Rhodia Mann

In 2018, Mann donated her extensive 50-year collection of rare and historic Samburu artifacts to the International School of Kenya, where the Rhodia Mann Museum of Samburu Culture now exists. This permanent display is dedicated to educating students on the history of Samburu. It includes authentic traditional artifacts, ceremonial beads, warriors’ spears, and other articles essential to understanding the Samburu culture. The exhibit also includes maps, original photographs, and copies of Mann's published books.

Mann is an accomplished jewelry designer and bead collector. In 2003 she curated an exhibition on beads at the National Museum of Kenya. The beads that have been adorning the Samburu people for many generations inspired many of Mann’s bead endeavors, and these artistic pieces remain one of her passions today.

Rhodia Mann (born 1942) is a writer, researcher, bead and jewelry designer, and historian of several traditionally-pastoralist tribes in Kenya, including the Samburu and Borana tribes of northern Kenya. She has published six books and is the creator of a documentary, The Butterfly People.

Mann is Polish-Romanian and was born in Kenya to parents who had fled Europe in the early 1940s as refugees from Nazi-invaded territory. Along with her brother and sister, Mann grew up in Nairobi while her parents worked with the British colonial government of Kenya. Her father, Igor, was a veterinarian and her mother, Erica, was an architect. Her childhood in Nairobi was filled with artists, writers, and intellectuals from all over the world.