Mandera attacked again

I heard on the BBC World Service last night that there has been another al-Shabab attack on Mandera, which was attacked before in November, 2014.

See  http://luolaughter.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/kenyan-security.html 

Todays BBC Africa news has a brief report (any other news being eclipsed by the expansion of Heathrow Airport news):-

"At least 12 people have been killed in an attack in Kenya claimed by Somalia-based militant Islamist group al-Shabab.

The target was a guesthouse hosting members of a theatre group who were performing plays in schools in the north-eastern town of Mandera. 

There has been a spate of deadly attacks targeting Christians in the mainly Muslim region around Mandera.

Reports say that the 10-member theatre group was composed of university students who had travelled to the town to perform plays in local schools.

Two members of the little known theatre travelling group, Pearls Quality Edutainment, were killed."


 There is really nothing to say about senseless killings like this .....  

~  ~  ~

Update on 6th November:    "The Kenyan government has introduced a curfew in Mandera county from 6:30pm to 6:30am until 27 December, 2016"

The latest 'Old Africa' magazine

 

 

I'm always amused by some of the letters to the editor !    This issue includes one which starts "Issue 66 fetched up at our manyatta this morning ..."   interesting, I thought .... a Maasai subscribes !   Then I saw the address of the writer .... J. Smith, Sutton, Surrey, UK !!

 

There's an article on coffee farming in Koru; another on elephants swimming in the sea; and more articles on WW1 in East Africa.   A friend of mine who also subscribes commented on the latest issue:  "Gives the feeling that our time in Kenya was very recent, but I suppose most of the articles are written by children, or perhaps even grandchildren, of the old-timers described in them."

We were both there in the 1960's and 70's, so yes, I guess that was quite recent !  But as for 'old timers' I have occasionally met some of them on my regular visits to Kenya.   A few years ago I met the nursing sister who delivered my daughter in 1971, and have on my last three visits by sheer coincidence met a fellow traveller at the airport either in London or Nairobi who knew people I knew when I lived there.   Small world.

Us old Africa hands !!

I was in the HATW office this morning; we had a lady from Hereford come in who was interested in volunteering sometime.   She had worked out in Uganda; was born in Ghana; had lived near Nairobi for a while.

She had a chat to us for nearly an hour .... lots of reminiscences and comments on how things were and how they are now in Africa.  She said how nice it was to be able to talk 'Africa' to people who knew what it was like, and who could listen and comment with interest. 

That's just how I feel and it's what I get mostly from working in the office with 'old Africa hands' !   Most people where I live, even my family, have absolutely no interest in where I go, what I do.  I remember telling someone in the village that I'd been out to Kenya for a month, working with orphans, street kids, people with HIV, and the only comment I got in reply was 'Oh yes;  we went to Majorca for a holiday this year'.   End of conversation.    

Harry Hook's talk and film

I went to see this in Monmouth with some of the others from HATW.   They were selling Harry's beautiful, beautiful book in the foyer of the cinema, but at £65 a copy (!) it was a case of look only.    His talk was most interesting; lots of wonderful slides and short films, some of which I'd seen before on the BBC.   Poor man, his Apple kept stalling and that meant his flow of pictures and short films got snarled up, but someone from the audience was able to sort it out.

I quote from the blurb about his book on the 'net:- 

"Across much of sub-Saharan Africa millions upon millions of Africans are heading for towns and cities. This permanent movement of people leaving their land and villages has gathered pace during our lifetime.  It’s a migration that’s caused massive cultural and social change across Africa.  African cities loom large and now dominate people’s frame of reference.  Many of the distinct rural societies and tribal groupings have become homogenized and lost within urban populations.  Africans do still hold an allegiance to their tribe and ethnicity but with a newly found urban-psyche many miss the close bond and support of their group.  Crucially most modern city-dwellers have lost their personal link to a place on the land that until recently was 'home'."              http://www.aboutafricabook.com/book.html

This is so true in my experience; when I first went to Africa 48 years ago, and saw what the students were being taught .... I knew it was wrong.   We were teaching boys to become white collar workers, aiming at jobs in the cities, whereas at independence when the British government set up schools, we should have concentrated on technical schools leading on to apprenticeships.   African countries need engineers, agricultural experts, foresters, electricians, mechanics .... not so many unemployed academically trained people.   I have visited government offices recently and seen for myself how most of the staff sit around reading the paper most of the day or take the day off ... "he is not on seat"  is what you get told if you need to see a specific person.

I managed to have a chat with Harry in the interval, and mentioned I'd met his father; Harry sighed and said everywhere he gave these presentations someone says they knew his father ! 

A busy market scene, from Harry's book.  

And for a flavour of his talk, see this:-  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wBODpBlaySw