Lamu - A place in the heart

Kenya is a country of great diversity of people, culture and race, customs and tongues, each with its own identity yet all linked together like a necklace – but we know so little of each other. Lamu had pricked my curiosity in the recent months. I heeded the call. To know Lamu is to love it - love it for a little longer and you became intimate with it. There after – you forever want to be part of it. I visited Lamu the best of time this year. A good time to visit for every January, after the heavy-duty festive crowd goes home, Lamu largely reverts to its centuries-old ways. In the winding alleyways, fully veiled women scurry toward the outdoor market, their eyes darting beneath black bui-buis. Interestingly, centuries after the Swahili first ancestors settled on the Island, the town authenticity is still strong to date. The cultural heritage, the narrow, cool and quiet streets have an amazingly intimate spaces enclosed by massive stone buildings with thick coral rag walls give the town its distinctive texture and colour. The silence is occasionally only interrupted by the braying of donkeys and the devoted calls to prayer from the twenty six mosques on the island.

There is a deep history tied to this place that draws you to it. A lot has been written about the history of Kenya. It is said Arabs and Persians settlers colonized East African coastal towns between 650 AD and 800 AD. From interbreeding between Arabs and Persian settlers and indigenous women arose the Swahili race. 85 years later in 1498, then came the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama fleet anchored in Mombasa. Yet long before that, the earliest known document describing parts of East Africa coast is the The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea, attributed to an unknown Greek or Greek speaking Egyptian written sometimes between 95 Ad and 130AD.The town was also mentioned in writing by an Arab traveler, Abu-al-Mahasini, after his encounter with a judge from Lamu who was on a pilgrimage to Mecca in 1441. There are however some other accounts that mention the Chinese ships of Zheng He’s fleet sinking near Lamu Island in Kenya in 1415. It is now confirmed that the survivors who settled on the island intermarried with the local women.

The dunes have a story too. Folklore speaks fondly of the lost city of Hadibu, an Arab settlement buried beneath the rolling dunes of Shela beach, when the islands of the Lamu Archipelago grew wealthy on fortunes brought in from the East over the ages.

In a nut shell - this place is a paradise of all paradise and it is not hard to understand why. Still yet, no amount of words comes even close to describing its beauty. We could mention the clear waters embracing the flawless white sandy endless beaches where tiny villages nestle among coconut trees as dhows and speed boats ply the quite turquoise waters, pristine deserted beaches, of rolling dunes, the winding streets, carved woods and traditional houses evoking the everyday sights and sounds of another age. The people are amazing. The culture and history is mind boggling. Or, you could just judge one of the world’s most beautiful beaches for yourself. Lamu is an exceptional place like no any other. And no wonder it is in the list of   World Heritage sites.

Read the charms of Lamu in my next postings for words are all I have for now.