Case file · Sacred site
The sacred kaya forests of the Mijikenda
Along the Kenyan coast, the Mijikenda peoples keep small sacred forests, the kayas, sites of their old fortified villages where elders still meet and where cutting trees is forbidden; UNESCO listed eleven of them in 2008.
2008 CE · -3.93, 39.60 · status: official
The account
Each kaya holds a buried protective charm (fingo) and the graves of ancestors, and only elders may enter the central clearing. Taboos on the forest have preserved some of the last coastal forest in Kenya. The point is Kaya Kinondo.
The sceptical view
A living tradition under pressure from land sales and development; its taboos are rules of respect rather than claims to test.