The Jibana or Dzihana people are an ethnic group from Kenya and a subgroup of the Mijikenda. These groups include: Giriama, Digo, Duruma, Rabai, Kambe, Chonyi, Kauma, and Ribe. The Jibana has an estimated population of 38,466 of them, all speakers of Kijibana.
The Jibana community lives in the Kaloleni sub-county of Kilifi County. Like the other Mijikenda communities, they have organized clans that trace their origin from their ancestors.
The lifestyle of the Jibana tribe
Their economic activities are mainly farming, hunting and gathering, and cattle keeping. Most Jibana people depend on maize farming as their substantial food. Their political system consists of a family where the father is the head. The father is responsible for the provision of food and security to the family as well as a counselor.
Religiously, they are traditional believers believing in the God called Mulungu and execute their prayers in sacred shrines known as Kaya. Recently, most of the Jibana have adopted foreign religions like Christianity, with conversions to Christianity being dominant.
Culture and Revolutions of the Jibana
While change has come to the Jibana, they have maintained many of the beliefs and practices of their traditional culture. They have resisted the conversion attempts of Muslim and Christian missionaries to a much greater extent than many of their neighbors, and they adhere to many beliefs that were derived from their traditional religion, which was a form of ancestor worship. They have incorporated the myth of their origins, as well as a description of their kaya-based, stratified social structure, into a written record of their culture, which is passed on to their children.
The identity of the Jibana is expressed through oral traditions and performing arts related to the sacred forests, which are also sources of valuable medicinal plants. These traditions and practices constitute their codes of ethics and governance systems and include prayers, oath-taking, burial rites, and charms, naming of the newly born, initiations, reconciliations, marriages, and coronations.
Kayas are fortified settlements whose cultural spaces are indispensable for the enactment of living traditions that underscore the identity, continuity, and cohesion of the Mijikenda communities. The use of natural resources within the Kayas is regulated by traditional knowledge and practices that have contributed to the conservation of their biodiversity.
The Kambi (Councils of Elders) acts as the custodians of these Kayas and the related cultural expressions. Today, the Jibana people are gradually abandoning the Kayas in favor of informal urban settlements.
Due to pressure on land resources, urbanization, and social transformations, the traditions and cultural practices associated with the Kaya settlements are fast diminishings, posing great danger to the social fabric and cohesiveness of the Mijikenda communities who venerate and celebrate them as their identity and symbol of continuity.