- Cynthia Salvadori was an author, anthropologist, historian, photographer and illustrator
- Her immortality was writ large through her books and articles on various subjects
- Charles Njonjo called her “the hunter-gatherer of memories.She died in 2011 in Lamu
It was comical that the government would ‘launch’ a community, when Kenyan Asians were declared the 44th tribe.
They have been here since the construction of the Uganda-Railway at the turn of the 20th century and most are thus fourth generation Kenyans.
But their insularity has been such that they are little understood and to understand them, one writer stands out in her output: Cynthia Salvadori, the author, anthropologist, historian, photographer and illustrator.
She was born to a motorcycle enthusiast, Joyce Woodford Pawle, a Briton, and Italian father, Prof Max Salvadori, in Njoro Kenya in 1936 after her father settled at Equator Farm after being exiled by Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in 1932.
Her brother, Clem Salvadori, a ‘motorcycle journalist’ and author, was born in America where his father was fighting Mussolini during World War II.
Cynthia took to writing that ran in the family. Her father was a writer and university history lecturer, while her maternal ancestor was Rider Haggard, he of the King Solomon’s Mines fame. Haggard’s brother, Jack, was one-time British consul of Lamu, where Cynthia spent her last days.
The alumnus of the University of California, Berkeley wrote some influential works: Through Open Doors: A View of Asian Cultures in Kenya (1983); We Came in Dhows (1996); Two Indian Travellers (1997) and Settling in a Strange Land (2010), which she co-authored with Shaila Mauladad Fisher, capturing the stories and contribution of Indian pioneers which would otherwise have been forgotten.
The lover of cats, horses, crosswords and detective novels, was a painstaking researcher and writer. The eye-opening Through Open Doors took nearly seven years to finish, from 1981 to 1987, when the revised edition was published.
She translated from Italian; Decisions in the Shade; Political and Juridical Processes among the Oromo-Borana by Marco Bassi in 2005 and two years later, published the massive Dictionary of Borana Culture after revising and illustrating it for six years.
Her fascination with pastoral communities begun in the 1970s when she joined forces with the late writer and partner Andrew Fedders to produce three books; Maasai; Turkana, Pastoral Craftsmen and Peoples and Cultures of Kenya, for which she was the photographer.
She translated from Italian and helped to revise Gabra, Camel Nomads of Northern Kenya by Paul Tablino in 1999.
While working on that, she was commissioned by the Kenya Human Rights Commission in 2000 to compile The Forgotten People Revisited, Abuses of Human Rights in Marsabit and Moyale Districts.
Former AG Charles Njonjo called her “the hunter-gatherer of memories,” and truly, her immortality was writ large through her books and articles on various subjects including sea urchins, Borana circumcision rites and the mysterious graves of Ishakani in Lamu, where she died on June 25, 2011 aged 76.
