Sirimaua

Sirimaua (: ᨔᨗᨑᨗᨆᨕᨘᨕ) is a and former   located in the province of Kasuku, Mwambaya district, in south-central Jangwali. Located on the south-facing side of the Trans-Kasaren Mountains in the Utupu Mkubwa Desert, the town was first founded in 1837 under Agar colonial rule. Between its foundation in 1837 until its eventual abandonment in 1977, the ethnic makeup of the town's population saw a severe incline and decline for specific people groups, a phenomenon attributed to the events that took place during the first half of the 20th century in the country and former colony.

With the start of the civil war in 1930, Sirimaua would face a severe decrease in production, attributed to the living conditions and safety hazards, a consequence of the government’s inability to continue funding the town. This abandonment at the hands of the government gave way to a continuous surge of fatal accidents taking place in the town, resulting in its population leaving over the course of the years. The town lost its last resident in 1977, after which Sirimaua would go on to earn the title of ghost town. Over time, rumors started surfacing about the town’s sudden decrease in population and the amount of fatal accidents, which came to a total of around 298 annually between 1935 and 1975.

Today, though still uninhabited, the town has risen as a tourist attraction for both foreigners and locals visiting the Mwambaya district. Its popularity in the present day has been linked to the numerous and horror stories made around the town’s history and numerous casualties, most of which have been labeled as ‘unresolved’.

Name origin
The name Sirimaua, comes from the words siri (ᨔᨗᨑᨗ) meaning 'hidden' or 'secret', and maua (ᨆᨕᨘᨕ) meaning 'bloom' or 'flower'. The name was chosen by its inhabitants and acknowledged by its inhabitants soon after the start of the civil war, in 1935, as replacement to the former Manuak name. The name was made official in 1997, as part of the National Decolonization Act, which included, as one of its clauses, the renaming of all Manuak-named settlements.

History
Construction of Sirimaua began in the mid-19th century, in 1835, while Jangwali (formerly known as Agar Jawwal) was still a colony to the state of Agarad. Its formation was first suggested by former colonial commander, Dahawah ha-Qareshri, as part of the slow increase in Agarad's exploitation of natural resources in its Kasaren colonies, particularly that of from the Trans-Kasaren Mountains running parallel to the continent's northern coast. Edification began on 23 December 1835, of which nearly 100 people were part, all ethnically Mwenzi. Harsh desert environment, poor working and living conditions in the region, mistreatment by the colonial armed forces, and the numerous casualties as consequence, were major reasons for the delay of the project, which was finished on 31 October 1837, more than a year after the estimated completion date. Due to the lack of complete lawful transparency of the situation from the colonial government, the total number of deaths during construction is estimated to be somewhere between 50-100 people, based on death records on-site, as well as the reports of sudden deaths or disappearances of men living in the region around this time period.

Two months after the town’s construction was finished, nearly 300 men, aged 18-50, living across eastern and southern Jawwal were relocated to Sirimaua to work as miners. Excavation began on 18 January 1838, and within the first 6 months, nearly 75 people were reported dead, most of whom were under the age of 25. Despite the poor living conditions and treatment, the town continued to expand over time, eventually reaching its peak at around 570 active workers between 1867 and 1879. Sirimaua became the largest mining town in Agar Jawwal and one of the most active mining sites across northern Kasare. During the mid 1880s, however, workers' treatment went into rapid decline as the demand for faster and larger production and extraction from both the colonial and central government increased. Death toll rose exponentially between 1889 and 1899, reaching an annual average of fatal casualties of around 190. With the start of Agar interventionism and World War I, the citizens of Sirimaua became subjected to extreme exploitation practices, abduction by the military or torture. Unlike most settlements in southern Jawwal during the early 20th century, Sirimaua remained entirely under colonial control until the signing of the Desert Accords in 1910. Throughout all of World War I, the extraction of minerals continued to be transported to the rebel independentist front. After the end of the war, the town’s mining activity stopped almost entirely between 1914 and 1918. On 23 July 1919, the new Manuak government enforced the reinstauration of mining activity across the entire province, despite of what had been established in the Desert Accords, and passed the Slavery Concession in 1920, giving Manuak citizens the rights to purchase and trade captive Mwenzi citizens. Between 1920 and 1930, Sirimaua became one of the towns with the largest slave population in the world in the 20th century. It was during this decade that the town would become witness to its largest amount of casualties, reporting an annual average of nearly 230 people.

Once civil war broke out across the country in 1930, Sirimaua became one of the first settlements to rebel against the local government officials as the Mwenzi rebels gained control over the western half of the country. By 1940, nearly 60% of the population had migrated to neighboring nations or larger cities further north, as the government cut off the supply for resources across all urban settlements out of Manuak control. The desertic conditions toppled with the cut in the chain of supply, and the shortage of mining work, resulted in the prompt evacuation and progressive abandonment of Sirimaua, losing its last resident by 1977.

With the end of the civil war and the start of the 21st century, many of the settlements in the Utupu Mkubwa Desert began to gain popularity, not only due to their historical significance in helping reconstruct the events of major national conflicts in the region, but also to the spreading of and  about the shocking amount of deaths the town had experiences since before its foundation, as well as alleged rituals, sacrifices, and cultic practices that had taken place short after its abandonment. Today, Sirimaua has become a touristic destination, as well as the filming site for national and international film productions, and its story has starred in several national productions, particularly in the and.

Imbaraga Niyonzima (1836)
Imbaraga Niyozima (born in Agar Jawwal, 3 March 1801) was a Mwenzi construction worker employed at the edification site for Sirimaua, and the first person to die on-site during the construction project. Niyonzima had been working in the construction site since its start in December of the year prior to his death and, according to his hiring paperwork, was responsible for the pipe installation running under a few selected buildings. Based on the death report, filed by the colonial authorities at the site, Niyonzima died on 14 April 1836, at 15:56 local time (UTC -10) from blunt head trauma caused by one of the steel pipes that ran vertically along one of the building’s wall fell on his head after not being bolted properly into said wall. His body was buried 10 km south of the town, in what would go on to become the Sirimaua Cemetery, earning the town one of its infamous nicknames of "Miner Cemetery".

Izuba Ngwabije (1903)
Izuba Ngwabije (born in Agar Jawwal, 1858) was a miner working in Sirimaua during the height of Agar interventionism and exploitation of Kasaren colonies. Unlike most casualties taking place in the town, Ngwabije’s death came at the hands of the colonial government, an occurrence common to the period between 1901 and 1909. At the height of Agar Jarader proselytism, many Mwenzi people across Jawwal were abducted, tortured or murdered either arbitrarily or founded in allegations of participation in banned religious practices.

This was the case of Ngwabije, who acted as a clandestine kibaraka (ᨀᨗᨅᨑᨀ), a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of Mwenzinghetia, the native religion of the Mwenzi people, for an estimated 30 people living in Sirimaua. Ngwabije’s illicit practices were found out on 5 February 1903, resulting in his immediate capture and the assassination of 45 people at random living in the town. According to his sentence records, soon after being held prisoner, Izuba Ngwabije was nailed to a pole set up in the middle of the town, where he was held for four days. Between February 6th and 10th, his punishments included forms of torture such as, and. Ngwabije was eventually burned alive on 12 February 1903.

Izuba Ngwabije’s death has had such an impact in Jangwali’s history to the present day, it set the precedent for most resources in the Jangal legal system, as well as shaped some of the most prevalent political ideologies in the country.

The Buried Fourteen (1927)
The event known as the “Buried Fourteen” was an accident caused by the of one of the secondary tunnels in the Sirimaua , resulting in the simultaneous death of fourteen workers, and the injury of another five. Out of the fourteen dead, ten were registered as, and the four registered as 'free persons' were making below the requisite for Mwenzi people at the time. By the time of the accident, the living and working conditions of Sirimaua were below standard, and didn’t meet any of the basic health requirements established by the National Office for Wellbeing. Prior to the incident, the town’s cave system had experienced three instances of a cave-in, two in 1923, and one in 1926, though none left major casualties.

The tunnel collapsed on 5 August 1927, some time around 17:00 local time (UTC -10), trapping all nineteen men inside for an estimated two hours before the first two people were pulled out, while the other two survivors were rescued about four hours after the collapse. It’s believed that out of the fourteen men that were trapped inside, and who eventually died, seven of them were alive between six to eight hours before eventually passing away as a result of and  caused by the debris in the air of the already reduced space. All fourteen bodies were only pulled out on August 9th, four days after the initial collapse, after which they were taken directly to the Sirimaua Cemetery and buried by the local authorities without being cleaned and a burying ritual.

The case of the Buried Fourteen eventually made its way to the main city centers and became common knowledge across all of Jawwal by September of that same year. During the Mwenzi Revolution of 1930 and the subsequent civil war, the Buried Fourteen became one of the main symbols behind the uprisings, and their case was made part of the mandatory academic curriculum across all schools in the country in 1999.

Urban legends
Despite the existing records of most casualties taking place in Sirimaua, around 700 deaths have remained to this day labeled as 'unresolved'. As a result, this has prompted the surfacing and promulgation of many and  during the late 1990s and early 2000s made about the now abandoned town and mining site. Over the course of the 21st century, Sirimaua and its surrounding areas have been continuously considered reportedly haunted places, and been subject to allegations of ghost sighting,, demonic rituals, and attributed to be the home to numerous creatures, such as  and.

Between 2004 and 2010, there have been 78 isolated instances of reports of supposed activity and sightings, and in 2013, the government of the Mwambaya district had to issue a demolition request for 70% of the buildings of Sirimaua, as consequence of the numerous instances of minor and major injuries of tourists and people native to the area going into the abandoned and unmaintained structures, lured by the stories and allegations made about the area. As of 2022, only the former town center remains, as well as spots deemed as historical landmarks by the federal government.

The Miners’ Wives
In 2003, a story began circulating around the towns and cities surrounding the Sirimaua area about the alleged presence of the spirits of the deceased miners’ wives all over the town. According to folklore, these spirits will take corporeal form and lure men wandering or driving nearby into the town and eventually the abandoned mines. Reasons given to this are varying, however, most sources that have shared said story will agree that the spirits will come from a place of desperation and anger, searching revenge for their husbands while simultaneously seeking to replace them with alive men. The most well-known reported sighting happened in 2007, when a man named Ange Mugisha showed up to the police station of Nyekundu, a town 14 kilometers south of Sirimaua, covered in dirt and grease, claiming to have survived the Wives’ luring.

Yeye
The Yeye (ᨐᨙᨐᨙ) is a type of mythic creature used by adults to frighten children into good behavior, particularly common in the Mwambaya and Uliofichwa districts. Although its existence is regarded as a mere parenthood method, its origins can be traced back as far as 1954, amidst the middle of the civil war. According to legend, the Yeye is a creature, born out of the remains of the many miners buried in the Sirimaua Cemetery whose purpose is the kidnapping and torturing of small children and pregnant women. Because of its shapeshifting nature, many people have claimed to have witnessed it over the years taking the form of both animals and people. Today, the Yeye has been integrated into pop culture in the country, as part of, , and horror movies and TV shows.

Tourism and popular culture
Both the national and  have benefited from Sirimaua’s rising popularity as a reportedly haunted location. Between 2008 and 2013, the Mwambaya district saw an increase in tourism by 650%, reaching its peak in 2011 when it received nearly 850,000 visitors, both local and foreign. In 2017, the National Office for Tourism invested one million thamani in the repurposing and betterment of the town’s conditions, making it officially openly available to the public and constructing and paving new roads, connected directly to national highways, leading into Sirimaua for better access to the town.

The Sirimaua Memorial was opened to the public on 31 October 2020, the 80th anniversary of the town’s founding, a public settlement located 1.3 kilometers southeast of the actual town, that acts as both a history museum and a small-scale, in order to preserve the actual site, which was declared a National Heritage Site in 2016.

Since 1999, Sirimaua has been featured in numerous films, and television series, from both national and international productions:
 * Sirimaua was the filming location for the opening scenes in the 2003 Jangal movie, Mchanga Mwekundu ("Red Sand"), directed by Imti Omborenga, and starring renown actress Nyota Mutsinzi.
 * The national, Kote-Chini (2005-2013), featured three episodes filmed in the town's outskirts, shot in 2007, 2009 and 2010. The show also makes the mention of Sirimaua by name several times, as part of one of the series' running joke, where side character, Angao, is referred to as a "Sirimaua native".
 * Issue number #14 of the ya Umoja, released in 2013, is set entirely in the Mwambaya district, with one of its main locations being Sirimaua, the birthplace for one of the issue's main characters, Dhoruba.
 * The 2017 edition of the Galvian bi-annual Regīna Sv Runway Show held "International Eyeful" as the main category for its spring/summer season bringing in models from all over the globe, during which the model representing Jangwali, Anjua Ntwari, native to the Kasuku province, payed homage to the history of Sirimaua, by wearing a repurposed miner uniform, and shaving her head, a practice that was forced onto the slave workers a the mining site.
 * Mjangwali artist, Mwali, released a song titled Yeye as part of her 2018, Nyeusi na Nyeupe, in reference to the town's main urban legend.
 * Upcoming, Yeye, to be released in 2023, is said to have filmed several scenes all over the town, including the former mines.