International Connections: Women Writers from Around the World

The Shrunken Dream

Plot

The Shrunken Dream is a captivating story of the Nandi people of East Africa. An invaluable recording of a culture under siege in colonial and post-colonial Kenya, The Shrunken Dream is also a compelling tale of love and loss, community and independence.

"Their world was three miles wide and fifteen miles long, a patch of rugged, rocky land along the upper slopes of Mt. Kamasai. At the foot of the mountain ran the Cheboiywa River, the boundary between the Nandi and Luyia. On the other side of the mountain, from Kapkeimur onwards, were European settlers and priests. But on the slopes of the mountain, in densest forest, the people of Kamasai lived completely cut off. The houses were built among the boulders. There were no grassy plains for cattle to graze on. The little grass they could obtain was found in gaps in the forest canopy where the trees allowed the sunlight to filter down. The produce of the women's vegetable gardens had to be shared with the monkeys that came from the forest around them. In this little world everyone knew every detail of everything that happened." - from The Shrunken Dream