Introduction / History The Digo are an East African tribe,
concentrated on the southern coastal strip of Kenya between
Mombasa and the border of Tanzania. It is rather surprising to
find that in a country that is overwhelmingly Christian, the
Digo are nearly all Muslim. The Digo are a Bantu tribe and are
actually grouped together with eight other tribes. Together
these tribes make up the Mijikenda, or "nine towns." Tradition
tells us that the nine Mijikenda tribes originated farther
north, but were driven south as a result of war. During the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the Digo experienced a
time of great famine. It became a common practice for them to
give either themselves or their children as kore, or "blood
money," to serve as temporary collateral for a loan of food.
Sadly, there were many times when the debt could not be
redeemed, thus leaving them to live as slaves. Many of the Digo
who were brought to Mombasa as slaves later obtained their
freedom by converting to Islam. What are their li