Historic Cinemas of East Africa
Tuesday, July 29, 2025
20th Century Cinema, Nairobi (in the 1960's)
Plaza Cinema, Mombasa
Plaza Cinema, Mombasa
Sunday, July 27, 2025
Nyanza Picture Palace, Kisumu...
Nyanza Picture Palace, Kisumu...
How going to the Cinema was part of daily life in Mombasa!!
This is related by a Kenyan Indian. Going to the cinema was an activity interwoven into the fabric of the Indian cultural life in Mombasa!!
There was no such thing as fast food on every other day, and having a bottle of either Coca Cola, Fanta, pepsi or Mirinda or portello with jugu was a real treat reserved for SUNDAYS only if you had behaved well during the week, or potato chips and coconut chutney. Bhajias of Mombasa with Coconut Chutney and pack potatoes. Bhagwanji, Mombasa Mix was a treat once a month and the same went with Jalebi and Ghantia and other snacks from Bhagwanji's. Pass your final exams and you might have gotten a new set of clothes or Bata shoes, Kit Kat etc. Blue Room
There was no taking or picking you up in the car, you either jump on lifts in friend's car or rode on your bicycle ( if you were lucky to own one) or just walked home. We didn’t have appletv AmazonPrime or Netflix. No TV was available. Our main entertainment was Radio....during football matches...every corner had a gathering and would all listen to live commentary from BBC. On weekends, our parents took us to Naaz, Kenya, Regal, Moons cinema for a rare treat of movie..and offcourse DRIVE IN cinema which was more like picnic place on weekends...and their amazing mouth watering chips.
Raw mangoes, mbuyus and muhogo filled with pili pili manga na kachumbari were like god's gift to us..We played chor police, gili danda, Football, Cricket, pakra pakri and gololi and any other game we could come up with. We went every morning to Mombasa Old Port where Tangavizi with plenty of sugar was out of this world. At home, we stuck to draughts (dama), ludo, snakes and ladders and Monopoly. Popular Book shop, Pran pen corner Hussieni Bookshop for Stationery and books and get our comics Dandy, Beano, Topper, Beezer and other magazines.
Staying shut in the house was a PUNISHMENT and the only thing we knew about "bored" was --- "You better find something to do before I find it for you!" And times with a stick too
Life was good without insta, facebook, twitter.
We ate what Mum made for dinner and put in our lunch and snack box. Bottled water was non- existent. We drank from the school water tap.
We weren't AFRAID OF ANYTHING. We played until dark... sunset was our alarm.
If someone had a fight, that's what it was and we were friends again a day later if not SOONER.
We did not know what luxury was. Our simple lives were so good.Those were the good days. So many kids today will never know how it feels to be a real kid

I loved my childhood and all the friends I hung around with.
Our generation has been through all the major inventions and achievements of tye 20th and 21st century.
We are the rarest of them all
Saturday, July 12, 2025
Map of Old Cinemas in Dar-es-Salaam
The list of 7 cinemas are:
Empire Cinema
Empress Cinema
Avalon Cinema
New Chox Cinema
Azania/Cameo Cinema
Starlight Cinema
Odeon Cinema
Friday, July 11, 2025
Empire Cinema, Dar-es-Salaam
Empire Cinema advertisement in local newspaper.
Wednesday, July 9, 2025
Nairobi old and demolished Cinemas!!
Theatre Royal, Nairobi - view from the roof!!
View of Delamere Avenue (now Kenyatta Avenue) from the rooftop of Theatre Royal (now Cameo Cinema building). This gives a different view of the monument (see previous post) in front of the building! Delamere used to be called 6th Avenue as it was the 6th street from the railway station! Top right you can see the Avenue Hotel!
Friday, July 4, 2025
Theatre Royal, Nairobi
Sunday, June 29, 2025
Sunday, June 22, 2025
The day in Oct 1971 when parliament demanded to know the profits made from Kenya's first locally produced Swahili film MLEVI !!
Now this is interesting. MLEVI was a locally produced, black and white film in Swahili that was hugely popular since its release in 1968!.
20th Century Cinema, Nairobi (in the 1960's)
Nairobi, 1960s The photo was taken from the just constructed Ambassadeur Hotel in Nairobi Can you see the cinema?? see photo on the far le...
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Most will remember the heydays of the wonderful 20th Century Cinema from the late 1950s to the mid 1980s. Here is how it looked in those day...
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Photo: Odeon Cinema Latema Road 1956. Did you ever hear ODEON is the acronym for " O scar D eutch E ntertains O ur N ation". Wik...