mekatilili Series, whose first installment, Echoes of Valor, is in the final editing stages and set for publication before the close of 2025.
The Colonial Stranglehold: Hut Taxes, Forced Labor & Broken Lands 🏚️🔗
By 1913, the British Empire had begun tightening its grip on the Giriama homeland.
Sacred lands were seized for plantations and colonial development.
A hut tax was imposed on every Giriama household.
Worse still, able-bodied men were being conscripted into forced labor for roads, bridges, and railways.
Resistance was inevitable.
And Mekatilili, though already in her seventies, rose as the unexpected flamebearer.
Who Was Mekatilili wa Menza? Culture, Oratory & the Kifudu 👣🔥
A widow and mother of one, Mekatilili wasn’t a chief nor a prophetess.
She was simply a woman driven by conviction and courage.
Deeply steeped in Giriama culture and oratory, she found power not in the gun, but in the dance, the word, and the oath.
- She used the kifudu dance—a sacred dirge typically performed for the dead—to symbolize how the Giriama were spiritually dying from land dispossession.
- She drew crowds with her fiery public speeches, especially at Kaya Fungo, the Giriama sacred grove.
- She administered oaths to bind young men from collaborating with colonial forces.
- She actively denounced the British-appointed headman system that disempowered traditional leadership.
The Hen, the Chick, and the Slap Heard Across the Coast 🐔🫱🔥
On August 13, 1913, Mekatilili dramatically stormed a British meeting at Chakama, carrying along three chicks and a hen.
She then defied Arthur Champion, the British colonial administrator, to dare snatch one of the chicks from the hen, and when he did, Champion was dreadfully pecked.
Mekatilili immediately mocked him plainly:
“This is what you will get if you try to take one of our sons.”
Legend has it that a furious and humiliated Champion then ordered one of his guards to shoot the hen.
Mekatilili slapped him, right across the face.
That slap reverberated across the ridges of the Giriama heartland.
Arrest, Exile, Escape: A 700-Kilometre Return to the Coast 🚶🏿♀️🌍
The colonial government ultimately arrested and exiled Mekatilili on the 17th of October, 1913, to Kisii in Western Kenya, thinking distance would douse the fire.
But she escaped.
On foot.
Walking more than 700 kilometers back to the coast.
Undeterred, she resumed her resistance until she was again exiled, this time to Kismayu, Somalia.
And once again, she returned, quietly living out her final years before passing away in 1924 from natural causes, her head held high and legacy cemented.
Monuments, Movements & Mashujaa: Her Legacy Today 👑📚
From Malindi’s Mekatilili Festival to her statue at Uhuru Gardens ( rechristened Mekatilili wa Menza Gardens) in Malindi, which was unveiled on Kenya’s inaugural Mashujaa Day in 2012, her name lives on.
- She’s taught in classrooms.
- Honored in feminist literature.
- Celebrated in music and poetry.
- Recognized in the broader Kenyan anti-colonialism canon alongside figures like Dedan Kimathi and the Mau Mau
And now, her story is being immortalized in fiction.
A Fictional Flame: Echoes of Valor & the Mekatilili Trilogy 🖋️📖🔥
As a historical fiction author, I’ve taken up the sacred task of bringing Mekatilili’s early life to vivid, imagined life.
My upcoming novel Echoes of Valor, the first book in a sweeping trilogy, follows a fictionalized account of her youth, her awakening, and the forces that shaped the firebrand she would become.
This isn’t just a passion project.
It’s the culmination of years of ancestral reflection, cultural reclamation, and storytelling craft honed by more than five years of meditation.
The image above is a tentative iteration of the cover photo for Echoes of Valor.
Mekatilili’s rebellion isn’t buried in the past.
It lives in every Kenyan bold enough to speak truth to power, defend the sacred, and dance the kifudu when the land cries.
Final Thoughts: Remember Her Name 🗣️🔥
Before there was Jomo. Before Dedan Kimathi. Before Mashujaa Day… there was Mekatilili.
And thanks to renewed global interest in indigenous resistance and African feminism, her legacy is finally getting its due.
If there’s one name we must pass on to future generations—especially our daughters—it’s hers.
👉🏾 Echoes of Valor is coming.
And with it, the restoration of a flame that never died.
Stay tuned, and let’s keep the fire burning. 🔥🖤
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