48 pages • 1 hour read
Beryl MarkhamWest with the Night
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1942A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaBackground
Historical Context: British East African/Kenya
In 1884-85, 14 nations, primarily European powers, signed the Berlin Act. The act claimed specific areas in Africa for each nation, ensuring that they could exploit the territories, indigenous peoples, and mineral resources without conflict from rival colonial nations. The decisions about which areas fell under the control of which foreign powers occurred irrespective of the indigenous population of the continent.
Along the eastern coastal area of Africa in the Great Lakes area, Britain claimed a region called British East Africa or the East African Protectorate. This area was bordered by the Indian Ocean in the east, Somalia in the north, Uganda in the west, and Tanzania in the south. It was about 250,000 square miles, or roughly half the size of the US eastern seaboard. Britain’s occupation of this area was more economically than militarily based, although as Markham points out, the British kept a garrison of soldiers in Nairobi in case conflict with indigenous peoples developed.
In 1920, after World War I, Britain changed the name of the territory to the Colony of Kenya. Along with an indigenous population of a little more than 2.5 million people, there were around 9,000 white settlers in Kenya, including the Clutterbucks. The name “Kenya” derives from the landmark most British settlers recognized, Mount Kerenyaga, or the “mountain of whiteness,” which is snow-peaked year-round. Kenya gained independence from the British Empire in 1963.
Technological Context: Early-20th-Century Flight
By the time Markham became interested in aviation in her late twenties, heavier-than-air flight had entered its third decade. The greatest advances in aeronautical technology came as a result of World War I combat, during which planes were deployed militarily for the first time. Markham’s teacher, Tom Black, had been a British fighter pilot during the war. He desired to expand the uses of aircraft.
Markham’s descriptions of the planes she and others flew reveal the primitive nature of these machines. Monoplanes and biplanes of the era started their engines by swinging the propellor: If a pilot had no ground crew, they would have to pull the prop and then climb into the cockpit. Most of the cockpits were open. While there were compasses and altimeters, these planes had no radar and no radios. When Markham wished to communicate with someone on the ground without landing, she wrote on a notepad attached to her leg and dropped the note in a pouch to the ground.
Just as these early planes were much simpler than modern aircraft, so too were the airstrips and other landing areas. There were no regular routes, no commercial passenger flights, and only one female pilot in Africa—Markham herself. One of the criticisms Tom had of Markham’s practice of scouting animal herds from the air was that she had no idea where she would be able to land her plane. She writes of a group of trapped hunters who, over a two-day period, hewed a 100-yard by 10-yard landing strip out of a forest. To bring food to the hunting party and rescue three of them, Markham landed and took off four times. The author writes of many flights that were rescue missions: attempts to transport a person or life-saving equipment that otherwise was beyond reach. Markham’s experiences thus reveal both the possibilities and limitations of early aviation.
