Archive for month: August, 2011

You are here: / / / August

Evening Lecture

Wednesday, 31 August: Evening Lecture

Kenya Museum Society  &  Prehistory Club, NMK

Dr. Rick Potts: The Challenges of Becoming Human: Evolution in an Era of Dramatic Climate Change

Based on 25 years of research at Olorgesailie Kenya,he will illustrate the evidence of extinctions and the emergence of adaptations over the past 6 million years of human evolution, one of the most dramatic eras of environmental change in Earth’s history.

Dr. Potts is a Research Associate at National Museums of Kenya & he directs the Human Origins Programs at the Smithsonian Institution, USA.

Refreshments 6:15 pm
Doors open 7:00 pm
Nairobi National Museum, Louis Leakey Auditorium

Donation: Non members Ksh 500, Members Ksh 400, Students Ksh 200
Proceeds to fund the development of exhibitions and Prehistory Club at NMK
KMS Offices:  0724 255299 or 2339158
info@kenyamuseumsociety.org

www.prehistoryclubkenya.org

Know Kenya More logo

Know Kenya More

39th Know Kenya More 2011

Learn More; Know More; Know Kenya

Since 1971 the Know Kenya More! (formerly: Know Kenya Course) has been organized by the Kenya Museum Society as the main fundraising event to support projects of the National Museums of Kenya, providing valuable income for museums and pre-historic sites around the country.   All proceeds of the 39th course will go to support various projects at the National Museums of Kenya.

The course is an action-packed week designed to help all who live in and love Kenya to discover many of the nation’s hidden treasures.  Over a five-day period we are offering a series of 15 programmes including  morning lectures about Kenya’s history, natural history, conservation, modern-day issues, and popular culture. In the afternoon, the programme also includes guided tours through the only museum in East Africa adapted to 21st–century standards and Kenyan films.

Annual General Meeting

Annual General Meeting
Monday, 18 April 2011, 5:30 pm.
Louis Leakey Auditorium

Members will visit the casting department, a recipient of Kenya Museum Society grants awards, at 5.45 pm.

The meeting will start at 6.00 pm. Wine, juice and bitings will be provided.

Any member who wishes to nominate officers or other council members is encouraged to contact the KMS office by email or telephone. Any member who wishes to submit a resolution to the Annual General Meeting must send it in writing by 31 March to the Secretary, Dr. Marla Stone, via the KMS email (info@kenyamuseumsociety.org).

Please confirm your attendance on or before Friday, 15th April by email ( info@kenyamuseumsociety.org) or phone (020 3743808, 0724 255299, or wireless 020 2339158).

If your membership has lapsed or will soon lapse you may renew prior to the beginning of the meeting. Though all categories of members are encouraged to attend, only paid-up members, exclusive of student members, visitor members, NMK special category members and KMS staff, will be able to vote on any issues. The agenda for the AGM will be as follows:

1. Opening of Meeting

2. Approval of Minutes of 2010 AGM

3. Chairperson’s Report

4. Treasurer’s Report

5. New Business

a. Election of officers and other Council members
b. Appointment of auditor
c. Additional new business

6. Adjournment

Please mark your calendar now to attend. Thank you.

Second Hand Book Sale

Donate books for 2011 Second Hand book sale!

Dates for this year’s Second Hand Book Sale will be on 2nd and 3rd September 2011.

Kenya Museum Society welcomes donation of used books, tapes, DVDs, children’s books and games, magazines and dictionaries.

Kindly drop your donation to KMS office. We are open from 9 to 5 pm
You can also drop your donations at KMS shop located inside the Nairobi National Museum, open Monday to Sunday from 9.30 am to 5 pm.

Karen Blixen Museum

By Damaris Rotich, Senior Curator Karen Blixen Museum

The Karen Blixen Museum was established in 1985 to commemorate the life of Baroness Karen Blixen, the talented Danish author, poet and farmer. Karen Blixen is the author of several books including the famous “Out of Africa” later documented into a movie with the same title. Karen Blixen lived in the Museum house, Mbogani as it was then known from 1917 to 1931.  She sold the house with the 6000 acres she owned to a land developer in 1931 when she left Kenya. The land developer split up the property into smaller acreage to create a housing estate which he named Karen after its previous owner. Mbogani house also changed named at time to Karen house. The house was rented out and later sold to a retired Colonel Lloyd who lived here until his death in 1954.  His daughter occupied the house until 1959 when it was bought by the Danish Government to present it to Kenya Government as a gift to mark the occasion of its independence in 1963. Included with the gift was a grant to build a centre for young women. Karen house was then used by the new college to accommodate the matron when it opened doors in 1966 until 1972.

Karen Blixen in her early yearsAt about the same period, Karen’s literary works had captured the readers, a number of her admirers were already visiting Karen house, and the idea of converting the house into the museum had been born, however due to tasks involved this took several years.  The National Museums of Kenya (NMK) had considered prospects of developing Karen house as a museum by 1970 but limited funds could not allow.

Main attractions

The museum presents a glimpse of the life of the talented author and farmer through, photographs, paintings and displays of furniture and a Library of books.  There is a unique collection of agricultural tools, ploughs, wagons, coffee driers and first generation tractors that provide an insight into early twentieth century agriculture, technologies and transportation of goods. Three hundred bags of coffee were hauled by oxen from Karen Blixen’s farm to the Nairobi railway station from where they went to Mombasa for shipping.

 Other attractions include

  • Karen Blixen houseThe Museum house is one of Nairobi’s old houses built in 1912, set with a magnificent view of the Ngong Hills.
  • Nature trail into a relic indigenous forest found then in the area.
  • Wonderful life forms: – Birds 116 species, Butterflies, Mammals (Hyrax and bush squirrels) and over 100 types of plants.

During the 25 years celebrations, the museum will be taking stock of its activities, and looking into ways of expanding and bringing out more stories of Kenya’s early history.

Karen Blixen was born in Denmark in 1885. She came to Kenya in 1914 to join her fiancé Baron Bror Von Blixen and they got married here on the second day of her arrival. Baron Bror Von Blixen had preceded her to buy a farm to rear Dairy cattle, but this plan changed, instead they engaged in coffee farming. However, the coffee farm did not do well due to unsuitable climatic conditions: – acidic soils, insufficient rainfall, high altitude, and other factors whicih included poor returns due to the world 1930 recession. Karen Blixen faced many challenges in Africa but her spirit never died; she suffered poor health, a failed marriage which ended in divorce in 1925 and the collapse of the coffee farm which left her bankrupt. Karen had invested so much in the farm: her heart was here, the welfare of her farm workers was in her, she kept on trying every year hoping that the returns would improve but this was never to be.

Karen BlixenLooking back on her life in Africa, Karen Blixen felt “that it might altogether be described as the existence of a person who had come from a rushed and noisy world into a still country”. Karen Blixen returned to live with her mother at the family home in Rungstedlund Denmark where she spent the rest of her days. It was at this stage in her life that she seriously started her literary career. Her first book “Seven Gothic Tales was published in America 1934, where it received the “Book of the month” award. “Out of Africa” was published in 1937. Karen continued to write a number of successful books and articles right up to the time of her death in 1962.

The Museum is most grateful to the Danish Government for the initial idea and donation of the property. NMK is also indebted to a number of Contributors over the years. Among them the Rungstedlund Foundation for the photographs in the building, the Kenya Museum Society which has made significant contributions to the Karen Blixen Museum over the years notably for: -restoration of the furniture, construction of lavatories and gate.  A number of Kenya Museum society members also donated a number of books and volunteered their time towards Museum activities. The first Museum guides were trained by KMS one of them is still with the Museum to date.

The Museum is located 16 Kilometers from Nairobi City Centre, it is accessible through both the Ngong and Langata roads, the Museum is at the end of Karen road.

The Kenya Museum Society (KMS)

The Kenya Museum Society (KMS) is a not-for-profit organisation set up in 1970 to support and promote the National Museums of Kenya.  You are invited to join the Society and find out more about Kenya, its people, history, prehistory and culture. KMS organises many activities for members, including the two-week-long intensive Know Kenya More which is an informal learning programme popular with expatriates, longtime residents and those involved in the tourism and travel industry.

Protecting a 60-year investment in world-renowned replicas

KMS funds shelving for the NMK Casting Department

By Benson Kyongo
Casting Department head

The Casting Department was established in 1963 as an answer to a pressing need at the museum. The National Museums of Kenya have the finest collection in the world of hominid fossils, along with many other examples of African flora and fauna. There is a tremendous demand from researchers around the world to study these artifacts. But original fossil skulls and bones are both too valuable and too fragile to handle frequently. So the Casting Department produces precise casts—or replicas—of these fossils that can be sent to other researchers for study.

These casts are not “counterfeits,” but precise, detailed, scientifically accepted replicas.

The Casting Department is an investment by the museum, since it generates revenues from cast sales. Clients across the globe include museums, universities, individual researchers and other related institutions.

The department also provides exhibition replicas to NMK museum galleries around Kenya. Some of our recent work is included in galleries on human  evolution and large mammals in the Nairobi Museum.

In 1967, the first two Kenyan casting trainees were recruited, Mr. Simon Kasinga and Mr. Kasilu. In 1977 they were both sent to the United States for specialized technical training. After their successful completion of this training, they became internal trainers at the department.

The department is expecting new technology donated by the Japan International Cooperation Agency to assist us in the many activities we undertake.

To produce a cast, one begins by making a mold. In casting, we have a “mother mold.” Every cast produced has a mold. These molds are important because once it is made, it will be used to reproduce subsequent casts without reusing the original specimen.

All the molds are catalogued with accession and shelf numbers for easy access. Over the years, we have built many thousands of molds, prepared for important specimens for various purposes.

One of our challenges has been the safe keeping of these important productions. Dust reduces the life of a mold. With our old wooden shelving, it was very difficult to keep out the dust. The wooden shelves were constructed in the 1960s. By 2010, the wooden shelves were tired with the burden of carrying all those molds for year. Dust and wood breakage were regular visitors to the department. We feared that this would be a continuing routine.

But then in 2010, after touring the facility, the Kenya Museum Society stepped in with a grant to provide new metal shelving, protecting the nearly 60 year of investment in molds and casts that NMK has made. I cannot forget energetic KMS Chair Pat Jentz who, apart from her very busy schedule, spent a lot of time with me in the lab, taking floor measurements, marking the areas, looking for a company to do the work and getting bids. I’m very grateful for her hard work.

The project has two phases. The first is complete, and the second is now under way.

I’d also like to thank all the KMS committee officials, members, staff and other who contributed in so many ways. We are very grateful. We also had the full support and blessing of NMK Director General Dr. Idle Farah, who took time form his busy schedule to help with fundraising. We also had great support from the Directorate Director Connie Maina. On behalf of hte casting department and NMK as a whole, we are honored. Again I say, “Thanks.”

KMS, keep the spirit.

The Karura Forest rejuvenated

Picture: John Chege and Alice Macaire. Photo by Leonard Gitachu

Cooperation from the local community is essential for the protection of threatened lands like Nairobi’s Karura Forest, says Alice Macaire, whose locally based efforts to protect the forest have led to its rejuvenation.

The Friends of Karura Forest conservation effort began in 2007, building on earlier effort by Professor Wangari Maathai, who originally rescued the forest from development. Electric fence now encloses 900 hectares of the forest, and 29 rangers and scouts patrol the area full-time.

At a gathering sponsored by the Kenya Museum Society, Macaire presented a film and talk about the efforts of the group to protect the forest, which is near the Muthaiga area of Nairobi. She credited people living in the adjacent Huruma slum with much of the eventual success of the project.

Prior to the conservation efforts, Karura had a reputation as dangerous spot. Muggings, robbery and violence were common. At one point, said Kenya forest official Charity Munyasia, they were discovering one dead body there per fortnight, on average.
To overcome these security threats, the Friends of Karura met with the residents in Huruma at a church in the slum. “A lot of people, predominantly men, shuffled in very ragged clothes, terribly yellow eyes, which I understand now is a result of drinking a lot of changaa to stop your hunger pangs,” said Macaire in the film. “Very desperate.”

When the group asked the residents about whether they would agree to fencing the forest, “To my amazement, they basically were for it.”

One of the community workers asked those in attendance if they knew the people doing the attacking in the forest. The men said they did. She asked, “Are they predominantly from your community?” and they said they were.

Macaire continued, describing the situation: The community worker asked, “‘Are they all from your community?’ and they said, ‘yes’ … and then there was this moment, you could feel this question coming, ‘Is everyone whose doing the attacking in this room?’”
There was a pause, then someone said, “We’re pretty well all here.”

“One of the men stood and asked, ‘Am I a better man if I attack someone in the forest, steal their mobile phone, sell it and feed my children? Or am I better man if I go to bed at night listening to my children crying themselves to sleep because they have no food?’
“Another youth jumped to his feet and said, ‘Please, please, find me employment. It’s very frightening attacking people in the forest.’”

From then on, the group as able to work with the community, providing some employment, setting rules for gathering wood and feed within the forest, and other benefits. They were aided especially by some dedicated local conservationists, including John Chege and Charity Munyasia, to fence some of the area and open it to public visits. More than 3,000 people visited the forest in the first month after the fence and gates opened, and 2,000 the following month. The group has ambitious plans for improvements that will make the visitor experience even better.

The forest contains a three-tiered waterfall, three rivers, bamboo groves, and more than 50 kilometers of hiking trails. There are also caves of historic interest from the time of the Mau Mau rebellion. Wildlife includes bush baby, bushbuck, bush pig, civet, dik dik, duiker, epauletted bat, genet and porcupine. Conservationists are considering reintroduction of the colobus monkey, which was once populous there, but has been eliminated from the area.

The forest is one of the largest gazetted forests in the world located entirely within city limits. There is a tiered fee for entering.
Macaire spoke at the KMS event held at the Louis Leakey Auditorium on Wednesday, 13 April, 2011.

Secret Link