Out of Africa Book Four, From an Immigrant's Notebook: From "Of Natives and History" to "The Parrot" Summary & Analysis

Analysis

This is the third and final portion of the fragmented "From an Immigrant's Notebook" section. In the same anecdotal fashion, stories, ideas, and memories continue. Again, old themes resurface and are loosely linked together. The most prominent new theme is a sense of foreboding, which serves to foreshadow the tragedy to come in the book's final section that immediately follows.

The episode of the "wild dogs" most obviously points to a future of difficulties. The natives interpret the mysterious stampede of wild dogs be a bad omen: it unnerves them and many do not even believe that it takes place. Dinesen places the episode in the text as a portent of bad things to come. The account of "Karomenya" also foreshadows tragedy since it closes with the author's prediction that Karomenya shall either have a difficult life or shall go right to heaven. As the latter option is a slightly romantic, unrealistic one, we can only assume that Karomenya shall have a difficult life. Karomenya's future troubles may take place simply because he is deaf and dumb and isolated from his community. His future troubles, however, may also signify difficulties for Africa and its natives in general, as a result of colonization and the uncontrollable forces merging around them.

The most prominent old theme that reappears is Dinesen's pastoral metaphor. In "Of Natives and History," she continues to propose that natives and Europeans exist on fundamentally different planes. Here she articulates clearly that these different planes exist because natives and Europeans have a different relationship to history. The native mind has not been conditioned by modernity, therefore it seems ridiculous to assume that they can simply live in modern society. After describing her theory, the narrator again closes the segment in a possibly troubling, ambiguous manner. She warns that she is not sure how the European-African conflict will be able to resolve itself. This warning, once again, suggests a realm of future troubles.

"The Giraffes Go to Hamburg" continues to emphasize Dinesen's belief that African creatures can best remain free by choosing to die instead of by living under oppression. Here she paints a melancholic tale of noble and beautiful giraffes being forced toward Hamburg to be part of a crummy menagerie, or small traveling zoo. While the giraffes once elegantly wandered on the plain, they soon shall be laughed at by Europeans in dirty arenas. Dinesen's desire for the giraffes to die, instead of facing this fate, recalls her similar praise for other African creatures who chose death over imprisonment—the Masai, the stubborn ox, and Kitosch. On a personal level, the story of the giraffes foreshadows the author's own movement to Europe. Just like these beautiful creatures, she now lives free on the plain but soon economic troubles and other woes shall force her departure. She shall return to Europe unwillingly and longing for the freedom and glory of the African plain.

The remaining anecdotes follow other minor themes. "Kejiko," "In the Menagerie" and "the Naturalist and the Monkeys" once again invoke the motif of God, which the narrator has sporadically sprinkled throughout the text. "George" and "the Earthquake" both are classic, comic anecdotes: the narrator confuses a five year old by saying that she is a "Hottentot," or a type of native woman from Southern Africa; and her servant Juma incorrectly assumes than an earthquake means the king is dead. While these segments are not deeply funny, they are meant to amuse and to add lightness to the narrative. "Fellow Travellers" takes an entirely different tone as it continues to display the shallow vision of other white settlers in Africa, this time with a Belgian who cannot understand the need for native education. Finally, "Pooran Singh" provides a colorful and rich image of the mythic trade of blacksmithing as it takes place on the farm.

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