Thomas Gallagher

While on a four-month safari from the banks of the Salengai to the north slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro, a 54-year-old Ernest Hemingway found himself in the middle of the Mau Mau rebellion.

The rebellion lasted throughout the 1950s and was Kenya’s most violent and prolonged conflict against British colonial rule. Sentiment against British rule had begun to come to a boil as Kenyan veterans requested compensation and recognition for their service in British wars and were repeatedly denied. The KAU, Kenya’s independence party led by veterans, became increasingly radicalized as European settlers displaced local populations. Anti-British sentiment eventually culminated in the militant arm of the KAU, the Mau Mau, beginning a guerrilla warfare campaign.

Contrary to Kenyan customs, Mau Mau insurgents included women, children, and the elderly in their attacks. The scope of their war crimes was not limited to torture, eye gouging, decapitation, and burning victims alive. African police officers who witnessed the aftermath of the particularly gruesome Lari Massacre were physically sick at the devastation the Mau Mau left behind. 

The British government declared a state of emergency after a European woman was executed, and the conflict became known as the “Kenya Emergency.”

After the success of his first hunting expedition, Hemingway was eager to return to Africa. His hunting experiences moved him to write the short story The Snows of Kilimanjaro and a book titled Green Hills of Africa. He fondly looked back on Africa as a source of inspiration and adventure. Twenty years after his first safari, he received an offer from Look magazine for $25,000 to journey to Africa and write a 3500-word piece for them on his experience. Without much thought, he put his other projects on hold and happily accepted.

Upon arriving, Hemingway reunited with the infamous “Dean of African Hunters,” Philip Percival. Philip was famous for helping Theodore Roosevelt, amongst other men of renown, navigate the intimidating foreign landscape successfully. He had been Hemingway’s guide on his first safari, and the two had formed a close bond. After reuniting, Philip caught Hemingway by surprise, deputizing him as an honorary ranger due to the Kenya Emergency. Hemingway had seemingly been unaware of the conflict. Yet, being the audacious man he was, he was thrilled about his deputization.

In the first two months of their expedition, they traveled across the open plains of Salengai to the Rift Valley and eventually made their way to Hemingway’s son, Patrick, in Tanganyika. The group hunted black-maned lions and leopards as they traveled. Hemingway was ecstatic to be reliving the experience from his first safari and soaked up as much of the adventure as he could to use in his future works.

Along the way, Philip ensured the group kept its distance from any tribes that may be aligned with the Mau Mau. Hemingway caught up in the thrill of the hunt, didn’t seem to grasp the present threat of danger beyond the lions stalking them in the tall grass.

That was until two months later when Philip notified Hemingway he would return to his farm, leaving Hemingway alone and in charge of a game reserve on the flank of Mt. Kilimanjaro.

With Philip gone, Hemingway was now responsible for the camp’s protection and its supply of guns, alcohol, and food–all of which the Mau Mau would be happy to kill for. With the camp primarily made up of locals from the Kamba tribe, he was constantly on edge, worried the Mau Mau’s propaganda would shift their loyalty away from the British. Had the Kamba joined the Mau Mau, Hemingway’s son Patrick wrote that the Hemingways “would have then stood a good chance of being hacked to death in their beds as they slept by the very servants they so trusted and thought they understood.”

Luckily, the Kamba tribe remained loyal throughout his watch. During his stay, Hemingway grew close to the local tribesmen and participated in local ceremonies with his wife. He would later base his novel True at First Light on his experience at the camp, including a Swahili glossary in the back. 

After Hemingway was relieved of his duties, he and his wife bid farewell to the Kamba people and wanting one last experience, Hemingway organized a plane ride over the African Bush. In mid-air, the engine failed, and the plane crashed, but luckily, both survived. Rattled from the experience but eager to return home, they organized another flight for the next day–which also crashed. The couple experienced two plane crashes in a span of two days, with both only suffering minor injuries.

Hemingway was lucky the Kamba people were friendly and more fortunate; he didn’t encounter the Mau Mau. When his luck was finally exhausted, having back-to-back plane crashes was Hemingway’s own Kenya Emergency.