'I am fond of the simple style of architecture displayed by tourist camps throughout Africa which were built in the 1950s. This has nothing to do with nostalgia - it has to do with relaxed comfort in buildings that look appropriate for their surroundings. In the 1950s the Kitani and Aruba bandas (bungalows) were built in the Tsavo Royal National Park and Amboseli National Reserve. Each of these camps had 8 thatched, solidly built, self-service bandas, each with a tiny kitchen and a large veranda.
I went to school in Mombasa so most holidays were spent in Tsavo or Amboseli staying at these bandas so views of Kilimanjaro are etched into my memory banks. Consequently every Kilimanjaro painting that I have done to date is based on my experiences staying at these bandas then and now. The bandas were unfenced, so big game wandered about between the buildings night and day, making a stay here an adventure far removed from most modern game lodges. Tourism in the 1950s was based on tiny numbers of people from Nairobi and Mombasa heading to the bush on safari in their saloon cars. The bandas predate an era during which the prevalent style for new blocks of flats and office buildings was called international modernism. The brutalist architectural style era that followed derived originally from the shape and profile of Hitler’s WWII bunkers and flak towers. Many lodges built throughout East Africa in this era were combined versions of the brutalist and modernist styles which was totally inappropriate for the bush, ultra modern in a way that now looks out of date.
Most of these lodges have been replaced by more contemporary structures that strive to emulate a local cultural image. However the Kitani bandas weathered that storm, and survive intact to this day as rare and elegant reminders of early safari style in the wilderness landscapes below Kilimanjaro. This painting is of a scene close to the Kitani bandas.
For more about the Kitani bandas and Tsavo West see HERE
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