Mugo wa Kibiru's fig tree falls

In 1963, the year of Kenya's independence, the great sacred fig (mugumo) at Thika associated with the Kikuyu seer Mugo wa Kibiru fell, which many took as the fulfilment of his prophecy that colonial rule would end when it did.

1963 CE · -1.04, 37.08 · status: legend

The account

Mugo wa Kibiru (Cege wa Kibiru), a Kikuyu prophet of the 18th or 19th century, is remembered for foretelling the arrival of white strangers, an 'iron snake' with many legs that breathed smoke (the railway), and the return of the land. The fallen tree is preserved at Thika. Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o used the prophecies in his novels.

The sceptical view

Prophecies preserved by oral tradition cannot be dated before the events; how the tree fell is told in different versions.

Connections in the atlas

• Koitalel and the iron snake

Sources

1. Wikipedia: Mugo wa Kibiru