Welcome to Old Africa

your window into East Africa’s past.

Old Africa books

Old Africa books are well-told stories in the same tradition as the shorter pieces

our readers have come to enjoy from the pages of Old Africa magazine.

After two decades in print, Old Africa is now fully digital and free for all! That’s right: zero shillings, endless stories. Yes, we’ll miss the smell and feel of fresh paper too — and to our loyal subscribers who’ve stacked us proudly on bookshelves, we thank you for your loyalty. The stories stay rich, the history stays deep — only the format has changed.

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Stories of Workers on a White Farm

Stories of Workers on a White Farm

Stories of Workers on a White Farm   Elspeth Huxley recorded some stories of the workers on the farm of her mother, Nellie Grant, which give a fascinating insight into the history of Kenya. The Grants’ first farm was near Thika and then they moved to a farm at Njoro....

How Farm Workers Came to Settler Farms

How Farm Workers Came to Settler Farms

How Farm Workers Came to Settler Farms We can get an idea of the motivation of African farm workers if we look at some specific cases. Nellie Grant (Elspeth Huxley’s mother) went to Kenya in 1912 and farmed coffee at Thika. After the First World War she heard she had...

The Jewells and Mombasa Hospital

The Jewells and Mombasa Hospital

The Jewells and Mombasa Hospital Last month I talked about the Mombasa Hospital. From 1920 onwards Norman Jewell was in charge of the establishment, and his letters and diaries show us what medical hazards were faced by Mombasa’s inhabitants in the 1920s. Jewell had...