Isak Dinesen
[ Non-fiction/Literature ]

The name Isak Dinesen means little to me, as I type this review, because it is a nom de plume for the real author, Karen Blixen of Denmark. Even her own name is not as familiar, after reading the book, as Msabu, which is how the native Africans, the Kikuyu, called her. Msabu is the Kikuyu version of memsahib. 

Out of Africa is an account of Blixen's stay of ten years in the Ngong Hills in Kenya, where she had six thousand acres of farmland that she primarily used to grow coffee. She lives alone in the farmhouse, with servants to handle the running of the farm and the house. Her faithful Somali servant, Farah, is entrusted with much of the responsibility, including the money earned from the farm.

We learn about the Kikuyu as well as the Somali, their ways of life, their culture and taboos, how they treat their wives. To the natives of that time, the most precious commodity was not gold, not land, but the cow. Cows were given as dowry, as payment for a crime committed--they were not so interested in taking a life for a life, or flogging a wrong-doer; what they wanted was compensation for the misbehaviour. The natives, slow to interact with foreigners, grow to trust this msabu enough to go to her with their ailments rather than to the mission hospitals that are nearby. They don't like hospitals because in their culture a sick person goes to a secluded place outside the home only when he has to die. It is considered bad luck for a house to have anyone die in it, so to avoid bringing bad luck on his house, a man would be put a little distance from the house, in a makeshift shelter, and taken care of there.

The narrative is different from what we're used to reading. For instance, Dinesen uses He or She for everything from a lion to a car, and she capitalises words that normally wouldn't be, like Giraffe, Eland, Zebra to denote the species. Her way of thinking and her insight into the minds of not only the Africans, but others who stay near or visit the farm are remarkable, and different. I wonder if the difference is because she was from Denmark and not from an English-speaking country.

Whatever the reason, I'm thankful for it because the specialness that was Karen Blixen comes through in the writing, and makes you know and love her. She is honest in her opinions, and always noble.

This is a book to own and read again and again.