## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

## COLONIAL NATURE: HUNTING IN KAREN BLIXEN'S OUT OF AFRICA.

By: Laura Soland Wang Larsen History

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ABSTRACT: This article  examines  the  hunting  practices  in  the  British  colonies,  the  significance  of hunting and what the specific hunting style used, revealed about the imperial and colonial mindset of that time. Furthermore, this article examines the gendered and racial aspects of colonial life and hunting, as well as the personal hunting experiences of the Danish author Karen Blixen. This article argues that hunting in the British colonies was a significant part of colonial life and imperial control, as well as a great influence on the gender ideals and roles of this time. The personal experiences of Karen Blixen as settler, white, woman and hunter functions as an embodiment of the colonial and imperial views of this time and place.

KEYWORDS: colonial history, gender, whiteness, hunting

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

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## Introduction

From 1913-1931 the Danish author Karen Blixen owned a farm in the British colony of Kenya. In her bestselling memoir 'Out of Africa' she reminisces on her time in Africa and everything she experienced during this period of her life. One of the rather prominent themes of this memoir, is big game hunting and her own experiences hunting in Kenya.

'As the light reached him he turned his head and Denys shot. He fell out of the circle, but got up and into it again, he swung round towards us, and just as the second shot fell, he gave one long irascible groan. Africa, in a second, grew endlessly big, and Denys and I, standing upon it, infinitely small.' 1

Experiences such as Blixen's above, were nothing exceptional in colonial Kenya in the 19 th and 20 th century, as hunting had almost become synonymous with colonial life in Africa. Both the wilderness and the exotic game were attractive to many Europeans and soon it became a complete huntingcraze. Colonies such as Kenya would very quickly become known as ideal hunting grounds: as 'white hunters appeared in Central Africa from the 1850s, and by the 1870s and 1880s they had become very nearly a flood. ' (MacKenzie 1988: 122).

This article examines why hunting was such a big part of the British empire and what this specific style  of  hunting  reveals  about  the  colonial  and  imperial  mindset  of  this  time.  It  furthermore examines the gendered and racial aspects of both hunting and colonialism. Karen Blixen and her personal  hunting  experiences  will  function  as  the  specific  piece  of  investigation,  as  it  will  be examined  how  her  experiences  with  both  big  game  hunting  and  being  a  white  colonial  woman

1 Karen Blixen, Out of Africa, (Random House, 1938), p. 235-236.

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corresponds with the overall points found throughout the previous examinations. This article is thus conducted from the following research question: what do the hunting practices and traditions of the British colonies in the 19 th and 20 th century reveal about the colonial mindset of that time and how does Karen Blixen's personal experiences in colonial Kenya embody this mindset?

Hunting  being  an  enormous  part  of  life  in  colonial  Africa  is  well  established  in  academic publications such as John M. MacKenzie's book The Empire of Nature (MacKenzie 1988) in which he  underlines  just  how  colonialism  and  hunting  correlated  and  how  hunting  functioned  as  an imperial  tool  of  power  and  masculinity.  Women  going  hunting  in  the  colonies,  as  Blixen  did, however, is examined in Vijaya Ramadas Mandala's article 'British Huntswomen in Colonial India: Imperialism  and  Gender  Hierarchies,  1809-1921'  (Mandala  2020).  Mandala  examines  the difference in how white women would hunt in the colonies as opposed to women hunting in Europe. The lives of the Blixens in the colony of Kenya as white northern Europeans are investigated by Raita Merivirta in the article 'Nordic Settler Identities in Colonial Kenya: Class, Nationality and Race in Bror and Karen Blixen's Transimperial Lives' (Merivirta 2023). The article focuses on the Blixens  place  in  the  colony  in  terms  of  race  and  social  class  and  by  that  brings  a  further understanding of Karen Blixen's colonial experiences.

## Hunting in the Imperial Colonies

MacKenzie among other things, claims that to the imperial colonists, hunting was in many ways a frontier of its own. Furthermore, in was an open one at that, in opposition to a closed frontier that is characterized by being settled with an established authority, an inhibited freedom of action for the  frontiersman,  a  greater  population  pressure  on  the  land  and  the  status  of  the  non-whites deteriorates  (Ibid.:  89).   According to Todd Cleveland's book A History  of  Tourism  in  Africa the colonists seem to have greatly exercised this 'inhibited freedom of action' (Ibid.: 89) ,  as  hunting quickly became popular in the African colonies and 'it was said that one was more likely to be hurt by a bullet than a lion.' (Cleveland 2021: 53).

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This  sudden  influx  of  colonial  hunters  of  course  had  an  impact  on  the  African  wildlife  and environment. When the first white settlers came to the African colonies there was an impressive number of animals roaming the lands as 'animals were so plentiful that elephants foraged in herds of  hundreds.  At  times,  antelopes  covered  the  savannah  like  a  carpet  (...)  One  might  see  150 rhinoceros in a day' (Ibid.: 40). Of course, the numbers of animals could not keep up with the hordes of European hunters and neither could the local environment, as colonies such as Kenya had to go through massive changes to accommodate its new settlers, for example the city of Nairobi, which 'had been founded as a railroad depot in 1899 yet within eight short years had become a tourism hub for big-game hunting and was made the capitol of the colony.' (Ibid.: 55). Not only did the wildlife and the environment go through large changes, but life was also forever changed for the native Africans who also felt the presence of the new European hunting craze, since hunting, which  had  played  a  large  part  in  both  their  pre-  colonial  diet  and  economy  and  was  suddenly challenged (MacKenzie 1988: 55). The overhunting by the white settlers greatly impacted the native Africans in that it caused a quite sudden scarcity in animals, and to ensure that the settlers would continue to have game to hunt, the imperial authorities instilled so-called 'game laws' and 'game reserves' to restrict the big game hunting (Ibid.: 121). However, these laws that highly restricted who was allowed to hunt and where, did not include the native Africans. This had detrimental consequences as they could no longer support themselves as they previously had been able to (Ibid.: 121).

The European settlers did not only deny the natives their hunting game, but also forced them from their  homes in order to acquire land for farming and game reserves (Merivirta 2023: 490). The natives'  need  to  support  themselves  and  the  settlers'  need  for  cheap  labor  created  the  'squatting system' which is described Raita Merivirta's article 'Nordic Settler Identities in Colonial Kenya: Class, Nationality and Race in Bror and Karen Blixen's Transimperial Lives' as such:

'The small white population of the Protectorate owned a huge chunk of the arable land of the country, but large areas remained unfarmed. Consequently, large numbers of Africans began squatting in the white highlands. Until the end of the 1920's, African squatters',

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resident  farmworkers  on  the  Europeans'  farms,  cultivated  much  of  the  land  for  the landowners in exchange for their own plots on the farms.' (Ibid.: 490).

The settlers had thus created a feudal society in the African colonies, casting themselves as the feudal lords and the native Africans as their subjects. Not only did the settlers create a feudal structure in the societies of the African colonies, but their hunting style would also invoke a feudal feel according to MacKenzie, as 'the monarch's authority in the land is represented by his or her role as the greatest hunter.' (MacKenzie 1988: 15). This notion that the big game hunt was more than a sport to the settlers, but instead a display of colonial power, is also supported in William K. Storey's article 'Big Cats and Imperialism: Lion and Tiger Hunting in Kenya and Northern India, 1898-1930' (Storey 1991) as he claims that 'for the hunters, the basic underlying structures of the hunt symbolized the triumph of culture over nature and of the colonist over the colonized' (Storey 1991: 149) and that ' the hunting of big cats by Europeans, as opposed to various indigenous hunting traditions and techniques, expressed colonist power because of its potent symbolism and because it was an activity open only to the most powerful inhabitants of a colony .' (Ibid.: 154). These scholars thus suggests that hunting was not only a display of power, but also a display of culture and civilization since only the wealthy and cultured were able to pursue it, just as the feudal hunts of the past. Hunting the wild and exotic animals in the colonies was then highly symbolic of the colonial 'triumph' over the natives as well.

In  'A  History  of  Tourism'  Cleveland  describes  how  the  white  Europeans  who  either  visited  or settled  in  the  colonies,  expected ' high  times,  an  African  extension  of  the  privileged  life  that entertained them, or bored them, in Biarritze and St. Moritz, in the West End and Newport. Like polo and yachting, safari's combined excitement with luxury .' (Cleveland 2021: 54).   The colonies had  thus  become  a  haven  and  hideout  for  the  wealthy  white  Europeans  who  were  looking  for excitement, entertainment and exclusivity and wanted a change of air. The colonies had then become a  haven  for  the  wealthy  white  Europeans  who  frequented  the  'champagne  safaris'  as  they  were jokingly named (Ibid.: 54).

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This claim that many wealthy Europeans looked to the African colonies when going on vacation is supported in E. I. Steinhart's article 'Hunters, Poachers and Gamekeepers: Towards a Social History of Hunting in Colonial Kenya' (Steinhart 1989). Many of the early colonist settlers who had spent much of their time in Africa hunting, did their best to benefit from the new and massive hunting tourist-influx in Kenya, including both Karen Blixen's husband Baron Bror von Blixen-Finecke and her  later  love  interest  Denys  Finch-Hatton  (Cleveland  2021:  53).  These  men  acted  'as  guides, organizers and field leaders of the 'champagne safari's' (or hunting parties) which gave the Kenyan safari its unique reputation for luxury and the Colony its overseas image as a wealthy sportsman's paradise . '  (Steinhart  1989:  254).  Storey  too,  supports  this  notion  is  his  article,  as  he  states  that 'Kenya in particular had a reputation for having the best selection of game, as well as being one of the  more  expensive  places  to  hunt.'  (Storey  1991:  154).  In  Shafqat  Hussein's  article  'Sportshunting,  Fairness  and  Colonial  Identity:  Collaboration  and  Subversion  in  the  Northwestern Frontier Region of the British Indian Empire' (Hussein 2010) it is stated how the colonial hunters cared much for both fairness and equality in the hunt, which is what distinguished sports hunting from hunting for practicalities (Hussein 2010: 114). The sports hunters wanted to believe that the hunted animal entered the hunt on some agreed upon rules and terms, in order to make the hunt more exciting to the hunter and to elevate the hunt into something greater than a disadvantaged animal being killed merely as the victim of a game: 'Of course, in the case of hunting as a sport, the animal, which is hunted cannot lay down, or agree to, a set of rules under which it could be hunted. So, what is considered as fair game is then imposition of hunting ideals, in the shape of rules, of one class of hunters over another.' (Ibid.: 114). Hussein thus suggests that the hunt was not only an unequal  sport,  but  also  highly  symbolic  of  the  unequal  fight  between  the  colonizer  and  the colonized. However, the deployment of the European notion of fairness was not only a way to make the hunt into a sport of its own, but also to distinct the imperial huntsmen from the native huntsmen (Ibid.: 114).

Hunting both for sport and for social separation, was also a relic from the European Middle Ages in which the wealth and aristocracy had hunted for entertainment and thrill, and dominance, rather than need. Especially the social separation and exclusivity was important for the colonists; having a

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clear hierarchy in place for hunting and making up a system in which only they were allowed to hunt, was essential (Cleveland 2021: 39). In order to have themselves be the only ones hunting in the colonies, the settlers deemed the traditional African ways of hunting, by using poison to kill big game, barbarous and unmanly and in doing so claiming the hunting grounds for themselves (Ibid.: 39). Deeming the native hunting practices 'unmanly' was to the white settlers very grave, as being manly and masculine was highly esteemed in the white European societies and something to strive for: as it is stated in Joseph Sramek's article 'Face Him like a Briton': Tiger Hunting, Imperialism, and British Masculinity in Colonial India, 1800-1875' (Sramek 2006) how 'hunting was central to the development of that all-important Victorian trait of 'character' (Ibid.: 665).

The  notion  of  hunting  creating  'character'  and  being  the  key  to  achieving  true  masculinity  is supported by MacKenzie as he states that the masculine aspect of hunting was also, at this time, a very central theme in juvenile literature, and it was thus taught very early on that hunting was a formidable way of becoming a true man (MacKenzie 1988: 47). Moreover, Sramek states in his article how 'only by successfully vanquishing tigers would Britons prove their manliness and their fitness to rule over Indians.' and with this he too supports the correlation between hunting and masculinity at this time, but also the suggestion that successful big game hunting was symbolic of the success of the empire (Sramek 2006: 659). MacKenzie and Sramek then both suggest, in this, that there was a clear connection between hunting and masculinity to the colonists that and hunting was thus a way to prove just how fit they were to rule over the natives of their colonies.

Furthermore,  hunting  was  viewed  as  the  'perfect  expression  of  global  dominance  in  the  late nineteenth century' since it 'required all the most virile attributes of the imperial male' such as courage, individualism and sportsmanship (MacKenzie 1988: 51). The 'imperial male' was thus the immediate ideal to the colonial man, and according to MacKenzie hunted to exercise his power and dominance as an agent of the empire (Ibid.: 51). The big game hunt therefore provided the colonial men with both masculinity and dominance, but it also prepared them for their imperial duties since 'willingness to take life was an important part of this ethos, and hunting was seen as a necessary

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preparation and training for European expansion and conflict with other peoples.' (Ibid.: 44). The hunt had seemingly, at this stage, surpassed the status of a leisurely hobby.

## Colonial Women and Whiteness

As examined in the section above, the colonizing men were often times eager hunters and by that, willing agents of their empire aiding the European expansion. Karen Blixen, is an example, of a typical white European woman who travelled to Kenya in hopes to make hers and her husband's fortune by farming the 'new' land. In Tom Buk-Swienty's book Løvinden (Buk-Swienty 2019) about Blixen's  life,  it  is  stated  that  Blixen  came  to  Africa  with  her  fiancé  the  baron,  Bror  von  BlixenFinecke, as they were to run a coffee farm in Kenya as an investment made by Karen's family (Ibid.: 41). It was very typical of this time for women to come to the colonies with their husbands in search of fortune. In Ann L. Stoler's article 'Making Empire Respectable: The Politics of Race and Sexual Morality  in  20th-Century  Colonial  Cultures'  (Stoler  1989)  she  states  that  the  typical  colonial woman functioned as either missionaries, nurses or teachers, and through these jobs the women would  help  forward  the  imperial  mission  and  agenda  (Ibid.:  642).  Whether  Blixen  was  as  a stereotypical colonial woman in this matter is somewhat established in Kirsten Holst Petersen's book Burden or Benefit? Imperial Benevolence and Its Legacies (Petersen 2008) in which a letter from Blixen to her family in Denmark is included, and in it she writes how she 'would very much like to start a school on the farm' however, she is doubtful about the utility of a school on her land saying: 'I actually don't know is it wouldn't be better it the native could be kept in their primitive stage, but I consider that to be out of the question.' (Ibid.: 111). Blixen thus seems to be quite adamant that civilizing  the  natives  would  be  rather  necessary  and  by  that,  she  too  is  an  agent  of  the  empire, through her activities in Kenya, just as the stereotypical colonial woman was.

## Whiteness in the Colonies

Being a colonizing woman in the British colonies, also meant being both European and white. Being white and whiteness was an essential part of colonial life as a settler, as the entire social hierarchy

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and acceptance in the colonies rested in the settler's whiteness. In Merivirta's article 'Nordic Settler Identities in Colonial Kenya' (Merivirta 2023) the hierarchy of whiteness in the colony of Kenya is explained as such:

'Yet the definition of 'whiteness' was not altogether simple. For most settlers, the British were the most superior 'white race', but the Protectorate's British settlers - including here Anglo South Africans, Americans, Canadians, New Zealanders, and Australians - welcomed Western Europeans. They could help in the civilizing project. But whites from other parts of Europe, well, their whiteness was suspect. Southern Europeans, or even whites of a lower class,  were  'not  quite  white',  they  were  not  considered  prestigious  or  civilised  enough.' (Ibid.: 495).

This hierarchy of whiteness is thus not solely based on skin-color, hair- color or eye-color, in that the settlers distinguished the whiteness from geography, rather than color. One had to be white of skin  surely,  but  determining  who  were  more  'acceptably  white'  based  on  geography  shows  that whiteness  was  seen  as  more  than  just  a  skin-color.  This  way  to  differentiate  different  types  of whiteness within being white is explained in the article 'The White Woman's Burden: from colonial 'civilization' to Third World 'development' by Jawad Syed and Faiza Ali (Syed & Ali 2011), in which they explain race as being socially constructed to justify discrimination against others, such as non-whites (Ibid.: 350). By applying Syed and Ali's theory, whiteness thus extends both ethnicity and race as there then can be different types of whiteness, within the white race. Whiteness is then, with this theory applied, fluid and has 'a tendency to prefer and blend towards a norm set by the elite groups within the race.' (Ibid.: 350) As whiteness can both change as social standards change and the different types of white can hold their own value due to these standards, whiteness then seems to be more of a mindset than anything physical as such.

Even though the Blixen's were not British, they were from western/northern Europe where their whiteness was deemed to be a sufficiently kind of white (Merivirta 2023: 495). According to Bill Schwarz' book The White Man's World (Schwarz 2011) there was a tendency for the settlers to credit

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their whiteness for their place in the world and to view their whiteness as a guarantee for their place as global rulers (Ibid.: 169). Schwarz explains how the imperialists 'might have believed that their modernity was a product of their whiteness; but it was whiteness which was the sign of their being modern, and of their role as self-appointed makers of history.' (Ibid.: 169).

In this worldview, it was whiteness and white people that brought modernity and 'civilization' with them because of merely being white. This view furthermore suggests that whiteness was an asset to the  empire as  'the  power  of  the  empire  resided  in  the  activities  of  the  white  man,  in  particular capacities  of  white  femininity,  in  white  brains  and  in  white  blood.  In  this  view  whiteness  was  a possession.' (Ibid.: 180). Whiteness was thus not only a mindset, but a possession or tool of imperial power in the hands of the colonists, just a hunting was perceived to be.

## The White Woman

Although there was much power in being white and European in the colonies, the true heads of these societies at this time, were the white men. As earlier stated, the white women were usually companions on the journeys to the colonies and even though they would have jobs, the women were not on their own in the colonies (Mandala 2020: 72). However, according to Syed and Ali the white colonial women did in fact enjoy a distinct sort of privilege through their whiteness in that 'despite their  own  gendered subordination, white women's membership of the dominant group afforded them a range of rights and concessions.' (Syed & Ali 2011: 350). This claim would suggest that colonial  women  thus  had  far  more  privileges  and  possibilities  than  the  homebound  European women, since the colonial women were suddenly citizens of a colony in which the true secondary citizens were the natives, and not the women. In the colonies, the women counted only as being white citizens and their gender was suddenly no longer the barrier it used to be in Europe, and because of this these women enjoyed privileges they never had before. This claim is also supported in Durba Ghosh's article 'Gender and Colonialism: Expansion or Marginalization?' (Ghosh 2004) in which she states that:

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'Seen to be in diminished capacity because they were members of the 'weaker sex', white women benefited from being members of the 'superior races', and were charged with the responsibilities of upholding  the  cultural  and  moral  values  of  the  empire.'  (Ibid.:  738).  By  being  teachers  and missionaries, for instance, the colonial women were then upholding the empire's cultural and moral values by spreading it out into the colony via the natives they were teaching.

## Colonial Women and Big Game Hunting

Regarding  her  imperial  duties  as  a  white  colonial  woman,  Blixen  definitely  lived  up  to  the expectations of her time, but not as commonly Blixen also enjoyed going big game hunting in the reserve near her grounds. As earlier established hunting was seen as the true mark of masculinity in Victorian  Britain  and  as  a  sport  that  required  courage  and  virility  (MacKenzie  1988:  51).  The attitude that hunting was an activity reserved for men was a notion very popular in western/northern Europe at the time, where many men thought that women did not have the physique required to ride a horse, or they commonly believed that hunting made a woman less desirable to marry, as it is claimed in Vijaya Ramada Mandala's article 'British Huntswomen in Colonial India: Imperialism and Gender Hierarchies, 1890-1921' (Mandala 2020). Women hunted nonetheless, and usually took part in fox-hunting as it was one of the more accepted forms of hunting for women to be part of  (MacKenzie 1988: 21). Although some women hunted back in Britain, they did have to face quite a bit of criticism from the society, and often times they were only accepted in the hunting parties as wives, guides or servants, but never equals (Mandala 2020: 72).

Blixen too, came from a home in which hunting was not encouraged as an activity for women as her father believed that 'the gun doesn't suit the fairer sex any better than the crochet hook suits the rest of us.' 2 (Ellerbæk 2023). Blixen was therefore just as used to gender barriers when it came to hunting, as any other white European women in her time. However, these gender barriers did not seem  to  play  as  big  a  part  in  the  colonies,  as  it  did  in  Europe  as  'such  physical,  cultural  and sociopolitical barriers imposed by Victorian society in Britain were comfortably disregarded in the

2 Original: 'geværet klæder ikke det smukke køn bedre end hæklenålen os andre.'

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colonies' and as such, there was less keeping the colonial women from going big game hunting in the British colonies (Mandala 2020: 84). An example of just how accepted hunting women were in the colonies is an anecdote from Blixen's memoir 'Out of Africa', in which Blixen and her loveinterest and professional big game hunter Denys Finch-Hatton has gone hunting and comes upon a lion: 'Denys asked me in a low voice: 'Shall I shoot her?' - For he very courteously looked on the Ngong Hill as my private hunting-ground ' 3 Blixen seems in this instance to be viewed, by FinchHatton, as an equal and capable hunter that commands respect; Blixen is thus in this situation not a woman, but a white hunter and is because of that, treated as an equal.

Furthermore,  both  Blixen  and  her  husband  Bror  would  write  letters  home  to  their  family  in Denmark, describing their hunting trips and safaris. Bror would often times praise Blixen's hunting abilities in these letters: 'she has proven to be a very good shot and can now brag of being the only danish  lady  who  has  shot  both  leopard  and  lion.' 4 , 5 Bror  himself  was,  as  mentioned  earlier,  a professional big game hunter in Kenya and would spend most of his time hunting, but seems to have had no qualms about his wife going hunting as well (Steinhart 1989: 254). This letter then also supports the claim of gender barriers being disregarded in relation to hunting, in the colonies made by Mandala (Mandala 2020: 84).

## Hunting in 'Out of Africa': Imperial Power and Symbolism

As established earlier in the article, an essential quality of hunting in the colonies was displaying imperial  power.  The  hunt  itself  had  become  a  symbol  of  the  empire  and  its  global  power;  and especially lion-hunting was viewed as being very prestigious, as a lion was 'the most fearsome foe, a dragon substitute, a source of awe and fascination to most African hunters. All were proudest of their tally of lion kills.' (MacKenzie 1988: 47). Not only was Blixen, according to her husband, the

3 Blixen, Out of Africa, p. 229.

4 Karen Blixen & Aage Westenholz, Karen Blixens afrikanske farm. En brevsamling 1913-1931. (Gyldendal: København, 2018), p. 465.

5 Original: 'Hun har vist sig at være en meget god skytte og kan nu prale af at være den eneste danske dame, der har skudt baade leopard og løve'.

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first  Danish lady to shoot and kill a lion 6 but she would even shoot so many lions, that she had trophies  to  spare  and  would  give,  according  to  Simon  Lewis'  article  'Culture,  Cultivation  and Colonialism in 'Out of Africa' and beyond' (Lewis 2000); 'lion-skins to 'the Indian High Priest' and to King Christian X of Denmark, in the latter case claiming to have shot the lion herself . ' (Ibid.: 70-71). Blixen herself also confirms on more than one account in her memoir that the lions she shot would almost always be skinned before she even got home, so that she would have trophies to bring back with her: 'while the sun rose they skinned the lions (...) We sat on the short grass and ate and drank. The dead lions, close by, looked magnificent in their nakedness.' 7 Blixen was thus not only keen on hunting as her fellow settlers, but she also was an eager trophy hunter which very much correlates with the hunting-spirit of the colonies at this time.

Blixen furthermore shares, in her memoir, another anecdote of a lion-hunt in which she and FinchHatton shoots and kills a couple of lions on Blixen's land. As soon as the lions are shot and killed, the native children on her grounds emerge from the school she set up, and as they come outside, they find Blixen sitting on top of one of the dead lions. 8 The fact that Blixen, a white settler, is sitting on a hunted and killed lion seems to more or less establish the symbolism of imperial power in big game hunting. The symbolic setting is completed by the native children emerging from a school in which they are taught imperial values and morals by their colonist ruler. This assumed symbolism can of course not be determined, neither can Blixen's thoughts or intentions with this anecdote; but the immediate symbolism is striking.

The native children that Blixen had taught in her school was of course 'squatting' children who lived on Blixen's farm because their own lands were stolen by settlers. Blixen had set up the school to enlighten the native children because she believed herself to be goodwilled just as 'whitely people generally consider themselves to be benevolent and goodwilled, fair honest and ethical.' (Syed & Ali 2011: 351). In this, Blixen was indeed, in this instance, a very typical white settler who enjoyed

6 Blixen & Westenholz, Karen Blixens afrikanske farm , p. 465

7 Blixen, Out of Africa, p. 231

8 Blixen, Out of Africa , p. 236

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the feudal structure of the colonies as she 'promoted herself as a feudal lady, selflessly protecting her retinue of dedicated Africans.' (Merivirta 2023: 500).

## Hunting for Sport

As previously established in earlier sections, the hunt in the colonies was made into a sport for the settlers. Blixen too, treated the big game hunt as a sport as she reminisces on how she would get caught up in the sport: 'Here in the hills there were Buffaloes. I had even, in my very young days, - when I could not live till I had killed a specimen of each kind of African game, - shot a bull out here.' 9 Blixen seems to have been just as much a sportswoman as the next hunting settler at this time. On this account, Blixen thus proves to be very much in tune with the hunting zeitgeist in the colonies at this time.

In Hussein's article it was previously stated that the settlers would convince themselves that the animals they hunted, somehow had agreed to be hunted and agreed to rules that would make the hunt fair and equal (Hussein 2010: 114). Another way to 'make' the animal a more equal opponent was to personify them and credit the animals with human abilities they had no way of possessing. Hussein brings an example of this in his article: 'But the ibex is a gentleman in his manners and customs  as  compared  with  his  spiral-horned  cousin  lower  down  mountain;  he  gives  you  all  the chances that a fair-minded animal should give an honest foe. (...) he has been a worthy opponent.' (Ibid.: 117). In this example the preyed animal is made capable of both having manners and being 'fair-minded'; both very human qualities.

This way of perceiving the prey animal as an equal seems to have been somewhat common in the colonies, since Blixen too confirms to have used this tactic herself, in her memoir. Blixen would credit her hunted prey with abilities and intelligence as she writes the following: 'They were both full-grown, young, strong, fat lions. The two close friends, out on the hills or on the plains together

9 Blixen, Out of Africa , p. 241

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yesterday had taken the same great adventure into their heads, and in it they had died together.' 10 By perceiving the animals to be capable of human qualities such as 'going on adventures' and being friends, Blixen made them human and by that a fair opponent, fair game. Blixen thus utilize the same strategy  that  many  other  colonizers  did,  in  that  she  perceives  her  prey  to  have  been  more humanlike that it was and thus justify her hunting it.

## Champagne Safaris and Reserves

As many of their fellow settlers, Blixen and her husband too, enjoyed going on safari when they needed time away to enjoy themselves (Cleveland 2021: 54). As Blixen falls ill with malaria in the beginning of their time in Africa, she writes home that 'now the doctor has recommended a change of air and since we don't want to go to a hotel we will instead go on a little safari tomorrow.' 11 , 12 Blixen thus establishes, with this letter, how going on safari was something fun and soothing to do in  the  colonies.  Her  husband  writes  the  following,  to  her  family  as  they  return  from  the  safari: 'Dearest Uncle Aage! We are now home from our safari and it has been a success. Tanne is strong and well again, and it has been a pleasure to once again see her tanned and happy.' 13 , 14 The safari then did Blixen very good and even seems to have had a healing effect on her, as she returned from it  happy  and  healthy,  according  to  her  husband.  Blixen  and  her  husband  thus  seem  to  have frequented the 'champagne safaris' just as much as all the other white settlers and tourists in the colonies (Ibid.: 54). This cavalier exploitation of the African wilderness, natives and animals was, once again, very stereotypical at this time and by this, Blixen solidifies to have embodied many aspects of the white colonial experience in Africa.

10 Blixen, Out of Africa , p. 236.

11 Blixen & Westenholz, Karen Blixens afrikanske farm , p. 81.

12 Original: 'nu har Doktoren raadet meget til en change of air og da vi ikke gerne vil tage op til et Hotel gaar vi ud paa en lille Safari i morgen.'

13 Blixen & Westenholz, Karen Blixens afrikanske farm , p. 465.

14 Original: 'Kæreste Onkel Aage! Vi er nu hjemme efter vor safari og den har været en succes. Tanne er stærk og rask igen, og det er en fornøjelse atter at se hende solbrædt og glad.'

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

## Conclusion

Big game hunting in the imperial colonies in the 19 th and 20 th century was heavily influenced by notions of power, masculinity and whiteness. The colonial hunt became a display of imperial power both by controlling the native population through game laws and reserves, and thus destroying both their economy and food supply, and also by helping creating a feudal structure that oppressed the natives and forced them to work for the white settlers.

Whiteness was highly esteemed and because of this white colonial women experienced far more privileges  than  they  had  been  used  to  in  Europe,  due  to  being  white  and  thus  being  first-class citizens. Gender was then, in many ways, not as prominent a barrier as it was back in Europe. The women were thus placed or encouraged to take jobs that helped forward the imperial mission and vision, such as teachers and missionaries, but were also able to go hunting on equal terms with the colonial men. This opportunity was seized by Karen Blixen, who turned out to be an adamant and seemingly skilled hunter, who would hunt on the same terms as her male counterparts. Furthermore, Blixen's fondness of hunting, sportsmanship and feudalism all correlate with the overall zeitgeist of the colonies of this time. Blixen was additionally and simultaneously quite a typical white woman in the colonies in both her actions, beliefs and ethnicity.

Moreover,  the  notions  and  claims  of  power  display,  sport,  feudalism,  gender  and  whiteness  in imperial hunting made by scholars such as MacKenzie, Storey, Hussein, Merivirta, Mandala etc. all support  and  confirm  one  another,  and  thus  emphasize  the  overall  historical  outline  of  imperial hunting showcased in this article. Blixen's memoir and personal experiences further supports these scholarly and historical claims, as they align very well. Blixen's experiences both hunting and as a white European woman in the African colonies is thus, in many ways, an embodiment and incredible primary example of the overall imperial hunting experience and colonial experience at this time.

## CULTURE AND HISTORY Nr. 02 December 2024

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