Character Analysis
Ask Jeeves
Farah is, literally, the Baroness' right-hand man. No, really; when she has to preside over the Kyama he's there:
Farah took up his stand on my right hand, and therefrom kept a watchful eye on the Kikuyus, who had been gathering round the house and who kept coming in as the news of Kinanjui's arrival spread on the farm. (2.5.17)
The visual picture of Farah standing at the Baroness' right hand is a great way to imagine Farah, because his main role is to serve her.
He takes a lot of flak from her, too, without ever protesting. For example, on the terrible night of the shooting, she lets him drive until "I thought that he was deliberately going into all the deep holes and wagon-tracks of the road, and I took the steering-wheel myself" (2.1.29). Anyone who's taken driver's ed knows that being sent to the passenger side is the ultimate insult, but Farah doesn't complain.
Think You're All That
Maybe one of the reasons that Farah can handle the Baroness' bossiness is that he gets to turn around and be bossy with everybody else. He's got a snooty attitude towards the Natives, and uses his position as the boss' favorite to his advantage. At the Kyama, he interrupts the eager discussion by proposing an impossible price, a hundred sheep, and then watching the Kikuyu squirm:
The old men felt themselves at the mercy of Somali mockery, and chose to lie low under it. A very old man whispered "Fifty" but the figure seemed to carry no weight but to be blown aloft in the current of air of Farah's joke.
After a moment Farah himself briskly said "Forty" in the manner of the experienced cattle-trader, at home with figures and stock. (2.3.21-22)
Part of Farah's superiority comes from his race; he's Somali, and he sees himself as above the Natives. This is also one of the reasons that he is the Baroness' main servant; she buys into the racial hierarchy as well.
The matter-of-fact, businesslike control of the Kyama comes from the confidence he has that he is superior to the Kikuyu, and it's really what the Baroness wants him to do. He is like the bad cop to her good cop.