Christine Nicholls is a most accomplished writer, her lucid
but sparing style, gives her writing a sparkle which
everyone will enjoy. We cannot tell whether this book about
a European childhood in Colonial Kenya will be of more
interest to those who experienced it, or of more interest to those who did not but,
as people who had a similar childhood, we found it absorbing. It also threw up
questions. We do not remember, for instance, anyone at the Kenya High
School, lifting our skirts to see if we were wearing regulation grey knickers! We
were impressed with the observations she made in her letters from school to her
parents. At a young age she clearly was developing prodigious powers of
observation and intelligence. Her memories are illuminated by hindsight and
from her study of colonial Kenya and we very much liked her quiet statements
about what happened, with little comment, condemnation or criticism. That is
how it was. Mpishi (did he not have a name?) and his marital arrangements
were an amusing example.
There is an innocence in childhood memories which is always touching and
which A Kenya Childhood deftly portrays. Where she writes of - and we
remember - a relaxed, somewhat gentle atmosphere, now-a-days Kenya is a
bustling place with a population some six times greater than when we were
children. The Europeans led a privileged life there is no doubt but today there is,
we believe, more poverty and hardship. On the other hand our parents would be
so pleased to see today's growing and assertive middle class of professionals
and entrepreneurs.
In those far off times there was a noble plan to build a country. Foolish
decisions were undoubtedly made (teaching the history of the British Isles in
Asian and African schools seems incredible now) but there was also great
innovation and determination by engineers and government servants to build a
new infrastructure, to put in hospitals, schools and roads for the benefit of
everyone. There was some thoughtlessness, ignorance and arrogance on the
part of the colonists but Dr NichoH's book demonstrates that there was care and
affection between the races while her descriptions of Christine the small child
wandering Mombasa alone demonstrates that we were brought up in a colony
that was safe for every law-abiding person as a result of justice and good
governance.
By lifting the curtain on a "strange time in a lovely land" and seeing it all with
the uncritical eyes of an intelligent girl growing up, this book adds to the rich
history of this short and crucial time in the development of Kenya. Leaving, she
says, was "too poignant to bear". We all felt that.
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