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The six schools of Mekaela Academies are located around Ukunda, a small town with an estimated population of 100,000 (2018) approx. 50 km south of Mombasa along the South Coast of Kenya.

The region is the home of the Muslim tribe of the Digo. Due to the booming tourism, people from all over Kenya have been attracted to this area, so that in the meantime all tribes are to be found on the southern coast. East Africa owes the (Ki-)Swahili language to the South Coast, which was the result of the mixture of the languages of the Arabs, the local people and the Portuguese. Swahili derives from the Arabic word sahel meaning coast.

For most of the Wazungu (white people) it is rather difficult to distinguish the different tribes at a glance. Yet it is often quite easy to recognise which tribe they belong to when seeing their family name written. A few examples: The names of the Taita usually begin with “Mw…”, those of the Meru with “Mu…”, of the Kikuyu with “Ng…”, those of the Digo end with “o”, and so on.

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