"Talking with Snakes Again?": Mijikenda Woman Scolds Python Like a Naughty Child in Viral Video

• A Mijikenda woman from the Kenyan coast was filmed carrying a large python before dropping it and scolding it at her doorstep
• The woman told the snake it had shamed her, a moment rooted in Mijikenda belief that pythons carry ancestral spirits
• The clip sparked fierce debate online, with viewers split between witchcraft claims and cultural explanations

A Mijikenda woman left the internet bewildered after a video of her scolding a python went viral on 19 July 2026. The clip, shared by X user @sholard_mancity, has since racked up nearly half a million views.

In the footage, the woman is seen walking towards her rural home with a long python head gripped in her hand while its body trails behind her. She placed the snake down at the entrance of her home and proceeded to lecture it in her local language. According to the caption on the video, she told the snake that it had shamed her.

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The Mijikenda and the sacred python

The Mijikenda are a group of nine related Bantu communities who live along the Kenyan coast. Unlike most Kenyans, who regard snakes with fear, the Mijikenda hold a deeply spiritual view of pythons. In their traditional belief system, these reptiles are not seen as wild animals but as vessels for ancestral spirits.

Elders and traditional healers have long spoken to pythons as a way of communicating with the spirit world, asking them to leave a homestead peacefully rather than forcing or harming them.

This cultural context is what makes the video extraordinary to outsiders but entirely coherent within the community.

Netizens amused by clip

The clip on the X page triggered strong reactions across social media:

@AceNyakundi asked:

"So women started talking with snakes again?"

@JaraEko said:

"I don't like these old geezers, because of such behaviours."

@MachariahWangu1 questioned:

"This is TZ. Are there Mijikenda in Tanzania?"

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American woman encounters snake in her roof during house tour in TikTok video

@Anteedot28 wondered:

"Are you sure this isn't AI?"

@Beulah_Ke offered a more open-minded take:

"Amazing! I kinda like people who can connect with animals like humans... sio wachawi lakini [they are not witches] but I don't like them."

Watch the video below:

More on wild snakes

• Briefly News recently reported on a herpetologist's calm composure after a cobra unexpectedly appeared during a demonstration.
• A Florida restaurant offered free pizza in exchange for captured Burmese pythons as part of a wildlife initiative.
• An American living in Zimbabwe had the most suspenseful house tour after discovering something living in her thatched roof.

Source: Briefly News