The enduring legacy of the African Heritage House

Every floor is a testimony to Africa’s great arts, giving accolade to the African Heritage House as the most photographed house in the world.

Published: Nation newspaper Saturday magazine 11 May 2024

Above: The African Heritage House. Credit Maya Mangat

It’s nostalgic being back at the African Heritage House, one of the world’s most unique houses inspired by all that is African – from her architecture to the arts, from her textiles to the cuisine.

I remember the first time driving up there in early 2006 and wondering if we had the correct address amidst the urban sprawl of Mlolongo. I see the same expression on my guests till we arrive at the house, the façade inspired by the mud mosques of Timbuktu and Djenne in Mali.

The mud mosque of Timbuktu that so inspired Alan Donovan to build the African Heritage House Copyright Rupi Mangat

It was the first time I had seen anything like that. The mystical Timbuktu came alive, which was the centre of Islamic studies in the 15^th and 16^th centuries and the home of the Koranic Sankore University founded in the 14^th century that was the intellectual and spiritual centre of Islam throughout Africa.  

Tales from Tsavo East

Above: Elephants at the waterhole at Voi Wildlife Lodge looking into Tsavo East National Park. Image courtesy.

Published: Saturday magazine in Nation newspaper 4 May 2024

The air is still and sun-baked. I take refuge under the shade of the banda staring into space that is the grandeur of Tsavo East National Park. It’s been 20 years since l sat in the same spot, with the solitary baobab for company at Voi Wildlife Lodge on the edge of the great park.

It’s opportune time to read the new edition of ‘The African Baobab’ by Rupert Watson, lawyer by profession and naturalist by choice. Every page l turn of the full-colour book on baobabs increases my awe of the tree.

Baobab tree in leaf at Voi Wildlife Lodge overlooking Tsavo East National Park. Image Rupi Mangat

Watson writes, ‘For starters, baobabs are living monuments, the oldest natural things in Africa, outlasting every plant and animal on the continent… They survive in the driest, rockiest areas of the continent – yet for all the hostility of much of their habitat, African baobabs live longer and grow larger than most other trees in the world. That is the great paradox of their existence.’

I didn’t know that, and suddenly realize that The African Baobab is one of two books fully dedicated to this living monument, some well over 2,000 years and still standing sentinel on the savannahs.

Retreat time on Diani Beach on Kenya’s famed South Coast

Above: Seafood appertizer served at Mvureni Beach Bar and Restaurant Diani Beach. Image Rupi Mangat

Published: Saturday magazine, Nation newspaper 20 April 2024

Angolan colobus monkeys infront of Maridadi Tulivu, Tamani compound Diani Beach. Image Inderjit Mangat

White-tipped tails hang from the branches above, when suddenly they become animated, leaping from branch to branch of the ancient baobab. They belong to the troop of black and white monkeys searching for a shadier spot to rest and munch on the nutrious leaves of the baobab that on reading The African Baobab by Rupert Watson, I’m excited to realize that the baobab is Africa’s oldest living monument, some going back to the time of the pharaohs some 5,000 years ago although the quintessential tree is not found in Egypt.

Dining with the red elephants in Tsavo West

A pair of bull elephants takes refuge in the water hole in Tsavo West. The colours are vivid – red elephants in the red-earth water, the thick green scrub on red soil with the acacias and baobabs offering precious shade to the wildlife.

Afternoon heat is intense. A pair of bull elephants in the waterpan to cool off. Image Rupi Mangat

The two red giants are in no hurry to move away from the waterhole. It’s hot and they have to cool themselves, entertaining us with a mock fight by pushing each other around, hosing themselves with their trunks and trumpeting. Done with cooling their large bodies, they step out, their wet bodies glistening in the midday sun.

The Green Fields of Kericho

Kenya’s famous tea country

Above: Kericho famous tea fields

Published: Nation Saturday magazine 9 March 2024

The black road cuts a narrow strip through the endless green fields of Kericho, the legendary home of Kenya’s best tea growing area. The green meets the blue of the sky in the horizon. On the southern scape, the Mau range fringes the green carpet with its ancient forest and on the western sky, it’s the massif of Tinderet that’s an extension of the Nandi Hills.

Sunrise at South Nandi Forest surrounded by Nyayo Tea Zone at Kobujoi. Copyright Rupi Mangat

Read more: The Green Fields of Kericho