Mekatilili, prophetess of the 1913 Giriama revolt

i found yet another medicine woman who led a revolt against colonial rule, Mekatilili of the Giriama in coastal Kenya. She “was noted as a charismatic speaker who commanded respect.” She convoked the Giriama to take oaths and offer sacrifices to restore their sovereignty.

Mekatilili wa Menza was born in the 1840s, the only daughter in a poor family of five children. One of her brothers was snatched away by Arab slavers and never seen again. She married but was later widowed, which along with her age gave her more freedom to move as a woman leader. She started by leading a public baraza at Chakama to protest English recruitment of African porters for WWI; they responded by firing on the crowd.

Mekatilili calls for an uprising at the baraza assembly, painting by Indo-Kenyan artist Zarina Patel.

Mekatilili succeeded in blocking British attempts to hire African laborers on the cheap and to collect taxes from all Kenyans in order to force them to work for their companies and into the foreign money economy. “The success of her campaign was in part because she called women together and drew on the tradition of Mepoho, a female prophet who predicted that the land would deteriorate, youth would not respect their elders, and the Giriama would no longer bear healthy children.”

See the rest of the article here. Below, a statue honoring Mekatilili.