I am Karen Blixen, a Danish author and the wife of a Danish Baron. I moved to Kenya in 1914 and established a coffee plantation, hiring hundreds of the natives, the Kikuyus, to tend to my crops and take care of my house. Unfortunately, I am only one of the few who treat them with kindness and pay them very well I do this because I want to help their situation. Most African workers have terrible working AND living conditions and get payed half of their European counterparts. Not only that but Africans also do not have many personal freedoms or rights because of racism. The Europeans called for an apartheid or complete social segregation which did not allow Africans to be involved in any of their successes.
I believe this treatment is incredibly unfair and unjust because this deprives the beautiful culture of the Africans and the moral rights of human beings in general. They treated them as if they cannot take care of themselves. Yes, Africa is improving, but really, it’s the Europeans that are only benefitting themselves because they do not let Africans share its benefits. They cannot share the benefits of their own country.
I later wrote a book called Out of Africa in 1937, depicting my encounters and experiences while I was living in Kenya. The Africans were very friendly and worked very hard. They deserve to be treated equally. Imperialism’s benefits to a country does not outweigh the fact that human beings are being greatly mistreated in the process. Africa was not originally occupied by Europeans so Africans have the right to preserve their culture and get to appreciate the progression in their own country.
