This is a great read for your African holiday. Or not.

The Olare Mara Kempinski library; opportunities abound.

Last year, I visited one of the most beautiful wildlife destinations on the planet; The Maasai Mara. At that place, I was a guest at the Olare Mara Kempinski which is in the Olare Orok Conservancy. Suffice it to say that the place is one of the best I have ever had the pleasure of staying in; world-class service, beautiful facility –  that bed and bathtub were something else, decent bar and swimming pool – and all the rest.

And then there was the wildlife; I have never seen so many of God’s creatures that were not on the wild game buffet at The Carnivore.

When I was being given the tour I noticed a little library on the first floor of the main facility. This library was really nicely put out with a few canvas seats and a view of the park with a telescope to help you enjoy the game out there. With the facility, there was also the part that talks give the “library” aspect of the room we were in at the time. In it was a little bookshelf with titles like;

No books from any writers from Kenya or the African continent. You can imagine my disappointment when you realise that the whole selling point of the hotel is that they are in Africa. I would have imagined that the traveller going there would have liked to read books that they would rarely have access to on their own continents. So I would have expected either the Old School guys like Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, Chinua Achebe, Margaret Ogola or the new school like Chimamanda Adichie, Nganga Mbugua, and Doreen Baingana.  Perhaps the folks at the Kempinski believe that their guests are too busy seeing animals doing their cycle of life Lion King thing to care to read African writers. Or maybe Kenyan authors should see this as an opportunity to sell books to a new audience.

Comments

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.