This year to mark World Ocean Day, instead of celebrating it underwater we brought the underwater world to the surface through Jahawi's beautiful underwater photography exhibition held at the Mombasa Ocean Festival. The 4 day festival was held at Alliance Francaise Mombasa and is a project by EUNIC Kenya Cluster.
Jahawi's collection of photographs showed images from the Indian Ocean captured over the past decade, all but one of the images were from a 200 mile radius of Mombasa. Between the 4th - 8th June we had a great opportunity to show many different people around the exhibition and introduce them to the world under the wave that means so much to us, but many rarely experience.
The festivals opening event was an evening open to the public, which was attended by scientists, artists, filmmakers, photographers and students. At this event the exhibition was opened, and ocean films were screened, including our award winning film Bahari Yetu. Shot mainly in Lamu this film was an important tool for community buy in of the Kinyika JCMA, a Joint Co-Managed Marine Area (JCMA) set up with 10 stakeholder Beach Management Units (BMUS) around the Kinyika Eco-System. Jahawi also took to the stage to talk about his work and what inspired him to become an underwater photographer and filmmaker.
Over the next day school groups from all over Mombasa had the opportunity to visit the exhibition and walk around it with Jahawi. Then there was the VIP event, an evening of local
and foriegn dignatories, ambassadors of the EU, France, Costa Rica and Germany, as well as the Lamu Governor Hon Timamy. The Governor was very proud to see the beautiful images from the Lamu county, and invited us for further discussions about how we can work together to protect our oceans.
This final event was the Ocean Fiesta, to mark World Ocean Day. A full day event, open to all, attended by many local schools and with stalls showcasing local organisations working in conservation or environmental protection. Our partners the Lamu Marine Conservation Trust (LaMCoT) had a stall with pages from Elke's ocean colouring book and a turtle identification game, interactive tools to spark in interest in our Ocean.
The photography exhibition was on display from 4th June to mid July 2024, and we plan to bring it to Nairobi as well this year. A big thank you to the Italian Cultural Instituet and Alliance Francaise for supporting the exhibition.
Stay tuned for the next Ocean celebration Bahari Yetu Festival in Lamu, a festival we run in partnership with the LaMCoT.
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