Out of Africa was written by a woman named Karen Blixen under the pen name Isak Dinesen. Blixen's memoir captures her life from 1914 to 1931 on a coffee plantation in Kenya. Although her surroundings are beautiful and the cultural backdrop she exists in is unique, her life is a hard one.
Blixen largely focuses on the daily challenges (and sometimes, triumphs) involved with running that coffee plantation in Africa. Throughout the memoir—but particularly at the start of it—Blixen talks about her workers with a tremendous amount of affection, especially her servant, Farah, who came from Somalia. Additionally, Blixen talks about her interactions with the native Kikuyu people, who live and work on her land. She speaks about the Kikuyu with reverence.
Throughout the memoir, Blixen also describes the frequent encounters she has with exotic wildlife, from lions to birds who are migrating. From these descriptions, it is clear that she loves the wildlife. She also loves Denys Finch Hatton, a big-game hunter and adventurer from the United Kingdom. Even though the two love each other deeply, their relationship is complex and often fraught with difficulty.
To keep her business afloat, she battles fires, droughts, locust infestations, diseases, and financial troubles. Most significantly, her coffee farm starts to fail because of the global economic crisis, which forced her to ultimately sell off her beloved land.
Eventually, Blixen leaves Kenya to live in Denmark, where she hopes she can have a better life. Before she leaves, however, she says goodbye to her loyal servant, Farah. Even in Denmark, she continued to receive letters from her former Kikuyu employees, showing how much they loved her.
