Daren has one of the best research gigs around. Basically, he goes party hopping. Well, he writes, does interviews and other such things too. He's a very hard worker, but yeah, we like to party. Because Daren is focusing his research on festivals and the like, we travel up and down the coast to where ever the next shindig is. About a week after moving to Mombasa, (this is back in March) we packed our bags again for a weekend trip to Malindi, a beautiful beach town about three hours away, to attend the first annual Malindi Cultural Festival. It was in celebration of the culture of varied tribes with at least 12 performances of different dances. Going was kind of spur of the moment; The festival was very well attended, Kenyans from all over flocking to Malindi to join in the festivities. While Daren was busy videotaping and hobnobbing, I was once again getting Henna applied for the women's competition - 2nd place! (Daren says to apologize for the blurriness of some of the pictures. Apparently people tend to move when they're dancing). In addition to the dance festival, they had a women's night (for women's only dances), a lively forum for drug-treatment awareness, and a public seminar on Swahili identity.
What's a festival without a good Kenyan footrace!
Or some child acrobats.
The Kamba group warms up before the main show.
The Pokomo puts on a good show for the crowd.
We're not sure which group these women are from, but we love their flourescent "grass" skirts!
The Waata claim to be the "ORIGINAL" inhabitants of the coast. Mombasa, Malindi and other place names come from their language - of course others make similar claims... They are usually grouped in with other "hunter-gatherer" groups in the region.
Some fine examples of the newly revived national dress of the Mijikenda - the Hando. We're told that in precolonial days, this is all the women would wear.
A small sample of the crowd early in the afternoon, before everyone else arrived.
The Kenyan Coast's favorite Mzungu Model. Even Patience starts to lose it a little bit after fours hours of drawing and two hours of drying. I suppose that's the price of beauty, and the reason most people only go to such extents on their wedding day. (You know, once in their lives instead of twice in one summer).
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