FEAST OR FAMINE

UNESCO has nominated Rusinga Island, in Lake Victoria, southwest Kenya, as a potential World Heritage Site, reports the Daily Nation, May 22, 2014. The island is located in Homa Bay County, Mbita sub-county. The island is linked to Mbita Point on the mainland by a causeway. The Mfangano-Rusinga Island Complex is of religious and symbolic significance to the current occupants, which still relies on oral traditions to pass on its history. They have a strong link to the land, flora, and fauna. In celebration of the 2014 International Day for Biological Diversity, the island will focus on food security, as well as biodiversity, to raise awareness of deforestation and land degradation on the island. Rusinga Island is noted for anthropologist Mary Leakey’s discovery of the skull of an ape – Proconsul Africanus – thought to be three million years old. In addition, the island has a population of giant monitor lizards, and more than 100 species of birds, some of which...

Construction permit fees in Nairobi, Kenya, have increased by up to 1.25% of the cost of construction, placing a strain on the industry. An article in Nairobi News (Why building in Nairobi is costly by Allan Olingo, April 10, 2014) states that increased land rates and construction permits by Nairobi County last year is slowing down the pace of construction in the city. A document by the Kenya Property Development Association (KPDA) and HassConsult, called The State of Development Report, reveals that increased levies are reducing the rate of development in the capital. The report indicates that the fees are not “investment friendly” and that they will affect the size and location of future properties – with developers now looking at land more than 50 kilometres from the city. This is because fees are based on overall construction costs – so to reduce construction costs and the subsequent fees, developers are looking for cheaper land. The cost of land – increasing by up t...

On the walls of the Sankara Hotel in Nairobi, Kenya, is an extensive collection of contemporary East African art. Some are the vivid works of Ethiopian-born, Nairobi-based Fitsum Berhe Woldelibanos. He signs his paintings simply as Fitsum. On his website, Fitsum says that although he had been interested in art from an early age, he undertook it seriously after graduating from the Asmara School of Arts in 2000, where he was enrolled in painting, sculpting, and print making. His works are mainly portraits – of men and women – with influences based on “architecture and fabric patterns.” Another strong element, he says, is water – the constant motion of the sea, its cycles, and as “our horizontal point of reference.” For example, his strong use of colour stems from inspirations from nature, such as yellows from the Sahara desert: “color talks to me in three dimensional forms.” It’s not merely the strength of colour that attracts the viewer’s eye to the intensit...

On the grounds of Nairobi’s Sankara Hotel are lots of large clay pots. Traditionally, in Kenya the wide-topped clay pots are used to store water, but for the hotel, the authentic pots are strikingly decorative. There is also a display of Kenyan pots and vessels in the Nairobi National Museum, showing the vast range of designs, styles, and sizes.

Part of the Nairobi National Museum in Kenya, on Museum Hill, includes Nairobi Snake Park.  It was established in 1961 and accommodates a selection of snakes, turtles, tortoises, fish, molluscs, and crocodiles. It was closed in August 2008 and re-opened a year later in 2009 after renovations. The selection of reptiles includes a Gaboon viper (Bitus gabonica) which is a broad, flat-headed snake with rectangular patterns in shades of brown. The sign says it is a “good natured snake that rarely bites” but it has the world’s longest fangs of any snake – up to 4 centimetres. There is also the black-necked Spitting Cobra (Naja nigricollis) – a black snake with a red underbelly. The Black Mamba (Dendroaspis polylepis) is a slim olive-brown snake and very fast moving. It is also highly toxic (neurotoxic and cardiotoxic) causing paralysis if bitten - and eventual death. The large land tortoise that I saw in 2009 has now passed away, but there are othe...

Sunday morning at the Nairobi National Museum (part of the National Museums of Kenya) is quiet and an ideal time to meander around the halls, exhibitions, and art galleries – as well as the Snake Park. I n 1910 the museum was established by the East Africa and Uganda Natural History Society – currently the East Africa Natural History Society. A larger building was constructed in 1922. It moved to its current site at Museum Hill in 1929 and was officially launched in 1930. The Museums and Heritage Act came into effect in 2006 to protect Kenya’s heritage. It closed in October 2005 for extensive renovations and expansion, and opened three years later in 2008. The Museum complex included the Hall of Mammals, Cradle of Humankind, Historia Ya Kenya, Cycles of Life, Birds of East Africa, the Great Hall, History of Nairobi Museum, and temporary exhibitions of artworks. The artwork exhibitions currently on display included the Joy Adamson Exhibition and Transient b...

A Man Was Going Down the Road (1972, English translation 2012) is an epic that combines legendary Greek mythology with a tragic Georgian love story. Georgian author, Otar Chiladze (1933-2009), writes the story of the Golden Fleece when the King of Greece’s second wife orders the slaughter of his previous children, Phrixos and his sister Helle. “But just when the priest had a sharpened knife in his hand, out of the blue a ram came flying in – not running, but flying” and carried the children away on its back to safety. But, alas, the children fall into the sea. Bedia, a fisherman from Vani, a coastal city of Colchis (modern-day Georgia), rescues Phrixos from the sea, still clinging to the winged ram with the Golden Fleece, but his sister Helle drowns. It is the story when Vani was a city by the sea and “the first Greeks set foot on Colchian soil and humbly asked for asylum.” http://www.destinytarot.com Written in three parts, spanning generations, Part I, AEetes , t...

The walls of Istanbul in Turkey – more commonly known as the walls of Constantinople – are the old defensive walls surrounding the old city. Over time and due to earthquakes and floods, parts of the walls have been damaged. Restoration of sections of the walls has continued since the 1980s. The city of Constantine was fortified by a series of walls, with turrets, towers, and gates at regular distances. Some sections are between 4-6 metres wide (thick) and 12 metres high. The photographs are the Sulukule Street section of the wall.