If I were to describe “Cocktail from the Savannah” in a few words, I would call it a Kenyan made soap opera, complete with the rich man saves poor girl trope. Set in the background of Maasai Mara, with a few Morans to boot and Nairobi making an appearance as the epitome of urbanization and civilization.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The tale starts off slowly when a rich man supervising his construction project, notices Terian, a food vendor who brings Githeri to sell to the construction workers. The man is enamoured by her, and we’ll follow him for months as he tries to win her over and rescue her from the clutches of poverty and backwardness.
Terian on the other hand, isn’t just a damsel in distress, she has a family of her own. Albeit one with a lot of troubles as her husband has medical issues while her son has to be left with a nearby lonely woman when Terian goes to sell her food.
Terian and Masikonde’s love affair take place while he is still married to the beautiful Sinta, a YouTuber who otherwise is a housewife. The two soap opera characters are joined by Masikonde’s friend Orido, a doctor, and Moraa, Masikonde’s personal assistant. With the supporting cast being Masikonde’s family back in Mara as well as Terian’s who later appear at the end. With Sinta’s barrenness being the thing that makes this whole love affair that later turns into polygamy and polyandry, possible.
The strength of this book or what keeps it entertaining, is the author’s style of writing. It is simple and has employed a lot of dialogue that made me as a reader feel as if I was with the characters as they argued, cajoled or cried. I could feel the thrill of the author through their writing. Almost as if the words are alive. At some point, I thought that the author should have written this as a screenplay. It’s literally what soaps are made of. And the style of writing plus the story, fits right in.
However, I am not the biggest fan of the story. One because I felt it could have been way shorter. A quarter of the book would have still worked to give the reader this story in full. I say this because at some point, there was no new information being shared in the chapters. The love affair unfolds in a predictable manner, bit by bit. Those parts felt redundant.
The other issue I had was Terian’s character. Masikonde, Orido, Moraa and even Sinta had personalities. In fact, the writer brought them out so well, that if this were in real life, you could pick out Orido or Moraa from a crowd. But that same depth wasn’t given to Terian. Throughout the whole book, despite being a main character, we as readers, never get to see who Terian is. She is painted as this blank canvas of a person where anything goes. We don’t know whether she’s bright or foolish. Whether she has personal opinions on what’s happening to her or not. We only see her react to what’s happening to her. We see her become sad and happy. But at the end of the book, I didn’t feel as if I could say who Terian was, which was a letdown.
The book also made me wonder how many liberties fiction authors are supposed to take. The story does rely heavily on Kenyan society as we know it. On anyone from Nairobi relating to the scenes that take part in Nairobi. As well as Maasai culture. In its truth as we know it. But the author took a lot of liberties in brushing over the fact that Terian didn’t have a language barrier while speaking with Masikonde, Moraa etc. Which is a bit odd considering she is from deep in the bundus of Maasailand. So that stood out a bit, that she seamlessly seemed to fit right into urban speak, despite most of us from non-Nairobi areas, knowing that it takes a while to adjust our English to Urban English.
But the book does bring out a few thematic areas that would be fun for social media discussions. It seems to force the reader to think about polygamy in modern day Kenya or Africa. Would it work? Is it acceptable? What would make it acceptable?
Another theme that came out strongly was culture. And it’s strengths and weaknesses. The same culture that allows, or rather, that requires Masikonde to take a second wife if his first wife is barren, is also the same one that led Terian into poverty and troubles. Should people choose what works and what doesn’t? And what determines that choice, money or poverty?
The other theme that came to mind when reading it, was women’s space and agency in today’s society. The women in this book, with the exception of a faraway supporting character, that is Wahu, Sinta’s friend, don’t seem to have a lot of agency over their lives. Terian flows with what Masikonde says, Moraa is tied to the whims of Orido, while Sinta is the housewife who accepts a second wife despite her tears. It makes one wonder whether women in today’s society are really that men-centered, or whether the Kenyan society has evolved a bit from the patriarchy that makes this story possible.
Ultimately, for those who enjoy watching soap operas, this book will be a delight. I think there is still room for improvement in the story itself. But the author can pull off telling any story as their writing style kept this book as it is, still entertaining.
