Origin of the Taita

Little is known for certain about the past history of the Taita and the reason for this is probably that the clans felt little homogeneity and had little common ancestry. The topography of the hills also tends to militate against a wide communial sense. The various clans were ruled by their elders but a considerable amount of independence seems always to have been maintained, so the local chiefs were never elected, fare less a Paramount Chief for the whole area. The early travelers through Taita spoke of chiefs of different locations e.g Mboza of Chawia and Mania of Bura, but in actual fact these men must merely have been natural leaders, perhaps Wazuri or Wafigi.

It is believed that some years ago the hills were probably inhabited by the pigmy people which were divided to as the Wanyamba, the Warukuma and the Wambisha. Later on refugees from neighbouring tribes came to the hill fastnesses and the pigmies became exterminated, although there must have been a certain amount of inter- marriages first, this is evident from the smallness of stature of some members of the tribe even today. Tradition has it that people, called the Wasasadu, came to the hills and poisoned the Warukuma and the Wambisha to a man, and that it was only the Wanyamba who survived, but where the Wasasadu came from is not known. From time to time other people came to the hills. The Wakasighau believed that their ancestors had come thirty days journey from the North and the structure of their huts quite coincides with this tradition, which after the fashion of Abessenia have mostly a circular, here and there too an oval from, nor do the roofs, like those of Wanika reach down to the floor, but spring at rise of four feet above the ground. Others are supposed to have travelled down the Sabaki river, feeling before the Wasagalla and when they reached Tsavo they left the river for the hills and settled at Wundanyi, later moving to Kideya. Others came from Ukambani and settled near Ndile, Wagiryama came from Mwangea to live on the Sagalla hill; Washambala came from Kishamba and some Maasai went to the higher regions of Mgange these were perhaps some of the Wakwafi.

It would appear, however that the Wapare and the Washambala themselves have Taita blood in them, coz according to Wachagga, the Waoare are of Taita stock and the people of Kahe came from Pare and the washambala also were of pure or mixed Taita descent.It would be safe to say that a group or groups of people from the Taita hills migrated in early days to these mountain areas but it is unlikely that either tribe was of pure Taita stock.The wataita migrated to Taveta in the latter part of the eighteenth century when the first group of settlers left Taita to dwell on the taveta forest and to become one of the component parts of the present tribe of Taveta.

There is also a very strong strain of Taita blood in the Chagga tribe and in fact it is estimated that numerically the Taita element was the greatest.It is said that the traditions beliefs of the Wakamba are very similar to those of Wataita.The two tribes i.e Taita and Chagga , developed along different lines and whilst the Wachagga became rich in tradition and custom, the Wataita did not.This is because the clans in Taita kept to themselves and did not send out off-shoots into other district of the hills so that they was a very narrow parochialism.

With the mixed origin of the tribe, and their continued parochialism, it is not suprising that several dialects are found in the small area, which may be grouped roughly as : Ki-mbale, Ki- wusi, Ki-sagalla, Ki-kasigau. Later on other dialects came into existence: Ki-mgange, Ki-mbololo.

RECENT HISTORY

The Slave trade was known to the Wataita chiefly through the caravans of slaves that passed through the plains. The various clans did not raid each other for the purpose of selling their captives into slavery to the Arabs, in fact they employed no slaves themselves. No doubt some Wataita had misfortune to be seized as slaves, but on the whole this nefarious trade did not molest the tribe.

During the first world war the natives of Kasigau were suspected of treachery, and were deported by the Government to the district of Malindi. At the end of the war they were permitted to return to the district, but for administrative reasons, they were not allowed to return to their former home in Kasigau.They were required to live in the slopes of Sembe and Zongoloni near Mwatate, where some still live, though majority of them went back to the original home.

It is clear that the Taita mountain formed an important stepping stone to the Germans from the Usambara and Pare mountains when making their incursions into Kenya to cut the Mombasa-Nairobi railway like.

The Wataita gave their full contribution to the East African Campaign. Not only did they supply a considerable quantity of provisions, but the Mission stations at Bura and Wusi, built by the Holy Ghost fathers of the catholic Church; were made full use of; Wusi becoming convalescent home. In the batter Wataita conducted themselves with devotion and courage and were one of the few tribes if not the only one, willing to take ammunition up to the front like under fire.