Coastal Adventures: Mombasa

Going Coastal

The following excerpts are taken from a daily journal I kept during our stay in Mombasa. Please mind that during many of the entries I was a bit distracted by the tenacious curiosity of the beach boys desperately trying to strike up conversation and spin an elaborate web of lies which, of course, would lead to us buying their contraband conch shells and bootleg ebony keychain carvings. Despite abstaining from any purchases, the young men were often impossible to ignore. Hence, many conversations-cut-short later, I was able to maintain somewhat lucid entries (I hope!) that I would love to share with you all.

2/11/13

Today marks the second day of our Mombasa trip to the coastal region of Kenya, where we are studying the Swahili and Mijikenda peoples and their rich culture. Our first day, which was yesterday, included a trip into Mombasa's old town, where the original port and fort are located. Around 1854, the Porteguese reached Mombasa en route to India, where they hoped to engaged in the spice trade with traders from India and elsewhere in the Arabian peninsula and Middle East. Instead of naked savages they half expected to find in the virgin territory when they landed rather unexpectedly on the Eastern African Coast, they found a people with a rich culture, religion, and lifestyle all their own. In fact, the Coastal Swahili people have settled here for hundreds (if not thousands) of years.

The Swahili are a muslim people highly steeped in the culture, language, and religion of a region that for hundreds of years has served as a cultural crossroads for many peoples who arrived in Mombasa seeking to benefit from the elaborate existing trading networks associated with the thriving port city. While most of the reef-lined Eastern African coast is impassible to larger ships with deeper drafts, the confluence of two large, freshwater tributaries flowing into Mombasa allows for a crucial break in the reef, through which ships can pass. Coral reefs cannot survive where there is freshwater, so the salt water estuary (not unlike the Hundred Acre Cove we all treasure so dearly) effectively severs the continuous coastal reef and allows shipping channels from Somalia, India, and many other Arab states to access African markets through the port.

Anyhow, Fort Jesus, where we spent the majority of the morning on tour, is a towering fort built by the Portuguese as an outpost in the region in 1591. In fact, the fort was the first structure built outside of europe that was designed to resist cannon fire. The coolest fact about the fort, perhaps, is that it is built and carved out of coral from a natural reef almost 56 feet above sea level. Our tour guide joked that while other iconic cultural cities like Venice are sinking, due to the living foundation of coral reef, Fort Jesus and Mombasa is actually rising higher and higher each year. Built in the 16th century, the fort was under Portuguese control for hundreds of years before the Omani Arabs arrived and took control of the fort. Later in its life, the fort served as a British prison for a while, until the end of colonial rule, when it became a national historical site.

Max snapped this photo of me sitting on one of the cannons inside the fort.

Perhaps even more exciting, after the tour ended, Max and I split off from the group to go meet George Kaleen, a family friend of Max's mom whom she grew up with in South Boston. He is an art teacher and community outreach coordinator at the Aga Khan Academy, an international preparatory school in Mombasa. He's lived in Mombasa for seven years now, and is well known and respected in the community. He is also the proprietor of a well known coffee shop and restaurant that has a steady following among expats and esteemed locals, alike. He took us there for a snack and coffee, and while there picked our brains about our program, and also about the IDS component in particular, with which he plans to help Max and I out. Following our meeting at Jihazi, we took a lovely traditional lunch in town before heading back to the resort. We spent the rest of the afternoon frolicking in the Indian Ocean just paces from our beachside villa (the shallow ocean is almost uncomfortably warm, it must be almost 85º) Dinner was nice and afterwards we headed to our neighboring resort just down the beach a ways, where we enjoyed drinks and watched the African Cup final between Nigeria and Burkina Faso.

Megan pauses on the seawall after a morning run. Photo credit: Max Miller