HISTORY OF THE COFFEE GARDEN & COTTAGES LTD. BY DR. BONNIE DUNBAR

The Historic Swedo House was built around 1908 by the Swedo-African Coffee Company. Dr. Dunbar purchased the property and re- stored the old house in 1999.

The Historic Swedo-House is a typical example of the architecture that existed during the pio- neering days of . It was built raised on stilts (still in place today with re-enforcement) which were to protect the building from water and termite damage. From “Letters From Africa

The house was smaller than it is today, and consisted of 3 rooms and a veranda with a kitchen some yards away. It had corrugated iron walls lined with wood inside and a railed veranda and arched roof .

In later years the walls outside “Swedo House” were “modernized” by removing the corrugated iron and replacing it with cement plastered over chicken wire. Inside the walls were paneled with Hessian which was painted with a thin layer of cement and finally white washed. The “prefabricated” slotted wood walls were imported from Europe sometime before the 1920s.The original colored lead windows remain intact today as they are shown with the original settlers.

Anecdotal information from a neighbor (Mr. Russel) in Ka- ren is that his father built his house in 1908 and he knew that the Swedo house was two years older. (That house is no longer standing) It is told that United States President Theodore Roosevelt who was hosted by Sir Northrup McMillan hunted out of the Swedo House dur- ing his famous visit to Kenya in 1908 to collect specimens for the National Museums in Ameri- ca. At that time it was surrounded by dense thorny bush vegetation and was a popular hunting lodge for international dignitaries. He also documented the incredible cultures of the local people.

The Swedo African Coffee Company was formed by Ake Sogren (the Swedish Consul in British East Africa, below) and Sir Northrup McMillan around 1911.

Nils Fjastad, Farm Manager 1913-1916

These settlers visited the area on a hunting and decided to buy a large tract of land (about 4000 acres) from the Government. This land consisted of indige- nous forest, bush and grasslands with abundant wild- life. Their goal was to develop the land for agricultural purposes, with a major interest in coffee production. FROM: Isak Dinesen, Letters from Africa (Frans Lasson, Ed. For Foundation) KAREN BLIXEN’S LOVE OF ADVENTURE WAS STIMULATED BY HER FATHER, WILLIAM DINESEN

It must have become apparent that the environment (altitude and soil) were not optimal for coffee growing on this side of . (a reason why to this date

there are no coffee plantations remaining around Karen).

However, this did not stop the sale of the property to Baron Von Blixen in De- cember of 1913, just prior to his wedding to Karen Dinesen (Blixen). The funds

for this farm were Karens’, who had planned on purchasing a dairy farm.

At that time, the Swedo House was the only house on the property and became the farm manager’s house from which the future coffee plantation would be run. The Mbogani House (today’s Karen Blixen Museum was commissioned from this house in 1916 and Karen Blixen and family & friends spent much time

here.

In January, 1914, Karen Dinesen arrived at the port of after a month long journey where she was married on

the same day to Bror Blixen.

But the story of Karen’s longing for trav- el started long before through the jour- neys of her father, William Dinesen.

• SUMMARY OF WILLIAM DINESEN’S EXPOLITS IN AMERICA 1872*-1874

(From R.B. Vowles “Scandanavian Studies 1976, vol. 48(4):369-384”)

• Soldier of fortune in two European wars on losing side th • Love of his life (his cousin, Agnes) died of typhus just before her 20 birthday • 1872 (age 27) sailed from to Quebec () and traveled through Chicago by train to Columbus Nebraska. Here he hunted with both the Pawnee and Sioux Indians who were at war with each other • 1873 -Joined Danish community in Chicago where continued hunting for traders • 1873-Moved to to join Dr. Christen Linde-Frienreich, (legendary pioneer physician who studied malaria on Wisconsin lakes)

WILLIAM DINESEN (Cont.)

• 1873 –Bought cabin near Wolf River which he named ” (meaning ‘grove of joy’). Photo right. (William later wrote “he who seeks peace in the world cannot do better than to set up his domicile in the Wisconsin woods”. (Reportedly he had a daughter with a native American woman) • 1874 – returned to to nurse his dying mother • 1881- married Karen Blixen’s mother (Ingeborg Westenholz). Karen was born in 1895. • 1887 – Returned to the United States for a hunting and fishing trip • 1895 – Committed suicide in Denmark (thought to be due to his illness, Syphi- lis)

R. VOULES……... “What would persuade “a Danish gentleman” to endure the austerities of pioneer life in America? “Perhaps Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen) herself supplies the answer in her story “Copenhagen Season” which fictionalizes the relationship between (her father) William and (his first love) Agnus. She wrote: “You know that we are none of us soft-skinned, and poverty to us holds nothing at all frightening. We have been drawn to the world of splendor---irresistibly like moths to the flame---not because it was rich, but because its riches were boundless. The quali- ty of boundlessness in any sphere would have drawn us in the same manner.” Karen Blixen has been referred to as William’s favorite (of five) chil- dren).

AS R. VOULES FURTHER DISCUSSES: “but he (William) was never able or willing to put America entirely out of mind. Indeed, already in 1876, under the name of Pit a Lechiro, he published “Miska, a Story from the Forest Primeval”. Fictionally he was back in upper Wolf River country and he was reunited with his Indian friends. And senses from America flashed fitfully across the panorama of his hunting letters, whatever he might be at the time.

“But, above all, he implanted in a talented daughter a wanderlust, a resilience, a curiosity about all things, and a very special dignity, in the bare ten years that they had together”.

KAREN BLIXEN AND THE COFFEE PLANTATION

In 1912, Ake Sjogren commissioned the building of a large stone house on the Swedo- African Coffee Estate. This style was the second generation of colonialist house con- struction. This is now the famous house bought by Karen Blixen in 1916 named “Bogani” by her. It was from her life on the coffee plantation that the movie “Out of Af- rica” was inspired. This house is located about 1 mile from the farm manager’s house (Swedo House) and is now the “Karen Blixen Museum”

Karen Blixen’s life on the coffee farm with her favorite horse, Rouge, and her dogs (Dusk and Pania) (Photos from “Letters from Africa”,, Ed. F. Lasson)

Nils Fjastad occupied Swedo House as manager in 1913-1914 at the time the first World War was heating up. Anecdotal history is that many of the Swedish settlers met at the “Long Bar” at the old Stanley Hotel to decide on which side to fight. Because of their close ties with the British in Kenya, they chose to fight with the British. For this reason many of the men in- volved with the coffee plantation left Kenya. Both Bror Blixen and Bursell were drafted into Lord Delemere’s Intelligence Corps.

Bursell and Blixen on Swedo House porch with Karen

Over the years, until Karen Blixen left Kenya, the Swedo House was occupied by the Blixen plantation’s farm manag- ers and her brother (with her in the photo) who came to Kenya to run the company after Karen’s family kicked Bror out of the company for mismanagement. It be- came the Farm Office as well as the Headquarters for the Ka- ren Coffee Growers’ Association.

(Photo from “Letters from Africa, Frans Lasson, Ed.) FRIENDS OF KAREN BLIXEN’S ON THE COFFEE PLANTATION

Ake Bursell stayed on as a manager for the Karen Coffee Company Ltd. for a short while. He later bought his own farm in Ruiru where he became a successful coffee farmer. Nils Fjastad also built a successful coffee business at Kiambu. (in photo with his wife, Ette and prominent pro- fessional hunter, Emil Holmmberg. (Photo from “Baron

Blixen” by Ulf Aschan)

W.H. Dickens was farm manager before Cal Sogaard C. 1929

Karen Blixen had many friends but few close women friends. Ingrid Lindstrom Bror Blixen recruited two of his best friends, Gillis and was one of her closest women friends. Ingrid Lindstrom from Sweden who arrived in Kenya When her daughter, Nina, had an appen- in 1919 with their four small children.When Bror Blix- dicitis attack Karen nursed her back to en was banned from the Karen Blixen coffee plantation health at her home outside of Nairobi by Karen’s family in Denmark, he would spend much

time at their farm at Njoro. (Photo from :letters from Africa)

Nina Linstrom (shown on the left of Bror Blixen) with her mother and sister, left Kenya when she was 24 but returned to the Swedo House for her 90th birthday in October 2005. (Photo courtesy of Nina Lin- strom). Deborah Dunbar, Bonnie’s cousin met Nina in the United States (they just happened to be neighbors) and brought her back to Kenya for her birthday.

Nina Linstrom on safari at the Ngoro Ngoro Crater with Dr. Pete Morkel, Bonnie and Deb- orah Dunbar and guide Isaac. Karen Blixen’s comments on (From “Letter’s from Africa”)

“There is something about safari life that makes you forget all your sorrows and feel the whole time as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne, bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive. It seems right that human beings should live in the nomad fashion and unnatural to have one’s home always in the same place; one only feels really free when one can go in whatev- er direction one pleases over the plains, go to the river at sundown and pitch one’s camp, with the knowledge that one can fall asleep beneath other trees, with another view before one, the next night. “ From Karen to her mother on February 14, 1918

Despite some ignorant misconceptions about Karen Blixen’s (Isek Dinesen’s) views of her relationships with her farm work- ers, it is clear from her letters how much she loved and respect- ed the Kenyan people. Following are quotes from her letters as published in “Isak Dinesen: Letters from Africa: by Frans Lasson :

“When I observe the various races here I feel that the superi- ority of the white race is an illusion…when it comes to charac- ter I think they (the Kenyans) surpass us…I think they are bet- ter people than we.

“The natives here, who rely on me, everything, even our oxen and our coffee trees, I could never think about them with the knowledge that I had deserted them.”

“All the white people out here are pressing the government to raise the “Hut tax” the tax on natives, in order to make them work; I think it is a sorry idea to force an entire nation that is now rich into poverty in such a way.. “If you will allow me to be in charge of this farm and give me free hand there will not be another farm in British East Africa to match up with it. It is because I take such passionate interest in it. --but I love it, every acre, every native, every coffee bush…(From “Letters from Africa”)

Karen’s relationship with Dennis Finch Hatton became well known through her publication of “” however she never stopped caring for Bror whom in later years she quoted “if I should wish anything back of my life it would be to go on safari once again with bror.” (From Ulf Ashon’s “Baron Blixen, The Man Whom Women Loved”)

Photo from “Letters from Africa” KAREN BLIXEN’S LIFE AFTER KENYA

Karen Blixen left Kenya in 1931 after she was forced to sell the Coffee farm . She returned to Denmark where she played a major role in helping save the Jews from the Nazis. She contin- ued to write and was nominated for the Nobel Prize in literature twice. She continued to lec- ture and write until her death in 1962. (Photos from “Letters from Africa.”

BOOKS BY KAREN BLIXEN (Isak Dinesen)

Seven Gothic Tales, "The Deluge at Norderney," "The Old Cheva- lier," "The Monkey," "The Roads Round Pisa," "The Supper at Elsi- nore," "The Dreamers," "The Poet" ( 1935);

Out of Africa (: Putnam, 1937; New York: , 1938);

Winter's Tales, "The Young Man with the Carnation," "Sorrow- acre," "The Heroine," "The Sailor-boy's Tale," "The Pearls," "The Invincible Slave-owners," "The Dreaming Child," "Alkmene," "The Fish," "Peter and Rosa," "A Consolatory Tale" 1942).Gengældelsens Veje, 1947)

Last Tales, "The Cardinal's First Tale," "The Cloak," "Night Walk," "Of Hidden Thoughts and of Heaven," "Tales of Two Old Gentle- men," "The Cardinal's Third Tale," "The Blank Page," "The Caryatids, an unfinished tale," "Echoes," "A Country Tale," "Copenhagen Season," "Converse At Night in Copenhagen" (1957).

Anecdotes of Destiny, "The Diver," "Babette's Feast," "Tempests," "," "The Ring" (New York: Random House; London: Michael Joseph, 1958); Skæbne-Anekdoter (Copenhagen: Gyldendal, 1960).

Skygger paa Græsset (1960); Shadows on the Grass, 1962).

Carnival: Entertainments and Posthumous Tales, Foreword by Frans Lasson, "The De Cats Family," "Unc le Theodore," Carnival," "The Last Day," "Uncle Seneca," "The Fat Man," "Anna," "The Ghost Horses," "The Proud Lady," "The Bear and the Kiss," "Second Meet- RECOMMENDED BOOKS ON KAREN BLIXEN AND BROR BLIXEN AND THE HISTORY OF THE KAREN BLIXEN COFFEE GARDEN

Judith Thurman gives an Danish born Tove, has written a This book gives the real life overview and interpreta- tion of Isak’s Dinesen’s life wonderful summary of Karen’s experiences of Karen in Ken- relationships with her house ya. Edited by Frans Lasson and the people she knew in Africa. staff. This book adds more for the Rugstedlund Founda- facts about her day to day life in tion (Published by the Univ. Kenya. of Chicago. )

Kamante, Karen’s house boy A more detailed overview had drawn pictures and writ- of ’s Ulf Aschan, Bror’s Godson, gives a ten stores about his life with life in England and Kenya. fabulous account of Bror Blixen Karen. A charming collection. BY Sara Wheeler, , Ran- and his life in Africa. This infor- Published by Chronicle dom House. London. mation clears a lot of issues con- Books, San Francisco. cerning Bror. He includes quotes from Prince Wilhelm’s companion Count during Karen’s first voyage Dr. L. Donelson, an American to Kenya. A must read. physician writes on Karen Blixen’s life with emphasis on her medical problems. A very unique perspective well worth reading.

For an extensive bibliography refer to the Karen Blixen Museum. www.karengblixen. We wish to thank Mrs. E. Gregory, the daughter of Ake Bursell who gave some of the original photos to Frank Sutton. COFFEE PLANTATION HISTORY AFTER HAVING BEING SOLD BY KA- REN BLIXEN

• The Karen Blixen Coffee Plantation was “sold at the height of the depression in 1931 after her family had paid over 115,000 pounds. The property was bought by Remy Martin who purchased the property for 10,000 pounds on April Fool’s Day.” (Ulf Aschan, in “Baron Blixen.”) • Over the years the property was sub-divided. • In 1959 Standard Bank sold the lot with the Swedo House to Reginald Pearce, a retired coffee farmer and his wife, Alice Judith Pearce. • In 1972 Alice Judith Pearce transferred the property to Elenore Mary Scott for 150,000ksh

Frank Sutton (photo left), was raised on a farm in Kenya and became a safari guide and outfitter. He bought the Swedo House Plot that is now the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden in 1975 from Helen Jeane Knox Simpson. He extended the property to include 6 plots where his three sons, David, George and John were raised. Frank later established the Coffee Garden Restau- rant which he ran until he sold the property to Dr. Bonnie Dunbar in December 1999. He sadly passed away three weeks after he sold the property.

Dr. Bonnie Dunbar first visited Kenya in 1986 as a representative for the United States AID Program “Conrad” (contraception research and develop- ment) to set up projects with the Institute of Pri- mate Research (IPR) in Karen. She also worked with the Kenya Wildlife Service and the US Humane Society in South Africa on Ele- phant Contraception projects, and finally came full time to Kenya as a United States Fulbright Scholar. She now resides full time in Kenya and is a found- er of the African Biomedical Center (a registered NGO in Kenya) and a visiting professor at the Cen- ter for Biotechnology and Bioinformatics at the (Dr. Eric Schwoebel and his wife Heather, Univ. of Nairobi, Chiromo Campus. above. Bonnie and Staff on opening night of the restaurant, below.) She became a friend of Mr. Frank Sutton through her former PHD student, Dr. Eric Schwoebel who worked at the IPR for four years. (Eric was instru- mental in Bonnie’s decision to buy the Coffee Gar- den.) Following Frank’s long illness during which the Coffee garden was closed, Frank sold the prop- erty to Bonnie saying “ I know you will take care of it and continue my dream.”

RECENT DEVELOPMENT OF THE KAREN BLIXEN COFFEE GARDEN

Bonnie bought the property in December 1999 (just three weeks before Frank Sutton passed away). She hired the Danish Architect, Thomas Gronlyke, with the instructions to design the new buildings on the style of the Historic Swedo House. All buildings except the Swedo House have been constructed since then. (Left, old restaurant before reconstruction.)

Dining facilities include the gar- dens, restaurant and bar ve- rahdas, Sport’s Bar, the Grand Marquee Tent, Historic Swedo House, The Lion’s Den Bistro and the Historic Grogan/McMillan Manor House. The facilities and gardens are popular for special functions including weddings and conferences. The newly relocated Grogan McMillan Manor House is also available for special dinners and functions. LUXURY COTTAGES AND FACILITIES

We have 16 luxury cottages, each with fireplaces, large en-suite bathrooms, wireless internet access, mini-bars, verandahs and satellite TV. There is a pool, pool bar, gym and spa with Jacuzzi and sau- na. Cottages include 9 individual units, 3 double units, two bedrooms en suite with large bathrooms and central sitting room and the Honeymoon Cottage. NEARBY TOURIST EXCURSIONS HISTORY OF THE GROGAN McMILLAN MANOR HOUSE

Ewart Scott Grogan

Known as “Kenya’s Churchill” and nick- named “Bwana Chui”, the leopard by the Kikuyu, Grogan distinguished himself in both world wars, fighting behind enemy lines in German East Africa, winning the DSO and was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. (From, Muthaiga by Stephen Mills)

Grogan was a passionately determined man:, he became a founding father of colonial Kenya. He established the country's timber industry, constructed Mombasa's first deep-water port (1925), built East Africa's leading hotel (Torr's, 'the Carlton of East Africa') and its first chil- dren's hospital, and entered politics. (From Lost Lion of Empire)

He and Gertrude were married after he impressed his father in law by his African journey. They were married and had four children. In 1904 Grogan returned to Kenya. His first home was a tent on site which is now the Chiromo complex where he built the Grogan palace and Grogan Lodge (now moved from Riverside Drive to the Karen Blixen Coffee Garden as the Grogan/McMillan Manor House). Photo from the book “Muthaiga” by Stephen Mills

Grogan with Kenyatta and Tom Mboya on the night of Kenyan independece. (From Lost Lion of Empire. ) CAPE TO CAIRO GROGAN

Ewart Scott Grogan was born in London in 1874. He was the 14th of 21 children (the first born of his father’s second wife). He was Cambridge educated and after falling ill was sent to Switzerland to recover after which he ended up climbing the Matterhorn. In 1886 he came to Africa to fight with Rhodes in South Africa where he was wounded. He went to New to recover at which time he met his wife to be, Gertrude. (The Namesake of the Gertrude Garden Children’s Hospital in Nairobi) In order to impress her father he made the challenge and “walked” from Cape Town to Cairo.”

In 1904 Grogan hired the London architect, H. O. Cresswell and a firm of local Indian contractors to build his home in Kenya. “Chiromo” (meaning the joining of two rivers)named after the Nyasaland set- tlement at the junction of the Ruo and Shire rivers ) was built on the site that Grogan bought from Ben- net. In addition to the palace, a small hunting lodge was also built. The guest house of this lodge was used by Commissioner Sir James Hayes Sadler to entertain. This complex was commonly referred to as the shamba ya bwana simba—the Lions Den. (From Lost Lion of Empire, E. Paice). HISTORY OF THE GROGAN / McMILLAN MANOR HOUSE

Sir Northrup McMillan

The Grogan Lodge was sold to Sir Northrup McMillan in 1910. He was an American (Canadian parents) and married to the American Bostonian, Lady McMillan who founded the first national library in Nairobi. Sir McMillan moved to Kenya in 1905 and was one of the founders of the Swedo Africa Coffee Company which was housed in the Historic Swedo House. He was knighted in 1918 as tribute to his services to the Empire and East Africa during WWI. “Sir Northrup was not only an energetic public- spirited worker in the interests of white settlement and the welfare of all races in the colony….He was a man of noted generosity, a generosity of mind and outlook as well as of pocket. …His well known figure radiated gen- tleness, tolerance and a wide humanity. ..He was particu- larly identified with the progress of the mining industry and it is largely owing to his efforts and knowledge that a new mining law was framed.” (Quotes and Photo from “Muthaiga” by S. Mills )

LADY McMILLAN When Sir Northrup McMillan died, he was buried on the slopes of Oldonya Sabuk. Lady McMillan built the National Library in his honor. She lived on the Chiromo Complex until she died. The main house was donated to the Government and now houses the African Herit- age Institute at the Chiromo Science Complex. The Grogan/Manor House was inherited by Lady McMillan’s lady servant and companion of many years whom she had brought with her from Boston.

KAREN BLIXEN AND LADY McMILLAN During her last year in Kenya, Karen was faced with heavy economic problems, failing crops, loneliness and ruined health. As if that were not enough to leave her in complete despair, Finch Hatton was killed in a plane accident in May of that year. He had flown to Voi to scout a herd of elephants rumored to be there. While he was away, she drove into Nairobi to run errands. There was a marked strangeness in the air, she recalled. At every stop along the way, she received blank stares and no one seemed willing to talk to her. Feeling lonely, Blixen went to the Muthaiga Club and joined a group of friends for lunch. But they too seemed very dis- tant. Only later did it become shockingly clear when Lady Mcmillan took her aside to tell her, what she had not yet heard, that Finch Hatton's plane had gone down in a fiery crash while taking off at Voi. Neither he, nor his servant who accompanied him survived.

THE GROGAN/McMILLAN MANOR HOUSE JUST BEFORE IT’S DISASSEBLY TO MOVE TO THE COFFEE GARDEN (Below the original door of the Grogan Palace now on Chiromo Campus noting 1905, the date of construction of the complex.)

Designs of original doors and windows currently in the Grogan Palace at Chiromo Univ. of Nairobi Campus (Now the African Culture Institute ) were used for our reconstruction of Grogan/McMillan Manor House. All other stone and wood are original.

Thanks to the efforts of Mr. John Lee (left with his dog Mi- lou) the Grogan McMillan Manor House was saved from distruction. Milou’s puppy “Little Grogan” on right.

KAREN BLIXEN COFFEE GARDEN AND COTTAGES

We now have a spa with gym, sauna and Jacuzzi. Make reservations for an afternoon of indulgence, lunch, Manicures, pedicures and more. You can reserve a professional physiotherapist to help sort your weary bones Visit our “Lion’s Den Bistro”. Join and muscles. Chef Pierre at the Chef’s Table and watch him prepare food to your taste. Ask for daily specials. (Piano Bar in Bistro Wednesday through Saturday.)

We are now WIFI wireless. Plan a power breakfast with your computers in the gar- den and miss the rush hour traffic.

KIFARU GIFT SHOP Through Swedo House or Reception The Glass Gallery is exhibiting Glass Art throughout the Coffee Garden. Have a special piece engraved while you are having lunch.