NMK (National Museums of Kenya) & Basecamp Lamu Dhow Revival Project

Backround

The traditional transport vessels and fishing boats of the East African coast owe its historical roots to the Oman-Persian-Arabic-Indian coastal communities and boatbuilding traditions. It is reaching back several hundreds of years. Besides the traces of the South Asian trade caravans that penetrated into Africa and pushed on towards the North African countries to establish Islamic communities, the dhow based communities on Islands such as Zanzibar, Pemba and Lamu make up perhaps the most obvious and visible proof of early cultural x-change between South Asia and East Africa.

On Lamu, the values of the Swahili culture is strongly attached to maintaining the traditional knowledge of dhow-building. It is also a fact that the preservation of traditional knowledge relates intensely to the conservation and sustainability of cultures as well as biodiversity. When indigenous people find their culture eroding, when they are uprooted and displaced they risk losing their cultural identity - the development of the so called “beach-boy culture" on Lamu is an example of this. Traditional boat-building activities, fishing and sailing as a means of transportation may, on the other hand, serve as examples that contradict the above outlined risks.

Aims

Tourism can play a crucial role in preserving cultural values as well as biodiversity, provided it is being developed in a transparent and sensitive way and that it involves the local people. Basecamp Explorer Kenya aim to initiate and operate a sustainable tourism project on Lamu and its archipelago that combines the strengthening of dhow-building traditions and at the same time counteracts the ill-deceived cultural erosion taking place amongst some of the Youth of Lamu - the Lamu Dhow Revival Project. It is carried out as a private business project that aim to make a profit from future operational dhows and at the same time provide sustainability to the continuation of the project over time through a revenue plough-back system that will act as the financial platform.

A medium to large sized dhow (35-60 ft.) in an eroded state has been identified and purchased. The dhow has been moved to the premises of the Nat. Museum of Lamu, which will act as the facilitator of the project.

The way forward

• A simple construction covering the boat is to serve as the Youth dhow building school for a period of 18 to 24 months, depending of the size and state of the dhow.
• 4 young men will be sourced and approached to participate as apprentices together with 2 Mzees - senior men -  in dhow-building. Suitable economic revenue will be provided for the participants by the project. The school will act as one of the center attractions at the yearly cultural festival on Lamu as well as being communicated out through the activities of the museum and Basecamp Explorer Kenya as well as by UNESCO.
• After finalizing the renovation of the boat it will go into business operations carried out by BCEK with the purpose of facilitating guest activities as well as guide training activities. An agreement shall be drawn between the funding partners as to clarify the ownership to the dhow as well as the sharing of revenue and costs in the operations.

It is possible to sponsor and take an active part in NMK (National Museums of Kenya) & Basecamp Lamu Dhow Revival Project.

For further details contact:

tina@basecampexplorer.com