Tag: culture

Sand dunes of Shela looking across at Manda Island Copyright Rupi Mangat

Shela’s Splendour

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Published Saturday magazine Nation newspaper 21 October 2017

Above: Sand dunes of Shela looking across at Manda Island – Copyright Rupi Mangat

1960s picture of Shela with the 1829 Friday mosque so prominent - featured on the booklet on Shela ‘Quest for the Past’ an historical guide to Lamu archipelago by Chrysee MacCasler Perry Martin and Esmond Bradley Martin published in 1969.
1960s picture of Shela with the 1829 Friday mosque so prominent – featured on the booklet on Shela ‘Quest for the Past’ an historical guide to Lamu archipelago by Chrysee MacCasler Perry Martin and Esmond Bradley Martin published in 1969.
The 1829 Friday mosque in Shela today - notice the electricity power lines above that are nowhere in the 1960s picture. Copyright Rupi Mangat
The 1829 Friday mosque in Shela today – notice the electricity power lines above that are nowhere in the 1960s picture. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Shela was Lamu’s (town) poorer cousin. Set on the same island of Lamu, l’m reading an interesting account of Shela in ‘Quest for the Past’ an historical guide to Lamu archipelago by Chrysee MacCasler Perry Martin and Esmond Bradley Martin published in 1969. The sultan of Pate sacked Kitau on Manda island in mid-14th century and the people fled to Lamu town as refugees. 200 years later, they asked the Sheikh of Lamu if they could build their own town. He agreed but on condition that no stone building was to be built in Shela.

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A Nigerian Fest in Nairobi

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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.

Alan Donovan buying his first work of African contemporary art from Nigerian artist Muraina Oyelami in Oshogbo Nigeria, in 1967. The Oshogbo group of artists celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with Alan Donovan who arrived in Africa in 1967, during a mammoth city wide Nigerian Festrival in Nairobi during the months of October and November.
Alan Donovan buying his first work of African contemporary art from Nigerian artist Muraina Oyelami in Oshogbo Nigeria, in 1967. The Oshogbo group of artists celebrate their 50th anniversary this year with Alan Donovan who arrived in Africa in 1967, during a mammoth city wide Nigerian Festrival in Nairobi during the months of October and November.

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Playful young chimpanzee in Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika. Copyright Rupi Mangat

To Tanganyika

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For the chimpanzees (sokwe mtu in Kiswahili)

Published The East African Nation media 16-22 September 2017

Above: Playful young chimpanzee in Gombe National Park on the shores of Lake Tanganyika.  Copyright Rupi Mangat

When l heard Dr Jane Goodall talk in Nairobi about her ground-breaking pioneering chimpanzee research in Gombe it became my mission to get there in search of our closest relative whose DNA is 98 per cent like ours. It was Goodall who first documented chimpanzees using tools for a purpose – inserting sticks in a termite mound to fish out the insects for a snack – that made Louis Leakey the Kenyan paleoanthropologist quote famously, “Now we must redefine tool, redefine Man, or accept chimpanzees as humans” Continue reading “To Tanganyika” →

Approaching Lamu Stone Town on Lamu island Photo: Maya Mangat

Nyota House in Stone Town Lamu

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Published Saturday Magazine,Nation newspaper 5 August 2017

“This part of town was called Utukuni,” states Hadija Ernst of Save Lamu, a coalition of 36 local NGOs to promote Lamu’s sustainable development, while protecting its culture, history and natural resources.

Utukuni in Kiswahili means market. “It was a market street where the merchants had their warehouses.”

Rooftop Nyota House Photo: Maya Mangat
Rooftop view of Lamu from Nyota House Photo: Maya Mangat
Inside garden of Swahili House Museum with the central well to draw fresh water Photo: Maya Mangat

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Southrern white rhino female and her calf at Lewa Conservancy with Mount Kenya as a backdrop Copyright Rupi Mangat

Lewa Life

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In Kenya’s Northern rangelands it’s home to amazing wildlife

Published Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 10 June 2017

Above: Southrern white rhino female and her calf at Lewa Conservancy with Mount Kenya as a backdrop – Copyright Rupi Mangat

From the high peaks of Mount Kenya to the plains at Lewa -copyright Rupi Mangat
From the high peaks of Mount Kenya to the plains at Lewa -copyright Rupi Mangat

From the high slopes of Mount Kenya, the northern rangelands fill the horizon with massif peaks and plains. Driving over the under pass on the main road before turning in to Lewa and Isiolo, elephants walk through it safely migrating between the low arid plains of the north and the high slopes of Mount Kenya.

Ngiri House at Lewa -copyright Rupi Mangat
Ngiri House at Lewa -copyright Rupi Mangat

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