Wednesday, October 29, 2008

African Reading Challenge: The White Masai


The White Masai
By Corinne Hofmann

Maybe I was biased from the beginning. I told my self I wouldn’t like The White Masai and then I didn’t like it. It wasn’t the story I didn’t like, it was the main character – she was just so stupid.


As a fiction – it wouldn’t have been so bad, cheesy romance where love overcomes all (but not really). But as a “true story” it makes me want to scream with frustration. It took a lot of effort to see it through and I just kept thinking how many millions Corinne Hofmann must have made capitalizing on her “love story.” It’s insane.


To begin Corinne is on vacation in Kenya when she sees a Masai that she falls deeply in love with. So after going home she breaks up with her boyfriend and returns to Kenya to hook-up with said boyfriend. She goes back to his village with him etc.


There are a few trips between Switzerland and Kenya she decides marrying him is a good plan and does so without any understanding of culture, lifestyle, local language or plans for the future.


She is unable to live like locals although she tries – can’t fill her roll in the society and ends up mooching off other people. She opens a store for a while. Then she starts getting really sick because in her attempt to be a “real Masai” she doesn’t take precautions for her decidedly not Masai body. She gets malaria and Hep C among others.


Eventually she has a baby and her husband begins to get insanely jealous and long story short she flies back to Switzerland and sends notes back to Kenya saying sorry, but I couldn’t take it anymore.


The end.


The stupid part is – with some modifications she might have been able to make it work – but she completely ignored the advice of everyone. Also if she was so determined to be the “white Masai” she probably should have acted like a Masai woman and less like a European one – that may have helped her immensely.

Sure she was in love and everything she did was for that love. But, she was so naïve it was insane and then – in the end – she markets the whole thing.


This book – while an “interesting exotic tale of love and adventure” – left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

2 comments:

Mose said...

I read this book and my sentiments are nearly identical. I could not bring myself to sympathize with Corinne at all. She just seemed so needy and irrational. And that's from her perspective. I wonder how moody and jealous Lketinga would seem from an objective viewpoint.

Unknown said...

I ended up feeling very sad for the husband...he did not ask her to come there...he may have loved her very much as he was seen to take alot of strife from her but why did she have to emasculate him so totally?? even in the "civilized world" no man would take a slap or screaming in their face nicely...very selfish woman in my opinion....but I can see the attraction on a purely physical level...the actor was absolutely stunning..Jacky Ido...I do't usually watch subtitled movies