The Colonial Farm is a remarkable, inspiring, retrospective memoir that captures untold stories of peasants and the author's journeys as they navigate and survive the British colonial laws in Kenya, where the author starts as a babysitter and a farmhand. The story is told with brutal honesty, clarity, and suspense.
The book captures the opportunities, the challenges of abusive teachers, how to navigate around predatory teachers, and the failures and successes of the author, her beloved family, and the community.
Despite the challenges, the author's determination and ignorance of youth help her forge ahead against the tide of her predetermined peasant life, a dreary, dead-end, and challenging lifestyle intertwined with those of her family and her marginalized Kikuyu community.
She is determined to disentangle herself and find an escape route despite the odds of living in the backwoods of Kenya, where education for girls is an afterthought.
The book shows the resilience and endurance of the human spirit in overcoming adversity under the shadows of the struggle between the powerful and the powerless.