CHONJO MAGAZINE - KENYA COAST NEWS

Mangoes—island style

Local Lamu mango varieties

Mangoes are an island specialty. We have heard it said that the mangoes from Lamu are sweeter than any grown on the mainland. It’s true. I have tested many mangoes from all corners of Kenya and we have yet to find any that match the sweetness and the succulence of Lamu mangoes. It must be the weather and the ...

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Lamu forests-biodiversity hotspots

Leopard in Boni Forest

At one time a coastal forest covered the East African coastline from Somalia to Mozambique. Today, most of this forest has been cut down, except for a few pockets, most notably Arabuko Sokoke in the Watamu area and farther north the Boni forest (in Ijara County bordering Lamu), the Dodori and Lungi forests (in Lamu County). The Boni-Dodori forests are ...

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Lamu’s Art Weekend with Lili Nalovi and Jesko Willert

After a 3-month artist-in-residence on Lamu, Lili Nalovi and Jesko Willert have packed their bags to go back to their Hamburg studio. But before leaving they created an exhibition of ...

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Linda Greenlaw, boat captain, fisherwoman and survivor in "The Perfect Storm"

Linda Greenlaw, famous North American boat captain whose specialty is fishing swordfish in the Grand Banks off Newfoundland, Canada, toured Lamu in February to meet with local fishermen. They swapped ...

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Don Meredith's new book "Varieties of Darkness: The World of The English Patient"; Book review by Errol Trzebinski

Those who enjoyed Michael Ondaatje’s novel The English Patient, Booker Prize-winning novel and equally successful film, now may have the pleasure of a retake in Varieties of Darkness: The ...

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The port is dead; Long live the port!

The Kenyan government rescinded its advertised tenders, and now it has halted payment on the tainted Japan Port Consultants’ feasibility study. This effectively puts the Lamu port project on hold ...

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Pirate Management

Farah Ismael Idle strutted into the press-packed conference room with the insouciance of a celebrity. A white prayer cap complemented a prison jumpsuit in yellow, a colour that in Somaliland ...

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Lamu Port and the Lapsset project

Lapsset (Lamu Port-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor) is the name given to the low-tech, high-cost infrastructure project that will create a system of railroads, highways and pipelines from Lamu to Isiolo ...

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Heritage Beat

Going… going… gone—life in old town Lamu

Building and renovating houses has become a trendy activity among the wealthy European community who have purchased traditional Swahili houses in Lamu ...

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Environment News

Mangrove conservation: traditional wisdom often ignored

I spent a summer researching traditional conservation techniques utilized in mangrove forest areas along Lamu’s coastal area to fulfill my master’s degree ...

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Hollywood ending for Lamu’s Boni-Lungi forest?

The blockbuster Hollywood film Avatar was not filmed in Lamu, though maybe it could have been. The plot parallels a story playing out today in Lamu’s backyard, minus blue-skinned ...

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