Madaraka Madness

Each year on 1 June, Kenyans celebrate Madaraka Day commemorating the day in 1963 that Kenya attained independent self-governance after decades as a British colony. Madaraka is a Swahili word for ‘power, freedom or independence’. On 1 June 1963, Kenya became a self-governing country with Jomo Kenyatta as its first prime minister. Full independence from British rule followed on 12 December 1964, when Kenya became an independent nation.

On this great day, Kenyans gather in their thousands at the venue that has been selected for each year’s official event. Military parades, singing and dancing are followed by the Madaraka Day speech given by the President. And this year, the county in which Angama Mara falls, Narok County, was the host. And coming full circle, Uhuru Kenyatta delivered the presidential address.

Not to be left out of the celebrations, we decided to join in the fun with a Madaraka Challenge. Every staff member was challenged to create an image using the colours of the Kenyan flag: black, white, red, white and green. And the results were astonishing. First out of the starting blocks was Adam’s Mara Triangle map followed closely by Mike’s tower of crates and Margaret, Queen of the Laundry, with her staff uniforms.

Paperclips, zebras, beads from the Beading Studio, guest condiments, the Kenyan flag made out of shoes, pegs, bits and bobs and Angama’s peak rolled in.

Corridon, our baking maestro and resident artist, pencilled a drawing of Nicky being watched over by Steve whose spirit animal must have been a lion. Not to be outdone, Cyrus re-engineered our monogram in two ways.

The Jozi babes, four young Kenyans, Perrin and Lulu were not to be left out of the merry fray.

Douggy made us all cry with his beautiful tribute to Steve.

Team Jozi went all out with dinosaurs (and a photobombing hippo), stationery and a weird composition of Crocs, Swarovskis and a red mat, of all things.

And Team Nairobi nearly stole the show with their fabulous and chic umbrella compositions.

But that wasn’t the half of it. Alex, our EcoBrick champion of champions, stuffed plastic bottles (scourge of the planet) with the colours of the Kenyan flag, Chef Evans flipped a burger in the national colours, Ibrahim raided the guest library and Mary the Safari Shop.

Dan found inspiration in the Shamba, Kina in the bakery, Moses in the garden and Chef Collins lined up his favourite ingredients.

There were heaps more but only one winner: Chef Johnny Lotaba took gold with his composition of chefs and bins which made us all laugh. What will the next Angama challenge bring? This crazy team is sure to think up something.

Happy (belated) Madaraka Day.