Kimani Maruge is an 85-year-old Kenyan, a veteran of the Mau Mau uprising against British colonialism in the 1950s, and, as of last year, a full-time pupil at school in rural south-west Kenya.
Four Wave Gliders departed San Francisco on Nov. 17, 2011, for Hawaii where Papa Mau and a companion robot, Benjamin, headed to Australia while two others, Piccard Maru and Fontaine Maru, set off for Japan.
FORBES: Ocean Robot Completes Record-Setting 10,000 Mile Journey
Kenyan Ogiek hunter-gatherers claim to have been expelled from their Mau forest after a UN REDD pilot project was launched there.
ECONOMIST: Will REDD trample on the rights of traditional forest folk?
Throughout his journey, Papa Mau navigated along a prescribed route under autonomous control collecting and transmitting unprecedented amounts of high-resolution ocean data never before available over these vast distances or timeframes.
ENGADGET: Liquid Robotics' Wave Glider breaks Guinness record, does it in the name of science
But the robot sailed through equatorial waters without a hitch despite fears that strong currents and a lack of waves would take Papa Mau off course.
FORBES: Ocean Robot Completes Record-Setting 10,000 Mile Journey
The robot is called Papa Mau in honour of the late Micronesian navigator Pius "Mau" Piailug, who had a reputation for finding ways to navigate the seas without using traditional equipment.
Liquid Robotics, the Silicon Valley startup that makes the surfboard-sized robot called a Wave Glider, announced Wednesday that Papa Mau arrived off the coast of Queensland, Australia, on Nov. 20 after surviving storms, sharks and 25-foot surf while its solar-powered sensor arrays collected terabytes of data on ocean and atmospheric conditions during the year-long journey.
FORBES: Ocean Robot Completes Record-Setting 10,000 Mile Journey
After Mau, at 18, was made a palu or initiated navigator, hung with garlands and showered with yellow turmeric to show the knowledge he had gained, no other Pacific islander was initiated for 39 years.
The breadfruit was Mau's favourite tree anyway: tall and light, with a twisty grain excellent for boat-building, sticky latex for caulking, and big starchy fruit which, fermented, made the ideal food for an ocean voyage.
In the 1990s when I was young, there was a land selling frenzy within the neighbourhood in preference for cheap or free forest land in Mau.
They recently launched a game called Empires and Allies which has been well received, with 27 million monthly active users (MAU).
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