Author: Rupi Mangat

Above: Coral garden at low tide on Wasini – copyright Rupi Mangat

Published Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 25 March 2017

Century-old oral rag house of the Arabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Graves of the ancestors by the century-old oral rag house of the Arabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Wasini Island from across Shimoni on mainland South Coast near Kenya-Tanzania border – copyright Rupi Mangat

A dug-out canoe sails to the dhow anchored in Wasini Channel to paddle me to the shores of the island. In a few minutes we’re on the ancient island of fossilized coral. Wasini once a little village of makuti-thatched coral rag single-storey houses now has a few multi-floored brick buildings coming up. The century-old, ‘Arab’ houses are beginning to crumble and replaced with modern brick.

Kaole Restaurant – copyright Rupi Mangat

Cassava in coconut milk – copyright Rupi Mangat

-Husni the waiter with a plater of crabs – copyright Rupi Mangat

Our first port of call is to the island restaurant Kaole. Plate after plate of mouth-watering Swahili dishes waft out of the deceptively simple kitchen of the restaurant on coral rag floor and four walls with open frontage to the channel. We’re fed on crab delivered on wooden platters which Husni the waiter knocks the shell open to show diners how to tease the meat out. The table fills with spiced seaweed with chapatti, ‘wali’ and cassava cooked in coconut milk and more. We eat to our fill with the ocean breeze cooling the afternoon temperatures.

Modern Wasini houses – copyright Rupi Mangat

Stroling through the village – copyright Rupi Mangat

by the ocean- copyright Rupi Mangat

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