PREE is happy to publish Sahunyĩra as a brawta for the Fertile Ground issue. We hope by doing so to bring this innovative issue we published last year to the attention of a wider circle of readers.
ADAM YAWE
In 2024, the world’s complexities made me wish for:
A way to reach my goals.
Footwear is our direct connection to the earth, because it is the bridge between us and the ground, and the act of putting on your shoes is often the last action taken before leaving the personal living space and engaging with the outside world. The form of footwear I wear most often is the Safari boot, the brand name for a shoe introduced to Kenya by the Bata Corporation. Marketed towards tourists coming to Kenya on “Safari” but has since been adopted by a variety of subcultures due to their high quality, comfort and ease of repair.
To separate the footwear from its brand name, we may refer to it as a stitchdown constructed, chukka boot. The most iconic feature of the shoe being the stitchdown construction, where the upper part of the shoe is turned outwards and stitched onto a welt before being glued to a sole. This results in a visible row of stiches going all the way around the outside of the shoe. They are very simple to construct by hand with few tools and the resulting footwear is flexible and relatively easy to re-sole.
Figure 1. The author’s first pair of Safari Boots. (2019)
The stitchdown construction traces its origins to the Khoisan people of Southern Africa. In South Africa, this form of footwear is called the veldskoene, velskoene or vellies for short. Strassberger’s is a South African shoe brand founded in 1834 that opened what is currently claimed to be the oldest working shoe factory in South Africa, the Wupperthal shoe factory. They describe velskoen on their website as follows:
“Vel is the Afrikaans word for “skin” while veld means “field” in English. The Velskoen has its origin from indigenous Khoisan people who used animal skins to cover their feet to protect against the heat, cold, harsh terrain and other threats.”
Footwear for the Khoisan served as a form of covering that protects the feet while out in the harsh natural environment. I feel this is the first purpose that footwear serves for all of us, protecting our feet from the unpredictable dangers we may face once we leave the safety of our defined spaces.
Footwear can thus be seen to represent, movement, purpose and the determination to reach our goals. This may be viewed in a positive light when our goals are to build community, support life and growth, but what happens when these goals become fueled by fear and anxiety and transform into war, domination and colonization?
During World War 2, the South African regiment stationed in the Sahara desert wore velskoen shoes that were made custom for them at the Cairo Bazaar. The suede leather, stitchdown construction and crepe sole made them ideal for traversing the desert terrain. A few of these South African officers traveled to Burma, present day Myanmar, and this was where it was encountered by Nathan Clark. Great grandson of the founder of C and J Clark, a British shoe manufacturing company. Nathan was searching for new shoe designs for his family’s company while stationed in Burma and was drawn to the unique style of the velskoen, eventually returning home and developing it into a product known as the Desert boot.
Figure 2. Clarks Desert boot ad (1980s). Source: Wikimedia Commons
In Swahili Sheng, Safari boots are referred to as Saharas. I wonder if this is in reference to the sand coloured colourway that is the most common one produced by Bata Kenya, or if it is somehow connected to the desert related history of the shoe.
Figure 3. Sahara definition in Online Sheng dictionary, Shengnation.co.ke (accessed October 2023)
A faction of Kenyan soldiers were based in Burma during the First World War. They served as porters, supporting the British campaign against German forces. The labour organization formed to recruit Africans to serve in the army was known as the Carrier Corps. The Nairobi office for this organization were located in an area currently known as Kariokor (Pronounced: IPA – kæɹiːækɒ).
The Bata shoe company in Kenya employed casual labour in the production of their footwear and many of these casual labourers, after being relieved of employment, begun to produce shoes on their own. Having acquired necessary skill and designs, many settled at Nairobi’s Kariokor market and begun producing many kinds of footwear, including the Safari boot.
Figure 4. Bata branded shoe last at Nairobi’s Kariokor market. December (2023)
In my attempts to develop my own custom shoe inspired by the Safari boot, I stumbled across one of the few remaining ‘last’ makers serving the cobblers of Kariokor market who was producing them for those who found no benefit to using the mass produced plastic lasts. Coincidentally, he was also a former employee of Bata. Using knowledge of carving from his early years living in Kisii, a region known for their soapstone sculptures, he was able to create a niche for himself producing custom shoe lasts by shaping them from wood. The specific wood being Grevillea Robusta, known in Swahili as Mbaridi. A tree brought to Kenya by British settlers to provide shade on coffee plantations.
Figure 5. Mass produced Plastic lasts at Nairobi’s Kariokor market alongside custom wooden last. (2024)
The word Akala is a Maasai word used to refer to a sandal, traditionally made from leather much like the original Khoisan footwear. This speaks to a time when humanity was directly engaging with the natural world. The world Akala is now almost exclusively used to refer to the recycled tire sandals produced en-masse across the country including at Nairobi’s Kariokor market.
Figure 6. Akala sandals at Nairobi’s Kariokor market (2024)
I wonder what it means that we now engage with the world through the work of large scale commercial institutions. Whether it’s the international conglomerate, Bata, deciding what kinds of shoes get produced and who they serve, or the unnamed factories producing the lasts that will go on to shape the shoes that carry us in our day to day lives.
Why does war play such a large role in these forms moving from one place to another?
And what does it mean that the objects that form our direct engagement with the earth arrive at us through circumstances influenced by violence or the search for profit?
What might it mean for us to produce footwear that is meaningful by virtue of the fact that we as individuals have influenced its creation and the shape it takes?
Footwear that relies on materials and processes that come directly from human engagement with the land and are not interceded by vast conglomerates with no regard for the extent to which the extraction of materials and the production and movement of final goods, harms the land or those that exist upon it.
Developed not for mass production and consumption but to serve the basic purpose of footwear, to protect and the higher purpose, to allow us to reach our goals.
Figure 7. Sahunyĩra, rendered 3D model (2024).
Nginyĩra is a Kikuyu word used to refer to a traditional leather sandal worn when travelling long distances. The root word Kinyĩra means to catch up with or reach something by walking, and so, Nginyĩra is an object which one uses to reach something. Much like Akala, Nginyĩra is a word that now almost exclusively refers to the recycled tire sandal.
The footwear form that I am developing is called the Sahunyĩra and is a combination of the stitchdown constructed chukka boot (Sahunya in Sheng) and the Nginyĩra.
Figure 8. Sahunyĩra first sample at Nairobi’s Mwariro Market (2024)
