Karen Blixen Museum showcases rich heritage

DANISH author Karen Blixen is well remembered globally thanks to her legendary experience in Africa back in the last century and her memoir, Out of Africa.

“I had a farm in Africa, at the foot of Ngong hills.” This classic quote from her autobiography detailed the affection she had for Africa and the local tribal people. It also gave a renowned reputation to the Ngong Hills on the northern edges of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

The author of the Out of Africa autobiography, which later became an Oscar award-winning movie of the same title, left an admirable legacy in Kenya, hence the decision by the Kenyan government to name the house she and her husband bought in 1917, and where she lived from 1917 to 1931, a house museum.

Set in one of the most picturesque neighbourhoods of Nairobi, the Karen Blixen Museum offers a glimpse into Kenya’s colonial history, the journey toward self-rule, and the collective aspirations of its many ethnic groups.

For decades, visitors have been trooping into the Karen Blixen Museum house and grounds for educational tours and social functions, savouring its serene environment.

Fredrick Manthi, the director of Antiquities, Sites and Monuments at National Museums of Kenya, which manages the house museum, said it is embedded in Kenya’s rich history and culture, hence its enduring fame.

“The fact that the Karen Blixen Museum is a repository of Kenya’s long journey from colonialism to independence makes it a prized destination for both local and foreign tourists, Manthi said.

His statement rings true as a guided tour of the house museum exposes visitors to decades-old artefacts, books, paintings, pictures, and postcards belonging to one of the most renowned female figures in colonial Kenya.

Nearly a century-old trees dot Blixen’s backyard, and one can identify pockets of coffee trees, old farm implements like tractors and wagons that were used to transport coffee berries to the port of Mombasa for onward export to Europe.

Blixen returned to her native Denmark in 1931, from where she pursued her interests, including writing books, until her death in 1962 at the age of 77.

Rodah Lange, curator at the

Karen Blixen Museum, said her memorable stay in Kenya when the country was a British colony continues to be celebrated.

According to Lange, the scion of Danish aristocracy constructed a school, besides setting aside 1 000 out of her 6 000 acres (2 400ha) of land to resettle local communities, a rare gesture from white settlers who patronised colonial Kenya.

Lange added that Blixen was kind to workers on her expansive coffee farm, whom she used to provide with free medical services besides training them how to knit. |