Out of Africa

What can you associate Africa with? Brown grass, lions, elephants, junglemen, or slaves? Although I am a student of liberal arts, Africa is defined so vaguely in my mind. From the book Out of Africa, I know more. There were quantities of plains, where settlers planted coffee, the Natives, hemp, corn and sweet potatoes. Usually rain controlled for several months; then, drought dominated for months. Rain being adequate, the natives burnt grass to feed their goats and cows on newer one. It was pitch dark in the forests, only dazzling stars shining high up in the sky. In towns, such as Nairobi, were official buildings, stores, etc.
Isak Dinesen, the Danish author, lived in Kenya from 1914 to 1931. She owned a six thousand acres of land for coffee plantation, native forests, and the squatters’ land. The author depicted her daily life in Africa in the book. Between the lines, I can sense her great love to Africa and its people.
“As for me, from my first weeks in Africa, I had felt a great affection for the natives. It was a strong feeling that embraced all ages and both sexes. The discovery of the dark races was to me a magnificent enlargement of all my world. If a person with an inborn sympathy for animals had grown up in a milieu where there were no animals, and had come into contact with animals late in life; or if a person with an instinctive taste for woods and forest had entered for the first time at the age of twenty; or if some one with an ear for music happened to hear music for the first time when he was already grown up; their cases might have been similar to mine.”(The Ngong Farm, Kamante and Lulu)
Isak, promoted by the strong affection, devoted the whole book to declare her discovery.
A Shooting Accident on the Farm declares how Africans react to death. Usually the family who suffers the loss can be handed over a great number of cows and heifer calves. The Natives, or rather the Kikuyus, “when left to themselves, do not bury their dead, but leave them above ground for the Hyenas and vulture to deal with.”(The Death of Kinanjui, Farewell to the Farm)
Big Dances and The Somali Women declare how Africans react to marriage. Once, a tribe, the Masai, offended the Kikuyus. The young Kikuyus and the very old squatter wife made a spell to prevent the Masai from having any success in love with Kikuyu girls. Moreover, a Mohammedan virgin cannot marry beneath her, for such a thing would call down the gravest blame upon her family. A man may marry beneath him, which is good enough for him.
Isak’s servants, Kamante, Farah and the old native in Wings declare how Africans react to the new things. Kamante and Farah learned the new quicker. Kamante even claimed himself a Christian. Contrary to them, the old native, Ndwetti, said in Wings that since the author and her friend, Denys, did not see God in aeroplane, he did not know at all why they two went on flying.
The settlers or the whites behaved differently in Africa. The Scotch Mission abused the French Mission’s goddess. Both of the two missions exerted to dominate the funeral of the Chief, Kinanjui. In addition to the missions, the whites are divided into two types. Isak, Isak’s friends, Denys and Old Knudsen, compared with the naturalist visiting Africa for a research on monkeys and Emmanuelson having fugitive rests on the farm, were truer on the land. They built dams, schools, cured the injuries, and lived in Africa with their souls as Columbus on the island he and his crew discovered.
Out of Africa lifts the veil of Africa, demonstrates settlers’ relationship with the land, and witnesses the author’s life there. Isak, at last, said farewell to Africa, but still kept in touch with her servants by letters.