Salmiya

I have mentioned in a previous post that the special charm of Mombasa’s old city can hardly be perceived instantly. My Jordanian colleagues from Kuwait and I had booked at the Whitesands Sarova Hotel north of the city. The view of the Indian Ocean just outside the hotel with camels on the beach was breathtaking. The constant breeze from the ocean made humidity and tropical temperatures very comfortable. In fact a place to die, I was thinking. My friends are not the ideal company when exploring exotic places. On my request, we went to Mombasa, but it was hot and dusty and I was told “we know all of this” from home. When I became curious about the 16th century Mandhry mosque with its strange minaret, I was informed by my Muslim friends that it was not prayer time, so asking to enter was hopeless. Nobody was either interested in the vegetable and fruit market. Was that a bazaar? We rushed through the lanes. Souvenir shops sold beautiful collectibles at reasonable prices. ...

Suleiman , one of Whitesands Hotel’s tour managers, wasn’t in a good mood. Very talkative, he obviously believed that I would actually be interested in his family affairs which seemed to be in a mess. His wife had been taken back to Riyadh by her parents where they were living. Arabs. A black man was not really the son in law they had expected, he told me. But at least you are a Muslim, aren’t you? I asked him. Yes, he replied, but his mother was Christian, and it doesn’t really matter. Then he told me about the origin of the Palestinians. Although knowing the story about Jacob and his older twin brother Esau, the two sons of Isaac and Rebekah, I wasn’t aware about theories regarding the two resulting tribes, the children if Israel (or Jacob) and those of Esau, the Palestinians (or Edomites, I suppose). An interesting hypothesis. We took a ride to Jumba la Mtwana (he unavailingly tried me to pronounce the Swahili words correctly). The century-old gorgeous ruins of a town north of Mom...

Mombasa does not reveal its special charm easily. I had been in the old city before (I will report later) but was a bit disappointed. The organizers of the AMER IADR Meeting had scheduled a guided tour on Friday afternoon, and I was the first to register. Twenty-eight Euros for three hours, whow! I expected gorgeous insights into the East African societies and culture. Out we went with the bus. The group promised to be fun. In fact, we laughed a lot. A South African couple was interested in my pretty exotic experiences in Kuwait and Norway. Our first stop was at the Akamba Handicraft Industry Cooperative Society, a non-profit organization where some 10'000 people were employed who carved beautiful sculptures and small items, chairs, masks, etc. from ebony wood, Kenya's gold. Well, when entering Mombasa city we got more or less stuck in the afternoon traffic jam. Our guide seemed not to have the slightest clue what he wanted to show us. We passed the famous giant tusks but I c...