Kenya seeks for closer museum ties with China

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday called for increased partnership between museums in Kenya and China. Speaking in the coastal city of Mombasa where he toured Fort Jesus Museum, Kenyatta said such partnerships are important to help build the capacity of museums. During the tour, Kenyatta was taken through materials that have been extracted from a ship that sank in the Indian Ocean 600 years ago. The discovery of the ship was made in 2008 in the Ngomeni area of Kilifi County but excavation started in November 2013. A team of 15 underwater archeologists comprising 14 Chinese and one Kenya, Caesar Bita, are involved in the assignment. In 2008, a ship wreck, estimated to be between 400-600 years old, was discovered in Ngomeni by Kenyan underwater archeologist Caesar Bita. Bita said the East African coast has been very active in terms intercontinental trade. "We have got evidence of the connections between the Swahili Coast and the Persian Gulf and West Coast of India and China. Investigations are still ongoing," Bita said recently. "The mission between Kenya and China is now trying to prove whether really there is a Chinese ship wreck here at the coast. We have done some investigations and found evidence in terms of pottery that tells us that really there has been commerce between Kenya and China," Bita said. The project is a joint venture under the Sino agreement signed between Kenya and China in 2008. In the first excavation in Lamu and Malindi, the archeologists discovered important artifacts including porcelain and shillings, which helped explain the rich history that exists between Kenya and China. In the Sino agreement, it was agreed that China assists in excavation of underwater archeological sites, including Chinese wreck, and also support in terms of training, the Kenyan archeologists, cooperation of terrestrial archeologists between university of Pekin and National Museum of Kenya NMK, among others.