Week 12 Prompt: Non-Fiction Matrix

Author: Corinne Hofmann

Title:  The White Masai

Publication date: 1998

Number of pages:  320

Geographic setting:  Kenya, Africa

Time period:  Late 1980's

LOC Subject headings:   Hofmann, Corinne

                                      Women, White -- Kenya -- Biography

                                      Masai (African people) -- Biography

Type:  Narrative memoir

Series notes:  There are two sequels that follow: Back from Africa (2003) and Reunion in Barsaloi (2007).

Book summary:  Corinne, a European entrepreneur, finds herself fallen hopelessly in love with a Masai warrior, so she leaves her home in Switzerland and relocates to Kenya to marry him and forge a new life.  She recounts the trials and triumphs of living in the African bush.  Ultimately, though having survived several life-threatening diseases and an arduous pregnancy, she flees her husband, who has become jealous and violent, and has begun to drink and use drugs, and returns to Switzerland to raise her daughter.   The "fish out of water" element to the story is enthralling reading.  

Reading elements:  

Pacing/setting: This is a fast-paced adventure/love story with fascinating details about home life in the African bush.  The author writes in a straight-forward way about her endless surprise at the strange and foreign customs she neglected to research before her adventure began.  She describes the gritty, uncomfortable living conditions, the unpredictable kindness of the locals, and the struggle to make ends meet in a place where poverty is crushing.  

Language: The author writes in a concise way, avoiding prose and flowery language.  Though not a diary, it reads like one. 

Characterization:  Corinne not only describes herself and her own motivations with great detail, she introduces us to her husband, Lketinga and family, and gives the reader an idea of their thought processes, as she interpreted them, and their customs and values.  Her description of Lketinga's slow transition from adoring husband to abusive drunk is compelling.

Annotation: A European businesswoman falls in love with a Masai warrior and moves to Africa to marry him and live in the African bush.  

Similar works:  

My Masai Life: From Suburbia to Savannah by Robin Wiszowaty (2009). A twenty-something, longing to escape the complacency of suburbia, travels to rural Kenya to live for a year as an adopted member of a Masai family.

Warrior Princess: My quest to become the first female Masai warrior by Mindy Budgor (2013).  The true story of a young entrepreneur who makes the spontaneous decision to volunteer in Kenya and, after living and working with the Masai, embarks on a quest to become the group's first female warrior. 

Married to Africa by G. Pascal Zachary (2009).  A former foreign correspondent describes how he fell in love with an African zoologist while working in Ghana, his subsequent immersion in lesser-known aspects of African culture, and their equally disparate married life in California.