BEARD, Peter. Longing for Darkness: Kamantes Tales from Out of Africa.

(New York, NY): HBJ, 1975. First edition. Hardcover. 31.4 by 21cm. Unpaginated. One of Peter Beard’s most ambitious and evocative publications, reconstructing the vanished world of colonial Kenya through the recollections of Kamante Gatura, Isak Dinesen’s (Karen Blixen’s) longtime cook and majordomo on the Karen Coffee Farm. Recorded by Beard over a period of twelve years and translated from Swahili by Kamante’s sons, the narratives combine autobiography, Kikuyu folklore, animal fables, and vivid recollections of daily life on the farm, interwoven with quotations from Dinesen’s writings. The text is complemented by an extraordinary visual archive of previously unpublished photographs from the collections of Isak and Thomas Dinesen, together with Beard’s own photographs documenting the rapidly disappearing landscapes and wildlife of East Africa, as well as Kamante’s original drawings and watercolours. The result is a richly layered collaboration between oral history, photography, memoir, and artist’s book, offering a poignant counterpoint to Out of Africa by presenting colonial Kenya through the eyes of one of its principal African participants. A very good copy in dust jacket with some edgewear and short closed tears.