Torn between Sicily and Kenya - Malindi Story
I had never been to Malindi before. No, that is not quite true; I went there once, on a school trip, but that does not really count.
How can you live at the coast and not have been to Malindi? you may ask. That is like being in Amsterdam and never sampling the weed. It is embarrassing, really. But I have always saved Malindi for later.
I know many people who have been to the coastal town, yet it’s not like I actively go out trying to accumulate them. People who visit this town cannot shut up about it; they have to show you their photos as they engage in various acts of unrestrained hedonism.
They go on and on about Malindi, Kenya’s little Italy: inaccessible, inhospitable, and inimical to local residents. Where the plates are filled with spaghetti and all 15-year-old girls are in spaghetti tops.
Malindi holds a special place in the Kenyan psyche; a place of excesses and successes. It is the only place in Kenya with more billionaires per square kilometre than Parliament on Budget Day.
Mombasa’s evil twin
Sunshine, sandy beaches, and sin. Malindi is Mombasa’s evil twin; more corrupt yet more quiet about it, less money yet it is where the real cash is, lagging behind but secretly more satisfied with her progress.
Mombasa still tries to pretend to be Kenyan, but Malindi drifted a long, long time ago and is now somewhere off the coast of Sicily.
It has always been an experiment in failure. The Portuguese originally chose it as a base, and then decided they couldn’t stand it anymore and left for Mombasa.
Malindi was harder to defend and it had no proper harbour, while Mombasa was more cosmopolitan. Cosmopolitan and wetter. Cosmopolitan, wetter, and closer to Mozambique… and it was an island.
Malindi spent its time being tossed between invaders, none of whom really wanted to occupy it. It was only good for looting, plundering, and setting ablaze. More of a one-night stand, not a long-term relationship. It was unwanted and unloved.
No foreign power thought it was worth the gunpowder, and the Maasai and Galla raiders did not feel it was worth their time. Even the ruler of Malindi, Sheikh Muhammad, eventually rolled up his carpet and emigrated to Mombasa.
But it had to get defibrillated back to life. In a fit of genius, the Sultan of Zanzibar rebuilt the town and turned it into an agricultural hub.But then the tides turned, slavery became a bad word (like racism and tribalism are now), and men in top hats and walking canes in Britain started using the word “abolition” right next to “slavery”. It was a blow for Malindi. Just when it had found something it liked, the rest of the world upturned its nose against it.
Then the Germans limited the Sultans’ influence on the coast. This was like severing the umbilical cord. “Patron gone. Under new management.”
It found itself yet another suitor; the British. Malindi, by now, was used to changing masters, never quite settling down and finding it’s happily ever after. She tried growing rubber in 1906, failed miserably, but continued with agriculture until famine put a stop to that too.
In the 1930s, Europeans began settling along the beaches. But fate, that cruel mistress, conspired against her yet again. World War II led to an economic stagnation. Soldiers moved in, holiday makers out.
She found herself under Kenyan control, but Kenya did not know what to do with her. She wasn’t Mombasa, so no port. She couldn’t be Lamu, so the whole town could not be turned into a living museum. Plus, she wasn’t Diani, so it would be unfair to ignore her.
The number of white men increased steadily, the indigenous people were moved away from the beaches as the coastal region experienced its own Klondike period. Beds in hotels increased and, slowly but surely, in a feat of advanced tectonic plate movement, the town moved steadily towards Italy.
So I got out my passport, invited a friend, and headed to Malindi. I had never been to Italy before, so I carried a rosary, which is the only Italian thing I could think of. Arrivare puntuale, we made our way to some forgetful restaurant to eat.
Being outsiders, we were promptly ignored for hours on end… until my friend reminded me that the currency of Malindi was heroin.
Sign of the Cross
It is customary in Malindi to perform the sign of the cross before eating, otherwise the Italian locals will look at you funny. We ordered water.“Will that be mineral or holy water?” asked the disinterested waiter.
“Si. Aqua santa (holy water),” said my friend, adding another sign of the cross.
Nothing in Malindi is astonishingly beautiful, nothing to put on a postcard, nothing to take a photo of and upload on Facebook. We get to the Vasco da Gama pillar and it is extremely underwhelming. It is like a less important, Portuguese, unimpressive version of the Pillars of Ashoka, less edifying and definitely less gratifying. Just a cold slab of indifferent rock that hasn’t been pounded by a tsunami yet.
The Portuguese (and, by extension, everyone who is not Italian) clearly loved my town Mombasa more. Here, they built this coral rock pillar and in Mombasa a majestic fort. The coral rock is going to erode with time from the elements, but the fort will survive, rusty cannons and all.A place of interest this is not. You have to go elsewhere in search of something more interesting. And so we did.
Museums? Boring. Arabuko Monkey Forest? Done it before. Gede ruins? Last time I was there, they were a messy ruin. Have they built them up? No.
So I decided to collect my passport and head back to my beautiful city, Mombasa.
Malindi? Arriverderci.
Story by: WAGA ODONGO
Sunday Nation
Posted Sunday, August 8 2010
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Digging up ancient kingdom
A ninth century kingdom in Malindi is at the heart of a major archaeological excavation that has interested the Chinese, who are trying to establish when their forefathers started interacting with the East African coast.
Chinese and Kenyan archaeologists will dig up two sites around Mambrui village and Khatib Mosque, believed to have been the main city of the ancient kingdom. The experts will also carry out underwater excavations near Shanga in Lamu, where a Chinese ship sank some 600 years ago.
Prof Qin Dashu of the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University in Beijing arrived in Mombasa on Tuesday with two other experts from China ahead of the works, that begin on Sunday.
Prof Qin said this was part of the 10-man team that will try to find the old Malindi city and how it related with Chinese merchants and sailors. “There is very scanty information about ancient Malindi. This work will help us understand what sort of influence it had on trade between East Africa and China,” he said in an interview at the Mombasa Old Law Courts, which also houses the offices of the head of coast archaeology, Dr Herman Kiriama.
Dr Kiriama said there was a strong link between China and the East African coast and the findings in Malindi will help to shed light on the conditions under which the ship capsized in Lamu in the 15th century. “The Chinese sailors in the Zheng He fleet were coming to visit the Kingdom of Malindi which had a vibrant maritime link with China.
“These findings will also help us understand what type of technology the sailors used because the ship that capsized was carrying a giraffe that had been given by the Sultan of Malindi as a present to a Chinese leader,” Dr Kiriama said.
As part of the preparations, he said, two officials from the National Museums of Kenya have been trained on underwater archaeology and will be joining the Chinese experts in November when work to find the shipwreck starts. Dr Kiriama said the Chinese government will spend Sh200 million for the excavation on land in Malindi and underwater in Lamu.
“We are excited about the project because we hope, after this, we will be able to set up a maritime museum to house all the artifacts that would have been excavated along the Kenyan coast. The sunken ship is believed to have been part of an armada commanded by Ming dynasty admiral Zheng He, who reached Malindi in 1418. According to Kenyan folklore, reportedly backed by recent DNA testing, a handful of survivors swam ashore.
Stay and marry local women
One of the descendants of the Chinese sailors is Baraka Badi Shee of Siyu village in Patte island whose daughter, Mwamaka Sheriff, is studying in China. According to folklore, after killing a python that had been tormenting a village, the survivors were allowed to stay and marry local women, creating an African-Chinese community, whose descendants still live in the area.
According to Dr Kiriama, a likely shipwreck site has been identified near Lamu Island. “By examining this shipwreck, we hope to clarify the first contact between China and East Africa,” he said.
By MAZERA NDURYA
Daily Nation
Published- Wednesday, July 28, 2010
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Experts set to unravel puzzle of a Chinese ship that sank near Lamu 
Ms Mwamaka Sheriff, who is studying Chinese medicine, in China on a scholarship is a descendant of the Chinese sailors who survived a 15th Century ship tragedy off the Lamu Archipelago.
The long-awaited work to unravel the history of a Chinese vessel that sank in Kenyan waters more than 600 years ago is set to begin with the arrival of Chinese archaeologists.
The national museums of China and Kenya have organised a joint archaeological dig on and around Lamu islands, where one of Chinese navigator Zheng He’s ships is believed to have sunk in the 15th Century.
National Museums of Kenya assistant director in charge of Coast region Athman Hussein said archaeologists from the two countries expected to get the wrecks of the fleet of the legendary Zheng. He said the experts would conduct both terrestrial and underwater archaeology and use the data to try and understand the weather patterns which could have led to the mishap.
There are strong linkages
“Under-water archaeology is a complex venture that requires massive logistical arrangements and the team will be looking at the type of equipment and personnel that will be employed for the work.
The three-year project, funded by China’s Ministry of Commerce, will explore Kenya’s coasts around Malindi Town and the Lamu Archipelago, where there are still strong linkages with Chinese history,” said Mr Hussein.
He said the work would include examination of the many forms of Chinese porcelain that had been unearthed. “Archaeologists from the two countries will be working for two months every year for the stipulated number of years starting this year.”
The NMK official said the Chinese team would be headed by Mr Zhang Wei, vice-president of the National Museums of China and Mr Zhao Jiabin, the director of underwater archaeology of that country.
Some of the activities leading to the excavation include the training of some Kenyans in underwater archaeology, a complex field that Kenya did not have experts in in the past.
The Lamu Island is one of the key points Zheng’s fleet is believed to have passed through before capsizing in 1415.
Since 2005, the Chinese Government has been dispatching teams of experts to the island after records confirmed the exact location of the capsized legendary Chinese ship, which has been lying on the ocean floor for years. Chinese archaeologists believe the project will shed new light on China’s trading history. Zheng commanded the Ming dynasty’s merchant fleet of hundreds of ships to Kenya twice in the 15th Century.
Married local girls
Many people believe one of his ships sank around the Lamu Archipelago. The sailors then stayed on the archipelago, married locals and taught them farming and fishing.
Archaeological excavations have also proved the existence of Chinese descendants on the archipelago.
As a result of the Chinese connection with Lamu and specifically Siyu on Patte Island, there has been a lot of movement over the years by Chinese historians and tourists to learn more about the 15th Century history.
One of the beneficiaries of the close linkages is Mwamaka Sheriff, a young woman who is currently studying Chinese medicine at Nanjing University on a scholarship from the Chinese Government. Her family was directly linked to the Chinese sailors who survived the tragedy and intermarried with the locals.
By MAZERA NDURYA
Published, Monday, July 26 2010
Daily Nation
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The ruins of Mnarani
Along the Mombasa-Malindi road lies the Gede remains and Takwa, Siyu Fort and Shanga ruins lying near each other in the Lamu islands. The latter ruins are renowned as the earliest known Swahili settlements on the Kenyan coastline. But hidden away are the Mnarani ruins. Its historic background indicates that it thrived as an ancient Swahili-Arabic settlement whose foundation can be traced to the early years of the 13th century.
“This settlement came to being as a centre for barter trade and marketing of assorted goods brought to the East African coast by Arabic merchants from the Far East and Persia in exchange of local products,” says Amini Tengezo, curator.
Mnarani was a vibrant trading centre, town and commercial port within this part of coastal strip. This was prior to the existence of modern day Kilifi town. Though the ruins were officially inducted in the Government gazette in 1977, research is yet to establish whether the ancient town may have been known by another name. The rise in historic prominence of Mnarani bears similarities to the widely celebrated, one-time independent city-state of Lamu. But since the settlement’s existence, the name has grown and now engulfs immediate surroundings. But most distinctive feature of the ancient Mihrab mosque, which distinguishes it from rest, is its three entrances.
In its era, it was among the few with a distinct main door at the sides or the less common main door at the southern end opposite the qibla. “The mosque’s multiple arches, inscribed writings on its walls and a fluted apse are unique. Its interior concave design might have served a particular function of amplifying the Imam’s (prayer leader) voice down aisle to the mosque’s back end,” he notes.
Women faithful
Research indicates a similarly designed mosque was also found in the ancient sea port of Kilwa along the Tanzanian coastline. “The mosque in Kilwa is bigger and this one slightly smaller, though recent excavations indicate existence of smaller mosque ruins in Malindi bearing the same features. But any links between the three are yet to be collaborated,” adds the curator. One other key facet of the Mnarani ruins is a smaller mosque, built some hundred metres away from the more spacious Mihrab at around the same time. It might have been used by women faithful – pointing towards practice of gender disparities ingrained as far back as centuries ago. Within it, are distinct coral arch’s chipped into on the walls, suggestive these could have been used for keeping Islamic tasbih rosary beads or possibly also in storage of lighting lamps during prayer sessions.
According to historic sources, the Portuguese went on to impose controls on trade in almost every commodity and thus destroyed the basis of existence of the ancient town. But by then the Swahili influence had already taken root within the region spawning settlements in Gede, Mtwapa, Ungwana, Shaka, Mwana, Kiburungeni, Mgangani, Tiwi.
Published on 19/07/2008
STANDARD
By Emmanuel Mwendwa
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GEDE
Gede ruins are the remains of a Swahili town, typical of most towns along the East African Coast. It traces its origin in the twelfth century but was rebuilt with new town walls in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This rebuilding is connected with the emigration of many citizens of Kilwa to Mombasa, Malindi and other places along the coast. With its numerous inhabitants, the town became wealthy and it reached its peak in the fifteenth century. This enormous wealth is evidenced by the presence of numerous ruins, comprising of a conglomeration of mosques; a magnificent palace and houses all nestled in 45 acres ofprimeval forest. But in the first half of the seventeenth century the lastfamilies left the town.
Gede's eventual abandonment to nature is believed to be as a result of a number of factors. Namely, the Wazimba raid along the East African coast in 1589. The removal of the Sheikh of Malindi and the Portuguese to Mombasa in 1593. The falling water table as shown by the deepening of the well outside the Great Mosque and finally the overhanging menace of the Galla, a hostile nomadic ethnic group from Somalia. Gede remains the first intensively studied site on the coast. It was first visited by Sir John Kirk, a British resident of Zanzibar in 1884. Over forty years later in 1927, it was gazetted as a Historical Monument. Two years later in 1929, it was declared a "protected monument" and in the late thirties, the Public Works Department carried out work on preservation of its crumbling walls.
Gede was soon after the repairs in 1948 declared a National park and an Archaeologist appointed as warden. Thus, the first archaeological work at Gede began under the direction of James Kirkman followed by the first publication of the site. In 1969, Gede's administration was taken over by the Museum Trustees.
Currently the Monument is under the care of the National Museums of Kenya and in addition to being avery important archaeological site; Gede indigenous forest is a sacred site for traditional rituals and sacrifices for the surrounding community.
NATIONAL MUSEUMS OF KENYA
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From a Pokomo lullaby, the national anthem was born
By Andrew Kuria
STANDARD
Published on 20/07/2008
The Kenya National Anthem turns 45 next month. It was a product of long soul searching. Music scripts went through the hands of several writers before the anthem could be adopted as the sole national tune. The tune was borrowed from a Pokomo lullaby.
At the onset, the task of arranging the National Anthem seemed simple. But when a five-man music commission appointed by President Mzee Jomo Kenyatta set out to work, under the guidance of a great music director and teacher Graham Hyslop, they found out it was no mean task coming up with a tune that would be accepted by all Kenyans.
A primary school teacher from Tana River District, Meza Morowa Galana, then aged 44, originated the tune that was adopted. Before independence as a music director roving around Tanganyika, Kenya and Uganda in search of untapped music talent and unrecorded songs for schools’ competition, Hyslop, visited Makere village in Gwano-Galole location of Tana River District where Galana was a Kiswahili, mathematics and music teacher. It was during this visit that the music director left instructions the primary school at Makere should provide a traditional song for competition.
Initially, Galana took the matter lightly, but when the director insisted the village school should at once provide a song, he realised the seriousness of the matter. The teacher went home and after the heart searching recalled a lullaby which his mother, Mama Maria Bawadza Galana, used to send children to sleep.
The teacher then took out a pen and paper and scribbling the words in his dialect, improved on the song, in one stanza. He then handed the song over to Graham Hyslop.
Village song
The song was given out as a set piece presentation from the school. The result was that it was a hit and was selected as one of the best entries. The music teacher, other staff and students were elated. What at the beginning seemed a simple and ordinary village song was acquiring national importance.
The words in of one stanza were compelling and interesting, especially when translated.
The song went:
Bee mdondo bee,
Bee mdondo bee,
Akudhobee nyigane,
Hwende ukawapige,
Wandu wa makondeni,
Mwezi uwaya ng’aa.
The popularity of the song did not stop at the Schools Music Festival. That year Kenya attained self-rule and started looking for the national anthem to replace the British “God Save The Gracious Queen” anthem. Bee Mdondo Bee was among the songs brought forward for consideration.
Five-man committee
Prime Minister-designate Mzee Jomo Kenyatta then appointed a five-man committee headed by Hyslop. Other members included George Senoga-Zake (a music teacher and the first African to qualify with a Diploma in Music from the East African Conservatoire of Music), Thomas Kalume, Peter Kibukosya and Washington Omondi. The team was to arrange and look for a tune that would be the National Anthem.
The tune had to be attractive and one that would be suitable for both English and Kiswahili versions.
The team came up with different tunes. It was the first time local musicians in Africa had been given a task of preparing an anthem for the consideration of a government.
At the beginning of September the committee handed over their findings to Prime Minister-designate. They travelled to Kenyatta’s Gatundu home armed with their best three tunes and accompanied by the police band. In attendance were entertainment teams, among them school children.
Notable among those present were the members of the newly appointed Cabinet who had been invited by Kenyatta to decide on the final version of the Kenya National Anthem. Three alternative tunes were played.
After hearing the Kenya Police Band play out the three tunes over and over again, members of the Cabinet were unable to make up their minds. In the end the Prime Minister asked the estimated 600 children who had gathered around his garden to decide for the members of the Cabinet.
The tunes were played once more. Surprisingly every child unanimously voted for what is now, Kenya National Anthem. The Pokomo lullaby carried the day. It was an instant hit to the delight of the Premier.
It was adapted, harmonised and words written by the National Commission of Music. Three stanzas with carefully selected words were put in it.
“Many tunes from various parts of the country were considered. The tune had to be of right length and quality,” the statement of September 25, 1963. stated. This was just less than three months before Kenya’s Independence.
Processed and distributed
On October 25, 1963, the first recordings of the anthem were processed and distributed throughout the world by East African Records Limited Studios.
Soon, members of the Anthem commission, led by Hyslop and Zake, were teaching Kenyans how to sing the anthem.
All waited with bated breath as Independence Day drew close. A statement was issued that the tune would go in use officially on December 12, 1963. And so after the British flag, the Union Jack came down at midnight on December 12, 1963 and the Kenya flag was hoisted up. Kenyans then ecstatically sang out their national anthem.
On January 5, 1964 a statement from the PM’s office was issued stating; “The Kenya National Anthem should be played when the Governor General or the PM arrives at an important function. The anthem should be played at the time of arrival of each in turn.’’ However by the end of that year the Governor General would pack up his bags and Kenya had its first President, Jomo Kenyatta.
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