More Stories from East Africa's past for you to enjoy
Mayence Bent and The New Stanley Hotel – Part 2
Last month we saw how Mayence Bent started the Stanley Hotel in Nairobi on Victoria Street (now Tom Mboya Street). She abandoned her so-called ‘husband’, William Bent (actually her step-brother) and took up with Frederick Francis Tate, fifteen years her junior (he was...
Book Review: Under the Shadow of the Oath
Here’s an excellent book review by Jeremy Hooker on one of our recent Old Africa book titles. The review first appeared in August 2013 in the Powys Journal no XXIII and we thank the Powys Journal and Jeremy Hooker for their permission to share the book review here....
Mayence Bent and The New Stanley Hotel
Mayence Ellen Bent, the founder of the New Stanley Hotel (now the Stanley Ramada) in Nairobi, had a most interesting early life. She was born in the district of St Pancras, London, on 17 April 1868, the daughter of Walter Bentley Woodbury and Marie Olmeijer. Her own...
Christine Nicholl’s Blog 20 July 2013
Sammy Jacobs (1887-1951) In my blogs of 2 January and 25 January 2012 I talked about the arrival of Jewish families in Kenya. One person I mentioned was Solomon (Sammy) Jacobs, proprietor of the Dustpan emporium in Nairobi before the First World War. Recently his...
Becoming Mzee
Vacations at the Indian Ocean have been part of the Arensen tradition for many years. When I was a boy my parents would take the family to the coast once a year – usually for 10 days. We used to stay in a run-down self-serve cottage that cost us $5 a day. However, we...
Boers in Eldoret and Goan Exhibition in London
At a lunch attended by Kenyan oldies last week, talk turned to the early settlers in Eldoret. Why were there so many South African Boers there? The first to come were the Van Breda brothers, who built a grass hut on the Uasin Gishu plateau in 1903 and started to grow...
My Doll Becky
One of my early recollections is when my parents, George (Hap) and Betty Donner gave me a special baby doll named Becky. Becky was the size of a two-to-four-month-old baby. Becky had blue eyes with long eyelashes that closed when I laid her down. Here body was soft...
Playing Pretend in Tanganyika
When my big brother Cal was home from boarding school, my younger sister Marlowe and I enjoyed playing ‘pretend’ in very creative ways. Being quite young when we’d left the USA for Tanganyika, our memories of America were dim at best. I recall wearing hats and...
Appendicitis in Sotik
I came across a letter written by Mrs Brian Shaw, of Sotik, in the early days of white settlement in Kenya. The hardships the settlers faced were enormous. When Brian Shaw developed acute appendicitis a doctor and nurse had to come from Nakuru, while friends and...
Flame Trees of Thika
Surely it is time for another showing of the TV series of Elspeth Huxley’s book, The Flame Trees of Thika? Filming took place in Kenya in eighteen weeks before Christmas, 1980, with Hayley Mills playing Tilly, Elspeth’s mother, and Holly Aird as Elspeth. The filming...
Shoes from America
I remember vividly anticipating the arrival of a package from America, which was to contain five pairs of shoes for me! In those days in Tanganyika shoes were not readily available and I was growing faster than my parents could keep me in shoes. We were always...
East Africa Women’s League Meet in London
The EAWL, which of course still flourishes in Kenya, was begun in 1917. Above is the College of Arms Grant of Arms in 1974. We had the annual general meeting of the East Africa Women’s League (UK branch) on Tuesday 19 March, at the Victory Services Club in London. The...
Castor Oil – Ugh!
One of my most unpleasant experiences as a youngster growing up in Tanganyika Territory was having to swallow terrible tasting medicines for various diseases or illnesses! Having to swallow bitter quinine daily against malaria was bad enough but when worms took up...
Vladimir Verbi
I was interested to read in the piece by Michael Aronson in Old Africa of Feb/March 2013 (Only in Africa section) that Michael had met Vladimir Verbi. I have always been interested in this man, a missionary tried for murder. When Canon Peter Bostock was still alive, I...
The Golden Cowrie
Barb and I met at the Rift Valley Academy where we were both teachers. I had the joy of introducing her to the beautiful country of Kenya. We went on safaris, hunting trips, hikes and walked the sandy beaches where Kenya touched the rolling waves of the Indian Ocean....
The Greyhound Story
(I don’t have a photo of a greyhound so a cheetah will have to do.) My adventurous travel spirit served me well during my high school days in Kenya and on into college. My best example is what I call the Greyhound story. After my sophomore year of college I was...
Huge Hippos
It was in an early morning call of desperation. “Bwana, kiboko iko ndani ya shamba! Saidia!” Here’s a loose translation. Mr missionary, please come down to the lake as the hippos have been eating in our gardens and have destroyed our crops! My dad, Oliver Donner, was...
Cricket in Latest Old Africa mag
Yesterday we mailed out Old Africa issue 45, our February-March 2013 issue. Subscribers should get theirs soon and it should be for sale in Nairobi shortly as well. The magazine features a story on the Kenya Kongonis Cricket Club, which has nurtured young cricket...