Duruma

Like the Digo, the Duruma people are one of the nine Mijikenda (‘nine towns’) tribes of Kenya. They live on the Indian Ocean coast, along the Nairobi-Mombasa highway.

The Duruma tribe evolved in the 17^th and 18^th centuries from three separate groups – a group of Digo people who were driven south from Somalia by war, Mokua refugee slaves from Mombassa and Kamba immigrants. Some Duruma are Muslims, others Christian but, like the other Mijikenda, the Duruma’s traditional tribal centres are the Kaya – sacred forests.

Although Kenya’s coast has a turbulent history, the Duruma were little affected by this. They maintain their ethnic identity and language and their traditional, subsistence-farming life, growing maize and herding cattle. They also produce tobacco, which serves as a cash crop, and some Durama are fishermen. They trade with the Swahili and Arabs.