When I first arrived in Kenya back in the early 70s I spent the first few years on the camp site at Twiga Lodge on Tiwi Beach. It was not long before I decided cheap sheltered accommodation would be more comfortable than scratching sand out of my arse every morning on the beach. Hence I found a solid but rather derilict house behind the camp site and moved in. Repairs where in order. During the course of the next few years in an attempt to improve my comfort zone I paid many visits to numerous hardware shops in Mombasa. Entering a hardware shop in this country then, and even now, is unlike anything one would ever experience back in the western world. In the beginning it was hard to put a finger on what the difference was. Turned out to be the items on sale. These items where not for replacing things they were for building things. Generic improvisation bits and pieces on every shelf. Quite understandable at the time as Kenya did not import very much. This scenerio is what gave birth to the Jua Kali (Hot sun) mentality. If what you needed could not be bought as a replacement part then you made it work in any manner you saw fit with anything readily available. If you wanted something done you bought the materials and called a Fundi and he fixed it anyway he could. Brings to mind the term Necessity is the mother of invention This way of doing things eventually changes a new comers perspective of building, fixing and designing things. It brings out unknown design qualities and ideas most of us from the west were unaware of possesing. Traditionally the African method of construction had nothing to do with a straight line. As a matter of fact the staraight line does not even occur in nature. Most people on this continent had no conception or use for the straight line. When this dawned on me I realised that the beauty and attraction of the beach I had landed on earlier was actually the absence of the staright line. It was then that a whole new world opened to me. My initial encounter and understanding of this philosophy led me to adapting and eventually building my own furniture, homes, and cars amongs other things. I had always been enthralled by mechanics. When presents came my way as a child the first thing I would do would be to pull them apart to see how they worked. Few saw the light of day again. This early experience gave me the confidence to think out of the box and adopt a non conformist way of doing things. The first attempts with my new thinking was Funzi Furniture. Still going strong 25 years on and still no straight lines. The second project was throwing out the old Land Rover engine and replacing it with a Nissan Matatu diesel. It proved to be easier than I thought so with this new found confidence I decided to build my own car from scratch. A project I would have thought impossible untill I had unburdened my brain of the straight line mentality. First car project finished. Second car project, the birth of the Randy. A hi-bred cross between a Range Rover and a Land Rover. Will keep you posted on its progress.
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 07:44:44 +0000
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