Ribe Tribe of the Mijikenda

The Ribe people are a Sub-tribe of the Mijikenda, the famously known nine towns. Other Mijikenda tribes include: Giriama, Digo, Duruma, Rabai, Kambe, Chonyi, Jibana, and Kauma.
They speak a Bantu language and have taken over Swahili, once their second language, as a first language. Nyika or Mijikenda society shows evidence of significant Arab influence.

Culture and Lifestyle of the Ribe People

This tribe subsists primarily by means of agriculture, growing a variety of crops. Animal husbandry is of considerable importance. All Nyika peoples engage extensively in trade.

Polygamy is general, and a substantial bride price is expected. The Ribe peoples trace their descent through the male line, although the Digo, the Duruma, and the Rabai trace descent through both the male and the female lines.

They are organized into a number of clans, and the men in the clans into a system of age grades. Position in this system—a cycling type—determines a man’s responsibilities.

The identity of the Ribe 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

The modern lifestyle of the Ribe People

Today, the Ribe 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 diminishing.

This is posing a great danger to the social fabric and cohesiveness of the Mijikenda communities who venerate and celebrate them as their identity and symbol of continuity.