About Kenya

Background information about Kenya, the province, Bondo-city and the JOOUST University

General

Kenya is a republic state in the eastern part of Africa, it has borders with Uganda, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, the Indian Ocean, Tanzania and lake Victoria. It was in 1888 colonised by Britain, the colonisation resulted in a big immigration of Indians & Europeans. During world war II a lot of Kenyan soldiers fought for Brittain, this resulted in a growing independence movement in Kenya. In 1963 Kenya became independent with the British Queen as monarch and Jomo Kenyatta as prime minister. A year later Jomo Kenyatta became president and Kenya became a republic.

Most people in Kenya work in the agricultural sector, however this is mostly only self-sufficient farming. The biggest export products are coffee and tea and tourism is also a big source of income.

About 85% of the Kenyan children follows primary education and about 38% of the children move through the whole Kenyan school system and finally gets an university degree.

Siaya County

The county in which Bondo is situated.

Bondo is the biggest town in the county Siaya, however the more central Siaya town is the capital of the county. The main industries are fishing and farming.

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Link: Homepage County Government of Siaya
Bondo

The district of Bondo was created in 1998, which means it's a quite young district. In 2002 there were about 238.780 citizens living in the Bondo district, of whom 47% was 14 years or younger. The biggest town in the district is Bondo town, that has 12.202 citizens. With approximately 175 kilometres of shoreline of lake victoria the main business is fishing, but also small scale cropping and animal husbandry. Most crops that are grown are large grains, mostly maize.

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Lake Victoria

Bordering this huge lake it has been of great influence for the Bondo region.

Lake Victoria is the second biggest lake in the world, the coast in this region is flat and bare which grants an easy access to the lake. The surroundings of the lake are the most densely populated areas in Africa, the lake has been very important for these people as livelihood. However this has also led to overfishing and pollution in the lake.

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Culture

Through a lot of migration Kenya has become a varied country with more than 40 different ethnic groups.

With all these ethnic groups there are a lot of differences in the country, there are for example 61 languages spoken in Kenya. The official languages are English, introduced by the Britains, and Swahili, that is widely spoken through East Africa. Through the migration a lot of the traditional Kenyan culture has been diluted in most of the country. A lot of the immigrants are other tribes from Africa but also people from Europe, India, Arabia and Pakistan have moved to Kenya. The local tribes have adapted the manners of these immigrants and now you can see tribes in their traditional clothing but with influences of the west or Islamic culture. Christianity is the

In total there are 61 languages spoken in Kenya but Kenya's official languages are English, introduced by the Britains, and Swahili, that is widely spoken through East Africa. Kenya knows a lot of different religions, most of the people are Christian: About 45% of the Kenyans are Reformed, 33% Catholic and about 10 % Muslim and there are also some indigenous beliefs.

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Cuisine

Due to all the different influences of different tribes there is no dish that represents all of Kenya. Every district has its own dishes and eating habits. However a lot of the Kenyan dishes involve maize or other cereals that are eaten with different meats and vegetables.

One common dish is "Sukuma wiki", literally this translates to "stretch the week". This vegetable is year round available and they are thinly sliced and eaten together with a dough-like substancy mostly made from maize flour.

Modern music

Music has always been a big influence in the Kenyan culture, during the colonial era it was used to tell the stories of the history of the tribes. Due to all the immigration the music became a mixture between African, Indian, European and American styles. But also within Kenya there are a lot of influences from different tribes, when you walk on the streets you can hear songs in all the different languages. This makes the music culture very interesting but also very complex.

The modern Pop music scene can be traced back till the 1950's. The most popular music style is Benga music, a combination of traditional instruments and rhythms and modern dance. This music style became so popular even tribes adopted it in their traditional music

In the 1960's and 70's music groups from Congo an Tanzania performed a lot in Kenya, the last decade the American hiphop has become very popular. However there are a lot of Kenyan musicians who use this influence but also still use the traditional styles.

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Modern films

The River road in Nairobi nowadays is a bustling creative business hub, this is the place where the Kenyan film industry is developing itself. Every week 20 to 30 films are made here in Riverwood, as is the nickname given to this area. The cheaper electronics made it possible for a lot of Kenyans to film and produce their own film, this has resulted in a self sufficient industry. The industry is a succes in Kenya because a lot of Kenyans can identify with these films, it works as a mirror for them.

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Impression on JOOUST culture

collection of a few youtube videos shot on the campus
Statistics

Kenya National Bureau of Statistics

click here to go to the website