Digo woman pens thrilling Mekatilili wa Menza novel

When Neema Warrakah was about six years old, her grandmother told stories about a woman she believed possessed superpowers.

She thought the stories were a fairy tale.

“It was later in life, at St Augustine’s Preparatory School in Mombasa, in history classes, that I learnt about the heroes and heroines, the freedom fighters in Kenya. I heard the name Mekatilili wa Menza again and was shocked to learn it was not a fairy tale,” Warrakah, who comes from the Digo community on the Coast, said.

She realized Mekatilili wa Menza lived in Kilifi County and fought fearlessly for the freedom of her people.

Born Mnyazi wa Menza in Mutara wa Tsatsu Ganze village in Kilifi  County in the 1840s, Mekatilili Wa Menzas is said to be one of Kenya's earliest freedom fighters.

She organised the Giriama people to rebel against the British who threatened their sovereignty and freedom with forced labour and taxation.

Menza died in the 1920s of natural causes and the Mekatilili wa Menza festival is held every August in her native county in her memory.

“That story has always inspired and empowered me as a woman in Coast province,” Warrakah said at Mama Ngina Waterfront Park in Mombasa on Thursday.

A trained psychiatrist, Gakweli always aspired to be an author.

“At that particular time, I wasn’t sure what I would write about. However, I am always very descriptive in everything I do,” she said.

Two years ago, after reading extensively about the Giriama freedom fighter and realising the information was jumbled up, she resolved to pen another book capturing the narratives of the people involved.

“I had written a book whose content I was unsure of. I wanted to physically go and see where Mekatilili was born, where she lived, where she was laid to rest, where the powerful forests she went to were, and so on,” Gakweli said.

With her partner, Christian Weiss, she travelled back to Kenya from Germany where she is a psychiatric nurse, to quench her newfound thirst.

“Chris and I went into the Kayas without any appointment and fortunately, the elders had an event there. Most of the Kaya elders were there. We introduced ourselves and they agreed to give us inner details of Mekatilili,” Warrakah said.

This time, she said, she got information from the Kaya elders, who gave her blessings to rewrite the book, and lamented that some of the stories written earlier are not factual.

“I wanted to know Mekatilili from her roots and not from the books or the internet, written by foreigners, colonialists and people who didn’t even live here,” Gakweli said.

“The Kaya elders were so kind and they told me the story of Mekatilili from A to Z. When I heard from them it was like I was hearing a whole other story,” she said.

“From that day, I could not sleep. I was writing and writing. I was forcing myself to take a nap,” she said.

After seven months, she finished the book and named it ‘Empress of Revolt’.

“This is a book where some things have not been told, or written anywhere, and these are things that happened,” she said.

It is her first novel after previously focusing on writing children’s stories.

The book speaks to what happened to Mekatilili and the people around her.

“I got to meet the descendants of Mekatilili and they also narrated their part,” Gakweli said.

She said her main concern is that many Kenyans read literature imposed on them at school. After school, nobody wants to read books anymore.

She said reading gives people ideas and exposes them more to the world.

“The younger and older generation should take to reading,”

She said her book has been published in English, German and Swahili. Spanish, French and Portuguese versions will be published later.

She wants to get the book into the Kenyan curriculum saying it flows with Kenyan history and culture.

Gakweli said she also wants to change the general misconception about Digo women, who are always thought to be not learned, mostly school dropouts,

“There are also learned women from the Digo community. You can do it no matter which community you come from. There is so much one can take away from you but no one can take away your knowledge from you,” she said.

Alawy Abzein, a Mombasa-based book lover, lauded the writer’s work and urged other authors to research more on the life and times of freedom fighters.

Abzein said there is a need to search for lesser-known freedom fighters in Kenya’s freedom struggle and historical battles and chronicle their roles in books for posterity.

He said books make people feel they can make a difference.