Mombasa's Geography

At this point I have described two journeys which headed towards Mombasa, the first in 1950 when I was five, and the second in 1963 when I was eighteen. It seems appropriate therefore to describe something of the background to a place with which I associate the happiest days of my young life.

Mombasa was originally an island, if a slightly unusual one in that it was set in to the coast. Opposite it is a gap in the fringing reefs which lie offshore along much of East Africa's coast - seen at top right. On the east of Mombasa island was the Old Town and its superb natural anchorage, the Old Port, probably dating back thousands of years, while a deep-water port, Kilindini, had been developed to the west under the British.

By the time we arrived in 1950 the island was joined to the mainland by the Makupa Causeway, which carried both the main road and the railway to Nairobi. To travel north along the coast one had to cross....

....Nyali Bridge, a pontoon bridge, which also gave access to Nyali Estate which was being developed for European housing.

The Likoni Ferry crossed to the south of the island, connecting to the road that ran south to Tanganyika.

This map is orientated differently but shows some of the main places in our young lives. 1 is the location of our first Mombasa house, 2 the second. Our third house was at Nyali, off this map. Our last house was at 3. The school which European children attended from age five to nine, the Mombasa European Primary School was - and still is - at 4.  5 is the beach we visited most frequently, the Swimming Club, which could be accessed by boat across the Old Port or via Nyali Bridge. When we first arrived the only place for a swim on the island was at the Mombasa Club, 6, where a pool was located on a coral platform below the club. Because it was down a flight of steps it was always referred to as the 'Chini Club' 'chini' meaning 'below' in Swahili. Finally, 7 was the location of the African Mercantile Company, the business for which my father worked.

In the early 1950s the population of Mombasa stood at about 120,000, of whom 61,000 were Africans, 36,000 of Asian descent mostly from the Indian subcontinent, 19,000 people of Arab descent, and 2,800 Europeans - but these bald figured give no idea of the wonderful mix of races and peoples which we encountered.

My thanks to Tony Chetham for the photos.