Book Review

Mater Private Hospital Director of Nursing, Associate Professor Patricia Snowden reviews The White Masai by Corinne Hofmann. All of us who are romantics at heart can very easily say we would give up everything for the person we love. Corinne Hofmann did this and more in this incredible true story.

Hofmann, a German entrepreneur from Switzerland, embarked on a holiday to Kenya with her Swiss boyfriend in 1986. Shortly after arriving in the coastal town of Mombasa she saw a man that was to change her life forever. In her own words “…His face is so elegantly proportioned that it could almost be that of a woman. But the way he holds himself, the proud look and wiry muscular build betray his undoubted masculinity. I can’t take my eyes off him; sitting there in the last rays of the sinking sun, he looks like a young God.” A year later, Corinne leaves Switzerland and moves to Africa to live with her Samburu warrior.

Imagine living in primitive, socially rigid and masculine culture, the only white person, not understanding the language, your home a five foot tall hut made from cow dung, no electricity, water or toilet. Your partner wearing a loin cloth (well that may not be too hard to take!) demanding you follow his directions, not understanding kissing and drinking goat’s blood. The flies, the disease, the solitary existence.

Love or lust? I’ll leave you to decide.