Travels with Alyx: Karibu!

July 20

Today was a busy day. We were picked up by Sam of Samton Safaris at 10am and driven to our first stop of the day: the Nairobi National Museum. It is both a history and a natural sciences museum.

It turns out today was a day for numerous school field trips and there were children EVERYWHERE. We started our tour in the Snake Park, which is located on the museum grounds. Kenya has 140 species of snakes, ten of which are venomous. The black mamba is the fastest and deadliest snake in Africa, but the most dangerous snake is the puff adder because it uses camouflage to hide and often rests near footpaths and walkways. I’m not going to get into the Snake Park too much because it gives me the willies, but I did learn the difference between a terrapin and a turtle today. Charisse had no such qualms about the snakes and had the opportunity to hold a small python named Raphael at the end of our tour.

Our tour guide in the museum was a young Masai named Kipain. He told us quite a bit about the three periods of Kenyan history: pre-colonial, colonial, and post- independence. I learned some very interesting facts during the tour- including that Mt. Kenya is the second highest mountain peak in the world and that the most complete homo erectus skeleton ever found was found here in Kenya at Lake Turkana and is known as Turkana Boy.

We learned disturbing facts regarding how the slave trade developed here. In 1498 the Portuguese arrived in Kenya and eventually subjugated the native people, forcing them to work as slaves. Arab slave traders later expelled the earlier Portuguese slavers and traded slaves and ivory to the Middle East. Slaves often worked clove plantations.

Kipain told us how Masai leaders were tricked into signing over their lands by being told they would be given protection from non friendly tribes. They put their thumbprints on documents, not knowing what they were and then were expelled from their ancestral lands. The Masai used to live in what is now Nairobi. When the company that took their land went bankrupt, white settlers came in and took over the lands.

The independence movement in Kenya exploded post- World War II. Nationalism and trade union mobilization drove Kenyans to rise up against the colonizers, sometimes with violence. This resistance movement was referred to as the Mau Mau. They used guerrilla warfare against their oppressors. Women acted as spies, using strangler figs to smuggle notes to the resistance. Kenya gained its independence in 1963.

We also learned some recent history. After the 2007 elections one party did not accept the election results and violence broke out that resulted in 1000 deaths. The seat of impunity was constructed of iron and machetes to commemorate that event.

In the natural science part of the museum,

we learned that there are 900 species of butterflies in Kenya and 800 types of bees. The bee exhibit was actually quite interesting. I think Charisse was most intrigued by the bird exhibit, but that was because earlier in the tour we had found out that Masai males between the ages of 13 to 17 go out for 8 days to hunt birds in order to make a feathered headdress called a Motonyi. They are then circumcised and, a few days later, continue their bird hunt. This part of an important rite of passage that marks their transition into manhood. Charisse was traumatized by the fact that even their very colorful national bird is not exempt from this ritual sacrifice. My favorite part of the museum was the Kanga exhibit. Kanga is a beautifully patterned rectangular cloth that usually contains a saying or proverb printed underneath the central figure.

Our second stop was at Kobe Tough Beads and Leather factory, where Carol, our guide, and a group of workers began our tour with a welcome song. They then showed us the process they use to they create their ceramic beads with clay that comes from Mt. Kenya. The clay is mixed with water and a hardener like silica. It is mixed for two weeks then it sits in the sun for six weeks before it is kneaded, shaped, dipped in paint, decorated, and fired in a kiln to give it its shiny exterior. Kobe Beads was started by a husband and wife team in 2019 to help bring financial independence to women in need. The women who work here are widowed, divorced, or single parents.

Next up was the Giraffe Center where we were able to feed giraffes. We were warned not to tease them with the food and also to not get too close because they are know for head butting. We learned that Africa has both Rothschild giraffes and Masai giraffes.

Finally we went to an African dance performance at Bomas. Boma is the Kenyan word for house. The performance center is shaped like a traditional Kenyan hut. We were treated to spectacular drum, acrobatic, and dance performances that originated in different parts of the country. There were a LOT of school children there. Boisterous and joyful, they would sometimes go bounding down to the floor when the performers encouraged crowd participation.