What do you think?
Rate this book
Kenya Diary: 1902-1906
Rare book
- GenresHistory
416 pages, Paperback
First published February 1, 1985
60 people want to read
About the author
Richard Meinertzhagen
10 books2 followersColonel Richard Meinertzhagen CBE, DSO was a British soldier, intelligence officer, and ornithologist. His military career took him to Africa and the Middle East. His legacy is disputed: he claimed that he invented and executed feats of military strategy such as the Haversack Ruse while serving during the First World War, but his participation in several of these actions have since been refuted. In addition, some authors believe that he murdered his wife and committed mass extrajudicial killings. He is known to have stolen bird specimens from museums and submitted them as original discoveries.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
July 26, 2018
Maybe the most honest and terrible of my trio of autobiographical books from early 20th century African colonialists (two others: African Assignment & Autobiography of Eugen Mansfeld). It is also the most self-congratulatory, because good god Meinertzhagen loves himself. He never loses an argument, never fails to be noble and just, is a great shot and a fine judge of character. (A recent book, "The Meinertzhagen Mystery," documents in detail what a complete P.O.S. RM really was.)
Meta-story: relatively early on in his KAR days, Meinertzhagen brutally assassinated a native leader (The Laibon) -- shot him with one hand while reaching for a handshake with the other -- on the thin pretext that the Laibon was planning some treachery. "Kenya Diary" comes back to this incident over and over. RM protests his innocence (too much), slanders every KAR officer who doesn't take up his side, and talks in glowing terms about how successfully he defends himself in the three subsequent investigations. Of course, the mere fact that there are three investigations suggests that he is full of sh-t about the quality of his arguments. RM doesn't say this, but this book is another one of his subterfuges, and clearing his name of this incident is the entire justification for publishing this at all. He was obviously somewhat successful, and the other Goodreads review of this book shows that even today, it still works when someone reads & takes this book at face value.
The one-star rating is for the quality of the writing and the quality of the author as a human being. But five stars as a first-hand account of colonial Africa, as long as you read between the lines.
Meta-story: relatively early on in his KAR days, Meinertzhagen brutally assassinated a native leader (The Laibon) -- shot him with one hand while reaching for a handshake with the other -- on the thin pretext that the Laibon was planning some treachery. "Kenya Diary" comes back to this incident over and over. RM protests his innocence (too much), slanders every KAR officer who doesn't take up his side, and talks in glowing terms about how successfully he defends himself in the three subsequent investigations. Of course, the mere fact that there are three investigations suggests that he is full of sh-t about the quality of his arguments. RM doesn't say this, but this book is another one of his subterfuges, and clearing his name of this incident is the entire justification for publishing this at all. He was obviously somewhat successful, and the other Goodreads review of this book shows that even today, it still works when someone reads & takes this book at face value.
The one-star rating is for the quality of the writing and the quality of the author as a human being. But five stars as a first-hand account of colonial Africa, as long as you read between the lines.
March 24, 2018
An excellent read for students of British colonialism and particularly East Africa. Meinertzhagen served as an officer in the King's African Rifles from 1902-1906 in British East Africa, later known as Kenya. At the time he was there white settlement was just beginning, the native tribes were still less than resigned to their status as a British colony and game was plentiful. Meinertzhagen, who would go on to become an outstanding intelligence officer in World War I, was a very intelligent and rather contradictory character. He was a naturalist. His diary has frequent lists of the animals he saw, as well as mention of plants. He was an ornithologist and would become one of the world experts on bird in East Africa. And he was a hunter who slaughtered animals at every opportunity. In fairness, the meat went to feed the native troops in his company and he was sending specimens back to the British Museum. He also was an early proponent of conservation and establishing game refuges.
As with the animals, so with the natives. Meinertzhagen believed that the natives had to be left in no confusion as to what would happen if they misbehaved (from the British colonialist point of view). When a British trader was tortured and murdered, Meinertzhagen ordered his company to slaughter the entire village, apparently with the approval of his superiors. Ironically, he later fell afoul of the Colonial Office when he attempted to capture the leader of the rebellious Nandi tribe, the Laibon (a sort of mix of political leader and witch doctor). Hearing from his spies among the tribe that the Laibon want to arrange a meeting in which Meinertzhagen would be ambushed, he concocted a plan in which the ambush would be turned against the Laibon, who would be either killed or captured. In the event, the Laibon was killed. Later rumors were spread that Meinertzhagen had acted in bad faith and to mollify the tribes they demanded his recall from Kenya. Three separate courts of inquiry cleared him of any misdoing, but he'd made a number of enemies who kept the rumors going. Meinertzhagen was very intelligent and held himself to a high standard in performing his duty, but as he admits in his diary he was often too ready to criticize others, including superiors, who didn't measure up to his standards. He had many admirers, but also more than a few enemies in the army and the colonial administration.
Meinertzhagen presciently foresaw that plans for white settlement in Kenya were doomed to end in conflict and was opposed to it. Rare among British colonialists, he saw that the African, whatever their "savage" state in the early 1900's, would become educated and once educated they'd never stand for second class status in what he recognized as their land. He correctly identified the Kikuyu as the most likely to rebel, as they were considered the most intelligent of the tribes. When the Mau Mau Rebellion broke out in the '50's it was primarily among the Kikuyu.
As with the animals, so with the natives. Meinertzhagen believed that the natives had to be left in no confusion as to what would happen if they misbehaved (from the British colonialist point of view). When a British trader was tortured and murdered, Meinertzhagen ordered his company to slaughter the entire village, apparently with the approval of his superiors. Ironically, he later fell afoul of the Colonial Office when he attempted to capture the leader of the rebellious Nandi tribe, the Laibon (a sort of mix of political leader and witch doctor). Hearing from his spies among the tribe that the Laibon want to arrange a meeting in which Meinertzhagen would be ambushed, he concocted a plan in which the ambush would be turned against the Laibon, who would be either killed or captured. In the event, the Laibon was killed. Later rumors were spread that Meinertzhagen had acted in bad faith and to mollify the tribes they demanded his recall from Kenya. Three separate courts of inquiry cleared him of any misdoing, but he'd made a number of enemies who kept the rumors going. Meinertzhagen was very intelligent and held himself to a high standard in performing his duty, but as he admits in his diary he was often too ready to criticize others, including superiors, who didn't measure up to his standards. He had many admirers, but also more than a few enemies in the army and the colonial administration.
Meinertzhagen presciently foresaw that plans for white settlement in Kenya were doomed to end in conflict and was opposed to it. Rare among British colonialists, he saw that the African, whatever their "savage" state in the early 1900's, would become educated and once educated they'd never stand for second class status in what he recognized as their land. He correctly identified the Kikuyu as the most likely to rebel, as they were considered the most intelligent of the tribes. When the Mau Mau Rebellion broke out in the '50's it was primarily among the Kikuyu.
Read
April 11, 2021Well, the book is a fascinating thriller. Most of the story has since been found to be RM's embellishments to hide his crimes. The Nandi story and many others have since been discounted.
Still, the book gives a good picture of the British colonial adventure in Kenya and RM's role as a brutal facilitator. His lack of the honor associated with British soldiers, his chicanery and cowardly murder of Kenyans especially the Nandi and the Kikuyu, his false claim to certain achievements , his entire story really , seems to best summarise the British and Missionary story in Kenya.
If you ignore the facts, the story is really accurate history
Still, the book gives a good picture of the British colonial adventure in Kenya and RM's role as a brutal facilitator. His lack of the honor associated with British soldiers, his chicanery and cowardly murder of Kenyans especially the Nandi and the Kikuyu, his false claim to certain achievements , his entire story really , seems to best summarise the British and Missionary story in Kenya.
If you ignore the facts, the story is really accurate history
October 17, 2025
Much of this diary is really shocking, the sheer disregard for human and animal life, with notes on the large scale butchery of wildlife and senseless murder of African peoples... in between one reads bits of natural history notes but one really does get an idea of the man. I am not in the least surprised that he thought very poorly of "seditionists" like Salim Ali, Kailas Nath Kaul, Nehru, Gandhi etc. There is a bit on how he immediately judges Charles Eliot (1862-1931) as a socialist because Eliot was an admirer of Beatrice Webb...
October 16, 2023
Well-written, but the material is gruesome.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews