by Shel Arensen | Feb 16, 2016 | Shel Arensen
Old Africa has been working for over two years on a project covering over 100 years of horse racing in Kenya. We’ve just completed the rough edit of the full book and are moving into the stage for final editing and photo selection. I think we can use about 300...
by Christine Nicholls | Jan 19, 2016 | Christine Nicholls
The First European Schools in Kenya On reaching Nairobi in 1900 the Uganda Railway set up its own school there for the children of its white workers, in a corrugated iron shed near Nairobi station. The first school for European children in Nairobi was set up by the...
by Christine Nicholls | Dec 19, 2015 | Christine Nicholls
The Kakamega Goldfields The recent interest in gold in the Kakamega district reminds us of the first gold rush in the region – in the early 1930s. In 1930 Kakamega township was an open space with a few Indian dukas, but in the middle of the decade it became a...
by Shel Arensen | Dec 6, 2015 | Shel Arensen
Solomon Njihia was the head chef for the Rift Valley Academy kitchen when I was a student there in the 1970s. I just heard he has passed away. Another link to Kenya’s past has gone. About eight years ago I interviewed Solomon and he told me a story of how he and...
by Christine Nicholls | Nov 22, 2015 | Christine Nicholls
Firebrand Editor of the Kenya Press: Harold George Robertson (‘Rab the Rhymer’) From the age of ten in the 1950s I was an avid daily reader of the Mombasa Times and loved its crossword. So I was very interested to come across some details of one of its former...
by Shel Arensen | Nov 20, 2015 | Shel Arensen
Join Guerrillas of Tsavo author, James G Willson on Saturday 9th & Sunday 10th January 2016 when he will lead a tour Commemorating the centenary of the January 1916 Mkongani Battle, Kwale, where Major Arthur Wavell MC and 15 of his loyal Arab Rifles lost their...
by Shel Arensen | Nov 17, 2015 | Shel Arensen
Escape from Singapore Our December-January edition of Old Africa magazine has a story by Barbara Dods. She tells about growing up in Nairobi while her father, Arthur James Scott Hutton was the architect overseeing the building of Kenya’s Government House (which later...
by Christine Nicholls | Oct 19, 2015 | Christine Nicholls
I’d like to return to the subject of Vladimir Verbi (see my blogs of February and December 2013), the missionary who shot his mother-in-law in the Taita Hills in 1941. To recap, Verbi was having trouble with his second wife, Lascelles, and forbade her going to a party...
by Christine Nicholls | Sep 28, 2015 | Christine Nicholls
My last blogs have been concerned with the role of European women in Kenya, particularly in World War 2. It has become clear that a leading role was played by Lady Sidney Farrar. Who was she? She was the daughter of the 7th Earl of Buckinghamshire, who boasted the...
by Shel Arensen | Sep 20, 2015 | Shel Arensen
The Sultan’s Spymaster by Judy Aldrick is launching with 4 events and book signings starting this Saturday the 26th. We hope you can attend one of the launches. Book Signing In Between the Lines book shop Village Market, Nairobi Saturday, September 26, 2015...
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