More Stories from East Africa's past for you to enjoy
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...
Graduations in Kenya
Have you ever been to a graduation ceremony in Kenya? I who claim to have done most things there are to do in Kenya had not until last week, and even then I only got as far as the main entrance to the Catholic University for Eastern Africa. Graduations from places of...
Rags to Riches no more
The phrase ‘from rags to riches’ has stood the test of time since it was coined in the Georgian days of the English speaking world to describe the one in ten thousand fortunate working class person who had overcome all the barriers the ruling class had thought out to...
Eccentric Pioneers
Last Sunday I went to lunch with ex-DCs Peter Fullerton and John Golds. There was talk of old times in the Tana River area, and of Kenya’s Governors Sir Evelyn Baring and Sir Patrick Renison. As ever, the eccentricities of early pioneers were in our minds. I am...
Marmite and Kippers
Once upon a time, a few years after WWII, when Socialist Britain had got its act together, supermarkets had already begun their war on the English village post office and shop. Halfway around the world in Kenya, the colony still depended on the efficient, hardworking...
Culture Stress
I grew up in East Africa speaking a local language and associating with a large variety of African people. Since attending college I have spent 40 years working in Africa in many different roles including teaching, translating and administration. For many years I...
Aerogrammes – Communications Of Yesteryear
When my wife and I turned up in Kenya in the mid-1950s overland from the UK, it had been arranged that our best friend and his wife also from the UK should follow us out. My best friend duly arrived but without his wife. An annulment was arranged and he soon became...
Africa Revisited
The wind blew off Lake Tanganyika causing the coconut palms to whisper in the gentle breeze. I was sitting on a hard wooden chair in the courtyard of an elderly man named Musa. As the sun slowly set over the lake in a fantasy of red, I watched Musa's family as they...
Pure White Hunters Safaris
Before Africa had television sets, people entertained by holding dinner parties. To most white settlers in Kenya, missionaries were socially unacceptable whereas White Hunters were highly sought after for these dinner parties. This social scale was a serious...
Kathini Graham
I watched the Olympic Games 800 metres final when Kenya’s Rudisha beat the world record and won the race in spectacular fashion. Everyone, including Sebastian Coe and Steve Cram, who really know how to run that distance, said it was the best race of the Olympics. The...
The Python’s Ploy
As a little girl at Katangulu, Tanganyika Territory in the late 1940s visits from snakes of various sizes and shapes seemed to be part of our daily routine, especially during the hot months of the seasonal dry time. These periods of drought and sometimes famine...
Horace The Horned Viper
In the early 70s my wife and I were teachers at the Rift Valley Academy – a school located in the highlands of Kenya. Our students came from all over East Africa so during one of the vacations periods we decided to visit some of the parents who were located in eastern...
God Save Our Gracious Queen
Readers who read Old Africa magazine and bloggers who blog may wonder why on earth Dick Hedges is duplicating an existing blog and why, known for his Leftist views, should he want any monarch saved, gracious or otherwise? To the former question you will see my blog is...
A Sukuma Ceremony
My father spent 45 years living and working in East Africa. During the first 15 years he worked with the Sukuma people in northern Tanganyika. The Sukuma people are the largest ethnic groups in Tanzania and they live in the plains just south of Lake Victoria. My...
The White Man’s Grave
Today, not even the most adamant critic of living in Sub-saharan Africa, would suggest that it was a particularily unhealthy area in which to live. This shows how very far medicine has advanced in the last 100 years, because for well in to the 20th century, Africa,...
Mishkids and Civil Servants
Here in England we are all geared up for the Olympic Games, starting this week. I hope Kenya’s athletes are on top form and win many medals. I have just been reading a fascinating book – Mishkid: A Kenyan Childhood, by David Webster (available on Amazon). David was...
Remembering Birds
Birds are an integral part of the African scenery. When I think back over the many years I lived in Africa I recall many aural images. In my head I hear the piercing call of the African fish eagle, the raucous squawk of the Hadada ibis and the booming sound of the...