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Owen and Mzee are a hippopotamus and an Aldabra giant tortoise, respectively, that attracted media attention after forming an unusual bond of friendship. They live in Haller Park, Bamburi, Kenya. [1]
Owen was separated from his herd as a juvenile after Sumatra's December 2004 tsunami and was brought to the Haller Park rescue centre. Having no other hippos to interact with, Owen immediately attempted to bond with Mzee (Swahili for an old man), [2] whose large domed shell and brown colour resembled an adult hippo. Mzee was initially reluctant about Owen but grew to like him and got used to Owen around him.
Once it was determined that Owen had grown too large to safely interact with Mzee, a separate enclosure was built for Owen and a new (female) hippo named Cleo, with whom he bonded quickly. With Owen now twice Mzee's size and well on his way to being socialized with other hippos, the famous friends went their separate ways and Mzee was returned to his original enclosure.
The pair were featured in Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship, a 2006 book by Isabella and Craig Hatkoff, as well as the 2007 sequel Owen and Mzee: The Language of Friendship. Jeanette Winter also created a picture book about Owen titled "Mama: A True Story".
Presented by Vital Theatre and directed by Stanley Wayne Mathis, this story was adapted into an Off-Broadway musical, Owen and Mzee The Musical, by Michelle Elliott (book and lyrics) and Danny Larsen (music and lyrics).
The show premiered in 2018 at the Theater at Blessed Sacrament in Manhattan and featured Eric Willingham as Owen and TJ Bolden as Mzee. It was also written as a screenplay by Roger S. H. Schulman, one of the writers of Shrek , but has yet to be produced.
Paul Laurence Dunbar was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to parents who had been enslaved in Kentucky before the American Civil War, Dunbar began writing stories and verse when he was a child. He published his first poems at the age of 16 in a Dayton newspaper, and served as president of his high school's literary society.
The Wind in the Willows is a classic children's novel by the British novelist Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908. It details the story of Mole, Ratty, and Badger as they try to help Mr. Toad, after he becomes obsessed with motorcars and gets into trouble. It also details short stories about them that are disconnected from the main narrative. The novel was based on bedtime stories Grahame told his son Alastair. It has been adapted numerous times for both stage and screen.
Lionel Bart was a British writer and composer of pop music and musicals. He wrote Tommy Steele's "Rock with the Caveman" and was the sole creator of the musical Oliver! (1960). With Oliver! and his work alongside theatre director Joan Littlewood at Theatre Royal, Stratford East, he played an instrumental role in the 1960s birth of the British musical theatre scene after an era when American musicals had dominated the West End.
Bernard John Taupin is an English-American lyricist and visual artist. He is best known for his songwriting partnership with Elton John, recognised as one of the most successful partnerships of its kind in history. Taupin is behind the majority of John's songs, dating back to the 1960s.
Charlotte's Web is a book of children's literature by American author E. B. White and illustrated by Garth Williams; it was published on October 15, 1952, by Harper & Brothers. The novel tells the story of a livestock pig named Wilbur and his friendship with a barn spider named Charlotte. When Wilbur is in danger of being slaughtered by the farmer, Charlotte writes messages in her web praising Wilbur, such as "Some Pig", "Terrific", "Radiant", and "Humble", to persuade the farmer to let him live.
Taarab is a music genre popular in Tanzania and Kenya. It is influenced by the musical traditions of the African Great Lakes, North Africa, the Middle East, and the Indian subcontinent. Taarab rose to prominence in 1928 with the advent of the genre's first star, Siti binti Saad.
George Alexander Graham Adamson MBE, also known as the Baba ya Simba, was a British wildlife conservationist and author based in Kenya. His wife Joy Adamson related in her best-selling book Born Free (1960) the couple's life with Elsa the Lioness, an orphaned lioness cub they raised and later released into the wild.
Donald Blackstone, known professionally as Don Black, is an English lyricist. His works have included numerous musicals, movie, television themes and hit songs. He has provided lyrics for John Barry, Charles Strouse, Matt Monro, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Quincy Jones, Hoyt Curtin, Lulu, Jule Styne, Henry Mancini, Meat Loaf, Michael Jackson, Elmer Bernstein, Michel Legrand, Hayley Westenra, A. R. Rahman, Marvin Hamlisch and Debbie Wiseman.
Eric Wainaina is a Kenyan singer.
George and Martha is a series of children's books written and illustrated by James Marshall between 1972 and 1988. Each book in the series contains five short stories describing interactions between two hippos, George and Martha. The books inspired an animated children's television show which comprised 26 episodes made in 1999, and a musical made in 2011.
Craig M. Hatkoff is an American real estate investor from New York City. Along with his now ex-wife Jane Rosenthal, and Robert De Niro, he co-founded the Tribeca Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Institute in 2002. The three were recipients of the inaugural September 11 National Museum and Memorial Foundation "Notes of Hope Award" for Distinction in Rebuilding in September 2008.
Swahili architecture is a term used to designate a whole range of diverse building traditions practiced or once practiced along the eastern and southeastern coasts of Africa. Rather than simple derivatives of Islamic architecture from the Arabic world, Swahili stone architecture is a distinct local product as a result of evolving social and religious traditions, environmental changes, and urban development.
'Bamburi, from the local bantu words "Ba" (People) and "Mburi" (Goat), is a commercial, industrial and local electoral, administrative and a tourist and residential area on the Kenyan north-coast which extends from the coastline on the Indian Ocean to the surrounding middle and low-income settlements on the mainland. Administratively, Bamburi is in the Kisauni sub-county of Mombasa and has tourist and beach-front facilities, which include international and local hotels and parks such as Serena International Beach Hotel, Sai Rock Hotel, Kahamas Hotel, Haller Park and Butterfly Pavilion. Bamburi Cement Ltd, a major cement quarry and factory, is also situated in the area and is one of the iconic enterprises. The most popular residential estates within Bamburi include Kiembeni Estate, Nairobi Estate and Bamburi Mwisho. It is a cultural melting pot, with a pulsating night life, especially the area between Front Line and the Bamburi Cement Ltd factory, populated by a line of clubs, sports pubs, eateries and small businesses.
Bango is a music style created and made popular on the East African coast by Joseph Ngala. It fuses traditional Portuguese music genres, Arabic influenced taarab music, jazz and music genres of local coastal Bantu languages. It resembles easy listening music styles of Latin America such as bossa nova and music styles of many Indian Ocean islands such as Seychelles and Mauritius. Ngala is a renowned Kenyan bango musician who comes from Freretown, Mombasa, and also the founder of the genre. He performed in the past with famous groups such as the Hodi Boys and was also the founder and band leader of the 1960s and 1970s group Bahari Boys. In the band, he was the main composer and inspiration. Mzee Ngala's song "Bango" is the originator of the name bango. The resilience of the name, bango, is testament to the genre created by Ngala.
"Magical Mystery Cure" is the thirteenth and final episode of the third season of the animated television series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic and the sixty-fifth episode of the series overall. Directed by James Wootton, it was written by M.A. Larson.
Rebecca Nandwa is a Kenyan writer who is best known for her children's books written in Swahili. She has been involved in a wide range of journalism and editorial work and used to be a teacher.
Amram Musungu was a candidate in the Kenyan 2017 presidential election.
Paula Kahumbu is a wildlife conservationist and chief executive officer of WildlifeDirect. She is best known as a campaigner for elephants and wildlife, spearheading the Hands Off Our Elephants Campaign, which was launched in 2014 with Kenyan First Lady Margaret Kenyatta. She has recently in 2022 been appointed as the first National Geographical Explorer as a board of Trustees member at the National Geographic Society.
Dinosaurs of Tendaguru is a Tanzanian booklet for young readers on natural history, focussing on the discovery and subsequent excavations of dinosaur fossils at Tendaguru hill in Lindi Region of South Eastern Tanzania. It was written in the country’s official language Swahili by Tanzanian authors Cassian Magori and Charles Saanane, with illustrations by the German graphic artist Thomas Thiemeyer. This book was published in 1998 with the support of the Goethe-Institut in Dar es Salaam, the local branch of the German cultural institute, by E&D Vision Publishing, Tanzania.
Mary Kavere, popularly known as Mama Kayai, is a veteran actor in Kenya and one of the thespians acknowledged for pioneering the acting industry in Kenya. She has been in the industry for about four decades. In 2018 she was honored with the Grand Warrior Award which is also the feted induction to the Riverwood Awards Hall of Fame.