Mwerya - Kenya
Neo-Mwerya's in Kenia
Janet Otieno:
"From way back, prehistory, communities in Kenya have always come together to support each other through groups that were formed on common goals - before money ever existed. The members were mostly neighbors from the same village. Leaders were selected on a sit down to govern the process of the Merry-go-rounds or Rotating Labor Associations. Rules were set to guide the members during a cycle where members would help each other with communal work such as plowing land, building houses, fetching water and firewood, cleaning the compound, farming etc. A full cycle would have all the members visited on a rotational basis.
Different communities referred to merry-go-round in different names i.e. Nyoluoro-Luo, Mwerya-Giriama and Duruma, Chikola-Chonyi, Mwethiya-Kamba and Gubato-Kikuyu. I'll use Mwerya below because it is the name we use where I live in Kilifi. In all the communities, the practices were the same as members would help the host (who’s turn it was) with work while the host prepared a meal (often with the rest of the group as a potluck) as an appreciation for the work done. This would rotate until all members of a group are visited.
Traditional Mweryas began to disappear during colonialism and were eventually replaced with sharing of shillings instead of labor. Members would contribute a certain amount of money and give it to one member of the group. This modern shilling-merry-go-round has over the years also broken or slowed due to lack of Kenyan Shillings. Members could miss meetings because they didn’t have the amount to be paid. This affected the cycles as some members ended up not receiving their cycle in full or even having nothing at all.
It is due to this that the groups have started to introduce Community Inclusion Currencies (CICs aka Community Vouchers) in chamas as a promise of labor to be used instead of scarce national currency. Three groups in Kinango, Kwale and one in Kilifi shown below have been doing some ispiring work with CIC Mweryas."