Mohammed Kijuma from Lamu - 1855 to 1945

While at Kipungani in Lamu - I took a 35 minutes speed boat ride to the Lamu museum. I could not help but notice 2 whole rooms dedicated to an individual I had never heard off. Yet his history is so rich and wondered why not a single mention of him in our school curriculums – even in primary school. I was disappointed. I bring you Mohammed Bin Abu-Bakr Bin Omar al –Bakari (commonly called) Mohammad Kijuma).

Kijuma was born in Lamu around 1855. As a child he went to Koran school and studied under the most renowned and educated authorities in Islamic theology, but quitted before completely his studies.

In the 1870s Kijuma accompanied his mother Mwana Kamari a woman of noble decency on several journeys to Zanzibar and Arabia. In the course of his life Kijuma undertook the pilgrimage to Mecca no less than four times. 

Encouraged by his teacher he perfected his style of scribing and soon not only scribed for the local people but also for the sultan of Witu. Kijuma was employed by the German Neukitchener Mission around 1888. He began to cooperate with the Europeans, for whom he worked as a copyist and interpreter of old Swahili poetry. Because of his vast knowledge he was consulted by the most important scholars working in the field.

Kijuma in a midst of a strict culture – he is not only what I think as a Kenyan know protégée, he was openly a free thinker. His closeness to the missionaries and other Europeans and his enquiry and controversial discussion and eventually conversion of Christianity brought him to a lot of trouble. Probably this may be the reason little is known of him.

His egocentric character and his involvement in reprehensible dance competition in a conservative environment, contributed to his ambiguous fame.  On one hand he was suspected of seducing the youth and preventing them from their religious studies; but on the other hand he gained a high reputation as a musician, dances and poet. The sultan of Zanzibar himself employed him as a palace musician and dancer at his cost in 1901.

After leaving the sultan Zanzibar around 1908, Kijuma returned to Lamu where he lived in a precarious economic condition. In 1932 when Kijuma finally was baptized, his fourth and last separated from him and took his son Helewa (which is a Swahili term meaning understand) born in 1855, with her, Nevertheless, Helewa stepped into his father’s shoes and became a famous carver who carved for instance the parliament door of Nairobi.

  

 Kibangala

Certainly one of the most beautiful pieces carved By Kijuma’s the lute (kibangala) by that time the instrument had already been widely introduce on the east Africa coast, while it was also widespread in all areas adjoining the Indian ocean. Probably Kijuma had come across it on his journeys to Arabia and Zanzibar on the 1870s and found at the Lamu museum is the only original from Lamu which has survived until today.

On matters of poet and scribe - Swahili is one of the few African languages which have a tradition of writing of which there is evidence going back beyond colonial periods as far as the 18^th century. Arabic script was not only used in Koran schools to write down religious text in Arabic, the lingua Sacra, but was also adopted by writers and copyist to codify their Swahili dialects.

From everyday correspondence to long narrative Swahili poems, text of different kinds were written down by skilled scribes who often worked on commission. Consequently the scribe and the composer of a text were not usually necessarily the same person. This also holds for the text written in the handwriting of Muhammad Kijuma. It is often hard to tell whether a certain poem was only composed or copied by him.

Commissioned by European scholars interested in Swahili poetry such as Alice Werner, H.E Lambert and Ernest Damman, he copied and often a noted for more poems than he composed himself. He became one of the most preserves of the poetic traditions of Lamu, the literary center of the coast. He was a mediator who taught foreigners how to read and understand archaic text in the light of Swahili culture and history. Many editions of old Islamic poetry were produced in the first half of the 20^th century by scholars who relied on Kijuma one of another way as an interpreter and scribe.

His interest in conserving tradition in times of great change is also reflected by his own poetic work. One of his poems called “customs from old Lamu” by Dammann is in fact an account of extinct customs based on information that he gathered from elders. His eagerness to learn more about his culture, but also about the foreign culture of the missionaries and colonial officers made him study both sides. Even though Kijuma was turned between perspectives of the missionaries and those of the Muslims inhabitants of Lamu, he continued to seek information and consultation on both sides.

Another poem that is generally attributed to Kijuma, the “utendi WA Liyongo” reflects his romantic Endeavour to preserve cultural heritage that he was proud of. In this poem of the east African epic hero Fumo Liyongo (comparable to the German Siegfried) he builts on different oral traditions and puts them together in one work, a technique also employed by authors who based their works more on Islamic narratives traditions.

In addition to his written works Kijuma used to take part in poetic competitions where poetry had to be composed spontaneously often in response to the antagonist’s poem. Competitions of various kinds between different town quotas were regularly held in Lamu in music and dancing competitions often linked with the poetic battles Kijuma also gained fame so that the sultan of Zanzibar noticed his talents.

Together with his wife Ernst Dammann came to Lamu in 1936 to do research on old Swahili poetry. Mohammad Kijuma had already been recommended to him as an expert on the old poems written in Arabic scripts. Right from his first day on the island, Damman started a close and fruitful relationship with Kijuma which turned into mutual esteem and friendship. The resulting collection of poems (“Ditchtungen in der Lamu-Mundart der Suaheli”) was published soon after Dammann’s return to Germany. Numerous other articles based on their cooperation were to follow.

Furthermore Kijuma took Dammann and his wife on several executive to show them sites of historical interest which also involved sailing to the neighboring islands Manda and Pate. In one of the poems WA safari utendi, Kijuma recorded some of the excisions in the poetical utendi style and later sent the manuscript in Arabic script to the Dammann’s in Germany. The poem which Dammann unnoted and published in 1942 (Begins with a walk on Lamu Island and goes on to depict the sailing tours to other sites in the archipelago.

Kijuma died in about 1945 and was buried in Lamu according to the Islamic religion and rites.

He is best remembered by many scholars as a Kenyan genius only known by a few people.

 I was informed Kijuma is a subject of research by several universities across the globe. By sharing this  - you will also help to  create the awareness of Mohammed Kijuma locally too.

I would like to thank Maureen Sialo of Lamu Museum for being resourceful.

Mohammed Kijuma (1855- 1945)