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The White Masai | 
 enlarge | Author: Corinne Hofmann
Publisher: Amistad
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy Used: $3.96
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Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 147173
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0061131520
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.8965
EAN: 9780061131523
ASIN: 0061131520
Publication Date: October 1, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: A good ex-library copy. Slightly used. All pages and cover are clear except for a few library markings. Softly worn around edges and corners. Binding is solid and tight. No creases. Book is slightly bent.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 32 more reviews...
 A very informative and enjoyable book, but author makes some irresponsible choices that can be hard to stomach November 4, 2006
gensparkie (California)
20 out of 22 found this review helpful
I am a huge fan of the kind of travel writing that takes you into the lives of other peoples and cultures, and this one was a prime example of everything that is really neat about travel and ethnographic writing. It was engaging, funny, relatable, and I felt like I really got a picture of what it might have been like to live in that situation.
I had some mixed feelings about the decisions she made, though. I can't imagine being compelled by infatuation to shack up with someone who I can't communicate with directly. Then, I can't imagine living with them for a long time and having a child with a person with whom you haven't worked out basic cultural agreements with. Why in the world did she have a baby with someone in such a different culture without discussing issues with the father such as "will my baby have an arranged marriage by the time she is two", or "will my little girl be circumcised?".
And where did she get all of her money? I am 27 and work hard and don't have anywhere near the resources she had. Was she from a rich family?
Questions like this made the book a richer experience in some ways, because those internal struggles made me really think about my culture, my beliefs, and that of the Masai. I am not sure I like Corinne, but there is no doubt that she is a compelling writer and has a very compelling story. This would be a great read for a book club because it does bring up so many issues to discuss.
 Can this be real? July 24, 2007
__ (Chicago, IL USA)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful
Ok. I finished reading this a week ago and am still attempting to wrap my mind around her mentality. I, too, lived in Kenya for nearly two years, but did not stake claims on the country like a neo-colonial in the way this author did. While it was interesting that she would sacrifice so much in the name of love (which again, I just couldn't understand seeing as they were from two polar opposite cultures, didn't speak a common language and he wasn't as in love with her as she with him I thought), I can't understand how she maintained an ignorance and ego about her the whole time she was there. How could she not pick up the language? Even some basic Swahili should have been achieved in weeks of living in the country. As an anthropologist, I simply can't understand her frame of thought and why she really didn't see a need to assist the people she was living around and over-used the mission. I kept thinking the mission is there to help people who really need help and didn't ask to be placed in a marginalized environment, and here she put herself in this nightmare and expected the mission to continually bail her out. I do not consider this a travelogue, rather an odd memoir of "how I ruined my life." It still seems to me that she doesn't know, understand nor care to understand Kenya and I would certainly not recommend it for people who wish to understand the Samburu (she was so ignorant she didn't even realize the Maasai and Samburu are two different ethnic groups albeit closely related) or even the continent of Africa. This book was just an ego trip of how eccentric a woman can be.
 At least she isn't an American February 12, 2007
Carolyn J. Matthews (Arnold, MD)
18 out of 19 found this review helpful
We in the US get a fair amount of grief about our insensitivity to other cultures, and our ridiculous demands that things be done 'our way' when we are in other countries. Well, nice to see that a European showed equal ignorance! Did this woman never have a social studies class? Did she never watch a single documentary or episode of Oprah?! How was she so completely ignorant of the lifestyle and huge cultural divide that would work against her, as a white woman in the Bush of Africa?
I laughed out loud at some of the unintentionally ironic statements in the book. One was when Corinne was madly trying to get "her Masai" a passport because she couldn't wait to introduce him to her mother. Yep, I'm sure Mom would have been thrilled. Toward the end of the book, as the doomed relationship hits the skids, Corinne lashes out angrily at some men in public. Lketinga shouts at her, "Corinne, you are crazy!" Well, yes.
Other reviewers mention that we don't see much of Lketinga's thoughts, feelings, or personality in the book. I disagree. From the beginning, he seems very much overwhelmed, but unsure how to extract himself from this strange relationship. He tells her maybe it would be better if she went home, and just came to visit a couple times a year. I was cheering for his amazing insight at that point, as I could almost feel his bewilderment at being stalked. But Corinne couldn't take a hint. Not when she had to bail him out of jail within a few days of meeting him. Not when the physical encounter she had dreamed of was consummated in a way similar to rape. Not when she had to hunt him down in the Bush upon her return to Kenya. And certainly not when she witnessed him having some sort of mental/emotional breakdown from his reliance on drugs and alcohol. Nope. Her Masai was a beautiful God, and come animal slaughter, malaria, or government bureaucracy, she was going to worship him. I found myself wondering, with all the return trips to Switzerland and his many disappearances, not to mention the days and weeks of travel within Kenya for various business and government errands - how many weeks or months total did they actually spend together?
Most people, in making a humiliating mistake such as this in their lives, would want to regroup, grow up, and move on. Instead, Ms. Hofmann has chosen to glorify her ridiculous 'adventure' and sell it off as a love story. I am very glad I read a copy from the library, rather than add to her fortune or celebrity.
 Clash of cultures July 11, 2006
Friederike Knabe (Ottawa, Ontario Canada)
16 out of 18 found this review helpful
Holiday infatuations are not unusual during visits to distant and "exotic" lands. Unlike the temporary nature of most such affairs, this dramatic story leads the heroine-author to undertake a multi-year voyage of discovery that the reader is privileged to share. Corinne Hoffmann's personal memoir of the years with the "love of her life", is an absorbing read - at some stages almost too amazing to be a true account.
Having fallen for the beautiful Masai warrior, Lketinga, during a holiday in Kenya, Corinne, a successful Swiss business woman, decides to follow her heart. She sells her belongings back home, returns to Kenya and embarks on the adventure of her life. With great frankness she exposes her own naivete when searching for "her man" who had moved away from the tourist coast, finally tracking him down to his settlement in northern Kenya. There, her lack of awareness of local customs creates more than one drama. She doesn't give up, however, and learns to adjust. Her descriptions of the life among the Samburu tribe in a remote part of Kenya contain insights into the traditional life that they lead. Warmth of feelings and even tenderness develop between her and "Mama" in particular, but also with the closer family and neighbours. Her love to Lketinga does not diminish despite the numerous challenges they are facing as a result of their vastly different backgrounds.
The local diet, malaria, hepatitis and her pregnancy all pose threats to her health and even survival. Several times she visits Switzerland to recoup her strength, but as soon as she leaves Kenya, she yearns to return. To contribute to the basic economic stability of the community, Corinne buys a car that allows her to ferry supplies from the nearest town to the settlement. She even opens a local shop which creates benefits for the family but also results in tensions between her business approach and her husband's tradition and customs. It is hard for her to accept that the cultural differences between her and her husband may jeopardize her continued stay in Kenya. In the end she has to draw painful consequences. Using "a needed vacation" with her daughter as a ruse, she does not to return to Kenya for many years.
With "The White Masai" Hoffmann has written a beautiful and moving portrait of a life committed to bridging vast cultural differences. Her style is very direct, almost intimate. The reader can visualize her life among the Masai, sense her emotional strength and the upheavals that accompany the love between her and "her Masai". Hoffmann returned to Kenya with her daughter after 14 years to meet up with her Kenyan family.
[Friederike Knabe
A Self-Centered Tale of Delusion and Neediness or Next Time, Just Buy A Painting August 3, 2007
Berne Colville (Portland, WA, USA)
15 out of 16 found this review helpful
I can say gratefully that a friend lent this sad tale to me. Thank you, God that I didn't shell out any shillings for this doggie of a poorly written book, and thank you for the fact that is not about another clueless American doing stupid things in foreign lands, like stalking gorgeous native men and expecting them to love you, your way.
As far as I could tell, this is a tale of an overly-indulged, wealthy, attractive, very obsessive young woman, Corrine Hoffman, who allows herself to be victimized while constantly insinuating herself on a man who really doesn't want anything to do with her except perhaps a quick "poke in the whiskers" with no foreplay. She calls him "my Masai" on page five after only seeing him a couple of times. (Creepy)
Lketinga sees the picture almost immediately; she chooses not to see. She believes he loves her, but it becomes obvious it's pretty one-sided --her side. Love is not perceived in the same way by the Samburu. Theirs is a culture of tough environmental and basic survival and requires tribal cooperation; a culture of the community, not the individual. Their life is definitely not about females having any rights, only responsibilities. It is not an adolescent, bodice-ripping, Romantic tale of romance. Samburu life is not easy, but it's the way it is. In fact, African life doesn't seem like something I want to try either.
So you have Corrine and her wacky friends. The European women in this story come across as pretty flighty, irresponsible and quite hippie-skippy, although they all run circles around her linguistically. Her friend Sophia does not seem to have much more sense than Hoffman does and you can easily visualize a "type" of wealthy, attractive, dilettante young European women, playing out their fantasies and spending their or their daddy's money. Her friend Sophia constantly seems to move to better quarters and is difficult to locate as she goes back to Italy for vacations, moves in with a loser boyfriend, procreates without thought of the future for her child and seems lacking in all common sense. Add to that, Hoffmann's constant references about her lack of appetite suggest a serious eating disorder as when she says "there's a lavish meal laid on, and after nearly five days fasting, I've almost got an appetite." There are numerous comments regarding her inability to eat. From the very beginning, her control issues are apparent.
She's obviously driven to be successful. She knows how to hire and manage people, works like a dog, has good business skills and has no problems working with men. But she doesn't have a glimmer that her business interactions and negotiations with various businessmen might not be understood by her husband, whose cultural concepts of proper behavior between men and women could not be more different, and whose behavior from the beginning has led him to question her motives. And for all the time she spends in Africa, she never seems to pick up language skills. The African women that befriend her seem much wiser and truly helpful, always willing to help out, explain reality to her and to try and help pull her out of her cultural haze.
Lketinga, her husband, cannot be judged from this tale, as you never know his thoughts or his version of this sad domestic partnership, but I believe that he tried to let her know the relationship was doomed from the start. His wise suggestion to her that that "If I have such a good business in Switzerland, why don't I come back a few times a year for holidays and he would always be waiting for me" should have sparked her brain cells into a reality check, but to no avail. With complete self-centeredness she inflicts herself on this man and his community, and then wonders why he starts to resent and distrust her, even as her hard-earned Swiss francs service their needy community and floundering business efforts.
Much of the deference she receives is due to her physical attractiveness, the fact that she is white, and her obvious purchasing power. To those struggling native people she must have seemed a female Donald Trump. Corrine appears to have an endless supply of money. We are told she was a very successful business woman but I wonder if in reality she suffers from fear of holding on to her success.
Hoffman complains constantly about the amount of work she needs to do, always hiring help, having others pity and do things for her, describing her raw fingers, bad hair days, lack of sleep, her hollow-cheeked face and failing body. Martyr complex? Probably. Controlled by a dysfunctional need to crave a "real man" then resents it when he tries live life in the culture he knows? Very probably. Results. Complete wacko. Her husband quickly becomes a sort of victim of her wealth. He hates it but wants what it creates for him and the tribe. He can't manage it because he doesn't have the skills, so he uses the old tribal "you woman, me man" thing and the situation deteriorates more quickly. Her money and skills gives her power over him and emasculates him.
Hoffmann doesn't listen to the advice she receives from the native women and doesn't seem to have enough common sense to research the basics of what "marriage" entails in the new culture she is forcing her way into. Sex doesn't seem all that important to her, although she frequently admires his physical beauty and elegance of body; his compatibility needs elude and appall her at times. He is a piece of living, beautiful artwork that she must possess but will never understand. Next time, Corinne, buy yourself the painting, leave the person alone and save everyone the boring, constant flow of your endless tears.
Throughout the book, Hoffman constantly places herself in serious physical and personal danger, neglects herself even when very seriously ill, still pursuing her obsessive effort of the moment. Her lack of personal self-care causes serious consequences for her, endangers her unborn child and brings her at one point, close to death. One has to wonder, if it affected her long-term. Did it not occur to her that the fact Lketinga can neither read nor write, is not at all westernized, and comes from a primitive, agrarian culture, could cause serious conflict and misunderstanding? Corrine thoughtlessly forges forth not realizing her female independence is eroding his self-confidence and pride while still noting to the reader that he cannot add, subtract, organize nor stop giving her money away.
Lketinga's increasing lack of trust in their relationship probably stems from their initial meetings, when she broke with her current beau to take up with him. Lketinga probably believes that if she dumped her current man that quickly in favor of him, she might not be worthy of his trust. It was extremely disturbing to see how she brazenly and aggressively stalks him until she corners him in his village. She's relentless and very creepy. However, it is obvious that she has great affection for these people, that she does try to assimilate herself into their primitive way of life and does sometimes, actually enjoy it. Some of the scenes she describes of Samburu village life are quite moving. She sees the inequalities that exist for black Africans and how people scorn their black/white marriage. They are humiliated frequently by both black and whites yet she does not see nor knows how to manage the very real difficulties that her financial and female independence cause.
How many trips through the jungle in an ancient, broken-down Land Rover does it take for her to figure out that this isn't working? How many bouts of malaria, anemia, hepatitis and other diseases must she endure, even at the risk of injuring the child she carries? The most shocking tale to me was her attempt to assist a young woman in the midst of a monstrous labor trying to give birth to her dead child. Hey, if I saw some poor screaming woman squatting and bleeding profusely, with the arm of her unborn child hanging out of her vagina, I would be out of there forever!
How much quiet time is she really able to spend with her man while she buys the cars, pays bribes for passports and travel paper? Can she manage the household, take care of baby, run and stock the store, hire good help, deal with stealing employees, bad bookkeeping, terrified child brides and a nation with no concept of punctuality? Meanwhile he disrupts her business; fires the people she hires; disappears for days on end, herds his sheep, goats, oxen, visits his mom, smokes Miraa, drinks and does the manly thing with his male tribe members? Sad things are bound to happen.
Alas, the time arrives when Corrine has no money left and Lketinga's pretty much on the mental brink...presto! Time to go! Alas, love is gone but now she has her new baby to become her new obsessive-compulsive replacement ...and as her as her moody, addictive man starts becomes increasingly paranoid about her fidelity, (which the reader can see from almost the beginning) she manages to leave with her infant daughter on the pretence of a nice Swiss vacation. (Fade out with..."Oh my man, I love him so, he'll never know..." aka goodbye Nicki Arnstein)
But she sends sweet "please forgive me" letters to Lketinga, his mother and his brother. So I guess at least she didn't lose her nice Swiss manners.
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