Did you know: Hemingway 'died thrice' and read his own obituary in Nairobi

 Nobel Literature award winner Ernest Hemingway Photo: Courtesy

‘Safari’ was not part of English language until American writer, Ernest Hemingway, began using it in his works after two trips to East Africa.

The most celebrated writer of his day first came to Kenya in 1933 when Brigadier General Sir Joseph Byrne was the colonial governor and Commander-in-Chief of the Kenyan colony, and again 20 years later at the height of the Mau Mau uprising.

The legacy of his two trips are evident in Hemingways Resort in Watamu, Hemingways Nairobi and Ol Seki Hemingways in Masai Mara, all named in honour of the Nobel literature laureate.

There is also Hemingways Expeditions and Hemingways Travel Collection for ‘adventure clothes’ for those craving ‘danger’ and ‘wild escapades’ that fitted into the writer’s macho persona.

The other lasting legacies are the experiences Hemingway later turned into well-paying books like Green Hills of Africa, The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber and The Snows of Kilimanjaro.

But alas! Hemingway, who rarely drew any sober breath in his life, came at the height of the State of Emergency in Kenya and lived in mortal fear of Mau Mau elements. The Kamba were Mau Mau averse and thus provided Hemingway with better protection as guides. Being a hunting community, they came in handy during Hemingway’s hunting expeditions for game trophies.

The four-time married philanderer flirted with ‘Kao’ chicks, like one cute lass named Debba who features in his fictionalised memoirs, True at First Light, post-humously published by his son, Patrick in 1999 - the 100th anniversary of his birth.

True at First Light was later lengthened and published as Under Kilimanjaro in 2005.

Debba got Hemingway learning aspects of Kamba culture. If bigamy was not illegal, the author of The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms and Death in the Afternoon, could have considered marrying Debba who often rode in his jalopy (driven by Kamau), as we are informed in Hemingway and Africa edited by Miriam B. Mandel and published in 2005.

Though the jalopy also carried, Ngui and Kyalo as porters, Debba still found fun scratching Hemingway’s hairy thighs, stroking his rifle and later sneaking into his tent when wife Mary was in hospital.

Debba’s own room, as described in True at First Light, was decorated with photos of Hemingway from Look magazine alongside adverts of American kitchenware.

Debba and Hemingway were naswad by wife Mary many times, but she didn’t mind, provided the author of understated writing loved her more!

Hemingway stole world headlines while here after being declared dead thrice. He even read his own obituary following an ill-fated trip from Nairobi to Bukavu in the Congo. Pilot Roy Marsh was helpless as the Cessna crashed in Entebbe Uganda, bursting into flames, one of two such incidents within 48 hours.

The writer, whose books explored themes of war, wilderness and loss, suffered torn kidneys, spleen and liver. His spinal column was crushed and the body burnt.

Few thought he survived hence the obituaries published as he nursed wounds in the confines of Nairobi’s Stanley Hotel.

The 61-year-old second of four children and winner of 1954 Nobel Literature Prize for ‘his mastery of the art of narrative,’ committed suicide in 1961... just like his father, Dr Clarence Hemingway, who took his life 33 years earlier.