Mackinon Market
Mackinon market sits along Digo Road (formerly Salim Road North), Mombasa. Founded in 1914 during the colonial era, the market was named after Sir Henry Mackinnon, the then-colonial governor. Being the first and oldest in the coastal region, Mackinnon market was gazetted as a national monument in 1980, under the Antiques and Monuments Act of […]
Freretown and the Kengeleni Monument
Freretown, located a short drive from Mombasa CBD holds a significant place in the history of East Africa as a settlement established for freed slaves in the late 19th century, many of whom had been captured from regions as far as Nyasaland (Malawi), Mozambique, Tanganyika (Tanzania), and Southern Rhodesia (Zambia) and Northern Rhodesia (Zimbambwe). Its […]
Prof Mohamed Khamis Juma Bhalo
Zein L’Abidin (1939-2020)
Zein l’Abdin Ahmed Alamoody was born in Lamu island in 1939 at a time when Lamu as a centre of Islamic learning, trade and art was at a decline. Lamu was famous for exporting boriti (mangrove poles). Zein’s father and uncle were both musicians and the latter, Seyyid Ali Basakuta was a well-known ‘ud player. […]
The ‘Ud
The ‘Ud/Oud (also spelled ‘Ud) is one of the most popular instruments in Arabic music. Its name means “a thin strip of wood” in Arabic, and this refers to the strips of wood used in making its pear-shaped body. The neck of the oud is short in comparison to its body and has no frets. […]