Welcome to Old Africa

your window into East Africa’s past.

Old Africa books

Old Africa books are well-told stories in the same tradition as the shorter pieces

our readers have come to enjoy from the pages of Old Africa magazine.

Old Africa magazine seeks to tell the story of East Africa’s past through well-written stories and vintage photographs. Founded in October 2005, the first issue featured a story about the Royal Navy’s ill-fated attempt to launch a naval presence on Lake Rudolph (now Lake Turkana) and an account of the Kedong Massacre. Since then the magazine has published stories and photos from Kenya’s diverse ethnic groups – African, Asian and European – to preserve East Africa’s history. 

Margaret Griffiths, a Missionary Wife

Margaret Griffiths, a Missionary Wife The women who accompanied their husbands on their early missionary endeavours in East Africa were a stalwart bunch. One such was wife of John Bynner Griffiths, a Methodist missionary at Mazeras. Margaret E. Edwards was born in...

The Kenya Firm of Hughes Ltd.

The Kenya Firm of Hughes Ltd. The firm of Hughes is famous throughout Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. What were its origins? It was the brainchild of John Joseph Hughes, a twenty-year-old sent to Kenya in 1920 as a buyer for the London firm of fibre merchants Robinson,...

A Titanic Survivor in Kenya: Amy Fenwick

A Titanic Survivor in Kenya: Amy Fenwick We often read about the activities of men in early Kenya, but we hear little of their wives. William Fenwick went to Kenya in 1920 as an administrative cadet, the first rank of those who became district and later provincial...