Paukwa? Pakawa!
Paukwa is a place dedicated to positive stories about Kenya. Our story house is named for the Swahili word that is an invitation to a story – Paukwa. It’s an age- old term, well known across East Africa. Paukwa invites one to remember the joy of stories from their childhood days and to get lost in new, familiar or unknown ideas about the daily things that surround us.
Each day ordinary Kenyans are pushing our nation forward. As volunteers, as SME owners, as creatives, teachers, farmers, counsellors, techwizards and more. There is a bigger story as they build our nation each day through their tenacity, hard work, positive attitude, search for excellence, and sheer hustle.
Through their efforts we all grow.
At Paukwa, we shine a spotlight on the everyday builders of our nation and the history we almost forgot.
This digital storybank celebrates memory, culture, modernity, but most of all, the positive. Dive in and discover a story of Kenya you didn’t know you never knew!
KeNation
Friends, The one silver lining in this pandemic is the way humanity is showing up for each other. Whether it's a counselor offering free online sessions, a church switching to an online service to quell the anxiety of its congregants, creatives working overtime to develop health and information materials that are accessible to the common man, people giving up homes for others to be quarantined or individuals donating
Paukwa? Pakawa!
Paukwa is a place dedicated to positive stories about Kenya. Our story house is named for the Swahili word that is an invitation to a story – Paukwa. It’s an age- old term, well known across East Africa. Paukwa invites one to remember the joy of stories from their childhood days and to get lost in new, familiar or unknown ideas about the daily things that surround us.
Each day ordinary Kenyans are pushing our nation forward. As volunteers, as SME owners, as creatives, teachers, farmers, counsellors, techwizards and more. There is a bigger story as they build our nation each day through their tenacity, hard work, positive attitude, search for excellence, and sheer hustle.
Through their efforts we all grow.
At Paukwa, we shine a spotlight on the everyday builders of our nation and the history we almost forgot.
This digital storybank celebrates memory, culture, modernity, but most of all, the positive. Dive in and discover a story of Kenya you didn’t know you never knew!
#KePodcasts
Can you imagine – or remember – that there was once a time when people were huddled around a radio to listen to a broadcast or a particular show? When we talk about development, we don’t just mean buildings and roads; we also mean communication systems. In the spirit of reflection and in understanding development, we thought about the rise in podcasts, podcasters, and podcast listeners. What’s the hype about? What’s
Remember the story of...
#MyKenyanHero by mwihaki
I didn’t know what a profound legacy she had when I met her. The memory that is seared in my mind is visiting her in what felt like an overwhelmingly smoky little cottage in Rironi, on the outskirts of Nairobi. My most conscious memory must have been when I was about nine years old and she was not much taller than me. Time and circumstances had shrunk what was probably...
Our audio stories
A note from our team
DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
Just like our fingerprints, we are all unique and different. Our backgrounds, experiences, values, belief systems, ideas and points of view vary. Yet amidst these differences, all our voices have places they belong to in the community. At Paukwa, we’re keen on telling the stories of the authentic Kenyan experience, and that can only be possible with the acknowledgement of our varying cultures, socio-economic backgrounds, generations, and abilities. For this, we are joining the world in championing for inclusivity in our magical way by sharing stories of Kenyans in #DisabilityNotInability who in their work and everyday lives strive to create room for others to belong.
TEAM PAUKWA
A note from our team
ON GRATITUDE
Allow us to take a moment of reflection. We are grateful for the journey of time, for the learnings we have experienced about our country as we have spent time in archives, in interviews, on bumpy roads crisscrossing the nation, in online rabbit holes in our quest to build stories of Kenya. We are incredibly grateful for the community of readers we have and all the feedback, thumbs up, questions and exclamations that you have shared. We have enjoyed spending time in new spaces bringing our story collections alive in forums, on panels, in festivals and in virtual settings. Through each of these endeavours we are continually sharpened by others, we have found our tribe of individuals and collectives as curious as we are about our history, and we are comforted and emboldened by the reminders that we are not alone on our quest and indeed – this work of narrative shaping, of history building, of spotlight shining is important. With reflection comes gratitude, introspection, and hope and so we thank you for being part of our Paukwa journey.
TEAM PAUKWA
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