How an east African country became an odd sort of global powerhouse
A cottage industry that adorns fishing rods on rivers across the world
Red-eyed damsels, pole dancers, two-bit hookers, hot-legs foxy gotcha, woolly buggers, drunk and disorderly, Mrs Simpson and orange boobies are not what you might think. They are just a few of the colourful, dexterously tied flies that fishing folk cast from their rods to lure trout and salmon in the rivers of Scotland, South Carolina, Russia’s Kola peninsula and beyond. What these wacky names have in common is that they are among several thousand fluffy but lethal creations that have made Kenya a global hub of fly-tying.
This article appeared in the Middle East & Africa section of the print edition under the headline “Why Kenya is an odd global powerhouse”
From the March 18th 2023 edition
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