From the melodic tunes and seductive dances to the delicious meals like biryani and pilau the Swahili people are known for, little is known about the origins of the Swahili people. The Swahili people are mostly known to live on the coastal parts of present-day Kenya and Tanzania.  But there is a richer history not understood or taught of these great people! 

The Swahili people are found along the Eastern Coast of Africa from present-day Mogadishu in the north and to the south in Sofala, Mozambique including the offshore islands along the East African coast and Comoros. They developed a unique culture which saw them participate in maritime trade, building a stratified urban society.

Enjoy another slice of Kenyan history Bitesize! 

If you would like to join us in the discussion please contacts us on @letsbehonestke on Instagram or email us on [email protected].

Image credit: https://kwekudee-tripdownmemorylane.blogspot.com/2013/07/swahili-waswahili-people-famous-and.html?m=1

Between 1880 and 1935, Africa was to undergo a horrific experience which would profoundly change her future.

As late as 1880, only very limited areas of Africa had come under the direct rule of Europeans.

African rulers and lineage heads were in control of their independence and sovereignty; many fought to keep the Europeans away.

One such leader was Koitalel Arap Samoei.  In this episode, we share the exploits of this great legendary Orkoiyot; a spiritual and military leader of the Nandi people of Kenya, who led the longest resistance to British occupation in Kenya - The Nandi Resistance.

Enjoy another slice of Kenyan history Bitesize!

If you would like to join us in the discussion please contacts us on @letsbehonestke on Instagram or email us on [email protected].

Image credit: https://face2faceafrica.com/

Chakula - Swahili for food 

Chakura - Swahili for food with an ethnic inflexion causing a mispronunciation of the word 

Machakura - A colloquial reference ( mostly derogatory) of a mash-up of vegetables and meats fried and flooded with water into a dish common among the Kikuyu ethnicity in Kenya.

In the second episode of LET's BE HONEST Bitesize, Rose and Mary explore the history of ethnic  Kikuyu food and the origins of machakura - a meal born out of the adaptation of an oppressed Kikuyu population in colonial Kenya. Even as this meal is a butt end of jokes in Kenya, the origin of it is extremely sad. But it serves as a lesson of what was truly lost as a result of historical injustices, and the opportunities that exist to really tap into and revive the rich and healthy diet our ancestors consumed and made them whole. After all, you are, what you eat!

Enjoy another slice of Kenyan history Bitesize!

If you would like to join us in the discussion please contacts us on @letsbehonestke on Instagram or email us on [email protected].  

As we take a break from our regular LET'S BE HONEST podcast series, we have something special for you. What we like to call LET'S BE HONEST Bitesize. The Bitesize series is an exploration of Kenyan history through folklore and documented history.

This first episode we explore the story of a renown warrior from the Luo community in Kenya, Luanda Magere. A man was known to be invincible and infallible and won many battles for his community. This all changed when his secret to victory was discovered. 

It's these stories that give us an extremely powerful insight into who we were as Kenyans way before colonial rule! Enjoy a slice of Kenyan history Bitesize.

If you would like to join us in the discussion please contacts us on @letsbehonestke on Instagram or email us on [email protected].

Photo credit : Antony Mwangi

And it’s a wrap for season one of LET’S BE HONEST with Rose and Mary! We can’t thank you enough for staying tuned and listening to each episode of our new podcast. In this episode, we walk you through the highlights of each episode and share some of the feedback you have shared with us through the season.

We will be back soon with new episodes, but in the meantime we have a special treat for you a special series; LET’S BE HONEST Bitesize. Stay tuned for episodes where we take an interesting take on African history!

If you’d like to join us on the show or have a topic you would like us to discuss please drop us an email on [email protected] or on our Instagram account @letsbehonestke.

In this episode as a continuation of our exploration of depression and suicide in Kenya, we had a chat with Forensic Psychologist Dr Oscar Githua, and two guests Paul “Pau Shinski” Otieno and David Ongoma who bravely and candidly shared their struggles with depression and suicide.

Men are generally disadvantaged, in that they are not socialized to openly discuss their emotions, which leaves many bottled up and in David’s words, “emotionally constipated”. They are not able and comfortable sharing out their frustrations which also reduces the likelihood of seeking help leaving many men harming themselves and others.

Kenyan society is a society living in perpetual pain, propagated from generation to generation. Society is unaware of its emotional and psychological pain stemming from the colonial era. This discussion gives you a real in-depth look into a legacy of pain which manifests itself in various forms aside from suicide and depression.

This episode is a wake-up call for us all especially Kenyans to dig deep within themselves and start the real process of admission of wrong and start on the road to real healing.

Got something you would love us to discuss? Have some questions you would love us to answer? Hit us up on IG on @letsbehonestke!

This episode was hard for us. Listening back to the episode is even harder because we were naked figuratively not just with the audience, but with ourselves. We didn’t realize just how much damage our formative years of experience caused us. The rage and frustration and the ebb and flows of depression Rose experienced does have a genesis; one she was never aware of.

At times we tend to quickly dismiss the negative effects of our past on us, yes, we are resilient, we shake it off and move on with life. But there is a fragment of those experiences which steadily grows with us and leaves an imprint that may either make us better or be a constant impediment in our growth.

This is why it is essential for us to lead conscious lives. Knowing why you are angry all the time, or why one particular trait in people irritates you, or why you sabotage yourself; this puts you one step closer in the right direction to being whole again.

We can talk about depression and suicide as a mental illness, but it doesn’t operate in a vacuum. It is a series of events in our lives that leads us to this point. And what we need to do is consciously take a look back. And this is actually the hard part at times; admitting to yourself there is something wrong. And taking the step to take responsibility for what you have done and are doing and tracing it back to the source of the pain.

It is necessary to look at the source of the pain, address it and call it what it is and then free yourself of the bondage it causes. This podcast episode made Rose realize just how exhausted she was emotionally and psychologically. Exhaustion which made it hard to live and be motivated to do – anything!

Like you, Mary and Rose both realise we all have a lot of healing to do, we all do! We are products of our pasts with a lot of things from that past holding us back. It’s all about taking that first step and choosing to start the healing process. No matter how hard it may seem, the outcome will be a more fulfilled and rewarding life.

We hope this episode inspires and motivates you to be more deliberate in understanding yourself. And where the need is, to find the help you need to heal emotional, psychologically and mentally. We want to give a huge thank you to Anita Awuor for sharing her expertise as a clinical psychologist on this episode. 

Got something you would love us to discuss? Have some questions you would love us to answer? Hit us up on IG on @letsbehonestke!

This week we talk to Amunga Eshuchi, 2016 Commonwealth Photographer of the year and regional winner for Africa. Amunga’s heart is drawn to conservation and documentary photography. 

We talked about what it takes to re-define the image of Africa through photography, as well as his own struggles in protecting the dignity of those whose lives he captures, and the challenges of navigating the realities of the conservation and the development world, fighting the "development porn" narratives.

If you would like to see more of Amunga’s work. Please visit:

https://www.enigma-images.org/

https://www.instagram.com/amungathegreat/

Got something you would love us to discuss? Have some questions you would love us to answer? Hit us up on IG on @letsbehonestke!

On this episode, we speak to a remarkable young woman, Foni Vuni! 

Foni was born and raised in Kenya to South Sudanese parents. Her parents fled South Sudan in 1991 due to the break out of the civil war. Foni’s father was keen to ensure her and her four younger siblings stayed grounded and in direct connection with their home country.

Being raised in Kenya and branded a refugee wasn’t always easy for Foni. But she chose to stay positive and fight for the right to exist in Kenya, one of two countries she calls home but doesn’t actually give her the right to its citizenship. Foni is now a member of the UNHCR Global Youth Advisory Council advocating for the youth refugees.

Learn more about this amazing young woman on this week’s episode!

For more on Foni, you can visit: https://www.unhcr.org/news/videos/2016/12/584ec02e4/closing-remarks-by-foni-joyce-vuni-youth-delegate.html  and https://www.homeproject.org/en/the-team/advisory-board/foni-vuni/ 

Got something you would love us to discuss? Have some questions you would love us to answer? Hit us up on instagram on @letsbehonestke!

We finally did it! We did it! Pat on the back!

We have finally launched our podcast, it’s been years of paralysis by analysis and fits and starts. But we finally did it!

Mary and I have both tried repeatedly to make it into mainstream Kenyan TV and radio for decades to no avail. That did beat us down quite a bit. That constant rejection did make us feel – from time to time – we probably weren’t good enough. I always felt, maybe I just wasn’t built for TV.

But that’s not the case. Rejection is a constant part of life, that can either make you stronger or break you. After years of letting it break us, we decided to tag-team on this podcast and choose to DO IT AFRAID. Each episode we have recorded in this first season of our podcast has been a labour of love and deep personal reflection.

This episode, however basic it may seem, was us verbalizing our truth and taking that step of faith towards our dreams to make a difference in our world, through our story, through media. Which we both love.

Let’s Be Honest is more than a podcast for us, it’s a look into our reality; sharing it with the world and honestly tackling the good, the bad and the awesome!

Thank you for allowing us to be vulnerable with you. And thank you for choosing to listen to our podcast. We are super excited to see where this journey will take us.

Got something you would love us to discuss? Have some questions you would love us to answer? Hit us up on Instagram on @letsbehonestke!