Before the turn of the nineteenth century the white man’s destination in Africa was more often fixed in his mind than on a map; his route was unlikely to be charted; the land mass was known in Europe by three words… ‘The Dark Continent’… Every pioneering family in Kenya had equally fascinating tales to tell and each member of the family many unique anecdotes. Some pioneers were barely in their twenties, holding a common conviction of exchanging an old way life for something new brim-full with promise and opportunity. Their departures from “home” were filled with bustle, panic and a sense of finality; mothers, fiancées and wives mopped their swollen eyes believing that the dark continent would swallow their beloveds whole. A few men did disappear but Africa was honed again and again by those survivors with technical knowhow, who made British East Africa their home. They strove daily for the dream and once achieved, the dream did not last for as long as they had hoped.
This book is not for the oldest generation of Kenyans but to show their grandchildren (black and white) and in turn their great, great grandchildren that their forbears took on raw canvas and broke virgin soil.
