How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Whenever you walk amidst the Kikuyu shambas, the first thing that will catch your eye is the hind part of a little old woman raking in her soil, like a picture of an ostrich which buries her head in the sand. (1.1.17)
Comparing the Kikuyu women to ostriches is a loaded metaphor. The narrator uses synecdoche, where the "hind part" of the woman stands in for the whole. So the tough, working muscles are pretty much what counts. Also, she compares her to an animal, rather than seeing her as a person. Finally, the idea of an ostrich with its head in the sand gives the idea of naivety and oblivion—not exactly flattering.
Quote #2
The Kikuyu are adjusted for the unforeseen and accustomed to the unexpected. Here they differ from the white men, of whom the majority strive to insure themselves against the unknown and the assaults of fate. The Negro is on friendly terms with destiny, having been in her hands all his time; she is to him, in a way, his home, the familiar darkness of the hut, deep mould for his roots. (1.2.4)
So the narrator is laying it out in black and white, literally and figuratively, here. She sees black and white people as being complete opposites, with no grey area where they might have something in common.
Quote #3
After a time I learned their manner from them, and gave up talking of the hard times or complaining about them, like a person in disgrace. But I was a European, and I had not lived long enough in the country to acquire the absolute passivity of the Native, as some Europeans will do. (1.3.13)
Interesting. In other moments the narrator seems like she's drawing thick lines in the sand between the races that no one can cross, but here we get a hint that it is possible for race lines to be blurred. It seems that habits are related to race, and since habits can be learned or broken, race, too, might be a flexible category.