Chao Tayiana Maina, the Founder of African Digital Heritage sat with Anne Wetsi Mpoma for the 2022 Edition of Europalia to talk about Save the Railway; a project that saw the documentation of meaning and memory of the Kenya – Uganda railway, popularly known as the ‘Lunatic Express’, through digital approaches.
Included below is a video of how the discussion went, plus a few key takeaways from it. Enjoy.
Inspiration behind Save the Railway
Save the Railway began when Kenya was at a peculiar crossroad. On one hand, was this railway that opened up the country and on its rails carried the county’s industrialization, development, trade and independence stories; but it was falling apart. On the other hand, stood a brand new, million-dollar railway line that had been positioned by the then ruling government, as a “fresh start for Kenya”.
Suddenly what had started as a passion project to document one railway station (Voi), became a 500-mile journey, over the course of four years, to capture a rail that was poorly documented and told very little about the communities whose lives it revolved around and whose soil it stood on. Save the Railway aimed to capture what this old railway meant to Kenyans, and Africans in particular, since most of its well documented stories were told from a European lens.
What the Project Meant to Kenyans
The dominant history of the railway was the history of its construction; a romantic European endeavor with man-eating lions that opened up a country. There was a pressing need to document what Kenyans felt, experienced and remembered about the railway, a perspective that history books had not adequately captured. Save the Railway sought to fill this century-long gap and document almost untold stories from a Kenyan perspective for the Kenyan audience. It gave people an opportunity to have dialogue. It invited people to share on their, their parents, their grandparents, and even their great grandparents bond with the train. The fact that the project triggered so many reactions and contributions indicated that it was indeed important.
It is important to note that these stories, these histories, were not only carried in people’s hearts and photos, but also in the infrastructure – the rail itself and the stations that saw the birth of towns and cities all the way from Mombasa into Uganda. For example, during the project, the Sultan Hamud station, though the most dilapidated, had a cabin that was still standing. For Chao, this represented both life and death. A great representation of the present and the past. A sign that Kenya has grown and was taking on new challenges opportunities although centred around a firm, but almost undocumented past.
In the case of Mombasa, the station was the first to be built, giving birth to this port town that still stands. Passenger trains used to operate there once a week. During the Save the Railway project time period, the station had transitioned into a spot for people to meet up with friends and family. The Nairobi station was and still is functional today. The most interesting part about it is that it now has a female train master. For Chao, the Nairobi station, even though marked by colonial influence at every turn, is also depicted as a society that has evolved enough to let women run things.
Conclusion:
The railway lines in Africa are a tool to go beyond the dominating trope of looking at Africa from a colonial perspective. We see this continent as something that was divided through the scramble of Africa into separate colonies and became independent nations and communities. These railroads force us to think across borders and see much more connectivity of our history, present and future. The rails brought together a wide array of people – either through work, travel, exchange and even kinship. We can use the stories and resources that came up from Save the Railway to help us establish a holistic and knowledge-based approach to re-document and re-imagine African heritage.
