I did not love Nairobi, Kenya. Perhaps it was the place where we stayed – for far too long – Karen Camp. The dingyness of it all. The 'nothingness' of it all. The feeling that you would rather be somewhere else. I am not sure. After all – there was the beautiful morning spent in the Thorn Tree Cafe at the old Stanley Hotel and the memories that evoked from the time I was in Nairobi to meet up with my children – and when I met Marc and Nici's future spouses for the first time.
There was also the delightful afternoon spent with the giraffes in their sanctuary and meeting Miss Daisy and Laura 'eye-to-eye' – a wonderful experience!
And there was of course the visit to Karen Blixen's house as well – an afternoon of wandering into her home and thus wandering into the past – into a bygone era of Great white hunters and headstrong women, story tellers and dreamers, adventurers and pioneers, intrigue and love, passion and pain. The house that Von Blixen built for her when they got married and moved to Africa, is well preserved as it was in her day. Probably thanks to the film “Out of Africa”, the house's interior is almost exactly as it was when Karen Blixen lived there. When you walk through the spacious cool rooms, or stand in front of the huge fire place, or look down the long dining room table, beautifully set and ready for the dinner guests, you can almost hear the fire crackling in the hearth, the tinkle of her laughter, the conversation humming in the library, and you can almost smell the delicious smells coming from the kitchen, feel the excitement in the air of the anticipation of yet another perfect evening hosted by the amazing Baroness.
Karen Blixen (1885-1962), also known by her pseudonym, Isak Dinesen, is famous for her memoir, Out of Africa, and for several works of fiction, including Seven Gothic Tales (1934) and Winter's Tales (1942). A 2007 poll of opinion in her native Denmark lists Karen Blixen as one of the most representative personalities in Danish history. She was several times nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. She wrote in English, after living on a coffee farm in Kenya from 1914 to 1931.
She married her second cousin, Baron Bror Blixen of Sweden, thereby acquiring the title Baroness. Following their separation and divorce, she had a long affair with the safari hunter, Denys Finch Hatton, son of a titled English family. In 1931, after losing the coffee farm in the Great Depression, Karen Blixen returned to Denmark and embarked on the writing career that lasted until her death in 1962. She was played by Meryl Streep in the 1985 film Out of Africa.
Karen Blixen or Isak Dinesen, the name she wrote under, can be compared with no other writers. Her voice was formed by her Scandinavian roots, and influenced by a wide variety of works of European literature. Her writing places emphasis on story, rather than characters, and on the philosophical understanding of personal identity. Her stories underline a fascination with the role of fate in controlling the lives of human beings. She believed that a person's response to the vicissitudes of fate offers a possibility for heroism and, ultimately, for immortality.
When she left Kenya at the age of 46, she returned to the country manor called Rungstedlund, north of Copenhagen, where she was born, and she lived there as a writer until the end of her life. As in Africa, she was primarily dependent on her family for financial support. Her brother Thomas and sister Elle made it possible for her to keep the family home in Denmark, where the furniture had been bequeathed by family and friends. Karen Blixen's clothes were ordered from a tailor, and she had otherwise few possessions. Her writing helped pay for hired help. She employed a staff of workers that included a live-in cook and secretary. Toward the end of her life Karen Blixen appealed to the general public for contributions to protect her house and land. The successful campaign led to the creation of the Rungstedlund Foundation, which now oversees the 40-acre property as a museum and bird reserve -- the beautiful place where I spent a magical Red Button afternoon --with a group of Muslim school girls celebrating the end of year in the gardens like a flock of colourfully plumed exotic birds, the petrea in magnificent purple bloom -- and eventually the rain pouring down on us all in grey sheets. A wonderful interlude in an otherwise sad time...
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