It’s raining in Lamu Stone Town that has continuously been lived in for seven centuries and hence boasts of being the oldest urban town in East Africa. Listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2001, Lamu Stone Town is imbued with a richness of it past. Continue reading “On a Shopping Spree in Lamu”
Published 7 July 2018
Sun-burnished mangrove leaves float like skeins of gold thread on the blue waters of the Indian Ocean. We’re sailing from Lamu Stone Town on Lamu Island to Manda Island that lies across the channel. Our boatman points to the village settled by the Luo from the shores of Lake Victoria in western Kenya. The men quarry for coral on the island and chisel the hard rock into building blocks for construction. They are hardy men carrying up to five blocks on a shoulder to load the boats that carry them away. A statue of a quarry man with the bricks on his shoulder stands on the edge of the village that is called Jaluo after the people, so tells our Swahili boatman. Continue reading “A Trip to Takwa”
A walk with Kenyan artist Camille Wekesa on her current exhibition titled Jade & Silver
Above: Camille Wekesa at her art exhibition Jade & Silver with the Jade Sea (Lake Turkana) and the shades of the petrified forest by the lake.
Published in The East African Nation media 2 June-8 June 2018
Camille is sophistication personified and a walk with her around her current exhibition which was exhibited at Muthaiga Country Club this month (May), showcases two diverse Kenyan landscapes she’s painted using different media. Having studied art in Italy, she’s held several exhibitions around the world.
Published: Saturday Magazine, Nation newspaper 17 March 2018
Above: The Palace in Gedi Copyright Rupi Mangat
In the eventide, a skein of white wings glide over the blue of Watamu Bay to settle on the huge jagged Hemingway rock. Curious, l zoom in on the birds that appear as dots with the naked eye, l get my shots and send them to the birders.
Alan Donovan Celebrating half a century in Africa with the arts
Published in The East African Nation media – 23 – 29 September 2017
Above: Oshogbo King wearing beaded crown. Photo by Alan Donovan
It was in 1967 and the director of USAID in Nigeria was being installed as an honorary chief, riding on a white horse through the city of Oshogbo amidst pomp and glory – and in the crowd was Alan Donovan, young and recently posted to the country by the US government just before the devastating Biafra war broke out.
Moonlion Safaris 