Lamu Cultural Festival

Lamu Cultural Festival

Lamu Old Town is a unique and rare historical living heritage with more than 700 years of continuous settlement. In 2001, it was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Since then the Lamu Cultural Promotion Group, a community based group, has been organizing an annual cultural festival to promote and preserve the unique Swahili heritage of the Lamu Archipelago. With support from international embassies, Kenyan authorities and local stakeholders, the Lamu Cultural Promotion Group continues to successfully showcase Swahili culture and traditions through this landmark event.

The three day festival will showcase traditional dances (ngomas), historical masterpieces, which have been an important _expression of neighbourhood rivalries. Besides competitive ngomas, deep seated animosity among Lamu residents in the past was settled through competitions on water and land: Kiswahili poetry competitions, donkey races, dhow races, and these will be some of the highlights of the festival. There will be displays of traditionalhandicraft, henna painting, Swahili bridal ceremony and a Swahili food bazaar. The festival offers a modern sample of these time-honoured traditions against a rich backdrop of the beauty and splendour of the Lamu archipelago.

This year’s festival will also feature a renowned lute player from Morocco, Omar Mazroui, adding a touch of Arab-North African Islamic influence, modern taarab groups from Zanzibar: ‘East African Melody’ and the ‘Sinachuki Kidumbak’, the popular Swahili taarab musician, Juma Bhallo, from Mombasa, and the young dancers/acrobats from the street children rehabilitation programme ‘Kuruka Maisha’.

An exhibition of photographs on Lamu and the Swahili culture, by the renowned photographer, Nigel Pavitt, will be on display in Lamu Fort.

Lamu offers accommodation to suit all pockets. Flying packages are listed herebelow. Transport by road to Lamu is completely safe. Public transport from Mombasa leaves
daily, with about seven buses at different times during the day. The journey to Mokowe on the mainland takes six to seven hours, followed by a half an hour boat ride to Lamu.

Programme

Fri. 18 Nov.
13:00 – 16:00
Jahazi dhow race

20:30 – 22:30
Traditional dances along the seafront

22:30 – 00:30
Traditional dances on stage by Lamu Fort (Mkunguni square)

Sat. 19 Nov.
08 :00 – 16 :00
Traditional skills and craft displays (ironsmith, woodcarving, grinding, pounding, dhow building, henna painting, swahili embroidery, mat making, bao games, leather works)
(Kihaji Grounds)

09:00 – 10 :00
Donkey race (in front of Lamu Museum)

10:00 – 11:00
Talk on ‘Identity and tradition of the Swahili people’ by
National Museums of Kenya

11:00 – 12:00
Canoe Race

14:00 – 16:00
Mashua dhow race and swimming finals

16:30 – 18:00
Prize giving (Mkunguni square)

18:30 – 19:00
Swahili food bazaar (Sunsail Hotel verandah)

20:00 – 22:00
Swahili bridal ceremony (Lamu Fort)
Traditional dances (Mkunguni square and along the seafront)

22:30
Kuruka Maisha dancers, Omar Mazroui (Arabo-Andalusian, sufi musician from Morocco), Sinachuki Kidumbak and East African Melody (from Zanzibar) (Mkunguni square)

Sun. 20 Nov.
09:00 – 12:00
Traditional skills and craft displays (Kihaji Grounds)

22:00
Swahili taarab by the musician, Juma Bhallo, from Mombasa (Mkunguni square).

Other attractions:

• Lamu Museum, exhibiting Swahili culture and the mainland’s non-Swahili groups
• Lamu Fort, dating back to 1821, having been built by the Sultan of Oman shortly after Lamu’s victory over Pate and Mombasa in the battle of Shela
• German Post Office Museum
• Swahili House Museum
• Takwa National Monument on Manda Island (a settlement dating back to AD 1500, with ruins of a Great Mosque and a pillar tomb)
  
• Ruins of Shanga, an 8th century Swahili settlement, on Pate Island, containing remains of the coral walls of 160 houses, two palaces, three mosques and hundreds of tombs
• The early Swahili settlement of Pate, once a power in the region
• Numerous sites and monuments that showcase Swahili civilization at its height in the 15th century
• Donkey sanctuary for the old beasts of burden
• The dhow making village of Matondoni

A wonderful treat for those who wish to savour the unique architectural and cultural splendour of East Africa’s earliest seaport.

Harsita Waters, Arts and Culture Coordinator
Alliance Francaise de Nairobi
Tel. +254-20-340054/79