![]() “At some future date, we might move south into Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland and west into Rwanda, Burundi and the ex-Belgian Congo. Taifa was swiftly curved into a daily, an English-language Sunday paper was inaugurated in March 1960 and the Daily Nation appeared in the stands in October 1960. By early 1961, the Sunday Nation was being distributed in British-ruled Aden, and the Aga Khan suggested majestically: The Ismaili Imam had a vision to have an influence on the social health of Kenya and the under developing world. It was never in doubt that the Aga Khan wanted to extend his reach beyond the borders of Kenya.” “There is every prospect that the company will be earning a respectable profit within two, or at the most three years. Nairobi at that time was the prime city between South Africa and Egypt.Ī few months later, in June 1959, Michael Curtis would report: Kenya’s population in 1959 was 6.4 million when the Nation group first got rolling on 28th April, 1959 with the acquisition for £10,000 of a tiny Kiswahili weekly Taifa (meaning ‘Nation’). He died from cancer in 2004 at the age 84. ![]() Curtis then moved to the Aga Khan’s Headquarters in Aiglemont, France, where he oversaw the Ismaili Imamat’s rapidly expanding non-denominational health and educational activities throughout South Asia and East Africa, until his retirement in 1994. He also increased the Nation’s daily circulation to a healthy 165,000 with a readership reputed to touch three million. First, he was at the Nation Group for several years, and when he stepped down in 1977 at the culmination of the process of Africanising the Nation Group, Curtis had also pioneered the introduction of the first web-offset presses installed outside the United States. With that began a long engagement between Michael Curtis and the Aga Khan spanning several decades. ![]() Image: Mohib Ebrahim Archives, Vancouver. The daily weekday edition was introduced later in the year on October 3. Initially the paper started off as a weekend Sunday paper. Seen above is an image of the Number 1 issue of The Nation, dated March 20, 1960. “He wanted a newspaper to give a voice to Kenya’s nationalists, who were not being heard in the political debate.” “I made it very clear that I could not be involved if he wanted a newspaper for the Ismaili community and he said immediately, ‘No, no, that’s the last thing I want. “The Aga Khan then said, ‘Well, how about starting a newspaper in Kenya’?” I said to him: ‘Look, I better go, I don’t think this PR stuff is really my métier and I want to get back to journalism’. “The Aga Khan was obviously interested in newspapers during that tour. At a crucial time at the Chronicle, he was introduced to the newly enthroned 49th Ismaili Imam, His Highness the Aga Khan, Mawlana Hazar Imam, who asked Curtis to accompany him on his enthronement ceremonies in East Africa and South Asia as his publicity organiser.Ĭurtis later would recall in an interview: Michael Curtis, at 34, was Fleet Street’s youngest editor when he took over Charles Dickens’ old chair at the News Chronicle in London, 1954. Scott, Editor, Manchester Guardian, 1926. ![]() Comment is free but facts are sacred” - C. At peril of its soul, it must see that the supply is not taunted. “A newspaper’s primary office is the gathering of news. His Highness the Aga Khan, Their Excellencies President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya, President Kagame of Rwanda and Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga touring an exhibition commemorating the 50th Anniversary of the Nation Media Group (NMG) with Editorial Director of NMG Joseph Odindo. The Aga Khan and the Nation: A brief history That dream moved ahead in a big way when we took the company to the public shareholding market, so that today a majority of Nation shares are owned by the general public of Kenya” - His Highness the Aga Khan, March 17, 2016. ![]() Our goal then was to create a news medium that belonged to the whole of the nation of Kenya - and that of course is why we chose our company name. “When I think back to the founding of the Nation, and when I reflect on how much has changed and how far we have come, I think especially about the hopes and dreams with which we launched this company. Her informative piece appears below under 3 sub-titles. We sincerely thank Tazmin for her great effort and enthusiasm. Summary: When we asked Nairobi’s Tazmin Jamal to write a short piece about the Nation Media, which was founded in the late 1950’s by His Highness the Aga Khan, she went the extra step to interview a key staff member at the newspaper’s head offices in Nairobi as well as approached numerous Nation readers to give their views on their favourite newspaper. ![]()
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