This picture was from an outside covered walkway at the Karen Blixen estate. The flowers were exquisite as they covered the sides and the roof of the cement walkway.
My driver for the morning, Joshua, told me that Karen Blixen was extremely popular and well thought of in Nairobi and in Kenya as a whole. She was of course Danish and not British. I asked Joshua if the British were rather happy to see her go when she returned to Denmark. He laughed and said yes.
Karen Blixen upheld the African people and did her best to improve the lot of the folks who served in her house and all of the African people who she came in contact with. One of the young men who was in her household was essentially adopted as a son and she educated him as well. I believe that Joshua said he became a doctor and practiced medicine locally.
I had a sense both from Joshua and also from her home and the surrounding area that Karen had truly poured herself into this mission of counteracting the colonializing affects of the British occupation. She grew coffee on her farm and taught the Kenyans how to grow it as well. This gave them an avenue to employment and independence.
Her legacy is strong and is evident as each place I passed in the Karen area bore her name. The Karen road, the Karen shopping center, etc.
I have enjoyed learning these past few days about projects that have been started by non-African women in order to provide a vehicle for transformation for African women. As life is transformed for the women, so it will be for the men and children as well.
My driver for the morning, Joshua, told me that Karen Blixen was extremely popular and well thought of in Nairobi and in Kenya as a whole. She was of course Danish and not British. I asked Joshua if the British were rather happy to see her go when she returned to Denmark. He laughed and said yes.
Karen Blixen upheld the African people and did her best to improve the lot of the folks who served in her house and all of the African people who she came in contact with. One of the young men who was in her household was essentially adopted as a son and she educated him as well. I believe that Joshua said he became a doctor and practiced medicine locally.
I had a sense both from Joshua and also from her home and the surrounding area that Karen had truly poured herself into this mission of counteracting the colonializing affects of the British occupation. She grew coffee on her farm and taught the Kenyans how to grow it as well. This gave them an avenue to employment and independence.
Her legacy is strong and is evident as each place I passed in the Karen area bore her name. The Karen road, the Karen shopping center, etc.
I have enjoyed learning these past few days about projects that have been started by non-African women in order to provide a vehicle for transformation for African women. As life is transformed for the women, so it will be for the men and children as well.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.