Lovestruck, she was determined to get her Masai
Nina Hoss and Jacky Ido in a birth scene from the film.Corinne Hofmann spotted her Masai warrior on a ferry headed for Mombasa in Kenya. On holiday with her boyfriend in 1987, she could not take her eyes off the beautiful stranger wearing a loincloth, braided red hair and masses of jewellery.
She's not the first tourist to have that reaction. Driving through Kenya and Tanzania a few years ago, I was mesmerised by the elegant Masai men striding across the savannah in their scarlet blankets with a straggle of goats or cows. But the fascination stops there for most of us.
Hofmann was weak-kneed with love. When the Masai appeared again to guide her through Mombasa, she took it as a sign. A 27-year-old blonde beauty from the world's neatest country, she went home to Switzerland, sold her clothing shop and returned to Kenya without knowing what would happen next.
"I had the deepest feeling I had to follow that man," she says on the phone from Swtizerland. "I had to look for him through the whole of Kenya. For three months I tried to find him. I was tired and hopeless and thought I would never see him again. But I found him and I was so pleased just to sit with him."
She found Lketinga, a Samburu tribesman, in his village three days' rickety bus ride from Mombasa. Against all logic - she was warned that women are less valued than goats - she moved in with him and his mother.
Home in Barsaloi was a manyatta, a hut made of sticks and cow dung, and the diet was goat meat, sugary tea, and milk mixed with blood. I have been in a manyatta, too - for about 10 minutes, until I began to choke in the dark, smoky, back-stooping burrow. Hofmann stayed for 3½ years.
The story of that time is told in her book The White Masai, which has sold 4 million copies in Germany and after eight years is still a bestseller. Translated into 26 languages, it was published in English last year.
"In America I think they feared the story of black and white," she says. "Now I get emails every day from the States and from Australia saying, 'Thank you for sharing your story'."
The book is now a film, made by the German director Hermine Huntgeberth. The White Masai stars European actors Nina Hoss and Jacky Ido and faithfully portrays Hofmann's drama against the colourful chaos of Kenya. Like the real lovers, the characters speak in three languages - German, tribal Maa, and simple English - with subtitles.
"The main line of my story is in the movie," Hofmann says in her much improved English. "My life there was much stranger but you can't put in all these things. I have seen the movie six times and I cry every time."
Problems quickly mounted up. She bought a four-wheel-drive and opened a shop to feed the village. But the rough trip to town, mechanical break-downs, theft and corruption made every task traumatic and emptied her Swiss bank account.
Malaria, hepatitis and malnutrition weakened Hofmann until her 1.8-metre body weighed 48 kilos. When she gave birth to a daughter, Napirai, only an emergency flight to hospital saved their lives.
Sex was never more than perfunctory with Lketinga, though she taught him to kiss in the Western way. Worst of all, he resented her independence and suspected her of infidelity. Wound up by jealousy and a local stimulant, miraa, he became violently abusive.
In 1990 Hofmann left Kenya with her daughter under pretence of taking a holiday in Switzerland. That's where the film ends. But the story continues, as Hofmann has written in two further bestsellers, Back from Africa and Reunion in Barsaloi (due out in English in October).
She stayed with her mother to regain her health and gather some money. With income from her books and lecture tours, she now lives comfortably on Lake Lugarno with 17-year-old Napirai. A "big love story" with a former schoolmate ended because he couldn't cope with the attention on her Masai life.
Hofmann and her daughter revisited Barsaloi for the first time when the film was being made. Still married under local law, she had been frightened.
"It was fantastic," she says. "My mother-in-law is like a mother to me. Lketinga has a good lifestyle, with two local wives and a daughter. He was so proud to show us the village."
For good and bad, he belongs to the last generation of traditional Masai warriors. Barsaloi has a school, 14 shops and a waterhole, so women no longer make the long daily walk to the river. Children learn English and the boys no longer adorn themselves or spend a ritual year alone in the bush to kill a lion.
No longer in love, Hofmann can't imagine living there now. But her passion echoes clearly as she says, "I'm proud to have been almost four years with these wonderful people."
She's not the first tourist to have that reaction. Driving through Kenya and Tanzania a few years ago, I was mesmerised by the elegant Masai men striding across the savannah in their scarlet blankets with a straggle of goats or cows. But the fascination stops there for most of us.
Hofmann was weak-kneed with love. When the Masai appeared again to guide her through Mombasa, she took it as a sign. A 27-year-old blonde beauty from the world's neatest country, she went home to Switzerland, sold her clothing shop and returned to Kenya without knowing what would happen next.
"I had the deepest feeling I had to follow that man," she says on the phone from Swtizerland. "I had to look for him through the whole of Kenya. For three months I tried to find him. I was tired and hopeless and thought I would never see him again. But I found him and I was so pleased just to sit with him."
She found Lketinga, a Samburu tribesman, in his village three days' rickety bus ride from Mombasa. Against all logic - she was warned that women are less valued than goats - she moved in with him and his mother.
Home in Barsaloi was a manyatta, a hut made of sticks and cow dung, and the diet was goat meat, sugary tea, and milk mixed with blood. I have been in a manyatta, too - for about 10 minutes, until I began to choke in the dark, smoky, back-stooping burrow. Hofmann stayed for 3½ years.
The story of that time is told in her book The White Masai, which has sold 4 million copies in Germany and after eight years is still a bestseller. Translated into 26 languages, it was published in English last year.
"In America I think they feared the story of black and white," she says. "Now I get emails every day from the States and from Australia saying, 'Thank you for sharing your story'."
The book is now a film, made by the German director Hermine Huntgeberth. The White Masai stars European actors Nina Hoss and Jacky Ido and faithfully portrays Hofmann's drama against the colourful chaos of Kenya. Like the real lovers, the characters speak in three languages - German, tribal Maa, and simple English - with subtitles.
"The main line of my story is in the movie," Hofmann says in her much improved English. "My life there was much stranger but you can't put in all these things. I have seen the movie six times and I cry every time."
Lovestruck, she was determined to get her Masai
She married her Masai in a traditional ceremony, wearing a white bridal dress, and avoided premarital circumcision only because Lketinga lied to the community that she had been cut as a baby.Problems quickly mounted up. She bought a four-wheel-drive and opened a shop to feed the village. But the rough trip to town, mechanical break-downs, theft and corruption made every task traumatic and emptied her Swiss bank account.
Malaria, hepatitis and malnutrition weakened Hofmann until her 1.8-metre body weighed 48 kilos. When she gave birth to a daughter, Napirai, only an emergency flight to hospital saved their lives.
Sex was never more than perfunctory with Lketinga, though she taught him to kiss in the Western way. Worst of all, he resented her independence and suspected her of infidelity. Wound up by jealousy and a local stimulant, miraa, he became violently abusive.
In 1990 Hofmann left Kenya with her daughter under pretence of taking a holiday in Switzerland. That's where the film ends. But the story continues, as Hofmann has written in two further bestsellers, Back from Africa and Reunion in Barsaloi (due out in English in October).
She stayed with her mother to regain her health and gather some money. With income from her books and lecture tours, she now lives comfortably on Lake Lugarno with 17-year-old Napirai. A "big love story" with a former schoolmate ended because he couldn't cope with the attention on her Masai life.
Hofmann and her daughter revisited Barsaloi for the first time when the film was being made. Still married under local law, she had been frightened.
"It was fantastic," she says. "My mother-in-law is like a mother to me. Lketinga has a good lifestyle, with two local wives and a daughter. He was so proud to show us the village."
For good and bad, he belongs to the last generation of traditional Masai warriors. Barsaloi has a school, 14 shops and a waterhole, so women no longer make the long daily walk to the river. Children learn English and the boys no longer adorn themselves or spend a ritual year alone in the bush to kill a lion.
No longer in love, Hofmann can't imagine living there now. But her passion echoes clearly as she says, "I'm proud to have been almost four years with these wonderful people."
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