Ahmed the elephant

 I was surprised and delighted to see that today's 'Google Doodle' is all about Ahmed !  

He was thought to be the Kenya elephant with the largest tusks (probably because he lived in the forest on Mount Marsabit in the northern Kenya desert) .... on the route to Lake Rudolf/Turkana.    We safari-ed to Marsabit several times, usually camping at Lake Paradise (or Gof Bongoli) which is a crater lake in an extinct volcano cone.  It is surrounded by forest and it is very spooky camping there at night, with the sounds of unseen animals and birds of the night !

We saw him just a year or two before he died; he had a presidential protection order on him, and was protected by two armed guards day and night .... as well as having two younger bull elephants always with him as his companions.   It is said his tusks were so long that he could only walk up hills backwards !  He got used to the two askari's always guarding him, and the guards would escort visitors to a safe distance so they could see Ahmed.  Marsabit being so remote, I doubt there were many tourists going up there, when other ellies with (less) large tusks could be seen more easily in Amboseli or Tsavo. 

One day, the askari's couldn't see Ahmed or his two companion elephants, and searched in the forest until they found his body, still protected by his 'companions'; he had just died of old age, not killed by poachers.

His body was taken and preserved at the National Museum in Nairobi, where I took Suzie and Tim to see him in 1996; I emailed daughter Liz today to tell her about the 'doodle' and asked if she remembers seeing him .... she must have been about 2 and a half when she saw him .... we had taken two friends up to Marsabit to show them the desert and the mountain just a few dayas before Christmas, which meant we travelled back to Nairobi on Boxing Day, having missed Christmas, but for the benefit of the children, we adjusted the calendar a little, and  celebrated Christmas on the 27th December !

Ahmeds tusks were about 150 lbs in weight each, probably the largest ever recorded.  

Tree planting

 I saw on the news a few days ago that Kenyan children and workers are having a public holiday, in order to plant thousands of trees. 

The small trees are being provided free of charge, and people are being encouraged to plant them in their shambas, in school grounds, and on any spare land, to help change the carbon damage we are doing to our planet.

The last but one time I went to the carpentry workshop project for HATW, we each planted a small tree on the boundary.   When I returned a year later, the trees were growing strongly and taller than me !

  

Tuk tuk ride for the King !

                                 

King Charles and Queen Camilla have ended a state visit to Kenya by posing in a tuk-tuk used by commuters on the streets of Mombasa.  Sat in the three-wheeled vehicle, the King quipped to reporters: "Maybe we can use this to get to the airport."

Tuk-tuks are used widely across Kenya as an affordable form of transport.

The visit was the King's first to a former British colony since he came to the throne last year.  He focused on the two countries' cooperation on economic development, climate change and security issues.  He also expressed his "deepest regret" for the violence endured during Kenya's struggle for independence from the UK.

However, King Charles did not offer the apology that many victims and their descendants had called for.

Ahead of Charles' trip, protests took place along Mau Mau road, which was named after the group that fought against the colonial rule.  Activists and former freedom fighters held signs bearing statements like "King Charles not welcomed by the Kenyan people" and "decolonise Kenya".

Queen Camilla feeds baby elephant !

 Queen Camilla bottle fed a baby elephant when she visited an orphanage in Kenya for elephants who had lost their parents to poachers.

On the second day of the royal state visit to Kenya, the Queen helped with feeding time at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust Elephant Orphanage.  She and King Charles heard about the work of rescuing and rehabilitating orphaned elephants.As well as poaching, elephants face the threat of deforestation and drought.

If royal state visits have plenty of photo opportunities, few could have such a high cuteness factor as a visit to an elephant and rhino orphanage !

King Charles visits Kenya

 

King Charles has acknowledged the "abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans" during their independence struggle.

On his state visit to Kenya, the King addressed the "wrongdoings" of Britain's colonial era. He told a state banquet in Nairobi of his "greatest sorrow and regret" and that there was "no excuse".  But the King did not deliver a formal apology - which would have to be decided by government ministers.

In response, Kenya's President William Ruto praised the King's courage for addressing such "uncomfortable truths".  The Kenyan head of state told the King that colonial rule had been "brutal and atrocious to African people" and that "much remains to be done in order to achieve full reparations".

Ahead of the King's state visit to Kenya, the first to a Commonwealth country since the start of his reign, there had been speculation about a symbolic royal apology.  But if the King stopped short of an apology, his speech in Kenya's State House was a significant and strongly-worded recognition of the wrongs committed under colonialism.

As Kenya marks its 60th anniversary of independence, the King told his audience: "It matters greatly to me that I should deepen my own understanding of these wrongs, and that I meet some of those whose lives and communities were so grievously affected."   In particular in Kenya there are memories of the suppression of the Mau Mau uprising, in which thousands were killed and tortured in the 1950s before independence.

A decade ago the UK government voiced its "regrets that these abuses took place" and announced payments of almost £20m to more than 5,000 people, in what it called a "process of reconciliation".

Monarchs have to speak on the advice of ministers and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has already rejected calls for an apology on the separate issue of slavery.  The lack of an apology on this trip might have disappointed some Kenyans like David Ngasura of the Kenyan Talai clan.  He has written letters to the Royal Family seeking an apology and reparations - and in response Buckingham Palace referred his request to the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

If there are concerns an apology would be interpreted as an admission of liability and lead to legal claims, the Kenyan survivors of the colonial government's excesses argue it would help bring healing and closure.

King Charles, who delivered a strong acknowledgement of the "most painful times of our long and complex relationship", told his audience that the friendship between Britain and Kenya could be strengthened by "addressing our history with honesty and openness".  His comments went further than a speech in Rwanda last year where he spoke of "the depths of his personal sorrow" at the suffering caused by the slave trade.

Part of the King's speech in Kenya was delivered in Swahili, as he toasted the connections between the countries and remembered the affection his late mother felt for the Kenyan people.  On this first day of the state visit, King Charles had a meeting with President Ruto, visited an urban farm and met young Kenyan tech entrepreneurs.

The King also visited a museum dedicated to Kenya's history and its battle of independence.

The Royal Family, particularly on visits to Commonwealth countries, have increasingly faced questions about the legacies of colonialism and slavery, with calls for apologies and reparations.  Earlier this year, Buckingham Palace said it was supporting independent historical research to examine royal connections to the slave trade.

But newly-published research has revealed a complex picture in royal attitudes towards slavery, with the royal family of the early 1800s divided over abolishing slavery.  The future William IV was a strong pro-slavery advocate, while his cousin the Duke of Gloucester was a leading light of the campaign for abolition.

In the next few days, the state visit to Kenya will focus on ways in which Britain and Kenya are working together, including in tackling climate change and encouraging opportunities and employment for young people.  There will also be a meeting with faith leaders who will talk about building links between communities.

Giraffes !

I bought this book some years ago, and found it again on my Africa shelves .... and having seen a report on the BBC Africa news about spotless giraffes I was prompted to see what  I could find about this amazing, tall and strange  animal !  

This is a newspaper cutting I found tucked into the book, about a giraffe with a broken neck !

   

 The newspaper report is from 2015, and says the giraffe (living in the Serengeti), had been injured five years previously, probably in a fight with another male and had recovered from its injury without any vet attention.  Extraordinary !

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A giraffe conservation organisation has announced the sighting of a spotless giraffe calf in Namibia.  The unique giraffe is thought to be one of the first of its kind to be spotted in its natural habitat.  The giraffe calf was reportedly observed running alongside its mother.

Another spotless giraffe was born on 31 July this year at a zoo in Tennessee in the United States.

The public voted to name the baby giraffe “Kipekee”, a Swahili word for “unique”.

“Only weeks after the birth of a spotless giraffe in the USA, the first spotless giraffe has been spotted in the wild in Africa!” the conservation organisation Giraffe Conservation Foundation reported.  According to the organisation, photographer Eckart Demasius photographed the spotless giraffe in the Namibian wild, near the Mount Etjo Safari Lodge.

(from BBC Africa news)

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And finally, this is a (poor) copy of a copy of a photo I took in 1996, at Langata Nature Education Centre ... my son Tim feeding a giraffe from the top of a tower, so that visitors are eye-level with the giraffes.  

Woolly jumpers for babies !

 At Hands Around the World, we have supporters who don't go on projects, but who do like to knit, using any odd donated wool they can collect.  

So I was delighted to see this three photos of new born babies in Zambia wearing some of the newly donated multi-coloured jumpers from our knitting ladies !

                    

People have asked me, why WOOL jumpers in Africa ?    Because the altitude means it gets very cold at night, and new-borns can be very vulnerable to the cold !

 

Kilimanjaro .... sixty years on.

 

From Ol Tukai lodge, Amboseli 1975 - 

the main peak, Kibo, on the right, with Mawenzi to the left.

Kibo, taken from Tsavo, 1969 - covered in a thick blanket of snow

Two local friends of mine, have just returned from a ten day safari to Tanzania, to climb Kili; I suspect it was quite an expensive luxury safari and climb.  They had guides, and I think they said they took about 8 or so days to climb the mountain.   When we were living in Kenya in the 60's and 70's, a guided safari to climb Kili was five days; three days up and two down.  

We always saw Kili from the Kenya (north) side of the border, but on a trip to the Marangu Hotel in Tanzania, in December 1969, we saw the mountain from the other side, with Mawenzi to the right of Kibo !

I also showed this photo of the Kili glacier to my friends .... I think it was taken about 1966, and possibly by my late father-in-law, but I'm not sure about that.  

My friends said that their guide told them there is only about 3% of the glacier left, and just a little snow in some of the gullies .... global warming has a lot to answer for, especially this year with all the forest fires in Europe and Canada. 

~    ~    ~    ~    ~ 

It is said that Queen Victoria 'gave' Kilimanjaro to Kaiser Wilhelm as a birthday present .... but this isn't strictly true.   

During the 'Scramble for Africa' present-day Kenya was under British rule and Tanzania, then known as German East Africa, was under German control. The Society for German Colonisation was formed at this time to gain access to much of the area now known as Tanzania.  Karl Peters, an explorer and adventurer, gained much of the territory for the Society through documents signed by the chiefs (who probably had little idea what they were signing) ...  of the areas he passed through.

When the boundaries of the new colonies were drawn up the documents signed by the chiefs handing the land of Kilimanjaro to the Germans was accepted, and the highest point of Africa was allocated to German East Africa, and Kenya lost it, but still had Mt Kenya further to the north.

Kilimanjaro (from Kenya) with snow on Kibo's peak under a cloud at dawn

Another amazing Dutch Mill Hill missionary.

 I receive a Mill Hill newsletter almost every day, and in a recent one was an article about the retirement of Gerry Kraakman, whom I met on many occasions, and whose church I visited.  

He is 81 years old and arrived in Kenya the same time as us, autumn 1968, just four months after his ordination in Holland.   He was praised for the number of Christians he baptized in the parishes in which he served, all in western Kenya, and for the development of parishes and through the construction of new buildings, including a wonderful light and airy church at Nanga.

According to Fr. Joseph Oduor the Dean of Kisumu Deanery where Fr. Kraakman has been serving, the Dutch priest has become part and parcel of the people of Kisumu for his love to embrace the luo language.  He said “Fr. Kraakman preaches so well in the local language, that this has led to the spiritual development of the people.” 

Fr. Kraakman will continue assisting in the Parish of Nanga where he has been serving and at the same time assist in any parish that requests help within the deanery for some time before he returns to his native land.

Added later:-

Looking through my Kenya diary of my visit to Kisumu in 2017, I see on Sunday 19th March, I have written:  "Gerry Kraakman had his place at Nanga burgled last night; his night watchman was murdered,   I don't know yet what was stolen (just his fridge).  He seems to live a very frugal life; no TV, etc. - and no security lights or fence ..."

First school !

 

My first two daughters went to a small school on a farm in Lanet, near Nakuru,  This is the whole school, with three of the teachers (white !) and two ayah's (African !)  I love the mix of children .... mostly European .... various English, Dutch, German, American, and white Kenyans .... and some Asian, but no African children.  I suspect the fees were too much even for professional African families.  The white children came from ex-pat teachers families; one was the local doctors son; others were from still white owned farms at Njoro.   I love the little boy in the front row, chin in hands ... and his feet .... one just in a sock, the other bare !  I see 'pudding-basin' hair-cuts were the fashion for children, probably in the absence of any hairdresser or skilled mother !   My oldest daughter is in the third row back, the tall child sitting bolt upright, behind a boy in a white shirt.   I think #2 daughter must have been ill that day and not at school.

School nativity play - the 'choir of angels' !  My younger daughter is between an African girl and an Asian girl in the top photo, with her sister giggling in the front row; and in the second photo she is standing next to her 'tall' older sister in the back row.  

Old Africa - issue 108

 

This has arrived today, and I spent a pleasant afternoon sitting on the sofa reading it.

There is a fascinating article about Boy Long, one of the early settlers, who worked for 'D' .... Lord Delamere, on his Soysambu estate near Lake Elmentaita.   The article quotes 'Kenya Chronicles', a book by Lord Cranworth, and also mentions work by Elspeth Huxley ... both books which I have in my Africa library, so I spent more time during the afternoon finding these books and reading up more about this very enigmatic character.  Boy had an estate at the southern end of Lake Nakuru, near the Nderit river, and I'd guess is now part of the Lake Nakuru National Park.

Kenya certainly produced some interesting people in the early days of white settlement ... mostly of British aristocratic stock, and all quirky characters.   I was delighted to meet a few of them in my earlier years in Kenya.  I must check through the last ten years of blog posts and see if I have written about them !

There is also an article about Grace Onyango, who died in March, and who was the first African female mayor, and an MP.   She taught for a while at Ng'iya Girls School, where we lived when we first arrived in the country, and I met her there some years later, when she was visiting.   

First English slave fort in Africa ....

 I've always been interested in archaeology, and have taken part in many 'digs' in my home town here in Wales .... so this discovery in Ghana immediately caught my eye. 

Taking care, archaeologist Christopher DeCorse spreads the rare artefacts out on a makeshift table next to the dig site.  A gunflint (used in old-fashioned guns), tobacco pipes, broken pottery and the jawbone of a goat are carefully laid out. These discarded fragments, unearthed from centuries of compacted soil, offer clues to a lost past.
"Any archaeologist who says they are not excited when they find something are not being entirely truthful," the professor from Syracuse University in the US says with a broad smile.
These remnants point to the existence of "the first English outpost established anywhere in Africa", he argues.  The archaeologist is standing in the ruins of Fort Amsterdam, speaking above the wind and roar of the Atlantic Ocean waves hitting Ghana's coastline.

Inside that fort are what are thought to be the remains of an older fort - Kormantine - long-lost under the earth, which the professor's team are gradually excavating with brisk activity.  The site of the dig, under the blue canopy, (see picture above), is inside Fort Amsterdam built by the Dutch.  They are methodically combing through distinct layers of soil and stones with soft-bristle brushes and trowels. The disturbed soil removed from the trenches is carefully sieved.  A canopy protects the team and the site from the weather and despite the intense sun and the occasional shower, the archaeologists' work continues.

Ancient maps had referred to a Fort Kormantine in that area, for example the name of the nearby town, Kormantse, is clearly related. In addition, another version of the name, Coromantee, was given to some of the enslaved people in the Caribbean thought to have been transported from this place and later known for slave rebellions.

But where exactly the fort was located remained a matter of speculation, which may have now been brought to an end.  Dating back to the 17th Century, Fort Kormantine sat on the Atlantic coast just at the time when Europeans started shifting their interest from the trade in gold to the trade in humans.  It was a pivotal moment in the history of their involvement in Africa that would have a profound effect on the continent.

The discovery by the team of archaeologists may shed some light on the lives of those early traders and what they were doing, as well as those who were sold and the impact on the community around them.  Ghana's coastal fishing towns, known for their colourful boats and the melodies sung by the fishermen, remain scarred by a past of European exploitation and human cruelty.  The slave forts dotted along what was called the Gold Coast are a looming reminder of that past.  Hundreds of thousands passed through them before being transported in horrific conditions across the sea.  Fort Kormantine - built by the English in 1631 - was one of the earliest places where that journey started.  It began life as a trading post for gold and other items like ivory.

The slave trade only began from there in 1663 when King Charles II granted a charter to the Company of Royal Adventurers of England Trading into Africa (later the Royal African Company). He gave it monopoly rights over the trade in human beings.

It was only in English hands for another two years before the Dutch seized it but Fort Kormantine played a key role in the initial stages of the slave trade. It served as a warehouse for the goods that were used to buy slaves. It was also a brief holding point for those who had been kidnapped in different parts of West Africa before being shipped to the Caribbean to work in plantations to develop the sugar economy.

"We don't have that many details on exactly what these early outposts of the slave trade looked like, which is one of the things that make uncovering the foundations of Fort Kormantine interesting," Prof DeCorse says.

After capturing the fort, the Dutch built Fort Amsterdam on the same site, which is why its exact location could not be pinpointed, especially after it became a United Nations-recognised World Heritage Site, making excavation difficult. But initial digs in 2019 in and near Fort Amsterdam, which turned up some early 17th Century artefacts, suggested where it might be. Archaeologists returned earlier this year and began further searches.

Nigerian archaeology student Omokolade Omigbule says it was "mind-blowing" to see the remains of the English fort.  At first there was some disappointment as they started by finding a lot of plastic items that must have been dropped more recently. But then Omokolade Omigbule uncovered a stone that Prof DeCorse identified as part of a bigger structure.

"It was mind-blowing, seeing first-hand the remnants, the footprints of an actual building subsumed under a new fort.  Seeing the imprints of these external forces in Africa first-hand and being a part of such a dig takes me back a few hundred years, it feels like I was there."

As the excavations continued, they uncovered a six-metre-long (20ft) wall, a door post, foundations and a drainage system made of red brick. All these indicate an English presence pre-dating the Dutch fort. These bowls of tobacco pipes were among the artefacts found at the site.

The pipes with their small bowls where the tobacco was placed "is also very distinctive of the time that we are talking about here", the professor says, adding that over time the bowls got larger as tobacco became cheaper and more readily available.

Archaeology is painstaking work. Each fragment of the past it throws up needs to be interrogated and interpreted.

But in some ways, the hard work has only just begun. Archaeologists will spend the next three years trying to unravel the gamut of Fort Kormantine - its architecture, look and feel - which should in turn reveal its true significance.

By Favour Nunoo of BBC News, Accra

Book repairs

I've been reading and repairing some of my very old books on Africa, and get distracted by the lovely maps they often contain.   BUT, one book, 'Tropical Africa', by Henry Drummond, and published in MDCCCLXXXIX, (1889) has several maps of central Africa but with NO Lake Rudolf !   This needs further investigation !!   An expedition in 1888 led by Count Samuel Teleki 'discovered' this vast lake and named it after the crown prince of Austria.  I say 'discovered' for surely the local people, the El Molo, Turkana, Njemps, Somali and so on, knew of its existence for thousands of years !  I'm trying to find out what the Turkana called it.   

I find it extremely hard to understand how the 'early' explorers could get so many details wrong on their published maps when they later wrote accounts of their explorations.  For example, one map I have just looked at, in a book by Henry Stanley, (In Darkest Africa) which was published 1897, misplaces the Equator.  I lived for several years with the Equator going right through my garden; we grew vegetables south of the Equator, and avacado trees, north of it !   Stanleys map shows the north east corner of Lake Victoria quite the wrong shape, with no Kavirondo Gulf, and has the Equator running through the northern part of the lake; whereas in truth, the Equator runs about 20 miles north-east of the lake (and through my ex garden at Maseno !

Map from 'Tropical Africa' ... see above ... with no L. Rudolf, 

though the lake shown due north of Mt Kenya might be the southern end of Rudolf.  

Where is the rest ?!

So I checked what was shown on my late Uncle Jacks school atlas, published in 1923, and behold !   A mere 26 years later than Stanleys book, the atlas map is correct as far as I can see, with the lake the right shape and the Equator where it should be.  Maps fascinated me as a child, and I wish I had then had access to these old books with their inaccurate maps .... but the books I did have, (and Uncle Jacks atlas) took me to Africa in the 1960's where I got to know Lake Victoria and the Equator.  

Stanley himself ackowledges the vagaries of 'modern' (i.e. 19th century ?) map-makers.  I quote:-  "The modern map-maker is quite as arbitrary as any of his predecessors.  In a late German map, considered to be one of the best in Germany, there is a large bay removed altogether from the Victoria Nyanza, and a straight line, drawn by pure caprice, usurps the place of a very interesting and much indented coastline, explored by me in 1875."  

The 'large bay' he mentions must surely be the Kavirondo Gulf, at the head of which is Kisumu, formerly known as Port Florence, and the rail-head of the 'Lunatic Express', the railway from Mombasa to the lake.

My Africa books ....

Something a little more cheerful after the previous post, about the dreadful traffic accident near Kericho. 

I think my oldest book in my Africa collection of nearly 450 books about all aspects of Africa, dates from1830 ... a small book about elephants !  My African collection includes history of many of the continents countries ....  bird, mammal and plant identification ..... African writers such as Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche ..... Mma Ramotswe the Botswana lady detective .... travel writers .... Kiswahili and Dholuo dictionaries, and even a Luo language Bible ... etc. etc.

I've read most of them, but occasionally I notice one I haven't read, and pull it out and it will keep me interested for a few days.   Its why I like the 'Old Africa' magazine so much ....  "ex Africa semper aliquid novi"  !!

(The black and white pouffe is from Kenya .... cowskin, not zebra as someone once thought !)

The top of the bookcases displays some of my African artifacts .... baskets from Kenya, Botswana, Namibia .... wood and stone carvings from Kenya, pottery .... and a kalima, or thumb piano .... indeed, a friend who visited said going into my sitting room was like entering a museum !   Praise indeed !

Anyway, being cosy with a book in here by the fire in the winter takes me back to the Africa I love so much !

Terrible accident at Londiani Junction (Kericho > Nakuru road)

 

Kenyan roads have always been dangerous; too narrow for modern larger traffic; pot-holes and broken tarmac edges; steeply sloping sides .... and traffic going too fast ... 

So yesterday .... a report on BBC ... 

"At least 48 people have been killed in a road accident at a busy junction in Kenya, police and witnesses say.

It happened after a lorry carrying a shipping container lost control at Londiani Junction, near the western town of Kericho, local media report.

Police commander Geoffrey Mayek said 30 others were seriously injured but added the number "could be more".  He also raised concerns that "one or two" people could still be trapped underneath the overturned vehicle.

Tom Mboya Odero, another regional police commander, was quoted by AFP news agency as saying the lorry travelling towards Kericho "lost control and rammed into eight vehicles, several motorcycles, people who were by the roadside, vendors, and other people who were on other businesses".  Eye witnesses told Kenyan media the driver had been trying to avoid a bus that had broken down on the road.

Kenyan president William Ruto said he had been distressed to hear that some of those killed were "young people with a promising future and business people who were on their daily chores.   We urge motorists to be extra cautious on roads, especially now when we are experiencing heavy rainfall," Mr Ruto added in a tweet.

The town's governor, Dr Erick Mutai, described the incident as a "dark moment" for Kericho.  "My heart is crushed," he said in a Facebook post, alongside the photograph of the container.  Dr Mutai added that the necessary emergency services had been deployed to the scene.

Rainfall is thought to be hindering rescue operations, according to local reports, but it is not clear if the weather played a part in the accident.

Road accidents are a well known problem in East Africa, because roads outside the bigger cities are often narrow.

These pictures could have been taken on the town rubbish dump, but we need to remember this is the 'resting place' of nearly 50 people .... may they rise in glory.