The ruins of Gede are the
remains of a mysterious lost city on the
Swahili Coast of Kenya, located deep within the
Arabuko Sokoke forest. The mystery of Gede (Gedi) is that it
does not appear in any Swahili, Portuguese, or
Arab written records and
present day research has not yet been able to fully account for what actually happened to the city. The inhabitants were of the
Swahili, an ancient trading civilization that emerged
along the eastern coasts of Africa
ranging from Somalia to Mozambique.
Archaeological excavations
carried out between 1948 and 1958
have uncovered porcelain from China, an Indian lamp, Venetian beads, Spanish scissors, and other artefacts from
all over the world, demonstrating the occupants
were engaged in extensive and
sophisticated international trade. Questions still remain as to what caused the downfall of Gede, but by the 17th century, the city was
completely abandoned to the forest
and forgotten until the 1920s. Today, a
National Museum, Gede's
sister cities from the period are part of the ethnography based archeological work of
Dr Chapurukha M. Kusimba of Chicago's Field Museum,
whose lifework has thrown
light on the precolonial
heritage of the Swahili peoples.
posted by infini
on Nov 30, 2011 -
23 comments
Graffiti Project in Kenya Slums — more than a year after he took the original pictures, French photo artist JR has returned to Kibera, Kenya. He was reunited with the women who had accepted to be part of his WOMEN project at the end of 2007 (
previously). 2000 square meters of Kibera slum rooftops have been covered with photos of their eyes and faces. Most of the women will have their own photos on their own rooftop and the material used is water resistant so that the photo itself will protect the fragile houses in the heavy rain season. They are on view from the railway line that passes above them, and will be visible for Google Earth. (via
Africa.Visual_Media)
posted by netbros
on Apr 8, 2009 -
11 comments
Joan Root, who spent most of her life in Kenya, was a noted naturalist and filmmaker (along with
her (former) husband. She was
murdered by gunmen at point-blank range in January, 2006 in her home on
Lake Naivasha. Lake Naivasha is the only fresh water source in the
Great Rift Valley, and has become increasingly endangered by pollution and overuse for irrigation, and Root spent considerable time fighting to protect it. Today, a Kenyan magistrate
acquitted the four suspects in her murder, calling the testimony of 13 witnesses "defective".
posted by mkultra
on Aug 10, 2007 -
11 comments
The Lost Boys of the Sudan are a group of nearly 17,000 orphans whose parents were murdered and whose homes were destroyed by a government miltary turned against them. They marched on foot, without food or water, under attack from hungry predators & occasional strafing miltary fire for several years until settling in a squalid refugee camp in Kenya; nearly a decade later, the U.S. began a humanitarian policy of importing them, a few at a time, and resettling the lucky few in cities such as Chicago, Atlanta, and even Fargo, N.D.
(NYTimes, reg req'd)
posted by jonson
on Jan 3, 2003 -
14 comments
Israelis targeted in Kenya attacks
On the day of important primary elections in Israel as Prime Minister Ariel Sharon faces a party leadership challenge from Foreign Minister Binyamin Netanyahu ahead of January's general election, suicide car bombers have killed at least eight people at an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, just as two missiles were fired (but did not hit) at an Israeli jet that had taken off from the city's airport.
The Kenyan ambassador to Israel suspects these attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda, and this theory is being checked on as I write.
posted by tomcosgrave
on Nov 28, 2002 -
14 comments
Maasai Present Cattle to US Ambassador
To mark September 11, people of Enoosean, a Maasai (Rift Valley Province, Kenya) village, have presented 15 heads of cattle to a visiting US ambassador, William Brencick. The presentation was organized by a Maasai medical student who was visiting New York on September 11.
Brencick said the embassy would find it difficult to ship the cattle to the United States and had decided to sell the animals to raise funds to buy beadwork made in the village for display at a September 11 memorial in New York. (
1)
posted by rschram
on Jun 3, 2002 -
18 comments
Tanzania 9th most corrupt country , of course the word here is that they bribed transparency international to place them above kenya.......
according to the director "HIV AIDS is killing millions of Africans, and in many of the countries where AIDS is at its deadliest the problem is compounded by the fact that corruption levels are seen to be very high. While it is imperative that richer countries provide the fruits of medical research at an affordable price to address this human tragedy, it is also essential that corrupt governments do not steal from their own people. This is now an urgent priority if lives are to be saved."
local traditions don't help either. what this story does not say is that 4,000 girls will be circumsised at this ceremony and the govt/police won't interfere.
posted by quarsan
on Jul 16, 2001 -
5 comments
