More Stories from East Africa's past for you to enjoy
Black Spots
Located on the west side of the mighty Nile River is the town called Juba. In the 1980’s this town functioned as the capital of southern Sudan, but it was a small place with only two miles of paved road and a few government buildings. Most of the inhabitants still...
East Africa Women’s League Push for Women’s Right to Vote
I’ve recently taken over the editorship of Jambo, the magazine for the East Africa Women’s League (UK). The EAWL is still going strong in both Kenya and Britain. I looked up some notes I had made for my book Red Strangers and found details of the early EAWL in...
Season’s Greetings
There is a common misconception that Christmases are not as enjoyable as they were in the past. In any case celebrating Christmas in the tropics never has been and never will be as good as celebrating it in the Northern Hemisphere. Of the many abilities of the early...
Buck Fever
Hunting is the avocation of most little boys that grow up in East Africa and I was no exception. At the age of ten I was given a .22 rifle by my father and taught how to use it. I started by shooting at paper targets mounted on termite hills and then moved on to...
Endless Horizons
Some of the stories in Old Africa’s latest book – Endless Horizons by Mike Prettejohn – are mind-boggling. The author describes rescuing a schoolmate who fell into the crater at Longonot, he recounts being pummelled by a buffalo, he goes into great detail about a trip...
Journalistic Career In Reverse
I reflected on my journalistic career recently and found out that I have been going backwards. My first assignment in Kenya in 1981 was to Kesho Publications in Kijabe. Kesho means tomorrow and was founded by my father and John Ndeti Somba and others in 1960 to...
Growing Up In Kenya
A propos of my book A Kenya Childhood I have been reading two interesting books recently – An African Childhood by Janet Lewison andMishkid: a Kenyan Childhood by David Webster. Janet Lewison is the daughter of Charles Granston Richards, whom many will remember from...
Safari Rally Part 2
Two generations have passed since 1953 when the East African Coronation Safari Rally was born. That first race was named for the coronation of the beautiful young Princess who went to sleep in Treetops one night and woke up a Queen. All that seemed necessary for this...
Tammu or Jook
Translation of the Scriptures into another language is an intriguing exercise. The translator is challenged to find terms in the receptor language for such key Biblical concepts as Holy Spirit, cross, Satan, evil spirits, savior, prayer and God. If these key terms do...
East African Safari Rally part 1
If you ask any male from the developed world or Kenya over the age of eighteen, “Can you drive?” he will probably be irritated with what he considers a totally unnecessary question and will reply that of course he can and he will think to himself, and better than...
Northrup Book Available
Northrup - The Life of William Northrup McMillan is now available to purchase online. In the US it can be purchased for $15 at Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com In Europe it is available for £9.50 on Amazon.co.uk Book details: Northrup is the story of a big-hearted...
Just Coincidence?
I have reason to believe the phenomenon I am about to describe is not peculiar to myself as several of my contemporaries have found it so. I wonder if it was also so in settler days and if any other geriatric Kenyaphiles have experienced it. Mine is an extreme example...
Comments on the Poem, African Memories
I just posted a poem about Africa and the memories one has after leaving the continent. It was posted on a facebook group called Kenyan friends reunited. We are wondering if any Old Africa readers or friends knows who wrote the poem. As I read it, it brought back...
More African Memories
I was born in Africa and its seasons shaped my soul. I knew my place beneath the sun, the warm earth made me whole, Those arching skies and brilliant stars fixed my position there, That brooding space my boundary, the far horizons clear. I belonged to Africa and...
When a Little Bribe Benefited Everybody
Anybody who ran a car in Kenya during the 1950s or 1960s will recall the name ‘Hassanali,’ because that was the name of the Asian parts dealer in River Road, Nairobi. He sold large amounts of spare parts for motorcars at half the price the main vehicle agents sold...
Kenya High School
I was pleased to read the article ‘Kenya High School Days’ in the October-November Old Africa. I was one of those who helped with fundraising for the new school chapel. We were each given some money at the end of a term and told to increase it with work in the...
The Green Mamba
My family lived in Katangulu, an AIM mission station in Tanganyika, back in the mid-1940s following World War II. We lived about two miles from the shore of Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest lake and we frequently traveled by boat on a varied assortment of...
Murle Conflict
For much of my working career I have been involved with the Murle people of South Sudan. I first met the Murle when Barb and I did a linguistic survey of the South Sudan in 1975. We were intrigued by these traditional people living on the floodplains and a year later...