My hood: I live in Kaza Ndani, not Dunga Unuse or Toa Tugawe!

 Mombasa has areas with curious terms and it is common for visitors to get baffled by locations like Mwembe Mavi, a place many times cleaner than Nairobi’s Korogocho slum

Shakespeare wondered, ‘what’s in a name that if you call a rose, it will smell as sweet?” In Mombasa, a rose by any other name, will cause peals of laughter. Consider: Toa Tugawe. Mwembe Mavi. Dunga Unuse. Kaza Ndani...

Maureen Kadzo, a resident of Toa Tugawe has a hard time explaining the name of her hood.

“It is as annoying as it is funny,” says the 30-year-old mother of one on the ‘ahaa’ stares she gets, mostly from young people, whenever she mentions Toa Tugawa, that translates to “let’s share what you have,” (or literally, ‘remove and let’s share’).

Bawdy connotations

It can be particularly embarrassing when dealing with men, given the bawdy connotations.

Years back, Mombasa Senator Hassan Omar said the quirky names originated from a ‘cheeky lot’ with minds choking with ‘ulterior and sadistic motives.’

Speaking after a special address to his County Assembly, Omar was forced to cut short his speech when the crowd went into frenzy after he called on Machakos County Senator, Johnstone Muthama to address the residents.

“Sasa nataka kumwita Senator (Johnstone) Muthama aje atie kidole yale yote mimi na wenzangu tumeongea,” said Senator Omar (Now I want to welcome Senator Muthama to come and endorse what we have said).

The senator was momentarily flummoxed as some in the crowd covered their mouths amidst murmurs of “ah ah ah!”

“Utaniwia radhi Bwana Senator maana hii kaunti kuna majina hata mengine hata hatujui walokuja nayo walikuwa na nia gani. Majina kama Kaza Ndani na Dunga Unuse,” said Omar to the amusement of the crowd (excuse me Mr Senator, but there are baffling names in this county whose origins we do not know. Such are the names like Kaza Ndani and Dunga Unuse).

Mombasa Governor Hassan Joho was in stitches as he watched the Senator struggling to get out of linguistic quick sand.

Tia kidole

Senator Muthama and Siaya County Senator James Orengo also joined in the laughter after understanding the joke pegged on the use of ‘Tia Kidole’ (which literally means ‘to finger’).

Though the phrase is largely used in Kenya to signify ‘endorsement’ or ‘agreement,’ it’s rather vulgar connotation is not lost on people, particularly those at the coast.

Dunga Unuse is actually a sprawling slum near Port Reitz, whose residents have to contend with the burden of a loutish name.

“I find the name unsettling, funny even, but I’ve since gotten used to it, having lived here for 34 years,” says Mzee Athmani Ngoti, 60, adding,

“I have a cheeky friend who whenever we meet jokes about his own reluctance to shake hands with someone who lives in a place where the main ‘preoccupation’ seem to revolve around ‘poking and smelling.’

Dunga Unuse

Dunga Unuse, which literally translates to ‘poke and sniff’ is in Changamwe Constituency.

How are such names coined?

Mzee Ngoti is highly respected in Dunga Unuse. He narrated how in the late 70s and 80s, Taita women sold traditional brew (‘Mbangara’) that was rarely confiscated by police.

“Customers, most of them Taita men, would request for their daily dose of the drink courteously, by saying ‘Mao Ndungie...’ (Mother please serve me with a drink),” explains Mzee Ngoti. He adds that, “Then the woman would pose to the customer in Taita, ‘Nkudungie ki?’ (How much do you want?)”

Mzee Ngoti continues, “Most of the customers would reply, ‘Ndungie nusu’ (Give me half a mug).”

He says that the Duruma and Giriama who outnumbered the Taitas in the area, but who also enjoyed ‘Mbangara,’ used the phrase but eventually changed it to ‘Dunga Unuse.’

Mzee Matiku Mwanjo, who has lived in the areas for 30 years, says that children of his close friend once refused to attend school due to jibes from other students from upmarket estates.

Mwanjo says that sometimes people make light of the area’s name by describing it with ‘sign language,’ – poking the air with the index finger and then raising the finger to the nose and sniffing it.

Where the names originated

“I wonder what the people who came up with the name were thinking,” says Mzee Mwanjo.

It is also common for visitors to get baffled by names like Mwembe Mavi in Magongo area, which is free of cow dung and has fairly good sanitation (‘mavi’ means faeces or dung).

It is the same case in areas like Toa Tugawe and Kishada in Kisauni, which residents say originated from muggings and drug use respectively.

Toa Tugawe, which is in Mjambere Ward is a short form of Swahili ‘toa tugawanye,’ which can be translated to mean ‘let’s share what you have,’ while Kishada is derived from ‘Shada,’ which is sheng’ for a joint of marijuana.

“Sometimes back, a gang of youths would surround and rob their victims in broad daylight, demanding that they ‘Toa Tugawe’,” says 19-year-old Kazungu Karisa.

“There are so many maskans (what Nairobians would call ‘base’) within Kisauni where youths just idle and do drugs without care. I’m convinced that whoever came up with the name Kishada was driven by nothing but malice,” says Omar Sule, a resident of the area.

But the name has stuck and has been embraced by the residents. The youth there have even formed a football team, Kishada FC.

Constant police operations in the area to nab drug-abusing young thugs (locally known as the mateja) have almost rendered the area almost crime free.