Lamu

Lamu has a tropical dry savanna climate (Köppen climate classification As).

Activity on the waterfront

Lamu's economy was based on slave trade until abolition in the year 1907.[15] Other traditional exports included ivory, mangrove, turtle shells and rhinoceros horn, which were shipped via the Indian Ocean to the Middle East and India. In addition to the abolition of slavery, construction of the Uganda Railroad in 1901 (which started from the competing port of Mombasa) significantly hampered Lamu's economy.

Tourism has gradually refuelled the local economy in recent times, and it is a popular destination for backpackers. Many of the locals are involved in giving trips on dhows to tourists.[16] Harambee Avenue is noted for its cuisine, and has a range of stores including the halwa shop selling sweet treats and miniature mutton kebabs and cakes are sold at night.[17] Coconut, mango and grapefruit and seafood such as crab and lobster are common ingredients.[17] The town contains a central market, the Gallery Baraka and Shumi's Designs shop, and the Mwalimu Books store.[18]

View from Stone House Hotel

The oldest hotel in the town, Petley's Inn, is situated on the waterfront.[3] Other hotels include the American-restored Amu House, the 20-room Bahari Hotel, Doda Villas, the Swedish-owned Jannat House, the 3-storey 23-room Lamu Palace Hotel, Petley's Inn, the 13-room Stone House Hotel, which was converted from an 18th-century house, and the 18-room Sunsail Hotel, a former trader's house on the waterfront with high ceilings.[19]

Mangroves are harvested for building poles, and Lamu has a sizeable artisan community, including carpenters who are involving in boat building and making ornate doors and furniture.[3]

The town is served by Lamu District Hospital to the south of the main centre, operated by the Ministry of Health. It was established in the 1980s,[20] and is one of the best-equipped hospitals on the Kenyan coast.[21]

China has begun feasibility studies to transform Lamu into the largest port in East Africa, as part of their String of Pearls strategy.[22]

The town was founded in the 14th century and it contains many fine examples of Swahili architecture. The old city is inscribed on the World Heritage List as "the oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement in East Africa".

Once a center for the slave trade, the population of Lamu is ethnically diverse. Lamu was on the main Arabian trading routes, and as a result, the population is largely Muslim.[23] To respect the Muslim inhabitants, tourists in town are expected to wear more than shorts or bikinis.

There are several museums, including the Lamu Museum, home to the island's ceremonial horn (called siwa);[24] other museums are dedicated to Swahili culture and to the local postal service. Notable buildings in Lamu town include:

Riyadha Mosque

Riyadha Mosque

Habib Salih, a Sharif with family connections to the Hadramaut, Yemen, settled on Lamu in the 1880s, and became a highly respected religious teacher. Habib Salih had great success gathering students around him, and in 1900 the Riyadha Mosque was built.[25] He introduced Habshi Maulidi, where his students sang verse passages accompanied by tambourines. After his death in 1935 his sons continued the madrassa, which became one of the most prestigious centres for Islamic studies in East Africa. The Mosque is the centre for the Maulidi Festival, which are held every year during the last week of the month of the Prophet's birth. During this festival, pilgrims from Sudan, Congo, Uganda, Zanzibar and Tanzania join the locals to sing the praise of Mohammad. Mnarani Mosque is also of note.

Dhows competition during the Lamu cultural festival 2012

Lamu is home to the Maulidi Festival, held in January or February, which celebrates Mohammed's birth. It features a range of activities from "donkey races to dhow-sailing events and swimming competitions".[26] The Lamu Cultural Festival, a colourful carnival, [27] is usually held in the last week of August, which since 2000 has featured traditional dancing, crafts including kofia embroidery, and dhow races.[28] The Donkey Awards, with prizes given to the finest donkeys, are given in March/April.[28] Women's music in the town is also of note and they perform the chakacha, a wedding dance. Men perform the hanzua (a sword dance) and wear kanzus.[29]

Lamu Old Town was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2001, based on 3 criteria:

• The architecture and urban structure of Lamu graphically demonstrate the cultural influences that have come together there over several hundred years from Europe, Arabia, and India, utilising traditional Swahili techniques to produce a distinct culture.
• The growth and decline of the seaports on the East African coast and interaction between the Bantu, Arabs, Persians, Indians, and Europeans represents a significant cultural and economic phase in the history of the region which finds its most outstanding expression in Lamu Old Town.
• Its paramount trading role and its attraction for scholars and teachers gave Lamu an important religious function in the region, which it maintains to this day.[30]

Locals using a donkey for transport

In 2011, proposals were being advanced to build a deep-water port which would have much greater capacity in terms of depth of water, number of berths, and ability for vessels to arrive and depart at the same time than the country's main port at Mombasa.[31]

The song "Lamu"[32] by Christian singer Michael W. Smith is inspired by the island. In the song, Smith refers to Lamu as "an island hideaway...the place we soon will be a rebirth from life's demise...where the world is still". The song is about running away from life's problems.

Lamu is the setting of Anthony Doerr's short story "The Shell Collector" from his collection of stories by the same name.

Part of the events in the novel “Our Wild Sex in Malindi” (by Andrei Gusev) takes place in Lamu.[33][34][35]

• Juma and the Magic Jinn, a United States children's picture book set on Lamu Island
• Lamu Port and Lamu-Southern Sudan-Ethiopia Transport Corridor

Bibliography

• Allen, James de Vere: Lamu, with an appendix on Archaeological finds from the region of Lamu by H. Neville Chittick. Nairobi: Kenya National Museums.
• Bain, Keith; Bruyn, Pippa de; Williams, Lizzie (22 April 2010). Frommer's Kenya and Tanzania. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 978-0-470-64546-8.
• Beckwith, Carol and Fisher, Angela, Text: Hancock, Graham: "African Ark, People and Ancient Cultures of Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa," New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc, 1990. ISBN 0-8109-1902-8
• Briggs, Philip (2010). Kenya Highlights. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-267-5.
• Couffer, Jack: "The Cats of Lamu." New York: The Lyons Press, c1998. ISBN 1-85410-568-X
• Eliot, Charles (1966). The East African Protectorate. Routledge. ISBN 0-7146-1661-3.
• Engel, Ulf; Ramos, Manuel João (17 May 2013). African Dynamics in a Multipolar World. BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-25650-7.
• Fitzpatrick, Mary (2009). East Africa. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74104-769-1.
• Ghaidan, Usam: Lamu: A study of the Swahili town. Nairobi: East African Literature Bureau, 1975.
• Ham, Anthony; Butler, Stuart; Starnes, Dean (1 June 2012). Lonely Planet Kenya. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74321-306-3.
• Jackson, Guida M. (2009). Women Leaders of Africa, Asia, Middle East, and Pacific: A Biographical Reference. Xlibris Corporation. ISBN 978-1-4415-5843-5.
• McIntyre, Chris; McIntyre, Susan (1 April 2013). Zanzibar. Bradt Travel Guides. ISBN 978-1-84162-458-7.
• Naipaul, Shiva: North of South, An African Journey, 1978. Page 177 ff, Penguin Travel, ISBN 978-0-14-018826-4
• Parkinson, Tom; Phillips, Matt; Gourlay, Will (2006). Kenya. Lonely Planet. ISBN 978-1-74059-743-2.
• Prins, A.H.J.: Sailing from Lamu: A Study of Maritime Culture in Islamic East Africa. Assen: van Gorcum & Comp., 1965.
• Romero, Patricia W.: Lamu: history, society, and family in an East African port city. Princeton, N.J.: Markus Wiener, c1997. ISBN 1-55876-106-3, ISBN 1-55876-107-1
• Senoga-Zake, George W. (1986). Folk Music of Kenya. Uzima Publishing House. ISBN 978-9966-855-02-2.
• Trillo, Richard (2002). Kenya. Rough Guides. ISBN 978-1-85828-859-8.

Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Lamu.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Lamu.

• Official lamu island website
• Lamu on Organization of World Heritage Cities
• UNESCO World Heritage Centre – Lamu Old Town
• Lamu Collection Page in Aluka
• Explore Lamu with Google Earth on Global Heritage Network