MKWIRO WOMEN’S GROUP,

PONGWE-KIDIMU LOCATION

Martin Walsh

Mombasa
June 1986

pp.77-108 in Walsh, M. T. 1986. Interim Report for a Study of

Income Generation and its Effects among Women’s Groups in
Kenya’s Coast Province. Report to World Education Inc., Boston
MA. Mombasa, June 1986.
MKWIRO WOMEN’S GROUP, PONGWE-KIDIMU LOCATION

Mkwiro women’s group is based in the fishing village of Mkwiro on Wasini island,
72 km south of Mombasa and 1¼ km offshore of the Shimoni peninsula. Mkwiro is a
compact settlement of some 60 households, with a total population of about 400. Its
inhabitants describe themselves as Shirazi and speak a dialect of Swahili called
Chifundi, also spoken on Funzi island to the north and in a few villages on the nearby
coast. Mkwiro has its own sub-dialect of Chifundi, reflecting a high degree of
intermarriage within the village. The only other village on the island, Wasini, is
populated by Vumba, speakers of a very different Swahili dialect. There is a history
of conflict between the two peoples, and Wasini has its own women’s group. The
island as a whole is administered from the mainland as part of Shimoni-Wasini sub-
location, Pongwe-Kidimu location, in the Msambweni division of Kwale district.
Research there was conducted in January and February 1986.

FOUNDATIONS
Mkwiro women’s group was founded on 25 May 1979, following the example set by
Shimoni on the mainland. Mkwiro’s was the first group on the island. It was formed
on the initiative of two local men, one of them manager of the South Coast Fisheries
co-operative in Shimoni and now KANU chairman for the location. His elder sister,
then in her late twenties, became the group’s first chairwoman. She remained in the
post until the following year, when she stepped down and was succeeded by her
younger sister. Under their leadership the group made its first forays into income
generation and chose its first project, securing a government grant for the purpose.

Members were required to pay a 10sh entrance fee and a 50 cents weekly
subscription, later upped to 1sh. A dozen or so women joined when the group was
founded and membership grew in a steady trickle until, by 1984, it had reached 63.
Under the first chairwoman group members started making cowrie shell necklaces
after two itinerant entrepreneurs, a man and a woman from Kwale, had promised to
find a market for them. But the couple failed to return and members were left trying
to sell their necklaces to tourists at Shimoni. Many were sold to the chairwoman’s

1
father, one of three shop owners in Mkwiro. At 2sh per necklace the return to the
producers was too low and the enterprise was subsequently abandoned.

Under the second chairwoman a more promising trade was found. This followed a
visit from the chairwoman and co-ordinator of Shimoni women’s group. Shimoni had
begun working with Tototo Home Industries in 1978, producing woven handicrafts to
be marketed through Tototo’s shop in Mombasa. The co-ordinator, a young man,
suggested that Mkwiro do the same, bringing its goods to the mainland to be collected
by Tototo. This they began to do, in 1980. (The history of this enterprise is examined
in detail in a later section). In early 1982 the group was adopted by Tototo. The first
co-ordinator, a woman of 18, proved unpopular with other members and quit the post
in November. Unwell, she later dropped out of the group. Her place was taken in
1983 by the group’s first secretary, then 20, and another young secretary was
appointed.

Meanwhile, the group had chosen a project: construction of a multi-purpose building

to act as a kiosk (small shop), nursery school, office and meeting-place for the group.
In August 1980 the group was registered with the Ministry of Culture and Social
Services and, helped by the CDA, opened a bank account in Msambweni with the
minimum deposit of 500sh. In October the group was given 5,000sh for its project by
the Ministry. Work on the building progressed slowly: by September 1981 the group
had bought two tons of cement, 400 coral blocks, and had paid a builder 1,000sh.
However, no sooner had work begun on the foundations than a local man informed
the group of his ownership of the plot they were building upon. Following his refusal
to come to terms work came to a halt. The project was not abandoned, but it was not
until December 1985 that another plot was found, on land belonging to Mkwiro
primary school.

SUCCUMBING TO TRADITION
Choosing another project
Following its adoption by Tototo, the group was encouraged to choose another
project. Members divided over two alternatives: construction of a water resevoir or
purchase of a boat. Both of these reflected Mkwiro’s island isolation. A boat could
be used to ferry passengers and their loads between Mkwiro and the mainland at

2
Shimoni, site of the nearest dispensary and terminus for a bus which travels thrice
daily to Msambweni and Mombasa. Most of the potential passengers were women
and their small children who otherwise had to rely upon the irregular service provided
by local fishermen, charging 5sh per adult for each crossing. The small hand-paddled
dugouts usually used for this purpose take the best part of an hour to complete the
crossing, a risky venture when seas are rough. A motor-driven boat run by the group
would cut down the crossing to 15-20 minutes, carry more passengers, and reduce the
long hours of waiting on the shore for a fisherman willing to make the trip.
Construction of a water resevoir, on the other hand, would serve an equally pressing
need. Apart from rainwater Wasini island has no natural reserves of fresh water. For
over half of the year villagers are dependent upon water ferried across from the
mainland: during the rains rainwater is channelled down concrete slipways into
concrete-lined pits and drawn from these. In Mkwiro there are a small number of
privately-owned reservoirs and one belonging to the whole village from which water
is sold for as long as it is available. A resevoir owned by the group would
considerably improve the local supply of water and help reduce dependence upon the
expensive imports from Shimoni.

The water project was proposed by the group’s new chairwoman, its treasurer, and a
committee member, the mother of the first two chairwomen. This family formed the
core of what can be designated as a progressive faction within the group. Their
immediate relationships are shown in Table 23. Unlike most Mkwiro villagers they
are Bajuni (Gunya) from the Lamu area on Kenya’s northern Swahili coast and have
continued to marry outside of as well as inside the local Shirazi community. Their
mobility led to the first two chairwomen relinquishing the post, subsequently taken by
a local woman who put herself forward and was accepted by the whole group.
Together they pressed for construction of a water resevoir, arguing that this would be
easy to maintain and run, providing a seasonal source of income and water to help
women with their household chores. A boat, they argued, lay too far outside of
women’s experience: to operate and maintain the enterprise they would be heavily
dependent upon men, while the maintenance costs of a boat and engine would be
much higher than those of a water resevoir once it had been built. A boat, however,
promised a more regular income as well as easier access to the mainland and all its
facilities. Supporters of a water project were outnumbered and the group chose to

3
invest in a boat. In the event, the progressive faction proved justified in its fears. The
new enterprise, much to its detriment, was modelled closely upon its counterparts in a
male-dominated domain. Control of the group, meanwhile, slipped out of the hands
of the progressive faction and into the arms of tradition.

TABLE 23
Bajuni Shirazi / Mkwiro

Bajuni A, born and married in Lamu before moving

shop-owner to Mkwiro
in Mkwiro

B Vumba
Shirazi /
Mkwiro

in Mombasa

Bajuni

Shirazi /
Mkwiro
Shirazi /
Mkwiro
C

in Mombasa
Pemba
(Tanzania) Vumba

E Segeju (Tanzania)

Mkwiro members A-D: A = committee member, supporter of water project; B = first chairwoman, left
the post because it made it difficult for her to travel and stay elsewhere; C = second chairwoman,
appointed not elected: left the post and group upon remarriage in Mombasa; D = collector of
subscriptions for Mkwajuni ward. E = initiator of the women’s group, former manager of South Coast
Fisheries co-operative and now KANU chairman for Pongwe-Kidimu location.

An enterprise at sea
Tototo’s director began soliciting aid for Mkwiro’s new project in 1982 and secured
the support of MATCH, a Canadian donor. After the district community development

4
officer had given Tototo an assurance that the women were capable of managing this
enterprise, the group was presented with a cheque for 35,000sh. This was in August
1983. Group members themselves raised 3,100sh with a 50sh subscription. This
covered the cost of a new engine, bought for 24,548sh in Mombasa, but was not
enough for the boat as well, priced at 20,000sh. This had been located in Likoni by
the Mkwiro village chairman and the CDA from Msambweni. The Digo seller agreed
to take 13,000sh and gave the group three weeks to pay the remaining 7,000sh. After
taking delivery of the boat the group asked Tototo for a loan of 5,000sh to help meet
this payment. The loan was granted, to be repaid by group members in monthly
instalments of 310sh.

Mkwiro’s boat went into operation on 8 October 1983, plying between Mkwiro and
Shimoni. A ‘driver’, the husband of a group member, was employed to run the boat
and buy petrol from Ukunda for its engine. Group members themselves took it in
turns of three days each to work as the boat’s ‘conductor’, collecting passengers’ 5sh
fares and the varying amounts charged for their loads. Apart from occasional
interruptions the boat ran every day of the week, between about eight o’clock in the
morning and four in the afternoon.

From the outset the enterprise was caught in the trap which the progressive faction
had warned against. Following the practice of local fishermen income from the boat
was divided into roughly equal portions. In the case of fishing boats these vary in
number according to the composition of labour, the relation between an owner and his
crew (if not the same person), and the technical requirements of a particular
enterprise. In other words their shape is determined by the relations and means of
production as these vary from boat to boat. The owner of an outrigger canoe might,
for example, set aside a portion for himself, one for the crew, and a third for the
purchase of bait. The owner of a motor-powered boat might make further provision
for the purchase of petrol and maintenance of the boat and its engine. Copying this
model the women’s group began by dividing their boat income into three portions:
one for the driver, one for petrol, and one for the group and expenses in general.
Later, when the enterprise ran into technical difficulties they created a fourth,
separate, portion for maintenance of the engine.

5
Transferred to the group’s enterprise this practice had a number of unfortunate effects.
First, it meant that the boat’s driver received a fixed proportion of the boat’s income:
one third in the first period of its operation, much more than if he had been paid a set
monthly wage (see Table 24 below). Second, and to compound matters, group
members working as the boat’s conductor were paid at the small fixed rate of 10sh per
day: conductors, least of all women, are not a normal feature of boat crews. So,
where a male driver could average 1,700sh a month, the women themselves made
little more than 300sh, much less individually. Profits from the boat were not
otherwise divided among group members and by following the model of men’s
fishing enterprises they effectively overpaid their drivers and exploited their own
labour. Third, the practice of dividing their income into portions had a disastrous
effect upon the enterprise’s accounts. In the records which the group kept the
difference between budgeted income – the portion set aside for a particular purpose –
and actual expenditure is not always clear. Over time the accounts became
progressively more confused, a confusion which was to cost the group dear.

The appropriation of the enterprise to traditional practice was confirmed in

unequivocal fashion by an early action on the part of some members of the group’s
committee. Acting without the knowledge of other members they bought a piece of
black cloth and a chicken with group funds and took these to a traditional doctor on
the mainland to provide the boat with protective medicine. Again, this was in keeping
with the practice of local fishermen, or at least the more traditionally-oriented of
them. Following this act conflict with the progressive faction came increasingly out
into the open.

The first victim was another committee member, the mother of Mkwiro’s first two
chairwomen. The committee had agreed to carry boxes of maize flour destined for the
shop she ran with her husband at half the normal rate, 50 cents instead of 1sh per box.
However, after loading a consignment onto the boat at Shimoni the driver, working as
conductor as well, refused to accept half payment and ordered them unloaded (this
was the second driver employed by the group, the husband of a committee member
and also of Mkwiro’s first co-ordinator). The argument which ensued was only
settled by the intervention of Mkwiro’s village chairman: the reduced rate was
accepted and the flour transported to Mkwiro, though the driver refused to assist her

6
in carrying it from the boat to the shore. The following afternoon she refused to help
other members pull the boat ashore for the night; arguing that this was the driver’s job
– he had left it to a young boy who was forced to call for assistance from the village.
The next day the driver again refused to help her unload a consignment of flour for
the shop. Angered by these incidents she went to the chairwoman and demanded that
he be suspended from his duties. But the rest of the committee refused, telling her not
to be foolish. Following this she quit her post on the committee and stopped playing
an active role in the group, to the extent that she did not make use of the boat again
and transferred her trade to other vessels.

The crisis that was brewing came to a head when the boat’s engine was stolen after
exactly seven months of operation, on the night of 7 May 1984. It was one of seven
engines to disappear from the area over a short period, probably the work of thieves
from Tanzania. Had it been insured by an insurance company rather than a local
medicine-man then much of the trouble which followed might have been avoided. As
it turned out the group could not afford another new engine and in the storm which
followed slipped further into the debt of men and the clutches of tradition.

Following the theft the village chairman took it upon himself to organise a search for
the stolen engine. With police consent enquiries were made as far afield as Diani and
the north Tanzanian coast. When these met with no success he turned to the task of
finding a replacement. To this end he visited the sub-chief at Shimoni and wrote to
the divisional officer in Msambweni. It was there that an engine was found, being
sold by a Digo man, whose own boat was no longer seaworthy, for 12,500sh. It was
bought by the group with 8,000sh from its bank account and a loan of 4,500sh from
the village chairman, and went into operation in September 1984.

In his zest to secure recompense for his services and payment for the second-hand
engine the chairman scrutinised the group’s accounts. In fact he had been keeping his
own record of these during 1984, making a copy of boat receipts every afternoon.
According to this record income from the boat between January and May amounted to
just over 16,488sh; 6,360sh after expenses had been subtracted. Presenting these
figures to the treasurer and secretary he asked if they agreed with his calculations.
They did. Much to his dismay, however, they had no money to show for it.

7
Assuming that this had been lost or stolen he contacted officials in Msambweni and
Tototo in Mombasa. Subsequant enquiries proved inconclusive. The chairman’s
argument does not take account of 8,765sh which the group had in the bank and used
to pay for the second engine, money which the group apparently did not have when
the enterprise began. Still, many group members allege that large sums of money
were taken by their treasurer who, nonetheless, remains in office. The group’s own
accounts are not very helpful in resolving this issue. They were kept, mostly in
exercise books, by the secretary and the treasurer. Unfortunately they are incomplete
and do not always balance, in part a result of the practice, described above, of
dividing income into portions. Moreover, for some periods different and conflicting
records are available. Table 24 is reconstructed from the accounts kept during the
boat’s first period of operation. Both recorded and corrected figures are shown, the
latter based upon independent calculation from daily entries, and the village
chairman’s record is added for 1984.

TABLE 24

MONTH SOURCE INCOME DRIVER’S OTHER BALANCE

FROM PORTION EXPENSES
(Sh)
BOAT (PETROL,
CONDUCTOR
etc.)

OCT. 83 R 3,034.00 1,025.85 1,450.50 557.65

th
from 8 C 3,104.00 1,025.85 1,450.50 627.65

NOV. 83 R 4,848.00 1,980.90 1,695.50 1,171.60

C 5,524.00 1,739.40 2,726.30 1,058.30

DEC. 83 R 3,479.00 934.00 2,203.00 342.00

C 6,709.90 2,187.75 1,419.00 3,103.15

JAN. 84 R 6,165.50 2,732.50 3,503.50 -70.50

C 7,123.30 2,337.50 3,438.00 1,347.80
V 4,902.00 - - -

FEB. 84 R 4,571.00 1,814.00 2,383.10 373.90

C 5,665.00 1,850.00 2,608.10 1,206.90
V 4,814.50 - - -

8
MONTH SOURCE INCOME DRIVER’S OTHER BALANCE
FROM PORTION EXPENSES
(Sh)
BOAT (PETROL,
CONDUCTOR
etc.)

MAR. 84 R (4,350.50) (1,427.30) (460.00) (2,433.20)

C 4,320.50 1,427.30 460.00 2,433.20
V 3,330.70 - - -

APR. 84 R (3,580.00) (1,466.50) 1,632.00 481.50

C 3,580.00 1,466.50 1,642.50 471.00
V 2,560.50 - - -

MAY 84 R (1,321.00) (390.00) (60.00) (871.00)

to 7th C 1,321.00 390.00 60.00 871.00
V 881.00 - - -

TOTALS R 31,319.00 11,771.05 13,387.60 6,160.35

C 37,347.00 12,424.30 13,804.40 11,119.00

MONTHLY R 4,474.14 1,681.57 1,912.51 880.05

AVERAGE
C 5,335.28 1,774.90 1,972.05 1,588.42

SUB- R 19,958.00 4,089.10

TOTAL
C 22,009.80 6,329.90
JAN-MAY
V 16,488.70 6,360.00

R = as recorded in group accounts; C = corrected from independent addition of daily entries; V = as

recorded by the Mkwiro village chairman.

These arguments over money claimed a second victim: the group’s third chairwoman.
Taking exception to the committee’s failure to keep her informed about the state of
the group’s accounts she tendered her resignation in writing. It was some weeks
before the group could find a replacement for her. One unopposed candidate, closely
related to the group’s first two chairwomen, was stopped from taking up the post by
her husband. It finally boiled down to a choice between the village chairman’s sister
(another close relative) and the elder sister of the group’s co-ordinator, a committee
member. The latter won the vote. She took office in mid-September 1984, shortly
after resumption of the group’s enterprise. Her election was another blow for the
progressive faction. The new, fourth, chairwoman was the ‘Queen’ of Mkwiro’s
chakacha, a dance employing drums and trumpets imported from Mombasa and

9
played at weddings and other festivities. Chakacha is danced by all village women,
wearing the white robes usually worn by men and mimicking tabooed sexual practices
including anal intercourse. As such it is a challenge to male authority, and Mkwiro’s
men had moved to stop it being danced outdoors, jealous of the possible consequences
of this open display of sexual licence by their wives. It is, however, a challenge
which is contained and neutralised by its restriction to important ritual occasions, a
staged inversion of gender relations characteristically confined to rites de passage.1

Mkwiro’s resumed enterprise sank deeper into the traditional domain. Its accounts
became completely disorganised and the recording of real expenditures fell by the
wayside. Meanwhile the committee accumulated a series of debts, most of them to
men. The full extent of these did not emerge until a heated group meeting in January
1986, when many members claimed that this was the first they had heard of them. In
fact no one individual know the full list, which is shown in Table 25.

TABLE 25
CLAIMANT PURPOSE OF LOAN OUTSTANDING
CLAIM (Sh)

1. a local man used towards searching for the stolen engine 100

2. the village bus fares to Mombasa and elsewhere,

chairman searching for the stolen engine 305

for purchase of the second-hand engine

(4,500sh loaned in all) 900

purchase of a coil for the engine 600

to pay a mechanic in Shimoni 100

3. a local man for bus fares to Msambweni and other

expenses in purchasing the second-hand
engine 170

4. a local man Towards purchase of the second-hand engine 150

5. a local man Towards purchase of the second-hand engine 150

6. a local man To buy petrol 50

7. a local man To buy petrol 50

10
CLAIMANT PURPOSE OF LOAN OUTSTANDING
CLAIM (Sh)

8. the group’s To buy petrol 200

treasurer

TOTAL 2,775

The second-hand engine proved more trouble than it was worth. It kept on breaking
down and needed repeated repairs. The boat enterprise was frequently interrupted:
records indicate that before the engine finally gave up the ghost in mid 1985 the boat
was only in operation for a total of 89 days. Little more than a month after the engine
had been bought 1,900sh had to be spent on its repair. In November 1984 a Luo
entrepreneur, dealing through the village chairman, offered to fix the engine in return
for being given use of the boat to fish at night. He took the boat for 11 days, each
day’s use reckoned as equivalent to 200sh in hire charges, the total (2,200sh) covering
the costs of his repair work. In fact the repairs cost much more – 3,460sh according to
the village chairman. Finding himself on a loser, the Luo man sued the village
chairman for 6,125sh in a Mombasa court. But the chairman argued that in fact it was
he who was owed money, 2,060sh which he had spent on financing the repair work,
having raised over half of this sum by selling his watch. The Luo abandoned his
claim. Throughout this fiasco the boat and its engine were nothing more than pawns
in an economic game, a game whose rules were set by men.

In August 1985 the (European) owner of a recently built hotel in Shimoni, a member
of Tototo’s governing committee, offered to take Mkwiro’s ailing engine away for
repair – providing it was worth the expense. The group was only too happy to accept.
The boat, meanwhile, was out of action until mid-January, when a local man
approached the group and started hiring it for 50sh a day. Using an engine provided
by a Kikuyu in Ukunda, he resumed the ferry service which the women’s group had
suspended. Encouraged by the prospect of a regular income – as much as they had
made when running the service themselves – group members turned to discussing
what they could do with it. True to form a division into two portions was suggested:
one to repay their newly enumerated debts and one to build their multi-purpose house
on its new-found plot. The hire arrangement, however, lasted no more than a
fortnight. The man hiring the boat broke an agreement to share profits with his

11
Kikuyu partner, and the engine was claimed back. Still waiting for a verdict on the
future of their own engine, the group was back at square one.

Rescue came from more distant shores. Unhappy with the premature decline of
Mkwiro’s enterprise, Tototo had not been idle. Following the theft of the first engine,
Mkwiro was included in a funding proposal submitted to a U.S. donor, the Parish of
Trinity Church in the City of New York. 30,000sh was requested to buy a new
engine. The money came through in April 1986. A new engine was bought in
Mombasa, delivered to the group, and on 22 April Mkwiro’s boat was back in
operation. On all accounts the enterprise is being conducted much as before. The
driver, now the husband of the group’s treasurer, is still being paid a fixed proportion
of the boat’s income. Without further interventions from Tototo it is likely that some
of the problems which earlier dogged the enterprise will recur. On the face of it
Mkwiro’s enterprise constitutes a bold thrust into an otherwise male-dominated
domain. In practice it constantly runs the risk of being appropriated in turn.

Four groups in one

The influence of traditional forms of organisation has not been an entirely negative
one. The reorganisation of group subscriptions provides a striking instance of this.
When the boat enterprise was in operation the group stopped collecting subscriptions
from its members. In November 1984, lacking any other source of income, a weekly
subscription was reinstituted at the new rate of 2sh 50 cents per head. At the
suggestion of one of the members its collection was completely reorganised. The
model for this reorganisation was Mkwiro’s division into four wards – Mkwajuni,
Pwani, Muwani and Bogoa – which intersect at the village mosque. On the basis of
members’ residence in one or other of these the group was divided into four sections,
three with 15 membes and one with 18. A literate member from each section was
assigned to collect its subscriptions, recorded in separate exercise books before being
pooled in the weekly meetings of the whole group. The rationale behind this
innovation was to make collection easier and to raise the level of contributions by
fostering a sense of competition between the different sections/wards. As such it has
proved a resounding success. By the end of January few members were behind in
their subscriptions and the ones that were were either away visiting relatives or about
to pay up. Beyond providing villagers with a sense of residential identity the wards

12
serve no other organisational purpose in village life. By adapting them to its own
purposes Mkwiro has succeeded, at least in the short term, where other groups have
failed: enforcing (in the nicest possible way) the regular collection of subscriptions.

WOMEN AND THE ISLAND ECONOMY

The structure and practice of household economy in Mkwiro is somewhat different
from that found in the other locations described in this report. The range of household
enterprises reflects Mkwiro’s island position, while the relations of production and
gender which govern these take a form which is modified by Swahili practice. One
feature of this practice is a long-standing adherence to Islam and the existence of a
strong independent tradition markedly different from the culture of the agricultural
villages of Mombasa’s hinterland. To outsiders foreign to this tradition Mkwiro is a
conservative backwater, repressive to women. The reality is rather different, and in
some ways the women of Mkwiro enjoy a measure of freedom denied their mainland
counterparts. Nonetheless, this freedom is circumscribed and, like the island
economy itself, is threatened by economic interventions from outside.

Members and their households

Mkwiro women’s group has 63 members, the majority of the village’s adult female
population. Most of these women were born in Mkwiro of Shirazi parents and most
are married to local fishermen. The majority have received no formal education:
Mkwiro’s primary school, which has about 170 pupils, was not built until 1981,
replacing an earlier school in the middle of the island which served both of its
villages. Local children also attend Islamic classes at the weekend, and in August
1985 similar classes were begun for adult women. Many group members attend these,
held at four o’clock in the afternoons, learning to write in Arabic. At present there is
no nursery school and no other adult education classes in the village. Few adult
women can reckon by the western calendar, and the dating of the logs kept for Tototo
shows a confused mix with the Islamic cycle.

A sample of 16 group members shows an average age of 37, similar to that of

Agwiraye members.

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TABLE 26
AGE IN YEARS
20-24 25-29 30-34 35-39 40-44 45-49 50-54 55-59
2 1 5 2 3 1 1 1

Information on the marital histories and offspring of these women is given in Table
27.

Many women married for the first time in their mid-teens, a practice which is now
changing as a result of school attendance. Marriage payments are made by
bridegrooms themselves, not by their fathers. These payments are normally in the
range of 3-5,000sh, and in some cases include furniture. The money is not given to
the bride’s father but to other matrilineal and patrilineal kin, and is used to pay for the
wedding and equip the household of the newly married couple. This payment is not
returned after divorce and subsequent marriages are generally free of ceremony.
Divorce is as common as in Diani. It is usually initiated by women but effected by
men. Under Islamic law women can claim maintenance payments if their husbands
can be proved negligent: one group member was planning to do this following the
prolonged absence of her husband, but was mollified when he returned. In early 1986
only one group member was found to be currently divorced and without a husband.

TABLE 27
AGE St N O C C1 H H1 H3 H4 H5 Me

22 M 1 2 2

23 M 1 2 3 3 2 1 co-ordinator, collector
for Muwani ward
26 M 1 2 3 3 2 1

30 M 2 0+5 3 2 2

32 M 3 2+0+5 2 4 1 3 first chaiwoman

33 M 2 6+1+1 4 4 1 3 committee member

34 M 2 1+4 4 4 1 committee member

34 M 2 2+1 1 1 1 1 ex-vice-chairwoman
(quit when ill)

14
AGE St N O C C1 H H1 H3 H4 H5 Me

36 M 1 8 1 6 3 3 1

36 M 1 6 2 4 1 3

41 W 2 3+0 1 1 1 1

43 M 1 11 2 7 2 3 2 2

43 M 1 10 5 3 3 2 vice-chairwoman

49 M 1 9 1 3 3 5 ex-committee member

51 M 2 2 2+5 2 1 1 4

57 M 2 7+1 1 1 1 7

Key: St = marital status (M = married; W = widowed); N = number of marriages; O = number of co-

wives; C = number of children by different partners; C1 = number of these children now dead; H =
number of these children still in her household; H1 = of these, still pre-school; (H2 = at nursery
school); H3 = at school; H4 = post-school, unmarried; H5 = married or separated; Me = number of
children married and not living in the household

Mean number of marriages = 1.5; mean number of children = 6.1; mean number still alive = 4.5;
mortality rate = 25.5%; mean number of dependent children (born by the woman herself) = 2.9

Over 80% of marriages take place between Shirazi born in Mkwiro, usually
(classificatory) cross-cousins, the preferred category of spouse. There are no distinct
residential units intermediate in size between the village, with its clearly defined
boundaries, compact settlement and intricate web of internal relationships, and the
individual households within it. Table 28 shows the demographic structure of 16
households, housing a total of 20 group members, some whose husbands (not
included in the table) were more or less permanently absent from the village or living
with other wives.

TABLE 28
NO. OF GROUP ADULTS CHILDREN TOTAL
MEMBERS
male female

1 1 4 5

15
NO. OF GROUP ADULTS CHILDREN TOTAL
MEMBERS
male female

2 1 3 7 11

2 1 2 4 7

1 1 1 3 5

1 2 3 5

2 1 3 ? 4

1 1 1 2 4

1 1 1 4 6

1 1 1 7 9

1 2 1 7 10

1 1 1 3 5

1 1 2 3 6

1 1 1 5 7

2 1 2 4 7

1 3 2 3 8

1 1 1 1 3

20 17 25 60 102

The low residential mobility of women is linked to their right to inherit and own
property in the form of houses. Some three-quarters of the houses in Mkwiro were
owned and their building partly financed by women. On separation it is the husbands
who must move out. Some women inherit the houses owned by their mothers; others
continue living in them until they are able to build their own. Before the advent of
land registration there was no restriction upon the ownership of land in the village;
rights in a plot were established simply by clearing and building upon it, and lost just
as easily if the plot was abandoned. Rights in agricultural land were similarly just as
easily if the plot was abandoned. Rights in agricultural land were similarly
established by clearance and remained in force as long as the land was continuously
cultivated. A third of the fields worked by group members were owned by women

16
(either themselves or their mothers), ownership deriving from their labour in clearing
the land and recently sanctioned by land registration.

Labour, income, and expenditure

Table 29 details the agricultural enterprises of 13 group members in 1985. Only one
woman interviewed – the first chairwoman – did not normally cultivate, except in
occasionally helping her mother. 4 women, C, E, F and I in the table, did not cultivate
in 1985, while only one woman, B, cultivated during the short as well as the long
rains.

TABLE 29
Me Fi OWNER AREA LABOUR CROPS HARVEST COMMENTS
CULT.
IN
ACRES

A 1 borrowed 1 cultivated maize eaten household

by mother with mother straight from heavily
(members the field dependent upon
of the same food bought
household) bulrush 2 boxes* from the shops
millet

sorghum poor

2 mother (1½ ) not

cultivated

B 3 husband 5 with maize 4 sacks grain harvest

husband lasted 6 months
sorghum 2 sacks

eleusine none

cassava none eaten by goats

groundnuts small

tomatoes
cabbage
carrots
aubergines
onions
peppers
chillies

(in the short rains):

17
Me Fi OWNER AREA LABOUR CROPS HARVEST COMMENTS
CULT.
IN
ACRES

beans none eaten by goats

cow-peas ½ box

C 4 brother’s n/a not lives in the

children cultivated same household
as B, her
daughter

D 5 husband 4½ with mother maize n/a

(of 6)
sorghum 4 sacks

eleusine poor eaten by birds

E 6 husband n/a not ill, pregnant

cultivated with a child
which died at
birth

F 7 husband n/a not caring for small

cultivated children, all
food bought
from shops

G 8 husband 2 alone sorghum ½ sack harvest lasted 6

(of 4) months
eleusine 1 box

H 9 husband 1¼ with father- maize 1 sack maize and

(of 5) in-law elusine
sorghum 1 sack finished,
sorghum still
eleusine 4 kg being eaten 6
months later

I 10 elder 1 cultivated maize 1 sack about half of

brother by younger harvest
sister sorghum 2 sacks remaining after
(living in 6 months
the same
household)

J 11 mother 1 with her sorghum 2 sacks still eating after

eldest son 6 months
and mother

18
Me Fi OWNER AREA LABOUR CROPS HARVEST COMMENTS
CULT.
IN
ACRES

K 12 her own 2 with her maize 3 sacks did not last 6

eldest months
daughter sorghum small
and
mother’s eleusine eaten
sister straight from
the field

L 13 husband 3½ cleared maize good still eating after

(of 21) herself and 6 months and
paid a local able to sell half
man 100sh of the crop for
to cultivate 3-500sh

sorghum 2 sacks still eating after

6 months
cassva

banana

oranges planted recently

and not yet
mangoes bearing fruit

14 husband (2½ ) not at Yungi (near

cultivated Majoreni) on
the mainland

M 15 her own 1 alone maize poor

sorghum poor

16 husband n/a not

cultivated

*there are 5-6 boxes to the sack

For much of the year many householders are dependent upon food staples bought
from shops on the mainland or in the village. This dependence is said to have
increased in recent years and women withdrawn labour from agriculture as the
number of retail outlets has grown and cash income become more readily available,
although islanders have long exchanged the products of fishing and coastal trade for
crops and other goods (include iron tools) produced on the mainland. The island,
lacking ground water and strewn with outcrops of coral, does not offer a particularly

19
favourable environment for cultivation. Most households cultivate only one field and
few meet their annual subsistence requirements. Only one household in the sample
was in a position to sell surplus grain: the only one which employed casual labour.
Labour is generally drawn from within the household. Men sometimes assist in
cultivation, often in the late afternoon after returning from fishing, and build the
fences which surround fields to keep off the goats which roam the island. Otherwise
most agricultural labour is performed by women.

Together with other forms of household labour this takes its toll upon women’s
participation in group activities. This was particularly evident in January-February
1986, when many group members were working on their fields in the mornings and
late afternoons, clearing undergrowth in preparation for the onset of the long rains.
Those who came were usually late for group meetings, and three-quarters of the
membership did not turn up at all. Table 30 is based upon attendance records for the
period 1982-85, and shows a marked fall in 1985 which can be linked to the declining
fortunes of the boat enterprise.

TABLE 30
YEAR HIGHEST LOWEST AVERAGE
ATTENDANCE ATTENDANCE ATTENDANCE

1982 38 15 23

1983 46 13 29

1984 45 15 28

1985 19 5 8

On two occasions the group’s first co-ordinator made explicit reference to the
demands of household labour upon her own time. On the first of these, in May 1982,
she wrote “No any task today because myself I did not go to the meeting I was
washing my clothes and after that I go to take firewood at Mkunguni and come with
it.” On the second occasion, giving Tototo notice of her decision to quit in November
1982, she ascribed her failure to attend a meeting in Mombasa to her uncle’s refusal to
let her go, because of work which had to be done at home.

20
When free to do so women are also kept busy pursuing various sources of income.
Two of the most important of these in Mkwiro derive from the collection and sale of
marine produce: octopuses and cowrie shells. Both are collected from the local
shoreline, only by women. Octopuses are collected from the reef at low tide, often by
women working in small groups, using sharpened sticks as spears. This can only be
done in the morning while the sun is still low; the tides permit collection over a period
of six or seven days twice a month. Up to 20 can be gathered by one woman in a
morning. The dead octopuses are then hung on poles to dry in the sun, and sold to
visiting traders from the mainland for 3-6sh each depending upon their size. A good
catch might fetch 300sh, though women often come away with much less. Cowries,
on the other hand, are sold for 35sh a tin (c.18 kg) to Mkwiro’s Bajuni shop-keeper
who sells them in turn to an Indian exporter in Mombasa. In February 1986 he
collected 70 tins and made a net profit of some 1,280sh, over 18sh per tin. Women
who gather cowries report being able to make 100-350sh every time they sell them,
though they do not do this every month. Trade in both octopuses and cowries drops
during the cultivating season, while just over half of the group members interviewed
engaged in neither, some because they found the work too onerous.

Women also make and sell a variety of different kinds of bread and confectionery
within the village, some using ingredients bought on the mainland. Just under half of
the women interviewed did this, making up to 100sh per month. A few women trade
produce directly from the mainland. The most enterprising of these – the woman who
had a saleable surplus of maize – made 3-400sh a month by selling coconuts brought
by herself or her husband from Majoreni. Otherwise some women (and some men)
keep small herds of goats (usually 3-5) for slaughter or sale: an adult goat fetched
200sh in Mkwiro in early 1986. There was only one rotating credit association in the
village, operated by eight women and two men in Mkwajuni ward who contributed
20sh each every Friday. Four of these were group members, three from the same
Bajuni family (see Table 23 above). In January the group began a savings club,
introduced by Tototo, and nine women paid 5sh each to join. Like other Tototo
savings clubs it was offered 500sh (from FAO and Women in Progress Ltd, a Nairobi
NGO) to start a small enterprise: at the same meeting Mkwiro members decided to
use this to import coconuts from Shimoni.

21
Involvement with Tototo has provided group members with another source of income:
production and sale of woven handicrafts for Tototo’s shop. How this came about has
already been described. The group used this trade to repay its 1983 loan from Tototo;
but most benefit has gone directly to individual members and their households. Table
31, based upon records kept by Tototo, summarises returns to individual producers
between 1981 and 1985.

TABLE 31
YEAR NO. OF TOTAL HIGHEST AVERAGE PER
PROD- RECEIVED INDIVIDUAL PRODUCER
UCERS
(Sh) total per month total per month

1981 43 1,603.00 57.00 4.75 37.27 3.10

1982 54 11,432.00 718.00 59.83 211.70 17.64

1983 58 7,069.00 353.00 29.41 121.87 10.15

1984 62 19,071.00 757.00 63.08 307.59 25.63

1985 63 27,481.50 1,720.00 143.33 436.21 36.35

The net profit to producers is somewhat lower, because they have to purchase the
dried strips of palm leaf (ukindu) and dyes with which their handicrafts are made.
Ukindu is bought on the mainland – there is none on the island – in small bundles
costing 2sh 50 cents each. Dyes are brought in small 2sh packets from Mombasa: the
only natural dye on the island is henna, occasionally used in body decoration. Table
32 summarises information on the purchased inputs and prices of the main goods
which Mkwiro members produce for Tototo. Labour and transport costs are not
included: oval table mats, for example, fetch a higher price for producers than square
ones because they are more difficult to make.

Although the average return to producers was comparatively small, even in 1985,
trade in octopuses and cowries is said to have dropped as a result of handicraft
production. Group members were correspondingly distressed when the market for
their handicrafts came to a standstill at the end of 1985. In January 1986 Tototo staff
returned the bulk of their last order to the group, telling group members that they had

22
failed to sell the goods at shows in Nairobi and Mombasa and that there was no room
for them in Tototo’s store. Producers are paid by Tototo when their goods are sold:
following the return of their handicrafts women complained bitterly that their
investment in ukindu and dyes had been in vain. Mkwiro members have no other
market for their handicrafts: what little scope there is for selling them to tourists on
the nearby mainland has been taken up by Shimoni women’s group, which also
produces these goods for Tototo. In consequence group morale fell sharply, and the
blame for this was unanimously put upon Tototo.

TABLE 32
ITEM COST TO PRODUCER PRICE NET TOTOTO NET
(Sh) PAID PROFIT RETAIL PROFIT
TO TO PRICE TO
PROD- PROD- TOTOTO
UCER UCER

Ukindu Dyes Total

Floor mat 50 40 90 250 160 450 200

6 oval 12.50 10-20 22.50- 102 69.50- 200 98

table mats 32.50 79.50

6 square 12.50 10-20 22.50- 72 39.50- 150 78

table mats 32.50 49.50

Fan 2.50 4 6.50 12 5.50 20 8

Hat 7.50 6 13.50 15 1.50 25 10

Large 25 20 45 30 -15 50 20
handbag

Medium 12.50 10 22.50 25 2.50 40 15

handbag

Small 7.50 6 13.50 15 1.50 30 15

handbag

1986 prices shown

Women generally pool their income with their husbands. Wives are not obliged to
surrender this income, but usually spend it on the household. One member said that if
she earned 100sh from cowries she might go out and buy clothes for her husband, and

23
was described as a “good wife” by other women. Another noted that if she got 300sh
from octopus sales it would enable her to buy a bag of cement for her house. Women
are equally dependent upon income provided by their husbands: 3 women interviewed
were wholly dependent in early 1986, having abandoned, for different reasons, efforts
to secure an independent income. Two women reported getting no help from their
husbands and three had husbands who were absent for most of the year and only gave
their wives money on home visits. These women rely on both their own sources of
income and help from other household members and kin: one woman, whose husband
was absent for up to two years at a time, was given money by her mother’s brother,
the head of the household. Another, the group’s co-ordinator, periodically went to
stay in Malindi with her husband and co-wife, leaving group records unkept in her
absence.

TABLE 33
NO HUSBAND HUSBAND EMPLOYED

widowed absent fisherman: fisherman: shop-owner

boat owner no boat

1 3 6 5 1

Table 33 shows the occupation or otherwise of husbands in a sample of 16 group

members. Two of the absent husbands were traders based in Moa on the northern
Tanzanian coast: there is considerable traffic across the nearby border between Kenya
and Tanzania, and a fair amount of smuggling. But most group members’ husbands
are local fishermen. 60 men in Mkwiro are registered members of the South Coast
Fisheries co-operative in Shimoni, which began in 1966. They fish every day except
Friday, the day of prayer, and bring their catches ashore in the early afternoons to be
weighed by the local co-operative secretary. The co-operative pays the fishermen
10sh per kilo of (large) fish, 1sh of this set aside in a fund for Mkwiro’s school and
Islamic classes. On an average day in February (1986) it paid out 2,000sh to 16
fishermen. Only a third of Mkwiro’s fishermen own their own boats: the rest work
with close kin or others for a portion of income from the catch. The example just
cited gives local fishermen an average income of 30sh a day, 900sh per month. Daily
co-operative payments vary over the year between about 500 and 5,000sh. A good

24
day’s catch can bring in 600sh and records in Shimoni show individual fishermen in
the area earning up to 20,000sh in a single month. These are, however, exceptional
cases and do not take account of the division of the proceeds among crews. The
traditional division into portions indicates that boat owners also divert a good part of
their income to capital reinvestment and maintenance of their enterprises. In Mkwiro
fishing is done with nets, lines and traps, only the latter made and sold locally. Three
villagers ran motor-powered boats (costing 15-50,000sh), three owned outrigger
canoes (15-20,000sh) and the rest dugouts with sails (5-6,000sh).

While households are usually well supplied with fish, a significant proportion of their
income has to be spent on purchases of food staples. Water is particularly expensive:
2sh plus per 20 litre container from the local reservoirs and 3sh per container from the
mainland when this supply runs out. During the dry season households may find
themselves spending between 280sh and 560sh a month on water, depending upon
their size. These expenses are usually borne by women with the help of their
husbands, and in many cases leave little to cover other expenses. Female-headed
households face the greatest difficulty; and one group member, a widow, had to pay
for the building of a new house with three floor mats she had made. On the other
hand, some schoolboys pay for their own uniforms by fishing in the holidays; while
the fund established from sales of fish to the co-operative covers many primary school
expenses which would normally be borne by parents. Married men do not as a rule
buy luxury goods for themselves, though some, like the village chairman, can afford
to invest in speculative ventures.

Change in the island economy

The relatively stable economy which has been described above is now threatened by
complete transformation, the direct consequence of external interventions. The first
nail in the coffin was land registration, which took place on the island in 1979-80.
Before this island land was held in common; now islanders have been issued with title
deeds for the plots and fields with they happened to be occupying at the time. In
many cases land registration discriminated in favour of men, now holding two-thirds
of the titles for fields largely worked by women. The difficulty this created for the
group’s building project has already been described, while its effects upon patterns of
inheritance remains to be seen. Some islanders, anticipating what would happen,

25
cleared much larger areas than they normally worked – hence the 21 acre field shown
in Table 29 – and a small number also laid claims to plots on the mainland. Disputes
broke out between the Shirazi and the Vumba, who claimed large areas of land close
to Mkwiro – including the village football field – and others at the uninhabited end of
the island furthest from their own village. Some villagers were left with relatively
small plots, now permanently fixed in size and location, and the prospect of
landlessness resulting from the sale and mortgaging of land has arisen for the first
time.

This process threatens to be accelerated by tourist development. For many years there
was only one hotel on the mainland near Shimoni and a single tourist restaurant in
Wasini village. In 1985 a second hotel was opened in Shimoni and a new restaurant is
being constructed in Wasini, while other developments are in the offing. At first
Mkwiro villagers were resistant to selling their land to developers: the first outsider
seeking to buy land by one of the local beaches, a German, was turned away. This
resistance has now crumbled under the influence of two factors: need (and greed) for
cash, and the prospect of infrastructural and other benefits.

The local agent of this transformation has been the brother of Mkwiro’s first two
chairwomen, the recently elected KANU locational chairman, with his sights now set
on the position of area councillor (see Table 23). Like his Bajuni parents in Mkwiro
he owns a shop, and is building another, both at Shimoni. He also owns a motor-
powered boat, used to ferry fee-paying tourists to Wasini and the marine park to the
south of the island. He has also been providing his elder sister with occasional
European visitors willing to rent a room in her house – the first time accommodation
has been let to tourists in Mkwiro. In keeping with his courtship of another world he
drinks beer, flouting Islamic prohibition. More significant for the future of Mkwiro,
however, has been his role in arranging sales of land. Over the last two years or so he
has induced a number of villagers to sell their land, acting as the agent for an English
hotel owner from up-country. The prices paid, 40-100,000sh for plots scattered across
the island, contain sufficient incentive. In early 1986 some group members expressed
an interest in following suit. These included his own mother and sister, who
complained that he was refusing to handle the transaction; presumably because he
knows, unlike many of his clients, the value of holding onto land.

26
He argues that the construction of tourist lodges on the island will bring a wide range
of benefits, not least a cheap and reliable supply of water. This is where many
villagers place their hopes, believing that tourist development will be accompanied by
a submarine pipeline or construction of water reservoirs large enough to provide an all
year round supply. Earlier developments have brought different forms of community
benefit. Construction of Wasini’s first restaurant was permitted on condition that a
fixed percentage of its takings be put into a fund for village development; originally
this was to have been for both the island’s villages, but has been appropriated by
Wasini alone. The owner of Shimoni’s newest hotel is committed to pay half of the
costs of staff accommodation for a health centre in the village.2 Mkwiro’s villagers
are now keen to get their own slice of the cake. It is also argued that hotels near
Mkwiro will provide employment opportunities for villagers and create a lucrative
market for local fishermen and handicraft producers. This may or may not be true.
But what is more certain, and not admitted, is that the island will become a Diani in
miniature.

Notes
1
Sexual politics in Mkwiro do not take the form described by Bujra in her study of a Bajuni village.
The Shirazi have not employed slaves in the recent past; women, not men, play the major role in
cultivation; and they do not engage in labour migration/prostitution on any large scale. Mkwiro’s own
Bajuni are, however, rather more mobile. See Janet Bujra, ‘Production, Property, Prostitution: “Sexual
Politics” in Yumbe’, in Hazel Johnson and Henry Bernstein (eds.), Third Word Lives of Struggle
(London: Heinemann, 1982). It might be added that women’s role in production precludes any
confinement or restriction upon their visibility in Mkwiro.

2
In August 1985 Tototo organised members of Mkwiro, Shimoni and Anzuani women’s groups into a
committee to press for the inclusion of maternity facilities in this centre. But the possibility of NORAD
(the Norwegian Agency for International Development) support for this project appears to have been
quashed by a report written by a volunteer afer interviewing Shimoni members. This report is strongly
critical of the women’s ability to run the project and of Tototo’s relationship with the group.

27