Safari Stories

A Jaunt in a Forest: Nairobi City Park

Published on by Rupi MangatLeave a comment

Above: Bird of Peace soapstone sculpture by maestro Elkana Ongesa at Murumbi Peace Memorial Garden Nairobi City Park. Copyright Rupi Mangat 

Published 6 April 2019

I got Bruno Mars ringing in my ears…l don’t feel like doing anything today…It’s a Saturday morning and l’m in no mood to work or go to the gym. All l want to do is escape the city and the best escape from being in the city is actually within the city that is Nairobi. It’s the third Saturday of the month and there’s a guided forest walk in Nairobi City Park Forest.

Nairobi City Park Forest path. Copyright Rupi Mangat Feb 2019 (800x450)
Nairobi City Park Forest path. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Here’s something l didn’t know about City Park. There’s free yoga on Sunday afternoons for anyone interested. Patrick Ngotho who is a member of just about every nature group in Kenya leads me to the patch of green space for yoga and shows off a couple of stretches. Continue reading “A Jaunt in a Forest: Nairobi City Park” →

The Pan-African Pentatonic Project: An Exciting mix of music from the Niger and the Nile rocks Nairobi’s crowd

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Published: The East African (Nation media) 23 Marc 2019

For the first time (20 March 2019) Nairobians were treated to the sounds of the Sahel flowing with the Nile and as the full moon rose the crowd took to the floor.

The minute Alhousseini Anivolla-Anewal stepped on stage at Nairobi’s Alliance Francaise he held the audience captive. For almost everyone it was the first time to see a Tuareg man dressed in his traditional long flowing robe, pantaloons, slippers and that turbaned head with a veil in the indigo colours that gives the nomadic people of the Sahel the name – the blue people.

Alhousseini Anivolla-Anewal from Niger - Credit Alliance Française (800x533)
Alhousseini Anivolla-Anewal from Niger – Credit Alliance Française

Continue reading “The Pan-African Pentatonic Project: An Exciting mix of music from the Niger and the Nile rocks Nairobi’s crowd” →

Watamu Turtle Watch: A Hawksbill in the Spotlight

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From my archives in April 2007

In 1997 ‘Watamu Turtle Watch’ was launched. It still operates under Local Ocean Conservation today.

A whole load of journalists descend on this one little turtle happily snoozing under his shaded spot in the pool.  All we can see of this star-to-be-soon turtle are his flippers sticking out from the slab of stone that he’s resting under.

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Hawksbill Turtle: Facebook: Local Ocean Conservation

Continue reading “Watamu Turtle Watch: A Hawksbill in the Spotlight” →

Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden

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Above: Great white pelicans herding fish for breakfast. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Replace the swan with pelicans because in Africa we have pelicans and not swans. We’re sailing on Lake Oloiden that’s changes dramatically every so often that it keeps everyone guessing – what next? Salty or fresh?

 

We’ve woken up to a spectacular performance by the pelicans – that is the Great white pelicans – performing a ballet that’s captivating. On a blue lake, flotillas of the great white birds synchronize their dive in the water, upturning their white butts like a ballerina’s tutu while their enormous yellow bills vanish in the water to swallow the fish they have herded below. It’s spectacular.

Continue reading “Swan Lake: A Fascinating Performance at Lake Oloiden” →

African Twilight

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The Vanishing Rituals and Ceremonies of the African Continent

Above: African Heritage House bathed in morning light. Copyright Maya Mangat

Published: The Star newspaper, Kenya – 2 March 2019

“It’s my dream to set up a pan-African centre where artists from all over Africa can come and see the creativity from all parts of Africa,” said Joseph Murumbi, Kenya’s first foreign minister and second vice president.

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African Twilight images – Courtesy Alan Donovan

He never lived to see his dream for his house that had one of the most extensive and valuable collections of all things African, was allowed to fall in ruin after he sold it to the government on condition that it would be turned into the Murumbi Institute of African Studies. Murumbi died shortly after that in 1990 when he saw his once cherished house and indigenous garden in Muthaiga, Nairobi bulldozed away. Continue reading “African Twilight” →