East Africa's artistic traditions are lesser known than those emerging from elsewhere on the continent, but that means there are some real discoveries to be made. Outstanding literary and Swahili architectural traditions, in particular, give expression and voice to the region's fascinating local cultures, while Makonde woodcarving is one of the more refined in Africa. East Africans are also gaining plaudits in the world of cinema, while local musicians have perfected the art of adapting better-known musical traditions into something irresistibly East African.
East Africa is one of the continent's architectural treasures, particularly for its colonial-era buildings and religious architecture, including both churches and mosques. The real highlights, however, are the old town areas of Zanzibar and Lamu (both Unesco World Heritage Sites) and of Mombasa, all of which display mesmerising combinations of Indian, Arabic, European and African characteristics in their buildings and street layouts.
In Lamu, Pate and elsewhere along the coast, Swahili architecture predominates. At the simplest level, Swahili dwellings are plain rectangular mud-and-thatch constructions, set in clusters and divided by small, sandy paths. More elaborate stone houses are traditionally constructed of coral and wood along a north–south axis, with flat roofs and a small open courtyard in the centre, which serves as the main source of light.
The various quarters or neighbourhoods in Swahili towns are symbolically anchored by a central mosque, usually referred to as the msikiti wa Ijumaa (Friday mosque). In a sharp break with Islamic architectural customs elsewhere, traditional Swahili mosques don’t have minarets; the muezzin gives the call to prayer from inside the mosque, generally with the help of a loudspeaker.
East Africa’s long languishing and traditionally under-funded film industry received a major boost with the opening of the Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF; www.ziff.or.tz), also known as the Festival of the Dhow Countries. The festival, which has been held annually on Zanzibar Island since 1998, continues to be one of the region’s premier cultural events. It serves as a venue for artists from the Indian Ocean basin and beyond, and has had several local prize winners, including two winners of the prestigious Golden Dhow Award. The first came in 1998 with Maangamizi: The Ancient One, shot in Tanzania and co-directed by Tanzanian Martin M’hando. M’hando is also known for his film, Mama Tumaini (Women of Hope). More recently, Kenya's Bob Nyanja won the coveted prize in 2011 for The Rugged Priest, in which an American Catholic priest battles the powers-that-be among the Maasai amid ethnic conflict in Kenya's Rift Valley.
Other regional winners of prizes at the Zanzibar festival have included Makaburi Yatasema (Only the Stones are Talking), a film about AIDS directed by Chande Omar Omar, and Fimbo ya Baba (Father’s Stick), a 2006 Chande Omar Omar production also focusing on AIDS. In 2005 Tanzania’s Beatrix Mugishawe won acclaim (and two prizes) for Tumaini, which focuses on AIDS orphans.
Rwandan Eric Kabera is known worldwide for Keepers of Memory, as well as 100 Days (produced together with Nick Hughes) and Through My Eyes, both sobering documentaries on the Rwandan genocide and its aftermath, and both also ZIFF award winners.
In 2013, Kenyan actress Lupita Nyong'o became the first East African to win an Oscar. She was awarded Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years a Slave.
East Africa’s first-known Swahili manuscript is an epic poem dating from 1728 and written in Arabic script. However, it wasn’t until the second half of the 20th century – once Swahili had become established as a regional language – that Swahili prose began to develop. One of the best-known authors from this period was Tanzanian poet and writer Shaaban Robert (1909–62), who spearheaded development of a modern Swahili prose style. Among his works are the autobiographical Maisha yangu (My Life), and several collections of folk tales.
Arguably the region's most celebrated writer is Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o (1938–). His harrowing criticism of the Kenyan establishment's neocolonialist politics landed him in jail for a year (described in Detained: A Prison Writer’s Diary), lost him his job at Nairobi University and forced him into exile. His works include Petals of Blood, Matigari, The River Between, A Grain of Wheat, Devil on the Cross and Wizard of the Crow. His latest works are memoirs: Dreams in a Time of War (2010) and In the House of the Interpreter (2012). He has also written extensively in his native language, Gikuyu.
Other important regional writers include Binyavanga Wainaina (1971–; Kenya), Okot p’Bitek (1931–82; Uganda), Moses Isegawa (1963–; Uganda) and Abdulrazak Gurnah (1948–).
There is also a rich but often overlooked body of English-language literature written by East African women, particularly in Uganda. Watch out for Mary Karooro Okurut, whose A Woman’s Voice: An Anthology of Short Stories by Ugandan Women provides a good overview of the work of some of Uganda’s female writers.
Another name to look for is that of the internationally recognised Kenyan writer Grace Ogot, known in particular for The Promised Land. Born in Nyanza Province, she sets many of her stories against the scenic background of Lake Victoria, and offers an insight into Luo culture in pre-colonial Kenya. Also from Kenya, Margaret Atieno Ogola was the author of the celebrated novel The River and the Source and its sequel, I Swear by Apollo, which follow the lives of four generations of Kenyan women in a rapidly evolving country.
The single greatest influence on the modern East African music scene has been the Congolese bands that began playing in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in the early 1960s, and brought the styles of rumba and soukous into the East African context. Among the best known is Orchestre Super Matimila, which was propelled to fame by the late Congolese-born Remmy Ongala (‘Dr Remmy’). Many of Ongala’s songs (most are in Swahili) are commentaries on contemporary themes such as AIDS, poverty and hunger. Another of the Congolese bands is Samba Mapangala’s Orchestra Virunga. Mapangala, a Congolese vocalist, first gained a footing in Uganda in the mid-1970s with a group known as Les Kinois before moving to Nairobi and forming Orchestra Virunga.
As Swahili lyrics replaced the original vocals, a distinct East African rumba style was born. Its proponents include Simba Wanyika (together with offshoot Les Wanyika), which had its roots in Tanzania but gained fame in the nightclubs of Nairobi.
In the 1970s Kenyan benga music rose to prominence on the regional music scene. It originated among the Luo of western Kenya and is characterised by its clear electric guitar licks and bounding bass rhythms. Its ethnic roots were maintained, however, with the guitar taking the place of the traditional nyatiti (folk lyre), and the bass guitar replacing the drum, which originally was played by the nyatiti player with a toe ring. One of the best-known proponents of benga has been DO Misiani, whose group Shirati Jazz has been popular since the 1960s.
Throughout East Africa, dance plays a vital role in community life, although masked dance is not as common as it is in West Africa. A wide variety of drums and rhythms are used depending on the occasion, with many dances serving as expressions of thanks and praise, or as a means of communicating with the ancestors or telling a story. East Africa’s most famous dance group is the globally acclaimed Les Tambourinaires du Burundi.
Women throughout East Africa wear brightly coloured lengths of printed cotton cloth, typically with Swahili sayings printed along the edge, known as kanga in Kenya, Tanzania and parts of Uganda. Many of the sayings are social commentary or messages – often indirectly worded, or containing puns and double meanings – that are communicated by the woman wearing the kanga. Others are simply a local form of advertising, such as those bearing the logo of political parties.
In coastal areas, you’ll also see the kikoi, which is made of a thicker textured cotton, usually featuring striped or plaid patterns, and traditionally worn by men. Also common are batik-print cottons depicting everyday scenes, animal motifs or geometrical patterns.
Jewellery, especially beaded jewellery, is particularly beautiful among the Maasai and the Turkana. It is worn in ceremonies as well as in everyday life, and often indicates the wearer’s wealth and marital status.
Basketry and woven items – all of which have highly functional roles in local society – also make lovely souvenirs.
East Africa is renowned for its exceptional figurative art, especially that crafted by Tanzania’s Makonde, who are acclaimed throughout the region for their skill at bringing blocks of hard African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon or, in Swahili, mpingo) to life in often highly fanciful depictions.
In comparison with woodcarving, painting has a much lower profile in East Africa. One of the more popular styles is Tanzania’s Tingatinga painting, which takes its name from the self-taught artist Edward Saidi Tingatinga, who began the style in the 1960s. Tingatinga paintings are traditionally composed in a square format, and feature brightly coloured animal motifs set against a monochrome background.
Tanzania's Makonde people are renowned for their woodcarvings. Among their most common carving styles are those with ujamaa motifs, and those known as shetani, which embody images from the spirit world. Ujamaa carvings are designed as a totem pole or ‘tree of life’ containing interlaced human and animal figures around a common ancestor. Each generation is connected to those that preceded it, and gives support to those that follow. Tree of life carvings often reach several metres in height, and are almost always made from a single piece of wood. Shetani carvings are much more abstract, and even grotesque, with the emphasis on challenging viewers to new interpretations while giving the carver’s imagination free reign. Although Makonde carvings have inspired other East African woodcarvers, particularly among the Akamba people of southern Kenya, true Makonde carvings remain the finest examples of the genre.