This is a lovely little book that paints a beautiful picture of Africa one hundred years ago. Blixen is very detailed and often romantic in her description of the country and its inhabitants. That being said she manages to romanticise colonialism at the same time. She will introduce her houseboy, his calm personality, long thin legs, and still gaze. Almost making you forget she is talking about her servants. Or she will describe the beauty of some animals, the plains that they roam, and then how she shot them. Whether this can be excused as the normalcy of an older time is up to the reader, but there is no taking away from the poetic language Blixen uses to describe her surroundings. Interestingly, however, we learn surprisingly little about the author and her life. It’s only about half way through the book we hear she has a husband, and even later on that she has children. This just goes to show that although this book would fall under the umbrella of memoirs, it is not a memoir of her life, but of the land in which she spent her time.
Throughout the book, she sheds light on two parts of Africa that are heavily interlinked: the natives, and the natural landscape.
Blixen describes the natives as a passive society, happy to go in whichever direction the wind blows them. Specifically, there are the Masai, which are a travelling tribe, and the Kikuyu, which are a farming tribe. The Kikuyu lived on Blixen’s farm, and were heavily involved in her life. Often the involvement was in the form of house boys and girls. One such Kikuyu was called Kamante. He had a doubtful and skeptical character of things that were shown to him, and cared very little about others opinion of him. This combination made Kamante an interesting and useful companion to the author. Blixen also took part in the local traditions of the Kikuyu tribe. One famous event was the Ngoma. An Ngoma is a large dance celebration in which all involved dress in traditional native attire, dance around a fire, and celebrate something. At the end of the book an Ngoma is almost held as a send off for Blixen. But is stopped by government officials, as by then they had been made illegal for some reason. The book also describes how the society of Africa comes alive at night. However, I would have loved to hear more about this, and as such have nothing more to say about this night time economy.
Then there are the Somalis. Blixen had a Somali right hand man named Farah. Through him we learn a lot about the culture of the Somalis. The Somalis were often slave owners. The men pride themselves on being tough, and vie for Somali women as their prize. Meanwhile, Somali women know their worth and put a lot of focus into not “marrying down”. They are seriously Islamic, and this seems to apply to every Somali in the book.
On the topic of religion, a common theme in the book is one of natives adopting western religions. The aforementioned Kamante announces that he is a Catholic for example, after he was treated for cuts on his legs at the Scottish Mission near the farm. The book talks about other Missions from France and England too, all spreading their version of Catholicism among the locals. And the locals seem keen to learn more about this religion, often converting themselves.
Then secondly the book waxes lyrical about nature; the plains, hills and forests that make up the land around the farm. With the famous opening of this book: “I had a house in the Ngong hills”, Blixen starts as she means to go on in focusing on her natural surroundings. She begins to live by the location of the sun and moon, not using clocks, save for her old wooden cuckoo clock of course. Throughout the book, any reader will find themselves longing for the more natural and simple life offered by an older time. Blixen witnessed some amazing feats of nature too, such as a pack of 500 wild dogs migrating across the savanna. And a sky black with thousands of grasshoppers, careering toward her crops. During her time on the farm, she also became acquainted with a young antelope they named Lulu. Blixen saved her from some locals on the road who were bound to kill her. However as Lulu got more comfortable around the farm, she became more aggressive until she departed into the forest, not returning until she had a male antelope to show for it, and later on a baby too.
Overall the book romanticises her time in Africa, as it rightly should. I found myself dying to be part of that time, and to live that slow, calm, natural life on the farm. A life I’m sure Blixen looked back on fondly.