Bwana Kidogo: Scenes from a colonial childhood

by Chris Durrant

Overview

‘Bwana kidogo, Scenes from a colonial childhood’, is a memoir of Australian writer Chris Durrant about growing up in colonial Kenya in the years after the Second World War. Set initially in the tea country above the capital, Nairobi, and then down in the city itself, the book traces the author’s journey from a toddler speaking Kiswahili with his Kikuyu ayah, to boarding school in the Rift Valley and then back home to Nairobi for his high school years. It is the tale of a fascinating period in Kenya’s history, moving from colonial rule, through the turbulence of the Mau Mau Emergency, and then the inevitable progression to full independence under Jomo Kenyatta. ‘Bwana kidogo’ is a highly entertaining and insightful account of what it was like to live in those exciting times in what remains one of the most beautiful, diverse and interesting countries in the world, seen from the point of view of an ordinary person who grew up there.

This short memoir about Chris Durrant is a precursor to his acclaimed novel ‘Under the same moon’, a drama and romance set within the period during The Great War.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940156040551
Publisher:	Chris Durrant
Publication date:	03/28/2019
Sold by:	Smashwords
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Chris Durrant was born in India to British parents in the last days of the Raj. He was brought up in Kenya, had three enjoyable and not completely wasted years at Oxford, and went back to East Africa to work for the Commonwealth Development Corporation (CDC), a sort of British equivalent of the World Bank. After postings with CDC in Swaziland and Jamaica, he migrated with his family to Australia. He now lives with his wife Shirley in the hills above Perth, Western Australia. Children and grandchildren are scattered around the world, including Perth. Apart from financial management, Chris has worked as a pig farmer and a school-teacher. He is a rugby fanatic, an environmentalist, and a keen student of the history of the Great War, in which his father served and two of his uncles died. He has written his autobiography and a collection of whimsical essays about the school where he worked, as well as numerous songs and comic poems over the years. He has also co-authored several school accounting text-books. Under the Same Moon is his first novel.