Culture

Language:

• Swahili:
• despite heavy Arabic/Persian influence, not considered a mixed language;
• dates its origin to the Bantu people of the coast of East Africa
• originally written in Arabic script
• earliest written Swahili documents: 1711
• 30% of Swahlii vocabulary derived from
• Arabic, also contributes majority of loan words
• Persian
• Hindustani
• Portuguese 
• Malay
• Swahili people: coastal East African people
• coastal; Arabic for "coastal"
• Swahili coast: the Zanzibar archipelago, littoral Kenya, Tanzania seaboard, and northern Mozambique 
• Bantus: those who speak the Bantu languages
• sub-Saharan Africa
• over a vast area from Central Africa across the African Great Lakes to Southern Africa;
• within the Niger-Congo phylum of languages: world's third largest family in terms of number of speakers; the world's largest language of family in terms of number of distinct languages;
• of these distinct languages, the most important: Swahili
• Swahili:
• lingua franca of the African Great Lakes region and other parts of East and Southern Africa;
• Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi
• some parts of Malawi, Somalia, Zambia, Mozambique, and Democratic Republic of the Congo
• bottom line: if one speaks Swahili, one can probably get around much of sub-Saharan Africa

Kenya:

• cities
• Nairobi: capital and largest city
• Mombasa: oldest city; first capital
• Kisumu City: third largest city; inland port on Lake Victoria
• bordered by:
• South Sudan: to the northwest
• Ethiopia: to the north
• Somalia: to the east
• Uganda: to the west
• Tanzania: to the south
• Indian Ocean: to the southeast

Colonial era:

• early
• Portuguese: connection with Mombasa
• British Kenya (1888 - 1962)
• history begins with German protectorate over the Sultan of Zanzibar's coastal possessions in 1885
• Imperial British East Africa Company arrives in 1888
• imperial rivalry prevented when Germany ceded its coastal holding to Britain in 1890
• followed by the building of the Uganda Railway passing through the country
• the railroad brought in many Indians (who built the railroad); they stayed and formed the core of several distinct Indian communities such as the Ismali Muslim and Sikh communities
• WWI: German colonials and British colonials worked to stay neutral
• post-WWI:
• 1920: East Africa Protectorate became a colony; renamed Kenya after its highest mountian
• early 20th century: British and European farmers
• settle the interior
• become wealthy raising coffee and tea
• by the 1930's, upwards of 30,000 white settles; huge political voice
• central highlands: Kikuyu people
• no land claims in European terms;
• lived as itinerant farmers;
• settlers economically destroyed the rural Kikuyu who moved to the cities
• by 1950s, 80,000 white settlers living in Kenya
• WWII: Kenya was the site of fighting between Allied forces and Italian troops in 1940 - 41;
• Italian forces had invaded Kenya
• modern:
• 1952: Princess Elizabeth / husband Prince Philiop were on holiday in Kenya; her father, King George VI, died
• Princess Elizabeth cut short her trip; back to England, crowned Queen Elizabeth;
• Mau Mau
• Kikuyu
• October, 1952: rebelled against British rule
• General Sir George Erskine takes charge, with Winston Churchill's backing
• Mau Mau defeated but reforms instituted
• 1964: Kenya independence

People

Masai:

• cattle, p. 17
• nothing more valuable to the Masai than their cattle
• Masai chiefs owned upwards of 50,000 cattle each
• 1910: the Masai tribe estimated to own three million head
• but Brits took their land; by 1914, Masai were suffering from land hunger
• they never ate meat; never slaughtered or sold their livestock

Somalis

• fashionable servants, p. 17
• the top "boys" in any household in the early days
• immensely proud and elegant, the essence of nomadic nobility; waistcoats and gold watch chains;
• low, guttural voices and strict Muslims
• like Masai, many were rich in cattle in their own country across Kenya' s northern frontier
• linked in fame and fortune with their employers
• Delamere with Hassan
• Berkeley Cole with Jama
• Denys Finch Hatton with Bilea
• Karen Blixen with Farah

Kikuyu

• land stretched from Nairobi to the slopes of Mt Kenya, p. 17
• later, they outstripped all other tribes in political ambition
• were hired as labourers and domestic servants
• King's African Rifles, and the carrier Corps, WWI
• died in the thousands
• 250,000 British Empire troops held down by 10,000 Germans
• the fig: sacred to the Kikuyu, p. 11

Happy Valley: drugs of the new age, page 34

• cocaine
• morphine
• chief dealer: Frank Greswolde Williams
• got his supplies from Port Said
• openly plied his trade in the Muthaiga Club
• one of his best customers: Kiki Preston, a beauty who often stayed with Idina
• had many lovers: the two Valentinos, de Trafford, Lafone, the late Duke of Kent
• Cockie Hoogterp, a close friend of Kiki's

Happy Valley: no children allowed -- see p. 40.

• Joss and Idina did have a daughter, Diana
• Alice de Janzé left her two daughters in Paris when on safari; then later discarded them completely, p. 40
• Nolwen, one of her two daughters, married Lord Clark