Wasini Island

Wasini Island is about 8km at the longest and 5km at the wide.

The livelihood here was originally as traders, self employed families that generate trade in any way possible. Sea food, shells, smuggled rice or sugar and Pemba cloves during the restricted trade practices. Many of the new generation now are employed as skippers and boat handlers for the tourist trade that dominates life on Wasini. The women have built a formidable and commendable “Board walk” out of mangrove poles to allow a view of the inner mangroves at high tide. There is an entrepreneurial spirit to them. 2 busy restaurants dominate the village, one run by the local Masud family. The other is the so called “Wasini Island“ Charlie’s claw restaurant. This restaurant and marine operation is the busiest and most commercial of all sea operators in Shimoni. Catering to the mass of tourists, its smooth and slick operation is well oiled, and everything will go to plan, as long as you like to be in and amongst crowds.

Further down the island, on the eastern end is Mkwiro. Inhabited almost exclusively by fishing dominated families, and with a more mainland Bantu ethnic background, there is limited co-operation between the east side Mkwiro villagers and the village of Wasini!

Maybe 500 people live in Mkwiro, and 1000 on Wasini. The lack of fresh water on either Wasini or Mkwiro has always been a test of their determination to their commitment to stay put.

Water catchment reservoirs, hand cut out of solid lime stone are the basis for the water storage when the long or short rains visit. It never lasts long enough so there is an endless stream of dugouts and motorized canoes carrying fresh water to and from the island.

The land is coral rag, sharp coral stone that unless is has soil on it or has been cut is very uncomfortable to walk on. Recently a new dive and snorkel operation, Paradise Divers, opened on the edge of Mkwiro village offering some employment, so Mkwiro too has its own tourist venue.

Wasini boardwalk

For years the women of Wasini Island, had looked for a way to improve their lives and the lives of their children. The steady stream of tourists visiting the nearby Kisite Marine Park was a ready market for some form of enterprise. The women experimented with crafts and groceries but were unable to compete with those on the mainland that could provide these services more readily. As it turns out the women had access to a resource far more valuable than they had imagined.

The entirely Muslim village of Wasini bordered on an extensive mangrove forest dotted with ancient and picturesque coral heads left over from a time when ocean levels were higher. The women had noticed tourists often trying to access the coral gardens, as they were known, but since it was all within the tidal zone, moving through the area was difficult due to deep mud.

At the same time, following on activities initiated under the USAID funded COBRA Project, the Kenya Wildlife Service was interested in finding a way to better conserve these mangroves. They are an important “fish nursery” for both the marine park and the reserve that supplies fish for the extensive local fishing trade. KWS had experimented with mangrove boardwalks in other areas on the coast with mixed results. KWS had learned that without community ownership and long term capacity building such a project was likely to fail.

Armed with this knowledge KWS, through the dynamic Kisite Marine Park Warden Janet Kaleha, proposed to the Women’s group the construction of a one kilometre boardwalk through the coral gardens that would be completely owned and operated by the women themselves. The only stipulation required of the Women’s group was a commitment to manage the boardwalk as a group, take responsibility for repairs and to use a share of the revenue towards education as well as to minimize cutting of mangroves for fuel.

Currently, tourists who visit Wasini come via boats, after a snorkel/dive in the Marine Park they lunch on Wasini and then take a walk around the Island and visit the boardwalk where they are charged a small fee of Kshs. 100 ($1.25) to walk on the boardwalk. The walk is constructed in such a way that visitors can see the ancient coral structures and walk right into a healthy stand of mangroves without getting their feet muddy. Additional attractions include birds, mangrove invertebrates such as fiddler crabs and shells and when the tide is in fish.

Coconut Crab
The rare Robber or Coconut Crab (Birgus latro) – the largest land crab on earth – is common on Wasini Island while it is threatened elsewhere in the Indian Ocean as it is widely eaten and used in fish traps. With a carapace diameter of up to 45 cm they can climb up to the top of coconut trees and easily crack coconuts with their powerful claws. These crabs have evolved to live on land but begin their life in the sea, later adopting shells as houses for protection until they grow large enough to manage with just their hardened carapace alone. This gives these crabs a lobster-like appearance with their curled-under abdomens. Research into this species in the East African region is extremely limited and this disappearing species is unfortunately still listed as data deficient in the IUCN endangered species listing as simply nobody knows how many are left!

The tidal range between high tide and low ride is considerable, and the terrain worthy of an army course in places, so access to and from the island at low tides is always and interesting excursion through rock pools, sea weed, and hidden sea urchins. Its not that is not fun, but always come prepared with a seasoned pair of sandals that can withstand a good water romp. The ocean walls of wasini islands coastline is a weathered and beaten  wall that makes howling noises when the high tide pounds the rocks. Its an old habit to sit on the mainland side and watch and listen to the water exploding in the hollowed  caverns as the tide surges in through the channel and forces its way along the sea walls.

On the southern side of wasini, there is a path from the east to the west that cuts all along the fringing mangroves on wasinis marine park side.Huge old mangroves and baobabs  make for a very curious landscape at low tide. It starts at  the northern  of the kisite marine park bay and very shallow till far out at low tide. At high tide a small canoe can make it into the mangroves. At low there is some muddy areas to cross to get full access to the ocean. Its an unusual route and not commonly used. Most people come and go from wasini via the wasini channel side.

A Wasini Folk Tale: The Mwauzi Tumbe Story from Mkwiro Village

The Vumba tribe were still located at the other end of the island, near the western tip. They were a very jealous people, and became jealous of the Shirazi tribe because of their beautiful cork and dug out tree trunk drums, which the Shirazi had made and which they could not make for themselves. They were also jealous of the magical rhythms and beats that the Shirazi made on their drums.

Because of this jealousy the Vumba decided to attack the Shirazi, aiming to take over their drums. But the Vumba were cunning people, they decided to pretend to make peace with the Shirazi first, so that they could learn the Shirazi’s methods of warfare and have an easy battle. They decided an inter-marriage would be the best way to do this, and so one of them proposed to marry Mwauzi Tumbe, a girl from the Shirazi people.

Mwauzi Tumbe married her Vumbe husband, and for awhile their was peace. Then he told her of his tribe’s plans and their intentions, and asked her to help them. She agreed to help the Vumbe, but asked to be left with her own village.

The Vumba made their plans for attack. Mwauzi Tumbe’s house was located just outside the new village of Mirari Sita. They asked her to cry war for three days, with a week interval in between, and pretend that the Vumbe were attacking.

Mwauzi Tumbe did this, and shouted “War! War!” on the first day. The villagers came down to her house ready for a battle but found no one. A week went by, before Mwauzi Tumbe shouted again “War! War!”, and the villagers came to her house ready for a battle but found no one. Another week went by, and Mwauzi Tumbe shouted “War! War!”, but this time the villagers ignored her and did not come down ready for a battle. This was the day the Vumbe attacked, and they invaded the village and took all the drums they wanted.

Mwauzi Tumbe also went with the Vumbe back to their end of the island, as she had betrayed her own people. Now the Vumbe thought, if she can betray her own people, then maybe she will also betray us. They asked her, and she answered simply “yes”.

The Vumbe decided to kill Mwauzi Tumbe, so they packed her a little food and took her out on a boat to Kisite Island where they left her. She did not have enough to survive on the island, and before long succumbed to the elements and died.

A long time later, problems started to occur on the island. There were no rains, the fishing was poor, and the health of the people suffered. The villagers from both sides of the island decided to consult a Mganga, or witch doctor as to why things were so bad. The outcome was that they had lost an important person in a disrespectful way, and so they should make amends.

Both sides of the island agreed to this, and the villages of the Kifundi/Shirazi and the Vumba set out to get the remains of Mwauzi Tumbe’s body, and bury them with honor. They took the bones to Bogoa, and buried them with utmost respect.

The problems stopped occurring, but if more arose the people would pat her grave and pray at her burial spot. Ladies from both villages cleared the grave site, and put a mark (Coral Stone) over her body. Here the villagers came to pray for rain or whatever they may need, and usually it would be granted.

All of this happened a long time ago, and the village has since moved from the area of Bogoa where the village of the six palms was, to Mkwiro. Reasons for the move relate back to epidemics which swept through the village and made them move locations for safety.

Mkwiro means ‘the stick that beats the drums’, after the Shirazi people from which the Mkwiro villagers are descended, and their beautiful drums and beats which were stolen by the Vumbe. People in Mkwiro Village aged 80-90years old can still remember the ladies clearing the grave and praying there. These days the educated people of Mkwiro adhere to a Muslim way of life, and look to God, science and technology to help solve their problems. However, there are still a small number who practise the old ways, and still go to the site of Mwauzi Tumbe’s grave to remember and pray. You too can go there and see the Coral Stone that marks her body.