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!
#ShujaaStories
Heroes are back on centre stage in our human experience. Whether its mythical heroes like the Black Panther, those that we grew up with like Luanda Magere and Wangu wa Makeri or modern ones like Malala and David Rudisha. Heroes ground us, inspire us, let us know that there is indeed a way to live the life of a higher calling even if you are “just” a school girl, or a tree planter,
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!
#KeMinerals
Question: what comes to mind when you think of minerals? Is it the various tools, equipment, and heavy machinery that is required to dig into the earth to find those substances and gems buried deep within the earth’s crust? Or is it the outcome: the gold and silver jewellery, the powder-like substances etc? We have been thinking about minerals and wondered how wealthy our land is. True enough, we have heard
Remember the story of...
Usoni
What would happen if we woke up one day to a new world order? In this order, African nations are first-world countries, and European nations are third-world countries. What if the effects of industrialization such as global warming and air pollution caused the downfall of the world’s superpowers, instigating a migration of humanity to the Global South? What would we do if the world as we know it ceased to...
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
CULTURE AND HERITAGE
One of our favourite things about writing stories at Paukwa is that there’s always something new to learn about Kenya. Sometimes it's through retelling the narratives that we have come to accept, and other times it's just about appreciating the people and the places that make us proud. We’re constantly challenging the norms and asking ourselves how we can celebrate different facets of Kenyan history and culture. Through our #OnlyInKenya story series, we learnt that one of the reasons that Kenyan communities told stories was to explain the unexplainable. Take the Crying Stone for instance, Ikhongo Murwi. The Luhya community has a story that explains why it cries from time to time. Creativity at its best, we’d say. And that’s just one of many incredible stories from Western Kenya. There are more of those in Paukwa’s repository which have been specially curated to spotlight trailblazers, hidden gems, and creations that hail from this region.
TEAM PAUKWA
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