'Guide to Mombasa'

It's in a bit of a sad state, dog-eared and with both covers loose, but this little guide to Mombasa is full of information, from the history of the island through to taxi cab tariffs. At the time it was bought it cost 2/25, two shillings and twenty-five cents or, in modern terms, just over 10p.

It was written by a Beatrix Bellingham and printed and published by the Mombasa Times Ltd, who produced the town's weekly paper - which was read by everyone in the European population. It had in it, for example, gems such as a list of the ships due in Mombasa that week.

However, my favourite part of this booklet is the map. As an ex-geography teacher, it looses a mark straight away for a lack of scale and it doesn't get many for accuracy - things are little better than in relatively the right position. All one can add is that it does follow in the footsteps of many of the early maps of Africa, about which the Irish writer Jonathan Swift said:

      So Geographers in Afric-maps

      With Savage-Pictures fill their Gaps;
      And o'er uninhabitable Downs
      Place Elephants for want of Towns.

To be fair, the booklet is firmly aimed at tourists so I suppose the map might be designed to whet their appetites - though my memory suggest that they were unlikely to see any camels, I can't remember men pulling rickshaws, and I would venture to suggest that a few dhows might have been more appropriate than a clipper ship.

However, whoever drew it did know their Mombasa. Witness the ladies carrying baskets on their heads, the palm tree swept by the trade winds, and the cars parked on the sea front off Azania Road