I only had time to read one chapter on the bus and no one seemed to have read it while on the shelf at the old soldiers' home (few readers) but I found it an interesting book. It was placed on the book truck in the lobby of the VA Hospital yesterday, and likely gone now as there are so many readers there and so little nonfiction.
The author was born in 1907 and first went to Africa in 1913. There are nine sections in this book covering various aspects of Kenya, with each section having a series of paragraphs of interest plucked from other writings, including those of the author.
For example, I read Part Three and learned white settlers were invited because there were lands with very few native inhabitants, and only nomads in other places. A railroad was built during Edward VII's reign from Mombassa to Lake Lake Victoria via Nairobi and farmers were needed to provide freight shipments. The lands were relatively empty because smallpox and rinderpest had been the ruination of the Kikuyu people. Also, their way of life didn't include the concept of private real estate, thus problems were to arise later.
"Nowhere can the way of the nomad ultimately resist the way of the settler of whatever colour, with his villages and towns and the web of civilization he spins."
Maps, bibliography, index.
The author was born in 1907 and first went to Africa in 1913. There are nine sections in this book covering various aspects of Kenya, with each section having a series of paragraphs of interest plucked from other writings, including those of the author.
For example, I read Part Three and learned white settlers were invited because there were lands with very few native inhabitants, and only nomads in other places. A railroad was built during Edward VII's reign from Mombassa to Lake Lake Victoria via Nairobi and farmers were needed to provide freight shipments. The lands were relatively empty because smallpox and rinderpest had been the ruination of the Kikuyu people. Also, their way of life didn't include the concept of private real estate, thus problems were to arise later.
"Nowhere can the way of the nomad ultimately resist the way of the settler of whatever colour, with his villages and towns and the web of civilization he spins."
Maps, bibliography, index.
