Based on the experiences and learnings acquired throughout the project, the Talking Mats exhibition was launched in all four venues of the Lamu Museums on 7th August 2025. The exhibition opening was conceptualised as a traditional Swahili event, celebrating the relations and knowledge gained through the cooperation. The exhibition, building on the perspectives and practices of local knowledge bearers, aims at working towards a concerted reappraisal of a shared colonial past and histories, through collaboration and dialogue between different ways of knowing.
The exhibition opening ceremony was celebrated as a community event in which the visitors participated and were immersed into Swahili aesthetic experience (with the tastes of kahawa and halwa and the fragrance of oud). It accommodated competitions, ngoma music and dance performances by Lamu music band An-Nur and school children. A theater play by the Lamu Art and Theater Alliance (LATA) served as a constitutive part of the exhibition. This community event framed the official opening of the Talking Mats exhibitions in all four venues of the Lamu Museums by dignitaries such as the Director General of the National Museums of Kenya and the German Ambassador.
Video production and image credits: Najeeb Ahmad Nassir Juma Bhalo
Music and dance performances: An-Nur Lamu Band, Lamu Girls and Boys Primary schools, Lamu Arts and Theater Alliance (LATA)