Out of Africa Race Quotes

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.

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.

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.

In this quote race is seen through language. For the narrator, the white man speaks plainly, and privileges himself, starting with the "I". The African, however, uses a much more roundabout way of speaking, and is focused on the group, using "we".

Justice is one of those concepts that we tend to think of as pretty much impossible to question. We typically think that there is a fair way to do things, and it shouldn't change from one race to the other. The Baroness questions that transcendent nature of justice when she compares the European and African notions of justice.

The hospital, which might seem like a pretty straightforward space of do-gooding, turns into a racial war zone in colonial Africa. The white Europeans expect that the Natives who are "dragged" into the hospitals will then show their undying gratitude for curing them. Of course, the words "dragged" and "trouble" point to a perspective that has the hospital symbolizing, once again, white domination over the African races.

Chief Kinanjui of the Kikuyu is compared in a metaphor to an idol. Why does the narrator choose this term instead of a statue? Maybe his African race points to the answer, because she isn't thinking of the saints in the French mission, but rather African religious statues. Also, she compares him to a "Red Indian" or Native American, another "other" race. It's like all the races that aren't white are blended into one "other" for her.

At first glance it's kind of funny to think that white people would "dissimulate" (which is a fancy word for fibbing) only when they're around other white people. What was Colonialism, really, besides a huge dissimulation? The key, though, is that there is no "reason or opportunity" to lie when they're "alone with Natives", because being with another race is like being alone—there's nobody to lie to because the Natives are not equals. Ew. This statement makes us want to take a shower with a pressure washer: it's just that disgusting.

We can see the Somali women as sort of parallel to the Baroness. She's a stranger in a strange land, soaking up information on the races that she comes across. Farah's wife and her family, too, are foreigners in East Africa, looking to learn about the white race. That puts the Baroness under the microscope for once.

In case you were starting to think that Baroness Blixen only characterizes the African races as sort of quaint, folks, this quote shows us that she can do it to Europeans, too. But she's got positive connotations with the Swedish smile—if this were an African's weather-beaten face and strong white teeth would it be joyful to Dinesen?