The Mwana wa Mataifa Cultural Card Game is a design project aimed at reconnecting urban Kenyan children with their indigenous cultural heritage through playful and interactive learning. In many modern urban households, children are increasingly exposed to global culture while becoming less familiar with their own cultural traditions, languages, and histories. This shift is often influenced by the perception that English and Swahili hold greater social and economic value than indigenous languages. As a result, cultural knowledge that was once passed down through daily life and community interaction is gradually fading.
The project addresses this issue by proposing a culturally themed board and card game that makes learning about indigenous culture engaging and accessible for children. The main goal is a visually appealing and interactive game that teaches players about a specific Kenyan community through storytelling, questions, and activities. By transforming cultural knowledge into a game format, the project aims to make heritage learning enjoyable while encouraging curiosity about identity and traditions.
The prototype focuses on the Agikuyu (Kikuyu) community as its case study. Game content explores traditional Kikuyu life through four main categories: People and Places, Traditions, Stories, and Artefacts. These categories introduce players to cultural figures, geographic regions, daily practices, rites of passage, language, folklore, food, clothing, and symbolic objects. To enhance engagement, the game includes four character guides representing both historical and modern perspectives. Cultural information used in the game is sourced from The Southern Kikuyu Before 1903 by L.S.B. Leakey to ensure historical accuracy and authenticity. Gameplay mechanics are inspired by trivia-based board games, where players move around a board by rolling a die and answering questions from different cultural categories. Correct answers allow players to progress toward the center of the board, which represents the goal of the game.
Imani Mwakera is a young Kenyan designer and artist interested in using design as a tool for storytelling, education, and social impact. She is pursuing a BTech Degree in Design at the Technical University of Kenya. She is particularly interested in graphic design, interactive media, and experience design, and she enjoys creating projects that combine visual storytelling with playful or immersive learning. Her passion for visual aesthetics and the human experience inspired her to explore how design can connect people to culture and identity.