Foreign Policy > Africa

A Book that Gets Race Relations Right

And it will never be taught in any of the public schools.

Jeffrey Folks | April 29, 2026

Recently, I re-read The Flame Trees of Thika (1959), a book by Elspeth Huxley that I had read some forty years ago.  It is not a book that would be taught in universities or schools today, unless it were as an example of the evils of British colonialism.  This is a shame, because Huxley’s memoir is a beautifully written account of her childhood in Kenya in the early 20th century and her love of the land and people.  More so than any other book that I know, it is filled with warmth, kindness, and real knowledge of both the British settlers and the native Kikuyu of the region where she lived until she was nineteen.

The Flame Trees of Thika exhibits no embarrassment about what is called British colonialism.  Elspeth Huxley was a precocious child who made friendships with everyone, from the local chief to the farm overseer and cook to the many adults in the Huxley family circle.  She valued each person she met on the basis of his worth and character.  There were blacks like the farm overseer Njombo, “whose smiling face was packed with guile and an accomplished liar,” and others like Andrew, the family cook who treasured his connection with the family so much that he became angry when Elspeth’s mother told him he could not accompany her back to England.  There were Robin and Tilly, Elspeth’s parents, a  combination of an incompetent but affectionate daydreamer and a long-suffering, sensitive wife.  And there was Elspeth herself — intelligent; open-minded; and loving of plants, animals, and........

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