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
Raw Music International is a prospective television series about music from around the world that would usually escape the attention of folk not living in the middle of it. The first episode has already been shot in Kenya, and the folk behind it are currently trying to get it funded. But until it gets broadcast, we can read their accounts of going out and recording the
hip-hop,
reggae and
more trad-ish music of Kisumu. If you're interested in THE MUSIC AND NOTHING BUT THE MUSIC, head over to their
Soundcloud page.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Mar 24, 2011 -
3 comments
Kibera is a slum in the southwest of Nairobi, often called the biggest slum in the world; some estimates of the population put it as
high as 1.5m, although the 2009 Kenyan census puts the population at a rather more sober
170k(ish). Now, Kiberans are carrying out two similarly named but unaffiliated projects,
Map Kibera and
Map Kibera Project, to create maps of their home. MKP has a pair of rather slick-looking PDF maps showing the
terrain and
structures in Kibera. MK uses
OpenStreetMap, which means that their cartographers can be rapidly update it to more accurately reflect how quickly things change in Kibera. They also have, inevitably, a
twitter account,
flickr stream and
a blog to keep the world up to date with their work, including their ambition to start mapping another Nairobi slum, Mathare.
Via
the Beeb, which also has a nice wee audio slideshow about MK.
posted by Dim Siawns
on Jan 18, 2011 -
8 comments
Election night, Kenya, 2007. The votes roll in, and at some time around 11pm, as victory seemed imminent for the opposition candidate, all televisions in the country went black. When broadcasts resumed in the morning, the incumbent had materialized enough votes to soundly win the election. In the aftermath, a
wave of violence broke out in which some 1,300 people were killed. In opposition to a domestic investigation of the violence, Kenyan MP's chanted 'Don't be vague; go to the Hague!' Now, three years later,
some officials are a bit less enthusiastic. A series of articles on the ICC investigation of political violence in Kenya:
I II III IV [more inside]
posted by kaibutsu
on Dec 15, 2010 -
5 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
US meddling in Kenyan elections: An exit poll, if it had been released in a timely manner, could have altered the result of Kenya's presidential election in 2007 and prevented the deaths of many people there, say people involved in the U.S. backed effort.
It is
suggested that
Michael E. Ranneberger US ambassador to Kenya was
meddling in Kenya's Elections, playing down the corruption of Mwai Kibaki's
government.
More than 1,000 people died and 304,000
displaced.
Related Metafiler threads on the 2007 Kenya election . 1, 2, 3 , 4
posted by adamvasco
on Jan 31, 2009 -
11 comments
Tevis Howard, a 2007 Brown University graduate and recent recipient of the
Draper Richards Fellowship and the
Rainer Arnhold Fellowship, is the 2005 Founder and Executive Director of
KOMAZA, a non-profit community-based organization in Kenya. KOMAZA's mission is to "end chronic poverty in Kenya by promoting health, economic growth, education, and infrastructure development" through a tree farming
social enterprise. Partnering with the
Tree Biotechnology Project, KOMAZA plants
fast-growning, drought-tolerant Eucalyptus trees as a cash crop for rural, substinance farming communities.
[more inside]
posted by lunit
on Apr 10, 2008 -
7 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
Mountain Voices. 'This website presents interviews with over 300 people who live in mountain and highland regions round the world. Their testimonies offer a personal perspective on change and development.'
posted by plep
on Apr 10, 2005 -
2 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
Kenya switches off Internet access Don't let Rumsfeld know about this. Might give him some ideas. If there is a lesson in this it is that putting all your eggs in one basket (GE, Home Depot , energy and phone companies etc) is at best a questionable practise if a government can get a grip on the basket's handle. No fear that it will happen in America? Then notice how the threat of not handing out federal monies gets compliance with what the government wants,ie, education, etc.
posted by Postroad
on Dec 25, 2002 -
9 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
One Good Turn Deserves Another Mantaine Minis, 6, was living in a hut in a remote village in Kenya, in need of lifesaving heart surgery, when the improbable happened one day in June. A group of students and parents from the Langley School in McLean (Virginia) as on safari at the Masai Mara National Reserve, where Mantaine's father is a game warden.
That's when someone from the village told a Langley teacher about Mantaine's heart problem. From there, things seemed to unfold quickly.
posted by tommyspoon
on Sep 20, 2002 -
5 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
No soup sex for you!. President Daniel arap Moi has urged Kenyans to abstain from sex for at least
two years to try to curb the spread of HIV. The government announced plans on Wednesday to import 300 million condoms to fight AIDS.
posted by 120degrees
on Jul 12, 2001 -
18 comments
