A Trip to Takwa

Published: Saturday Magazine Nation newspaper 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”

Shela’s Splendour

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.

Continue reading “Shela’s Splendour”