00:00 2,200 meters the city of Eldoret towers over Kenyan's great rift valley
00:06 For visual artist and digital animator Rogan Anjeli, this picturesque town is home. What's up guys?
00:13 I'm Rogan coming to you from Kenya's city of champions
00:16 You're tuned into DW 77% and this is my city Eldoret
00:21 So Eldoret is pretty much the fourth largest city in Kenya
00:29 There are about maybe half a million people within the city center
00:33 The city center not far from Rogan's home is where many of his whimsical
00:37 Animations come to life as an artist. It's usually easy to find yourself working in isolation
00:43 Luckily, I've been able to find a few artists and creative entrepreneurs within my own age set
00:49 Working within the city center. This is one of the core creative spaces in Eldoret. Come on. Let me show you Kikau
00:57 I'm a digital animator. I like to do
00:59 Character animations, that's my forte. There's different things that inspire my art
01:04 Currently, I'm living in Eldoret. So the inspiration usually comes from the topography. It's a really hidden place and
01:11 Some of the designs I've worked on include
01:15 that inspired by the culture and the running culture and even the animals here and even the
01:21 Foods that we eat so I like to show that in my work
01:25 In Eldoret and the Kanjin culture, we're predominantly a pastoralist
01:29 community and the farming community as well, you can see that within the cuisines a lot of our foods and
01:35 Based pretty much on meat and milk. Nothing like a quite essential meal in Eldoret other than brown ugali
01:43 Matumbo and some mala
01:46 It's a nice morsiq. It's fermented milk in a gourd and then they put some
01:51 Tiny herbs inside which are charred and every place you can go around within the city center even within the region and in any house
01:58 It's a custom
02:00 Another custom of Eldoret residents shattering records for long-distance running all across the globe
02:08 We're standing right at the Champions Monument in the city of Champions Eldoret
02:15 And why do they call it City of Champions?
02:17 Nine out of ten times you'll find that any championship that's won in the marathon races in the world
02:22 The person that won it came from this city right over here
02:27 The city is urbanizing fast
02:28 But it continues to be surrounded by some of the most scenic natural splendor that Kenya has to offer
02:34 So right now we are at Coromusha Falls
02:38 It's one of the many hills in Washington in Eldoret County and one thing about this place
02:43 when clan members used to get really old and couldn't go on they used to come here in ceremonious fashion and
02:49 Throw themselves off. Yeah, it sounds a little bit crazy
02:53 But it used to be more of sacrificial killings because if they couldn't move around all together, they were a burden
02:59 Yeah
03:00 And that's one of the reasons why this place is really special and they say that you can't really swim in this water
03:05 Because it holds the spirits of the dead.
03:09 I usually come here when I'm feeling a little bit down and I'm feeling a little bit like I need to connect with the water
03:14 Eldoret hopes that it can eventually attain official city status
03:20 But no matter how fast or how large the settlement grows
03:23 Residents like Rogan hope to maintain their connection to Eldoret for generations to come
03:29 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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