A few days before leaving for Africa, pakdokter found this book in pakdokter's library. So pakdokter threw it into pakdokter's bag and started reading the book on the flights from KL to Bangkok and later from Bangkok to Nairobi.
The first few chapters of the book taught pakdokter a bit of history of these African states. Being British colonies, the British had sent a large number of Indian soldiers to East Africa to fight the natives for them. At the same time, the British had also done this so that the numbers of Indian soldiers were much reduced in their own homeland so as to minimise the risk of them causing a successful uprising against the colonialist.
Many of these Indian soldiers stayed on in these African states and became wealthy and prosperous. They sent home their newfound wealth and brought in more of their family members and relatives. Up to the present times, the migrant Indians in East Africa dominate the economic activities of these countries.
The economies of these states are largely based on tourism, agriculture/horticulture and mining of precious stones. Recently oil has been found in northern Kenya.
Hemingway spent quite some time in Kenya. This book is a travelogue of the times he was there. He was a keen 'hunter'. He wrote about his expeditions hunting rhinoceros etc. However pakdokter did not like the style of his writing and gave up on the book after just about 5 or 6 chapters.
No comments:
Post a Comment