What is more interesting than the permanence itself, is the lack of it. Everywhere you look, the signs of change glare at you. The vibrance, the matatus, the exhibition stalls, the billboards, the students, the hawkers the street preachers, you name it…
This picture of River Road, Nairobi, by Chao Tayiana recaptures a scene shot in 1956 that is held at Bristol City Archives.
In June 2019, the Building Shared Futures team commissioned Chao Tayiana from African Digital Heritage to revisit and rephotograph some of the sites in Nairobi that are recorded in the photographic collections at Bristol Archive. Those photographs were featured, alongside their historical companions, in the exhibition Nairobi Past and Present that was hosted at Nairobi National Museum and Bristol City Archives. Here Chao reflects on the experience of seeking the past in the present – reposted from African Digital Heritage. You can see the photographs she took for the exhibition here.
On a cold Sunday morning in the middle of Nairobi’s central business district, the usual bustling chaos of this vibrant city reduces to a slow, steady, harmonized lull. The city’s heart beats, just not as loud and not as fast. The assignment was to identify locations in different historical photos of Nairobi and capture them as they appear in present day.
Most of the structures and the streets still remain; Khoja mosque, Barclays house, Moi avenue, Kenyatta avenue, River road and more, but perhaps what is more interesting than the permanence itself, is the lack of it. Everywhere you look, the signs of change glare at you. The vibrance, the matatus, the exhibition stalls, the billboards, the students, the hawkers, the street preachers, you name it.
You can spot these differences when you compare the past and the present. Empty streets come alive, prominent colonial statues are replaced by busy road intersections surrounded by construction sites and commercial billboards. Yet even as we seek to document the city today, I can’t help but think that the most significant changes are better felt than seen.
My whole life has been framed by this city, a city whose meanings have changed at each stage. As a child it was a mysterious place of magic and wonder, as an adult a volatile place to work, hustle and carve out a future.
The Nairobi of the 1950’s and the Nairobi of today bear a lot of similarities, but the buildings and the streets seem to bend to the will of each different generation and the interpretation of each individual. It is for this reason that the city will never be the same day after day let alone decade after decade.
