October 15, 2008; Zanzibar, Tanzania — On Monday, October 6th, our group departed for Mombasa after having been in Kenya for 33 days. The process of loading all our luggage onto a bus (a practice to which we have since become well accustomed) and piling ourselves inside reminded us of the itinerant nature of our program and brought to an end the settled comfort of our weeks in Nairobi. The lengthy bus journey took us from the highlands around Nairobi (elev. 6000 ft.) through a gradual descent to the coast. Much of the route cut through Tsavo National Park—Kenya’s largest—along a road that runs parallel to the tracks of the old Kenya-Uganda Railway built in the 1890s by the British with Indian labor. As we were passing through the area of Tsavo where the infamous man-eating lions had once devoured 35 railway workers, the rear suspension of our bus gave way and we ground to a sudden halt. We waited alongside the road for several hours while the coach company sent another bus to get us. Mostly the students played Frisbee or sat by the side of the road conversing with each other and with the occasional passerby. Maybe some were waiting for the lions. Shortly after nightfall our new bus arrived and we continued onward to Mombasa.
Mombasa and Nairobi are both in Kenya but the two cities belong to different worlds. Nairobi is a modern metropolis in the interior of the country and is a relatively new city, having been first surveyed and settled as a railway junction in the 1890s. Most of the people there prefer to speak English, Kikuyu, or some other tribal language instead of Swahili and the population of central Kenya is predominantly Christian. By contrast, Mombasa traces its roots to at least the 5th century AD and has long been tied culturally, economically, and religiously to the rest of the Indian Ocean. There is a strong Arab presence (mostly from Oman) and the large majority of people are Muslims. Swahili is also universally spoken as a first—or only—language and is preferred above all others. The bus journey may have seemed long, but in retrospect it was a remarkably short distance to travel from the office parks, shopping malls, and grand avenues of Nairobi to the mosques, bazaars, and winding alleyways of Mombasa.
Our hosts in Mombasa were Prof. Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, a distinguished Swahili poet and scholar, and his niece and assistant, Amira, also a poet. They met our group on our late arrival and took us to an excellent local Swahili restaurant. The next morning they escorted us to Biashara (commerce) Street to buy the appropriate clothing in the bazaar. Men bought koftas (Muslim caps) and were fitted for kanzus (full length cotton tunics) while the women bought kangas (colorful headscarves and shawls). This is to be our attire for the next two weeks (see picture below), and indeed many of the places we have since visited would have denied us entry had we not obliged out hosts in this way. After our purchases we walked to the Swahili Cultural Centre of Mombasa where we were given an introduction to Swahili poetry and treated to a recital (with translation) by Ahmed and Amira. In the afternoon we toured Fort Jesus, a 16th-century Portuguese citadel built to secure that European country’s control over the maritime trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Since Mombasa has the only natural deep-water harbor along the entire coast of East Africa, Vasco da Gama immediately saw the benefit of the place when he first arrived there in 1498. Fort Jesus offers a commanding view of the ocean and the harbor and is remarkably well-preserved. It was constructed primarily from an early form of concrete made from pulverized coral and limestone mixed with water and honey. After Fort Jesus we departed for a resort hotel in the small town of Kanamai along the coast about an hour north of Mombasa. There we relaxed on the beach for two luxurious but short days. For me it was the first time I was able to swim in the Indian Ocean in nearly nine years.
On Thursday we were accompanied by Ahmed Sheikh to the coastal town of Mambrui to visit the Manazilul Abrar Madrassa, an Islamic secondary school for boys that is attached to a local mosque. The headmaster of the school and about half a dozen students welcomed us. They then gave us a brief lecture about the basics of Islam and answered our questions. It was a rare opportunity to see inside the Islamic educational system and to practice our Swahili. The madrassa educates young men from all over Kenya as well as some from Somalia and the Indian Ocean island nations of the Seychelles and Comoros. After visiting the madrassa we had lunch in the town of Malindi and then visited the ruins of the palace at Gede. These ruins date back to the 14th century, before the arrival of the Portuguese, at a time when the sultans of Mombasa and Malindi were the two major regional powers. The vast ruins contain remnants of a town square, several mosques, and houses in which were found Chinese currency among other artifacts. Gede was eventually abandoned and the ruins overgrown by the surrounding forest. During British colonial rule, archaeologists began to excavate the site and now it is open for visits. Once we had finished exploring Gede we boarded our bus and returned to Mombasa by nightfall. The next morning we departed Kenya by air, bound for Zanzibar.
It was almost exactly one hundred hours between when we departed Nairobi on Monday morning and when we flew from Mombasa on Friday, yet we managed to experience an extraordinary amount in such a short period. The Kenya coast is such a stark contrast to the interior that it is still hard to imagine that they are in the same country. In so many ways, the people of Mombasa and other coastal cities and towns seem more oriented to other parts of the Muslim world and the Indian Ocean than to their fellow Kenyans just a few hundred miles inland. Many of the students commented that they would have liked more time along the coast to get to know the area better. They have since had that opportunity in Zanzibar and Pemba.
At the Manazilul Abrar Madrassa in Mambrui on the Kenya coast
Mombasa and Nairobi are both in Kenya but the two cities belong to different worlds. Nairobi is a modern metropolis in the interior of the country and is a relatively new city, having been first surveyed and settled as a railway junction in the 1890s. Most of the people there prefer to speak English, Kikuyu, or some other tribal language instead of Swahili and the population of central Kenya is predominantly Christian. By contrast, Mombasa traces its roots to at least the 5th century AD and has long been tied culturally, economically, and religiously to the rest of the Indian Ocean. There is a strong Arab presence (mostly from Oman) and the large majority of people are Muslims. Swahili is also universally spoken as a first—or only—language and is preferred above all others. The bus journey may have seemed long, but in retrospect it was a remarkably short distance to travel from the office parks, shopping malls, and grand avenues of Nairobi to the mosques, bazaars, and winding alleyways of Mombasa.
Our hosts in Mombasa were Prof. Ahmed Sheikh Nabhany, a distinguished Swahili poet and scholar, and his niece and assistant, Amira, also a poet. They met our group on our late arrival and took us to an excellent local Swahili restaurant. The next morning they escorted us to Biashara (commerce) Street to buy the appropriate clothing in the bazaar. Men bought koftas (Muslim caps) and were fitted for kanzus (full length cotton tunics) while the women bought kangas (colorful headscarves and shawls). This is to be our attire for the next two weeks (see picture below), and indeed many of the places we have since visited would have denied us entry had we not obliged out hosts in this way. After our purchases we walked to the Swahili Cultural Centre of Mombasa where we were given an introduction to Swahili poetry and treated to a recital (with translation) by Ahmed and Amira. In the afternoon we toured Fort Jesus, a 16th-century Portuguese citadel built to secure that European country’s control over the maritime trade routes of the Indian Ocean. Since Mombasa has the only natural deep-water harbor along the entire coast of East Africa, Vasco da Gama immediately saw the benefit of the place when he first arrived there in 1498. Fort Jesus offers a commanding view of the ocean and the harbor and is remarkably well-preserved. It was constructed primarily from an early form of concrete made from pulverized coral and limestone mixed with water and honey. After Fort Jesus we departed for a resort hotel in the small town of Kanamai along the coast about an hour north of Mombasa. There we relaxed on the beach for two luxurious but short days. For me it was the first time I was able to swim in the Indian Ocean in nearly nine years.
On Thursday we were accompanied by Ahmed Sheikh to the coastal town of Mambrui to visit the Manazilul Abrar Madrassa, an Islamic secondary school for boys that is attached to a local mosque. The headmaster of the school and about half a dozen students welcomed us. They then gave us a brief lecture about the basics of Islam and answered our questions. It was a rare opportunity to see inside the Islamic educational system and to practice our Swahili. The madrassa educates young men from all over Kenya as well as some from Somalia and the Indian Ocean island nations of the Seychelles and Comoros. After visiting the madrassa we had lunch in the town of Malindi and then visited the ruins of the palace at Gede. These ruins date back to the 14th century, before the arrival of the Portuguese, at a time when the sultans of Mombasa and Malindi were the two major regional powers. The vast ruins contain remnants of a town square, several mosques, and houses in which were found Chinese currency among other artifacts. Gede was eventually abandoned and the ruins overgrown by the surrounding forest. During British colonial rule, archaeologists began to excavate the site and now it is open for visits. Once we had finished exploring Gede we boarded our bus and returned to Mombasa by nightfall. The next morning we departed Kenya by air, bound for Zanzibar.
It was almost exactly one hundred hours between when we departed Nairobi on Monday morning and when we flew from Mombasa on Friday, yet we managed to experience an extraordinary amount in such a short period. The Kenya coast is such a stark contrast to the interior that it is still hard to imagine that they are in the same country. In so many ways, the people of Mombasa and other coastal cities and towns seem more oriented to other parts of the Muslim world and the Indian Ocean than to their fellow Kenyans just a few hundred miles inland. Many of the students commented that they would have liked more time along the coast to get to know the area better. They have since had that opportunity in Zanzibar and Pemba.
At the Manazilul Abrar Madrassa in Mambrui on the Kenya coast
9 October 2008
At the ruins of the Gede Fort in Malindi on the Kenya Coast
At the ruins of the Gede Fort in Malindi on the Kenya Coast
9 October 2008