fotaq

Sunday, March 06, 2005

Blasts from the past

Andrew and I at Legoland Denmark (dig his shoulder pads!). I think this was 1985.

And here's me last summer in Amsterdam working on Athena with Mike, Bill, and Rod:

I went to Kenya with my friend Rod in the summer of 2004. He was making a documentary on the play "I Will Marry When I Want" by Ngugi wa Thiong'o. I was the camera man. The point of the work was to interview the villiage women who where the actors in the play. The play was performed in the early 1970s. The play wasn't overtly political. But it was Marxist and, largly because it was performed in Kikuyo rather than English, it was seen as subversive. The play was banned, the theater was torn down, and Ngugi was thrown in prison. Rod became friends with Ngugi's son, Mukoma wa Ngugi, while they were students in Boston.

This is the view from our hotel in Nairobi. A market is behind the tree.

Here's the market. This was an arts and craft market. It is considered a more tourist market, but I don't see that many tourists. White people walking around will be "befriended" by people eager to sell you stuff at Mzungu (white person) prices

market

Mutatu (public transport vans) staging ground. A no-more-people-than-seats rule was actually passed and enforced soon before our arrival. You could also rent a whole van out for the price of the 12 people they could carry. A very bargin taxi.

view from train to Mombassa

another train view

Mombassa

Indian influence in Mombassa

At the home

Mukoma wa Ngugi's Aunt's place

Rod stealing my camera. That was my job. But of course I couldn’t take any pictures of my holding the camera.

The actors of the play

The vestibule of Amado Diallo

A student of mine took these pictures on March 8, 2005. They are of the front to Amadou Diallo's apartment, where he was shot and killed by police.

tombstone