Out of Africa Justice and Judgment Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

There was no white Police Officer present when we came, and while they sent for him we waited outside in the car. (2.1.32)

It's unclear why the Baroness and Belknap need to speak to a white police officer. The victims of the shooting and the shooter himself are all Kikuyu, so it must have to do with Blixen and Belknap's being white. Perhaps they believe that they will get their own brand of justice served if they talk with someone from their own race.

Quote #2

Since, before anything, I wanted peace on the land, I could not keep out of [the legal affairs of the farm], for a dispute between the Squatters, which has not been solemnly settled, was like those sores that you get in Africa, and which they there call veldt-sores: they heal on the surface if you let them, and go on festering and running underneath until you dig them up to the bottom and have them cleaned all through. (2.2.6)

For the Baroness peace and justice go hand in hand. She must ensure that justice is served whenever squabbles come up because, if not, there goes her peace. The nasty simile comparing an unsettled dispute to a sore gives us an idea of how things that seem to be settled can come back to bite you if they're just patched up superficially.

Quote #3

As I knew nothing of their laws the figure that I cut at these great courts of justice would often be that of a Prima donna who does not remember a word of her part and has to be prompted through it by the rest of the cast. (2.2.7)

The Kikuyu always ask the Baroness to weigh in on their cases, but since she doesn't have any idea about their laws or sense of justice she has to fake it until she makes it. She compares herself to a famous, but maybe past-her-prime opera singer who is good for selling tickets but doesn't deliver onstage.