Someone is stealing Vigango from Kenya's south coast beach towns and villages around Shimoni, Diani, and Tiwi, near the historic Shimoni Slaves Caves. Who can it be?
Kigango (Singular) / Vigango (Plural) Mijikenda cultural and memorial totem effigies placed on tombstones of departed, respected, and revered, spiritual elders.
The Kigango Oracle is an adventure story set at sea along Kenya's southern coast. It recounts the tale of Kanze, a young Digo girl with special powers. Kanze and her younger brother, Kombo, wake up one morning to find the Mijikenda cultural totem removed from their Grandfather Menza's grave in the family cemetery! The Mijikenda believe that once an erected Kigango is removed, misfortune and curses befall the descendants of the ancestor whose Kigango has been disturbed. Kanze, her brother, Kombo, and their friends Kibibi and Katana, set out to find Kanze and Kombo's late Grandfather Menza's Kigango, which has been stolen by village youths and sold to Clark, a European collector, who intends to smuggle it to Europe. The spirit of Kanze's grandfather, Menza, through a magical Kigango pendant he gives to Kanze in a nightly visitation, helps her to retrieve the Kigango as well as other Vigango in the village. Grandfather Menza was a revered seer and Gohu, a spiritual leader in the Mijikenda community, and belonged to the secret Gohu society, a secret Society of the Blessed.
The Menza family Vigango, are revered by the townsfolk and villagers, because they don't rot and are thought to be extraordinarily blessed and magical! In Kenya's coastal region, however, there has been an upsurge in thefts of authentic Vigango, which are coveted by European and American museums, and collectors commission people to steal the artifacts and smuggle them overseas.
Grandfather Menza, in a visitation to Kanze the same night his Kigango is stolen, puts a magical turquoise and jade Kigango, on Kanze's neck. Then Kanze and Kombo's parents tell the two children the circumstances surrounding Kanze's birth and the death of her twin sister, Kache. Soon thereafter, an intriguing oracle prophesied by Grandfather Menza on his deathbed says that Kanze is a gifted spirit-child-The Chosen One, as most townsfolk and villagers call her. Kanze has always felt different from her brother, friends, other children, and students, and it's only upon learning about the oracle that she finally understands her strangeness and uncanny ability of foretelling future events like accidents and averting them, and knowing questions on exam papers at school before the exam day!
