More Stories from East Africa's past for you to enjoy
The Royal Standard
During the Queen Mother’s visit to Kenya in the late 1950s they flew the Royal Standard from the flagpole at the entrance to Government House. One day the person in charge of raising the flag made the mistake of putting two ends of the rope through the grommets on the...
Do Not Disturb!
Featured in Only in Africa - April-May 2007 A left turn off the pathway from our verandah passed between tall parallel kei-apple hedges. A little further on the hedges widened to enclose a sheltered spot. In the centre, facing east, the structure coyly referred to in...
Christine Nicholls’ Blog – 21 September 2011
When I was writing Red Strangers: the White Tribe of Kenya (2005, difficult to get hold of, but now available on Kindle) I came across references to the shady ways of some of the early white tourists. They came to Kenya to bag animal trophies, but the animals were not...
Christine Nicholls’ Blog, 8 October 2011
In trouble with my car the other day, I remembered stories of the early Kenya roads. Nairobi was a bottomless bog of black cotton soil in the rainy season, while in the dry season the soil baked dry and became a fine powder. Everything was covered in dust. Sometimes...
Sports for Peace in Laikipia
My wife and I attended the fourth edition of the Laikipia Highlands Games, which attracted over 600 athletes to Kuki Gallman’s Olari Nyiro Ranch on September 24, 2011. Following the athletes’ parade, the games commenced with a demonstration of traditional spear...
Remembering Cynthia Salvadori
We were all saddened to receive the news of Cynthia Salvadori's passing in late June. She was a good friend and regular contributor to Old Africa magazine. We will have a tribute to Cynthia in our August-September magazine written by Neera Kapur-Dromson. But here's...
We are now selling PDF copies of Old Africa!
We have had a lot of people asking if they could just buy a PDF copy of Old Africa. Well we are now happy to say, YES to that question. On our SUBSCRIPTION page you can now purchase single issues or even subscribe for 1 or 2 years to our digital copy. Please note...
New Title from Old Africa Books
Drinking the Wind: Memoirs of an African Odyssey by Jon Arensen Drinking the Wind traces the life of Jon Arensen who arrived on the African continent with his parents in 1946. Growing up in Tanganyika in the bush by Lake Victoria, Jon learned Kisukuma before he spoke...
A Housewife Spying on the Italians in Ethiopia in 1939?
It sounds more like a Mrs Pollifax mystery novel. Katharine Fannin, a surveyor's wife from Kenya made an informal spying trip trhough Italian-held Ethiopia and was hosted by the highest government officials in Addis Ababa. Later she received commendations from the...
Only in Africa – Quirky Tales that Happened in Africa
The Lion Roars at Dawn On a camping trip to Maasai Mara I had a new kijana as my camp helper to make the fire in the morning for chai. We slept in different tents. Early one morning I called to him to go make the fire. I heard the kijana getting up and the tent...
Great African Baloonograph Safari Fizzles
1909 Charles Hughes spent his honeymoon in Kenya as the writer and secretary for the great African Balloonograph Expedition. His bride Anna didn’t join him. She spent their honeymoon with her mother in Europe. The couple’s strange start to married life is entwined...
Pioneering Postman Delivers The Mail
Author: John Cherry Adapted from a 1955 East African Standard newspaper article written by John Cherry. The article also appeared in Awaaz magazine and was submitted to Old Africa by Alif Din’s son Ehsan H. Malik from Nairobi. 1912 “I need a volunteer to inspect the...
We Pushed the Governor out of the Mud
Author: Jill Simpson 1946 We rounded a curve on the wet road, chains spitting mud into the air, and found a big fancy car stuck in a mud hole. We were on school holiday at our Mianzini Farm near Turi. My parents had left the house earlier in the morning to help...
Italian Expedition Scales Ruwenzoris
1906 The Italian adventurer, Luigi Amedeo di Savoy, Duke of Abruzzi, spearheaded an expedition to explore, map and photograph the mysterious Ruwenzori Mountains in the heart of Africa. No stranger to harsh conditions, Luigi Amedeo began his life in a palace. At...
Epic Safari Marred by Disasters
by: Dominik Kamonde Kitonyi 1967 As I drove the Land Rover through Uganda on the way to Kidepo National Park, I felt a jolt behind me. The trailer tyre hurtled past me and into the grass. I stopped to check the damage. The wheel had sheered off at the axle. I don’t...
Russian Officer with King Menelik’s Army
Ethiopia Through Russian Eyes; Country in Transition 1896–1898 by Alexander Bulatovich, translated & edited by Richard Seltzer (Red Sea Press, 2000). Reviewed by Cynthia Salvadori Despite its bland title, this is the most important book on the history of eastern...
Missionaries Murdered at Golbanti
1886 Maasai warriors, armed with long heavy spears and terrible clubs, met Methodist missionaries, John and Annie Houghton, just outside the stockade of their mission station at Golbanti on the Tana River. A second group of Maasai joined the first on the open road and...
Herod the Hero
One tradition for our family is attending the Christmas morning play at the Africa Inland Church at Kijabe, Kenya. The first re-enactment of the Christmas story was probably started by some missionary Sunday school teacher with memories of the annual children’s...