Fort Jesus Mombasa: The Fortress That Changed Hands Nine Times By Steve Braker — Mombasa, Kenya I walk past Fort Jesus Mombasa most weeks. From the waterfront road it dominates the old harbour entrance the way it has always done — immense, low, and coral-coloured,...
The Swahili Coast: The Ancient World Hidden in Plain Sight A Living Guide to the Culture, History and People of East Africa's Greatest Civilisation — by Steve Braker, Mombasa I have lived on the Swahili Coast for over twenty-five years, and the Swahili Coast...
I’m sitting in my living room, watching the rain pour down as the heavy clouds creep in from the ocean. We have had no power in Mombasa for the last twenty-four hours, which is usually not a problem as we have a backup generator. However, on this occasion, the...
Princip, a man in despair, sits in a café, his black coffee untouched. His friends, their plan in ruins, are either dead or captured. Gripping his coffee with a white-knuckled hand, he frantically contemplates his escape from Sarajevo. Suddenly, cheering erupts...
Lake Tanganyika: Africa's Hidden Gem is an ancient African Great Lake, one of only twenty lakes in the world over a million years old. It is a marvel of nature. It emerged during the violent volcanic age when the earth was young and tearing itself apart, creating...
Lake Victoria is such an excellent geological site, and I thought I would finish my visit to Kisumu and its environs with a few interesting facts. Before John Hanning Speke visited the lake in 1858 and peered at it through unfocused, sick eyes, it had been a wonder...
The Noise of Zulu Battle (The Soldier’s Son Book 1)Andrew Baird, the son of the famous “Fighting Jack Windrush,” has just arrived in South Africa. It is 1877 and he enlists as a lowly mounted police man. Andrew wants to prove his own worth and not climb the ladder...
Rock Art at Mfangano IslandWhen you next visit Kenya, a great bucket list item to add to your list is the rock art cave paintings on Mfangano Island. I was very fortunate on my last visit to Kisumu to be able to take a trip out to Mfangano Island on Lake Victoria....
This story is full of intrigue and deceit, finalizing in foul play and one-upmanship with a dash of murder-suicide thrown in for good measure! I can only be talking about two extremely different explorers thrust together by the Royal Geographical Society to find...
Queen Victoria described Sir Henry Morton Stanley as an “Ugly determined little man with an awful American twang!” He was indeed determined and, in my belief, a ruthless man who would not let anything get in his way. This did, however, stop him from being buried...
“Dr Livingstone, I Presume?” I have always admired Dr. David Livingston on many different levels. The iconic statement made by Henry Morton Stanley, “Doctor Livingstone I presume?” has become a household saying some one hundred and fifty years later. But the...
Tippu Tip-African Slave Trader Imagine, a white-walled three-story house in the middle of Stone Town, Zanzibar. A six-foot-tall man, with broad shoulders and a bright white kanzu, is standing on the flat roof in the early evening twilight. He holds a fine porcelain...
The Anglo-Zanzibar War. The Shorest War in History A Ten Minute ReadThe story starts when Zanzibar was a hub for ivory, cloves, and allegedly the largest slave market in the world; at its peak, there are estimates that over 50,000 slaves were traded per year from...
It’s raining here in Mombasa, which is a double-edged sword. We desperately need the much needed rain as we have been having a drought for almost six years, but the rain always brings flooding and disease. The denizens of the slums around Mombasa suffer, as they...
Over this last year, a few people have reached out to me regarding coming to Kenya for a holiday. I am no travel expert, but I am more than happy to chat about places to go and things to do. If anyone is planning that trip of a lifetime to see the big game, then...
