From Tanzania to India, Oman to Malaysia, the Indian Ocean’s blue waters have linked cultures both ancient and modern.
“The Indian Ocean connected people for centuries, long before Vasco de Gama arrived. It’s all about maritime connections,” explained Professor of Art History Nancy Um, who has dedicated her career to studying the region’s art, architecture and material culture.
Um recently received a prestigious Connecting Art Histories grant from the Getty Foundation that will allow her to give back to both her discipline and the region she studies. She is the principal investigator for Indian Ocean Exchanges, a research, fellowship and travel program that will support emerging art historians based around the Indian Ocean rim in East Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, and South and Southeast Asia.
Rosemary Karuga, Untitled, 1998. (Images courtesy of Red Hill Art Gallery)
A vast chapter of the still mostly untold story of women’s art in Kenya starts with Rosemary Namuli Karuga. Karuga passed away on 9 February 2021 at the age of 93. She was one of the pioneers who made major contributions to contemporary art on the continent and is recognised as one of the finest East African artists of her generation.
Karuga is known for her collage works depicting pastoral and domestic African scenes, commonly villagers and farmers and animals. They would go on to be shown internationally, but she only began to produce commercial art in her 60s, once she had retired from teaching.
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COAST
A section of Jumba la Mtwana Ruins in Mtwapa, Kilifi County, which is on the verge of being washed away by sea waves. The beach line fronting the site is also a breeding ground for endangered sea turtles. [Omondi Onyango, Standard]
The 600-year-old Jumba la Mtwana Ruins in Kilifi County is on the verge of collapse due to effects of global warming.
The walls of the village built in the 14th century are slowly falling into the ocean owing to effects of erosion that scientists blame on increasing water levels.
A tour of Jumba la Mtwana (the large house of the slave), which in the past was a tourist attraction site, reveals the historical site has been damaged by climate vagaries.
Swedish innovation seeks to revive traditional Kenyan music sounds
Music Sample Bar [Swedish Museum of Performing Arts]
Kenyans can now listen and play digitally sounds from traditional instruments by visiting a gallery or the nearest national museum.
This is thanks to a new technology from Sweden called Music Sample Bar, which was recently launched at the Swedish Embassy in Nairobi.
Before then, many would only hear instruments like orutu, chivoti, bung o, wandindi or eshiriri at national celebrations or rare traditional ceremonies.
The Sample Bar is the first one in Africa and currently there are only two at Swedish Museum of Performing Arts in Stockholm, Sweden.