"Deconstructing the Prejudices in Out of Africa by Karen Blixen Through a Critic's Eye"

 

'Out of Africa' by Karen Blixen is a novel written by a Danish author and settler;Blixen,while she is in kenya and still runs her 6000 acres of land at the foot of Ngong hills,in present day Karen estate. In the farm she grows coffee on about six hundred acres of land upon which the natives work for one hundred and eighty days per year and earn twelve shillings in a month.Before reading the text,i had somewhat an established prejudice and misconception about what the book talks about (themes)and Blixen's relation with the natives.

 I had been told by a critic that,Blixen paints a picture in the novel where there exists a hierarchy of beings starting with God at the pinnacle of this hierarchy,Whites come in second,other races such as the Somalis and Coastal Arabs third,animals and nature fourth and the natives are at the bottom of the barrel. This criticism is however dismantled when i read the text with a critics eye, detached from the text and immersed in the authors world and that of the natives and how the two relate to one another.

The biography which is told by Blixen in the first person perspective,I,tells of the hapennings on her farm,both fortunate and unfortunate and in the midst of all these,Karen appears to be a very likeable and compassionate white settler who would otherwise have been the opposite,given that she had the systems of justice by her side,with the mere privilege of being White. Her likeability is first encountered with her selfless treating of the natives,who converge outside her house with their emaciated kids and sickly old people who at times die at the hands of the untrained and inexperienced farmer turned doctor."I was a doctor to the people on the farm most mornings from nine to ten and like all great quaks i had a large circle of patients...."She says. 

Karen draws a great contrast between the Whites and Kikuyus who are the majority of settlers within her farm. She says "The Kikuyu do not fear death but they have a great fear for the dead. They do not touch the dead bodies. The whites on the other hand do not fear the dead but they have great fear for death". She also claims that "The Kikuyu are adjusted for the unforeseen and accustomed to the unexpected. This is unlike unlike the Whites who strive to insure themselves against the unknown and the assaults of nature. The negro is in friendly terms with nature and destiny,...". If a person therefore dies on the farm,Blixen has to seek her white friends to help dispose the body.

It is in one of this clinic escapades that Blixen meets a young boy Kamante who is very emaciated and his growth stunted by the wounds on his whole body. Blixen takes a special interest in the boy who seems lifeless but whose eyes are radiant and full of life. She bandages all his wounds and continuously attends to the boy but his condition improves less and she decides to take him to Scotland Mission Hospital in Kikuyu for special attention from the doctors. Within three weeks in the hospital,Kamante's condition greatly improves and he is soon discharged from the hospital. It should be noted that within the time the boy is in the hospital,Blixen visits him regularly and takes sugar to the boy which happens to be his favourite commodity from the White settler. In a situation where we would have expected a black and white relation between the two characters,Blixen plays the role close to that of a mother. Without her intervention,Kamante would have likely died from his wounds. She later hires the boy as a chef and the two have a cordial if not confidants' relationship.

Kamante intrigues Blixen however,with his mannerisms . He is a good pretender like most Kikuyus and he paints the best picture of a Kikuyu to a person who has never interacted with one. You cannot tell when he is happy or sad. Even if you mistreat him,he will never show you his emotions. In a few occasions,when scolded by his boss,he sheds crocodile's tears to avert the scolding and using reverse psychology,make her boss feel as if she is the one at fault. Blixen says "Kikuyus will never show their emotions. If you mistreat them or if they are happy,they have the same appearance of being withdrawn from the oppressor. This is unlike other natives like the Masai and the Somali who openly shows emotions of happinness or anger whenever mistreated or happy"

Blixen also helps the Kikuyu women to deliver at whatever hour of the day or night. In one instance when a kikuyu woman was about to die in her house in labour,Blixen calls her white friend who had been a practicising doctor in the U.K before he settled in Kenya to come and save the lives of the mother and her unborn child. The doctor succeeds in saving the two but warns Blixen to never call him again on the natives for he used to practice for the Elites back in Britain and not the primitive Kikuyu.

Blixen also acts as a mediator for the Kikuyu whenever there is a row on the farm. Many a time Kikuyu elders in the farm converge in her compound to decide on cases of grave essence and Blixen's words,however unconventional to the Kikuyu elders always stand at the end. One day  in the farm,there is a shooting incident; a native boy Kabero son of Kaninu enters old enters Old Knudsen's house and takes his gun and in their play,he shoots and kills Jogona's son and badly injures two other boys. One of the boy's jaw is completely blown off by the gunshot. She takes the survivors in her car after giving them first aid to the Natives Hospital in Nairobi and only leaves after the two boys have been admitted and attended to by the doctors. It therefore lies in the hands of Blixen to see to the treatment of the survivors and  oversee thecompensation of the two boys' families who subscribe to the old Kikuyu ways of justice. Cows and goats are to be paid to a person by those who offend the other. It is a long process that takes weeks but at the end,a consensus is reached and Jogona is to be paid 40 cows by the father of the boy who committed the crime,Kaninu.

Blixen also allows the Kikuyus to hold 'ngomas' once in a while in her farm which attracts thousands of settlers. It is a common practice among the Kikuyu to hold large dances and partake in alcohol drinking which in the novel is referred to as 'tembu' (tembo). The ngomas attract participants and onlookers from far and wide including the Masai from the neighbouring Masai reserve and 'malaya' (beautiful women) from Nairobi.

This however doesn't completely dismantle the assertion that there existed some huge distance in the relations of Blixen and the natives. She paints a picture of admiration towards the Somalis who are represented by her cook Farah and this is seen in her description of his fair skin colour and his mode of dressing. She also talks about his strict adherence to the Mohameddan religion and the Quran,which contrasts to the Kikuyu who are neither religious nor pagans. She also speaks with a jealous tone about Farah's relation; his mother and his wives who later come to live with him on the farm;their way of dressing,decorating the house and nice taste of perfumes.

Blixen lso describes in a whole chapter a gazelle that came from the wild to her house and became an important member of the house. Blixen admirably describes the gazelle which she names Lulu,a sweet Swahili name from her onset in the house to the time she elopes with her 'lover' (a huge male gazelle) to start a family in the wild. Blixen domesticates Lulu and she seems to hold a soft position in the white settler's heart. Bitter sweet memories of Lulu runs in Blixen's mind when she goes back in the forest and only comes once in a while to visit the house,but never freely as before.

In the end,both the mistress and her servants are devastated when the farm can no longer be run due to debts;Blixen has to go back to Denmark and the settlers have to move to a reserve in Dagoretti to start their lives afresh. Blixen says " Now the old women,were sorry that i was leaving them. From this last time,i keep a picture of a Kikuyu woman for i did not know her well...". The kikuyu are also grieving at the loss of their mistress,employer and doctor. Men,in silence receive the news of her departure and women wail at the exit of the main character from the farm at the foot of the hills. 

"At the end,both the chased and the chaser get tired,they pull out their tongues panting and they can strike a friendship like the one between Blixen and the natives"