Bongo

ORIGINS

Bongo Books was started as a small publishing adventure by Joan Considine and John Rawlins in 2003 with an interest in recording personal memories or stories of East African Colonial History from those still alive from the early days of the whole period 1920 - 1963 and willing to write them down whilst still compos mentis. We collected and edited these memories and then published them in some haste in April 2004. They seem to have been well received and generally enjoyed by ex-East Africans as well as a substantial number of people resident in the U K with probably some previous experience of visiting that region. We are conscious of a lack of participation by other racial groups living in East Africa in that period and would welcome their contributions to any more books that we can publish. We are contemplating another book now and if they wish to have more information they should read the rest of this web-site and they either email us at the address shown or write to us at:
Bongo Books, 27a Shady Lane, Slyne-with-Hest, Lancaster, LA2 6JD, England.

NAIROBI SCHOOL

The cover of "Childhood Memories" is based on a photo taken of the school in about 1927-1930 from the style of clothing and some of the people identified. We would like to have more information about the school. Does anyone know if a history of the School has ever been written and if so by whom and when ? The original school started before WW1 and was attended by Beryl Markham who was sent there from Njoro in 1911 according to her biographer Errol Trzebinski in "The lives of Beryl Markham ". It was then called The Nairobi European School and was later to become the Nairobi Primary School when the older pupils were hived off to the secondary Kenya Girls High School and the Prince of Wales School for boys. Since Independence in 1963 the Prince of Wales School has become known as Nairobi School.
If anyone would like to have a copy of this photo to help in the identification of those on it, please communicate. By email to : bongobooks@hotmail.com or to the postal address shown for book ordering on this site. It is a remote chance that someone in the photo is still alive and able to recall who was there when the picture was taken.

BONGO BOOKS

Publishers of stories of Colonial East Africa