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Location and Historical Background PDF Print E-mail
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Location and Historical Background
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Karen Blixen Museum
Karen Blixen Museum
The Karen Blixen house meets three of the customary criteria for  historical significance.  First, it is associated with the broad historical pattern of European settlement andcultivation of East Africa. Second, it is associated with the life of aperson significant to our past as the home of  Baroness Karen Blixen from 1917 -1931.  As such, it served as the setting and basis of herwell known book Out of Africa, written under the pseudonym Isak Dinesenand as a gathering place for other well known personalities of the period.  Third, the building embodies the distinctive characteristicsof its type, period and method of construction.  The house's architecture is typical of late 19th century bungalow architecture,including the spacious rooms, horizontal layout verandas, tile roof and stone construction typical of scores of residences built throughout European suburbs of Nairobi in early decades.

The chronology of the house begins with its construction in 1912 by the wealthy Swedish civil engineer, later honorary Swedish consul to Kenya, Ake Sjogren.  It served as the main residence on his Swedo-African coffee company , an estate of over 6,000 acres.  The house was soon visited while on safari by the Danish count Mojen Frijs, who upon his return to Denmark persuaded his cousin to seek their fortune in Kenya.Baron Blixen acquired part of the estate in 1913 and the remainder in 1916.    Karen Blixen called the house "Bogani" or "Mbogani" meaning a house in the woods, and occupied it until 1931.

By1985, with renewed interest in Karen Blixen occasioned by the film production of Out of Africa, an agreement was reach with the collage for the house to become part of the National Museums of Kenya. Many pieces of furniture that Karen Blixen sold to Lady McMillan on her departure were acquired back and constitute part of the exhibition in the Museum. The Museum house remains a serene environment that seems to belong to the past, surrounded by a tranquil garden and indigenous forest, with a splendid view of Karen’s beloved Ngong Hills. She honours the hills with the phrase ‘I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills’.

 

For further information contact.
The Curator (Ms. Damaris Rotich)
Karen Blixen Museum
P.O Box 40658- 00100 GPO, Nairobi.
Tel: 020- 8002139

Tel: +254 736919321

E-Mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  


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