Country: Kenya

Group: Giriama

Date Finalized: 11/20/20

Team: Abi Pentecost (lead), Rayna Castillo

Content Warning: forced labor, slavery

Approximate Time Period: 1700-1900

The Giriama are an ethnic minority in modern day Kenya. The Giriama are one of nine ethnicities that make up the larger group known as the Mijikenda. There is sufficient and reliable evidence indicating that he Giriama people have experienced forced labor, although the extent of this forced labor remains unclear due to reports of the ethnic group as both victims and perpetrators of slavery.

During the 18th and 19th centuries, there is evidence that “some Giriama had been captured by Arab/Swahili slave traders”(Gearhart & Giles, 2014). They were subsequently forced into a “patron-client” relationship where the Arab and Swahili plantation owners would integrate slaves into their households and force them to work on plantations (Gearhart & Giles, 2014). There is additional evidence that Giriama held other Giriama people as slaves to complete agricultural work (Strayer, 1973).  It is also important to note that there is evidence the Giriama were involved in trading/owning slaves. There are reports that in the late 1800s, Giriama landowners owned groups of slaves that were forced to help cultivate land and harvest wheat (Brantley & Johnson, 1981). This adds a level of complication to the relationship of this particular group and forced labor.

          Our team rated the data quality as a 2 for this ethnic group. It was difficult to ascertain specific information about the Giriama people as they are one of nine smaller groups in a larger social grouping (the Mijikenda). However, there were a number of peer-reviewed and scholarly sources that had specific mention of forced labor.

Sources

  1. Brantley, C., & Johnson, C. (1981). The Giriama and Colonial Resistance in Kenya, 1800-1920. University of California Press.
  2. Gearhart, R., & Giles, L. L. (Eds.). (2014). Contesting identities: The Mijikenda and their neighbors in Kenyan coastal society. Africa World Press.
  3. Strayer, R. W. (1973). The Dynamics of Mission Expansion: A Case Study from Kenya, 1875-1914. The International Journal of African Historical Studies, 6(2), 229. https://doi.org/10.2307/216776