Some memories come back as pictures. This one comes back as a sound: men singing and stamping their feet as they hauled a ferry across the water.

In the early 1960s, while we were living in Aden, my family took a holiday in Kenya. Mombasa, Malindi and Tsavo were part of that journey. I was a boy of about twelve, with a Yashica 635 camera and a growing interest in photographing the world around me.

Of all the things I saw, an ordinary ferry crossing left an impression that has lasted more than sixty years.

Across Kilifi Creek

It was the Kilifi ferry, on the coastal road between Mombasa and Malindi. Before there was a bridge, travellers crossed Kilifi Creek by ferry.

The one I remember was a simple, open ferry barge. It had none of the cabin structure I have since seen in photographs of later versions. In my memory, the deck was open, and the men worked the chains to haul us across.

They sang as they pulled, stamping their feet on the deck to keep the rhythm. Their voices and the sound of their feet belonged to the work they were doing. The effort of moving the ferry became music.

I cannot give you the words they sang. What stayed with me was the sound, the rhythm and the sight of the men working together. More than sixty years later, I can still recall it.

That is the crossing I remember as the singing ferry.

A photograph cannot keep the sound

I took photographs during that Kenya holiday with my Yashica. The original negatives were square, though some prints and copies have since been cropped.

A photograph can preserve faces, a stretch of water or a moment on a deck. The singing had to travel home with me in my head.

The ferry has long since gone. A bridge replaced the crossing in 1991. For people making the journey, that was a practical improvement. For me, the old crossing remains bound up with those voices.

The song that followed

▶ Watch The Singing Ferry — Bobby Knight on YouTube ↗

Decades later, that childhood memory became the starting point for The Singing Ferry, recorded under the Bobby Knight name for Sessions on the Green®.

The song reaches beyond the crossing itself, into the feeling of looking back across the years. Places change, faces become less distinct, but sometimes a sound remains surprisingly clear.

When we made the accompanying video, we used present-day imagery of Mombasa and Tsavo alongside small square images based on my photographs from the trip. Some were reimagined because the originals were in Australia while I was in Thailand. Those reconstructed images are distinct from the original photographs; I want the originals to take their place when they are available.

The ferry carried us across a creek. The singing has stayed with me ever since.

Photographs from the Kenya holiday

Five family photographs from the trip, retrieved from the images used in the video. Select a photograph to see it larger.

Mum and my sister with our tour guide and driver at the front of the bus in Tsavo, Kenya. Look closely and you can see me in the driver’s seat.
Mum and my sister with our tour guide and driver at the front of the bus in Tsavo, Kenya. Look closely and you can see me in the driver’s seat.
Me, Mum and my sister on the beach at Malindi Silver Sands Resort.
Me, Mum and my sister on the beach at Malindi Silver Sands Resort.
Me with flippers, a snorkel and goggles at Malindi.
Me with flippers, a snorkel and goggles at Malindi.
Mum, my sister and me in deckchairs at Malindi Silver Sands Resort.
Mum, my sister and me in deckchairs at Malindi Silver Sands Resort.
My sister with a pineapple seller on the beach at Malindi. He cut and prepared the pineapples for customers on the spot.
My sister with a pineapple seller on the beach at Malindi. He cut and prepared the pineapples for customers on the spot.

Crossing history: Kilifi, on the Mombasa–Malindi road, and the bridge that replaced the ferry in 1991. The open deck, chain hauling and singing above are my personal recollections.

Explore my music at Sessions on the Green® →.