When Karen Blixen took leave of her African workers in 1931, she promised them that she would never forget them. She kept her promise and through all her remaining years, she kept in touch with them through letters and verbal messages. She also sent them money and she wrote about them in her books Out of Africa and Shadows on the Grass. When she died in 1962 she had remembered five of her old house staff members in her Will. They were Farah, Abdullahi, Kamande, Hassan and Ali.
The author decided to try to find Karen Blixens five heirs to establish how she and her generous bequests had affected their lives, but it was no easy task as they were scattered over a large area.
Kamande, then, still lived in Nairobi but Farah and Hassan had died. Ali had moved to Tanzania and Abdullahi to northern Somalia. A search for the two little boys Sofe and Tumbo, to whom Karen Blixen had lost her heart so many years ago, bore no fruit either. Finally, in Denmark, she met Hassans granddaughter Fatuma and Farahs daughter Asha, who put her in touch with their relatives in Nairobi. Abdullahis son Said introduced her to Sofe, who in turn led her to Tumbo. The valuable information obtained from these family members has helped to illuminate the main characters in this book and to establish the truth of how their lives were touched by this unique and generous woman.
This book also narrates how the African form and Denys Finch Hattons grave evolved into tourist attractions, and it contains letters exchanged between Karen Blixen and her former employees. In addition, there are extracts from Abdullahi s unpublished manuscript, describing his first meeting with Karen Blixen and her views on racism. This book has over eighty illustrations, many of which have not been published before.