Alex Kuria
@alexkuria
Research on the interaction of Africans, missionaries, church and education in Kenya between 1840 and 1970 Enjoy almost all sports + FPL Coffee + Jazz = Bliss
Excellent baristas at the coffee shop on the ground floor at Tha Nickolee Hotel in Nanyuki
Mianzi-ni in Kiswahili means the place of bamboo. It was a significant trading area on the caravan route in the 1800s. This view of Mianzeni on top of the ridge is from the Kedong Valley, near Mt Margaret, with a Masai kraal in the foreground. [Through Masai Land by Joseph Thomson (1887)] (1/2)
This photo with the caption 'Kikuyu woman carrying string bag and baby' is one of fifteen photos in the book 'Beyond the Kikuyu Curtain' by Helen Virginia Blakeslee. Published in 1956 by Moody Press Chicago. The copyright is held by The Moody Bible Institute of Chicago. (1/5)
The perspective of the Daily Express on the Mau Mau rebellion, in 1953 or 1954.
Italian Carrara marble, buffalo sculpture for Raila mausoleum. Business Daily 🤔
Early map of Africa from Martin Behaim's Globe 1492. Six places listed are Sierra Leone, Zanzibar, Ethiopia, Egypt, Atlas Mountains and Cape Verde. The last is in the wrong place as they are islands. A Simple History of East Africa by Herbert Brittain and PJG Ripley. My primary school history book😣
CMS Rabai mission house. Amy and Archibald Shaw lived in it in March 1883. Originally built and occupied by Johannes Rebmann. " ... a most charming little cottage, covered with creepers, and commands a capital view through a glen cut in the hills.” [Through Masai Land by Joseph Thomson (page 28)]
Young Christian men from Tanganyika (then German East Africa) - Nasa, Nera, or Chamgassa. They were attending training for teachers and evangelists at the Africa Inland Mission station in Kijabe. Photo taken at steps at the front of the Kijabe church, in late 1915 or early 1916, by TR Westervelt.
'Flight Path: Son of Africa to Warrior-Diplomat' by Scott Gration. His time in Kenya was full of highs and lows. Admitted at Gertrude's Children's Hospital on Muthaiga Road in 1953. 29 years later was resident at the far end of the same road as US Ambassador. (1/2)
On Oct 1, 1902 the East Africa Protectorate was subdivided into 7 provinces; Seyidiye, Tanaland, Jubaland, Ukamba, Kenia, Naivasha, and Kisumu. The provinces were further sub-divided into 16 districts. EA and Uganda Protectorates Gazette Vol. IV No. 70 Mombasa October 1, 1902
Now reading 'Colonial Transformation of Kenya; The Kamba, Kikuyu, and Maasai from 1900-1939.' by Robert L. Tignor.
Now reading 'Kenya: From Colonization to Independence, 1888-1970', by R. Mugo Gatheru. Published in 2005 but seems that Mugo resident in Sacramento, California did the research in Kenya in the 1970s.
Classic Coffee by Nyeri Hill Farm. Arabica single origin coffee, medium roast. "Established in 1914 by the Consolata Missionaries, Nyeri Hill Farm is one of the oldest and most respected coffee farms in Kenya."
I was running errands with my youngest daughter, when I saw this car in Lavington Mall in Nairobi. It still has the Obama 08 bumper sticker, the year she was born!
The first is the first hand account, by HH Austin, of the attack by Waiyaki on Purkiss of the IBEA Co in August 1892. Waiyaki died enroute to Mombasa thereafter. He was buried in Kibwezi near the East Africa Scottish Mission (EASM) station. (2/4)
John Spencer, in 1985, ended his book with a bold conclusion. "Without KAU, one can not understand the modern history of Kenya." He also made the observation that "... KANU, like KAU, was and is rooted in conservatism." I have enjoyed reading KAU, I have a better understanding of Kenyan politics.
Kambui mission station, established by Gospel Missionary Society in 1902. Missionaries started a school whose alumni include Wanyoike Kamawe (1902-1910), Harry Thuku (1907-1911), Waruhiu Kung’u (1902-1905), Magugu Waweru (1917-1919) and Mugo Gatheru (1941-1944) 3rd Kenyan university student in USA.
'Hacienda El Progreso' by Café Las Flores. Arabica coffee from Nicaragua.
In the following days and weeks 11 more students reported to the pioneer secondary school for Africans in Kenya. The last was Magugu Waweru who joined the school in the second term on July 22, 1926. (2/2)
" ... I didn't want to relegate that background to footnotes and endnotes (I hate footnotes and endnotes.)" Obama in the preface of his book 'A Promised Land' (2020) (4/5)
"This book has not been footnoted because it is not a document of record but a means of communication and footnoting, I feel, destroys the flow of a narrative." Smith Hempstone in the introduction of his book 'Africa Angry Young Giant'. Written in Timau, Kenya in March 1960. (3/5)
Four fascinating maps of Africa in 1912 by a Christian missionary organization based in the United States of America. The vastness is fairly accurate, so to is the population at 150 million. A Negro race in West Africa? 🤔 The railway, cable telegram and telephone seems overly optimistic.
I bought a pack of 375gm Java House AA coffee beans at Quickmart Kileleshwa on Dec 19, 2025. I was lucky as it was packed on Dec 16, 2025, presumably roasted a day or so prior. I went back to Quickmart on Jan 2, 2026 for more but all they had on the shelf was the batch packed on Nov 24, 2025. 🤔
One of the goals of the Teleki expedition was 'to open up the now shunned and dreaded Kikuyu country' and visit Mt. Kenia. The caravan, which had set off from Zanzibar, then proceeded to present day Lake Turkana and Lake Chew Bahir in Ethiopia, which he named Rudolf and Stephanie respectively. (3/3)
The other account is by Ludwig Ritter von Höhnel in his book 'Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie: A Narrative of Count Samuel Teleki's Exploring & Hunting Expedition in Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1887 & 1888'. Leading the caravan were Zanzibari/Swahili guides with hundreds of porters. (2/3)
Fascinating to cross reference two accounts of the brutal encounters between the Agikuyu and first visiting Europeans in Aug/Sep 1887. One by Koinange wa Mbiyu great grandson of Gatheca, who received Teleki and his party that included Ludwig Ritter von Höhnel www.youtube.com/watch?v=klvA... (1/3)
The old picture was taken on the morning of February 4, 1886 in Rabai. The surviving members of the ill-fated Hannington caravan to Uganda, led by William Henry Jones had just returned. In the background is the partially constructed St. Paul Church. The Church Missionary Gleaner 1886 (pages 54 - 55)