Attractions in Lamu County
18. German Post Office Museum
Established in November of 1888 by Clement Denhardt and re-opened in 1996, the pocket-sized German Post Office Museum served as the only liaison office to German controlled region of Witu. The Germans had gained Witu as part of the never-ending concessions, exceptions and adjustments with the British Empire during the scramble for East Africa. The interest of the European in Lamu had coincided with the decline of Lamu as an economic hub which had been marked by Maasai raids and the famine of 1884 that caused some plantation villages to be abandoned. The situation was worsened by the cattle plague of 1889 and the increased restrictions on slave labour. In the north, the Germans were inciting the ruler of Witu to lay claim to the sizable coastal stretch between Kipini and Kiwayu by introducing taxes on the produce of the islands’ plantations. In the south, the Sultan Barghash of Zanzibar, unable to stem the flutters of German imperialism, conceded to the British East African Association (BEAA) the right to administer the coast between Vanga and Kipini in his name. The combined outcome of these factors was the beginning of the disintegration of the Swahili coast unit. During the following years the coast became a staging for European rivalries in a strife subsequently put-right by the Anglo-German Agreements of 1886 and 1890. In 1895 Lamu was formally declared a protectorate of Britain. The German Post Office Museum displays beaucoup of the records, photos and other memorabilia from the two year period of its operation in the Witu Region.
19. Lamu Fort
Lamu Fort, completed in 1821, is a grand metaphor for Lamu town’s prosperity and dominance after foiling Mombasa and Pate Island in the Battle of Shela. In 1812, joint forces of Pate and Mombasa were repulsed by Lamu in a fierce battle on the beaches of Shela. In the same year Lamu sought and received protection from the Sultan of Oman, and so, Lamu Fort was built and garrisoned by Omani soldiers. Lamu, thanks to its beneficial relationship with the Omani rulers, who later established the Sultanate of Zanzibar, grew into a busy trading hub. By the middle of the 19th Century, its daus were trading in ivory, mangroves, oil seeds, hides, grains, cowries, tortoise shells and hippo teeth in large quantities. Ivory was bought from the Wasania hunters through the intermediary of Kipini, Kau and the other settlements of Tana River. The protective presence of Lamu Fort in the middle of Lamu Town, and visible for miles around it, spurred growth of the town with many of its houses been built around it. Henceforth, the excellent siting of the town and its fort protected them against attack from the mainland warlike tribes who at the period utterly devastated several mainland and island towns like Kilwa and Mombasa. Today, the huge open space in-front of Lamu Fort, under the shade of casuarina trees, is a treasured public area popular with playing of the Bao, an ancient traditional board game. The 17th Century was the episode of Pate’s supremacy, during which time Lamu was a subsidiary of Pate.
20. Masjid Riyadha
The southern side of Lamu Town has a handful of distinguished mosques, none, perhaps, as important and famous as Masjid Riyadha recognizable by its roof-ring of yellow and dash of islamic-green on its foyer. The importance of Lamu as a Swahili centre dates back hundreds of years, and since the 19th century its ascendancy as an Islamic religious centre for Eastern and Central Africa was at full tilt. Its preeminence, much-vaunted for the quality of its programming as a religious hub, was first put under the limelight by Habib Swaleh, a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed who first visited Lamu in 1885 from Comoros and later helped transform the Islamic faith and bloom festivals, notably of Maulidi Festival held annually at Masjid Riyadha. Sufism plays an important part in the elaboration of the Maulidi Festival in the Lamu archipelago and contributes to its colourful character. The Lamu Muslim brotherhood, the “Alawiyya”, lead in the celebration of the anniversary of the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad. It follows the lunar calendar and one often commemorated on a particular day of the week rather than a particular date to celebrates the birthday of the Prophet. Drawing in visitors to Lamu in the hundreds each year, is an expression of popular culture and piety. It emphasizes the different rituals which shape the celebrations and analyze the meaning of the festival within the Swahili society. Vibrant and colourful in appearance, Maulidi is a complex social phenomenon.
Maulidi has many aspects which go beyond the simple expression of religious faith to the point of bringing into question the nature of the dichotomy between the sacred and the profane. No religious manifestation of this category can be understood in its deepest significance unless it is duly subjected to the broadest possible social context. For this celebration, visitors come from as far away as Europe, America, Tanzania Bara (mainland), Zanzibar, Somalia, and even the Saudi Arabian peninsula, as well as from many of the towns and villages on the coast of Kenya. The active participants come from the Islands of the archipelago like Pate, Faza, Siyu and the Bajuni Islands. “During the entire period of the Lamu Maulidi Festival, the Sufi often used dhikri – repeating the names of God – a reference that is not only to the celebration of the birth of the Prophet himself, but also to the celebration of the birthdays of the founding saints of the orders. One aspect of the Maulidi Festival in the Lamu archipelago, which culminated in heightened tension between the adherents of the Maulidi Festival and those opposed to it, was the question of the permissibility of music. “It will be noted that the presence of musical instruments during the Maulidi Festival, and especially the iconic tambourines (matwari) and the drums (vigoma) have been there since Habib Swaleh introduced Maulidi Festival in its present form.
A section of the Swahili people in the Lamu archipelago have not subscribed to Habib Swaleh’s introduction of music during the festival. This sometimes evokes strong resistance. Because this festival was not celebrated in early Islam, but only came into being later, the permissibility of its celebration was, and sometimes is, disputed by some Swahili people of the Lamu archipelago. The festival has continued to become more confrontational as a new generation of Islamic scholars has emerged. They are those who either studied in the Riyadha College or those who acquired brands of reformist doctrine during visits to the Middle Eastern institutions. The Riyadha Mosque Committee that organises the yearly Maulidi Festival has repeatedly objected to those who were against the festival. They did this initially by roundly condemning them during preaching inside the mosque. They said that they were infringing on what Swahili people of the Lamu archipelago have enjoyed over the years since the inception of the the festival. The aspect of its carnival side may sound rather an anticlimax of a genuinely religious festival. Thus, the traveller to Maulidi must pause a little to consider the reasons and then the results of the success of Islam in the Coast Region of Kenya. It demanded little in the way of religious duties or rituals; but offered in return an enhanced social position, signified by the cap and gown, a membership in a large community and, not least, a paradise with green lawns, orchards, lots of attending hours and so on. Riyadha is situated near Lamu Fort.
One of the most popular traditional secular dances for men during the Maulidi festival is called kirimbuzi, a stick dance in which two men move within a large circle, sometimes a rectangular space, threatening each other, using stylised motions with two large sticks. Another dance is the goma, a slow, stylised line dance, associated particularly with Siyu and Faza, and which consists of a ritualised sequence of movements with a cane held in the right hand. Also, there is chama, a line dance that is the speciality of the men of the village of Matondoni, a small village just down the beach from Lamu town. The men wear the traditional male garment, a long white kanzu, and kofia, but decorate them with necklaces of paper flowers and attach paper flowers to their hats. The right foot is always forward of the left as they progress with a left-right, quick-slow movement.
Abiri Kenya 