Kenya in the 1960s

A few items from the Erich Sonntag Postcard Collection

Now that postings cover the “Old” (Asia, Europe, Africa) and “New Worlds” (the Americas), it’s high time to boldly move into areas I haven’t posted on before. As an aside, dear readers from “Down Under”, do not worry, I shall be posting picture postcards from “Oz” and the “Kiwi Isles” before too long, too.

Last week, I provided a first glimpse of North Africa with two postings on Libya:

To the Shores of Tripoli

Beyond the Shores of Tripoli

Today, I’m going to take you to sub-Saharan Africa, specifically to Kenya. This is the first in a planned three-part series based on picture postcards from that area. I do have picture postcards from the early 1940s through the 1970s (I think), and we’ll start with a few “holiday greetings” from Cold War Kenya in the 1960s.

With special cheers to my friends Mohammad and Anne.

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So far, so many nice wild animals, isn’t it? If these wouldn’t be among Kenya’s main sales pitches to affluent tourists, I would call this a strange glimpse into a bygone era.

As the reverse of this postcard indicates, it was sent in 1964 (see the stamp), but I am posting it for yet another reason: on the left-hand side, rotated by 90 degrees, are the following lines:

57 degrees Celsius and 98% humidity: it’s awesome.

The shown elephant herd is, of course, awesome. Moreover, note the trilingual caption (English, German, French), which gives away the main tourist groups in the 1960s.

The above postcard, although impossible to date (see below), was sent to Erich Sonntag, which is why I am reproducing its reverse.

For another “popular sight” of Mombasa, I am reproducing the below postcard; it also provides a bit of “perspective” on the “street views” shown in the above picture.

As its reverse also shows, it was part of a “popular Mombasa scenes” series, manufactured by the company “Kall Kwik”, and using a picture taken by one Wolfgang Döring. Now, I do not know who Mr. Döring was, but it is a tellingly “German” name, which indicates that “cross-cultural” activities were quite wide-spread “even” back then, including multi-lingual encounters.

Finally, I shall close this posting with the below postcard that shows the proximate origin of humanity, Olduvai Gorge, specifically “near the second fault with Lemagrut mountain beyond”, as its reverse reads.

The last picture postcard shall also serve as a kind of “appetiser” for the next couple of postings that will show, in due time, both more animals and, finally, more local people of Kenya.