The story of a Swiss woman who goes to Kenya, falls in love with a Masai warrior, and moves there to live with him, The White Masai is also a story of love, cross-culture marriage, life in an African village, and domestic abuse.I started off with disliking the author a little. She was extremely mean to her Swiss boyfriend and dumps him unceremoniously for a Masai man. It is also a little weird how she gets obsessed with a man she knows nothing about. Call her silly and obsessive, or naive and innocent, Corinne does manage to find the Masai and he reciprocated her feelings. The other thing that annoyed me is that she continuously refers to Lketinga as 'my Masai' as if he were some object she had purchased. The 'my darlings' also began to grate on my nerves after a point. But in spite of this, I began to warm up to her. Once the initial lust is satiated, she does genuinely fall in love and tries against all odds to keep the relationship going. She is the only person who actually treats the Masai with basic human respect. Both the white tourists and the local blacks act as if they are automatically criminals, and Corinne gains my respect by standing up for them. She is a wonderful businesswoman and actually started three successful businesses in Africa, only to lose them for lack of a reliable partner. Hofmann is incredibly resilient and nothing fazes her - malaria, hepatitis, living in a small hut and carrying many litres water from the river everyday. Nothing! As the story progressed, I began to sympathise with her and admire her more and more.While Corinne is busy trying to make a living and make her relationship work, her husband, Lketinga wanders aimlessly about the place, being completely useless. He does not work to feed his family, no sir! Other tribals who herd animals work hard over the day and enjoy with other people in the evenings, but Lketinga seems to spend most of his time attending weddings and doing nothing constructive. That is, when he is not chewing miraa or drinking beer. He is sulky most of the time if things don't go his way. Not to mention, he is as dumb as a brick. No, dumber! He makes illogical decisions in the business, throws tantrums at customers and behaves atrociously at the hired workers. Gradually, he becomes more and more abusive to Corinne and keeps insinuating that she is being unfaithful and going off into fits of rage and disappears for days on end. In short, he is a disgusting and filthy piece of shit. No problem, Corinne. You have another man, Corinne. No problem, Corinne, I am an asshole, Corinne, no problem. I am a complete waste of oxygen, Corinne, no problem. No problem Corinne, I am useless beyond belief. Oh Corinne, no problem, you a whore, Corinne?" - Just me being nasty about Lketinga because I was frothing at the mouth at some point in the story. I wanted to reach into the pages and give him a hard slap. Corinne excuses Lketinga by claiming that it was a culture difference. No, my dear. Abuse must never to be swept away as a culture difference. 'Your Masai' was a jealous and abusive person, but that does not necessarily mean that other Masai men are the same. Maybe this is the only way she is able to deal with her trauma, and I was horrified at how much she showered on this utterly useless man and how much she still cared. I also was a little offended at her implication on how he should find a Sambaru wife - yes, because she would be taught to submit to domestic abuse and not raise a voice? Not right, Corinne!The book is really compelling and kept me hooked till the end. I was rooting for Corinne as she went from strength to strength. Apart from Corinne, the other people I really liked in the book are Lketinga's mother - a wise and wonderful woman. James, Lketinga's brother, is an example of a Masai man who is nice, and I really liked him. It would be interesting to know he he fared in life. I also liked Father Guilio though I generally don't have much time for missionaries. Forget Lketinga, read the book for these other people. There is much to learn and enjoy in here! Don't read this book if you are expecting a love story. Read this book if you want a gritty account of life in Africa under extreme conditions of poverty. Read it for a description of how domestic abuse starts and spirals out of control without your even realising it.I did cut off one star because I really did not understand some things because there is no background given, especially at the beginning. The story starts almost abruptly and is a little confused. I felt the author left out some details about meeting Lketinga. In closing, I just want to mention that I read a few other reviews and am completely horrified at the amount of victim blaming happening, while the man gets clear away with his abuse. Just because a woman is naive or innocent, does not mean it is okay to mistreat her or abuse her! With this attitude, no wonder we are still in a nascent stage when it comes to respect for women.
Memoir set in KENYA (“captive of the Masai World”)A memoir set in Kenya that will evoke a strong response in the reader.Guaranteed!That is probably a bit of a daring thing to say, I feel, but it is one of the few books I have read where I have experienced a medley of emotions, and judging by reviews across the internet I am not alone.Corinne Hofmann from Biel in Switzerland travels to Kenya with her then boyfriend Marco. Within a few hours travelling to Mombasa she has spotted Lketinga, a Masai warrior in full regalia, and responds to him as though struck by lightening. She is in awe of his sheer presence. Marco, her boyfriend no longer makes the cut and she parts from him fairly promptly, as she now only has eyes for ‘her warrier’. She seeks him out at every opportunity, which almost becomes obsessional and stalkerish; she seems to know that this man is going to be the love of her life. She returns to her home in Switzerland and sells up her successful clothing store, planning her trip back to Africa. Never mind that she and Lketinga don’t have a language in common, and that the cultures are utterly polarised. She takes several months to sort her affairs in Europe, whilst listening to indigenous music, which maintains her link to Kenya.Finally she decamps to find him, and together they make a life, first in Mombasa and then in faraway Barsaloi, his home. Here they live in a traditional home, a manyatta, a simple hut. Water has to be collected, cooking and chai are cooked on a small brazier. There are many cultural differences that leave the author rather surprised and at times angry and upset. She seems to have done little research about what it might mean to live amongst the Samburu people on a daily basis. And this is what makes the memoir such a gripping read. Corinne seems genuinely taken aback by many of the situations in which she finds herself, but love is her driver, and at first seems to conquer all (yes, that feels so cheesy, but her innocent yet focussed conviction seem to drive her onwards, despite hurdles, cultural differences, dirt, pestilence, lack of transport infrastructure, and Omo which is used for washing everything, from clothes to people).What is love, one may ask? In this memoir it is the couple connection from her to him, but it is unclear how he feels about her. She goes about wooing him with a certainty that borders on the narcissistic – he is part of her plan and that plan will be executed at all costs. She approaches her new life with a naivety that is, frankly, shocking: simple research might have thrown up that kissing for the Masai people is contemptible. She is upset when she learns that men can neither eat with women, nor eat meat touched by a woman; that the sexes may only drink tea together; and that she and her daughter are expected to undergo a clitoridectomy. She smartly manages to side-step the latter.Much of what she describes is her response to, at times, catastrophic situations in her new world. She can sometimes bleat on about her difficult situation, and she does spend a huge amount of time crying and suppressing her anger. She puts herself through an inordinate amount of suffering which feels at some unconscious level quite self destructive – whether arduous and neck breaking journeys through the jungle and bush, or dealing with miscommunication and violence. She then contracts malaria and hepatitis, yet still battles on. It is the, at times, deranged determination to make a go of her new situation that left me vacillating between pity, empathy for the delusional belief that things will work out, and finally exasperation. Gradually, as the domestic violence increases, her resolve disintegrates. It is a sad situation.The writing is curious to say the least. It is clearly written from the heart, easy to read, yet could do with a little refining. It became extremely irritating that she described Lketinga as ‘my warrior’ or ‘my darling’, as though frequent use of either term could somehow bind him to her more. And exclamation marks were used like a scattergun to underline some very difficult encounters. But Peter Millar’s translation was good and made it very readable (we first became acquainted with him when we reviewed his travelogue set in Cuba: Slow Train to Guantanamo).So, if you want a gripping read that will get your emotions churning, then take a chance on this book. You will come away having learned so much about Masai traditions and life in Kenya!
What do You think about The White Masai (2006)?
I struggled with this book. The beginning is so unbelievable that I was left feeling uncomfortable by how shallow this woman was. I find it ironic that she has said in an interview that a lot of people are uncomfortable with the fact that she married and had a baby with a black man. As a mother of two biracial sons, I can guarantee that is not what made me uncomfortable. What made me uncomfortable was her complete lack of regard for the culture she barged her way into. She didn't know the first thing about cultural mores or expectations. She didn't even know the man she was supposedly in love with. How do you fall in love with someone that you cannot communicate with, have little to nothing in common with, doesn't even satisfy you physically, and has dramatically different ideas on gender equality, raising children and life than you do?? And every time she called him "my warrior" or "my Masai" I found my teeth clenching. She didn't win him at the carnival and yet the feeling that I got was that she felt she had won a rare prize.Thankfully the book doesn't get bogged down completely in the "romance" aspect. Her adventures in the bush, her struggles to understand her role in the community and all the characters she meets adds immensely to the book's appeal. It is interesting in that respect and as the love between her and Lketinga cool off I was able to enjoy the story more. I really wish I could give it another half star but I can't justify giving it 3 stars so I'm going with the lower rating.
—Badly Drawn Girl
She "responded to her inner child." She "made herself vulnerable"... and all the other talk show guru advice. You have to hand it to her... she did it. She married a warrior who couldn't count (numbers, money, etc.) and tried to make it work. She almost died in the process, but kept at it.I can't get over her spunk! She had ran 3 different businesses in Kenya. There was a ton of red tape, translation problems, unreliable transportation, and her own malaria and difficult pregnancy. Despite these considerable obstacles, all three businesses might have been successful were it not been for her undermining husband.Many times, she wrote of stress, being tired and being emotionally drained. She rarely says she was afraid. Whenever her car broke down or when her husband got jealous, I was afraid for her! She writes of uncomfortable and probably unsanitary living conditions, but she describes and doesn't complain. She is obviously a very strong and capable woman which makes this story all the more amazing.While this not a sociological study, one can't help but notice how deeply sexism embedded in the Kenyan society. In so many places, Mama and Priscilla accept their losing battle, and advise Corrine to do so as well.I held back one star, due to problems that might be with the English translation (i.e. when she left Switzerland, did she sell a car, or cars? There are places where it's hard to tell what a pronoun refers to.) and not her text. Regardless of what you think of the adventure, anyone who reads this will be glued.
—Louise
I bought The White Masai in the Nairobi airport hoping to find out a little more about the daily life of the Masai people. Turns out that I knew more about the Masai from one college anthropology class than the author did before deciding to move from Switzerland to Kenya and marry a Masai man. (Really not Masai but Samburu, a related group.) It boggles the mind how one could decide to get married without knowing such crucial pieces of information such as whether her intended loves her back, that the Masai are a polygamous society, that female circumcision before marriage is customary, that the first child legally belongs only to the father and the father's mother, that men and women do not eat together or that kissing on the mouth is considered taboo. But, that's what Corinne Hofmann did, and she relates her journey, marriage, childbearing and separation in this book. Whether or not the reader likes her decisions or agrees with what she did-- and I think most readers do not-- she tells her story in great detail and with what appears to be unflinching honesty. It's an all present-tense, diary-style narrative that sticks to descriptions of events but is not very introspective. It's a true story, there are pictures of her husband and family, and it was a controversial best-seller in Europe when it was published.Sometimes it feels like she is exploiting her African family for the sake of the book, and you wonder what they would say about the way they are portrayed. It is not the most well-written book- it makes you wish there had been more guidance from the editor and the translation is not always the best- to the point that it feels like the author herself is being exploited for the sake of the publishing house making a profit. All that said, if you don't go into it with high expectations, this is a very interesting story, a quick read, and at the end of it you want to read the two sequels to find out what happened to Corinne Hofmann next.
—Frances
