In the novel, Kulet demonstrates the challenges plaguing traditional African in the face of

contemporary trends that threaten to dismantle such structures that most people have strove to
hang onto or even at times to institutionalise. It is a story that casts two daughters on a collision
path with their parents and their community’s cultural beliefs.

Central to the text, is a Maasai family; a father, mother and their two daughters both in their late
teens who, after spending many years in Nakuru town in the Rift valley province of Kenya, have
to relocate to their ancestral land in Nasila because their father has been retrenched from his job
as commercial manager of a company providing agricultural supplies. Parsimei Ole Kaelo, the
father, has prepared for the change by having a new home and a large shop (supplying
agricultural equipment and products) built in Nasila. The novel opens with him organizing the
movers who are packing their furniture into the lorries that will transport the family’s belongings
to the new home. Ole Kaelo’s irritable temperament is immediately evident as he yells at the
workers while observed from the upstairs flat window by his elder and favorite daughter, Taiyo.
She and her younger sister, Resian, are the savannah blossoms of the novel’s title, but this image
should not be taken as indicating that these two young women are content to be mere decorative
presences; they have indeed something of the hardiness of wild flowers, although Taiyo has a
more submissive bent than the rebellious Resian. We are made to understand that Tayio’s
attitude towards her father is the product of his delight in and approval of his elder daughter,
making her generally very loyal towards him, although as the text opens she is angry with him
for having forbidden her to go to a music festival, attendance at which was a reward for her
talent in music and dancing which might have led to getting her a professional foothold in that
sphere. Resian is generally the butt of her father’s temper; she invariably arouses his ire, and his
unpleasant, constantly reiterated scoldings have turned her into a glum and somewhat cynical
person, though she has an iron will and is often unwisely outspoken. Nevertheless, Ole Kaelo’s
rules his household with a strong hand and refuses to be questioned; his wife, Mama Milanoi, is
generally discreet and compliant, softening her husband’s harshness with her grace. One way of
reading the novel is to see it as a probing study of the dynamics of the male-controlled family in
a modern African.

Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah presents a melting pot of cultures and envisions a social
continuum in which culture can never be static. It is a text that recognises individual psychic
dilemmas, one that pits family members against each other and acknowledges the inevitable
clash when an individual’s desires and aspirations are at odds with old and at times outdated
cultural beliefs. Ole Kulet recognises that it is not enough to lay blame on colonial structures and
changing times, we have to take responsibility for our own shortcomings and individual choices.
However, just as certain species of plants bloom in the hot Savannah climate, we will have
individuals amongst us who will thrive or blossom irrespective of the debilitating cultural
hurdles.
 Taiyo and Resian appropriately epitomise the complexities of changing times insofar as
culture is concerned. In this novel, Ole Kulet demonstrates the challenges plaguing traditional
African mores in the face of contemporary trends that threaten to dismantle such structures that
most people have strove to hang onto or even at times to institutionalise. It is a story that casts
two daughters on a collision path with their parents and their community’s cultural beliefs.
Their parents, Mr Kaelo and Mama Milanoi symbolise the dilemma for many African
families that find themselves torn between urban lives and the rural one. It appears that Kaelo’s
time in the town of Nakuru has come to an end since Agribix Limited his employer has closed
shop. However, Kaelo seems to have prepared for this eventuality as we are informed that he has
decided to set up an agrovet distributing shop in his rural home town of Nasila. However, as we
come to discover much later Kaelo’s venture into business is tainted by financial aid from a
thrifty unscrupulous business man who usurps his financial and moral authority over his family.
Indeed both Taiyo and Resian have a bad premonition about going back to the rural
village where their father hails from. They are both at their prime age having been denied the
rich cultural milieu of the Maa people. They are aspiring to join Egerton University to quench
their thirst for education. As Resian says, she would like to be called Dr. Resian Kaelo, if only
their father would allow them to join the university so that she can pursue a course in Veterinary
Science. Unbeknown to them, their father’s and mother’s thoughts have begun to be beleaguered
by cultural expectations from which they have been shielding their daughters from. Mama
Milanoi’s biggest fear is the fact that her daughters are Intoiye Nemengalana – the derogatory
term for uncircumcised women amongst the Maasai.
As a matter of fact, the novel depicts the unenviable position that families who have
straddled between two different types of lives find themselves in. They are neither town people
nor rural people. The chasm between being recognised as urbanites or rural folks depicts the
main conflict in the story. This is because the Kaelos will have to redefine themselves no longer
as people of Nakuru but orphans of Nasila. As a result, the Kaelos will have to find ingenious
ways to battle the expectations of the Nasila people. The breaking down of one of the lorries
could insinuate the challenges on their journey towards being integrated into the lifestyle of the
Nasila people.
 The sojourn from Nakuru to Nasila foreshadows a clash between the beliefs of the young
girls who represent the way of life of urban people and that of the indigenous Nasila habitats
who strongly believe in the adherence to communal beliefs like female circumcision. Thus, the
expectations of the two sets of people are at odds with each other thereby signifying the
inevitable clash and the potential fallout of Resian and Taiyo with their parents. The fallout is
compounded by the father’s indebtedness to Oloisudori – a cruel businessman whose evil nature
precedes his name. In fact, the text describes Oloisudori as part of the people who have
desecrated the Maa culture allegorically referring to how Nasila river was being polluted by
chemicals and other poisonous pollutants.
Although the Kaelo’s can to a certain extent pride themselves in being proactive towards
change, their faith is greatly tested when the parents have to host a party in order to be received
back into the Ilmolelian clan fold and the bigger Nasila cultural family. It is during this occasion
that the demands on the Kaelo’s family begin to appear clearer. For once, the girls realise that
being female is disadvantageous amongst the Maasai. A man, Joseph Parmuat, is tasked with the
responsibility of coaching the girls about their culture implying the lack of faith on the part of the
society towards women’s ability to educate themselves. This is one example of the varied
instances through which the community’s culture is depicted as being biased towards women
folk. Others include FGM, dowry and marriage negotiations, choosing a partner, education and
career amongst others.
A story within the story is told about the myth on FGM and the rise of the fame of the
Enkamuratani (female circumciser) and her tool of trade the olmurunya (razor-sharp blade). Like
most other cultural beliefs, it has been adopted and perfected over time such that no one dares to
challenge it. On the contrary, modernisation, especially through formal education, has brought
about a splinter group headed by Minik ene Nkoitoi famously known as Emakererei. She is
educated and she believes in individual choices and the pursuit of one’s dreams. It is a position
that has seen her alienated from the community – considered an outcast who is out to undermine
the authority of Maasai elders. However, she ends up being the voice of reason and the source of
hope for most girls like Resian and Taiyo.
Kaelo succumbs to the pressures of his community and selfishly trades his daughter to
Oloisudori. Although he would like to present himself as remorseful and a victim of Oloisudori’s
greed, we are persuaded to see him as inconsiderate, authoritarian and uncaring towards the
desires of his daughters. Indeed, this is clearer from the beginning of the novel when he callously
mistreats Resian because he had hoped to get a son for his second child. Resian’s troubled spirit
later in life is attributed to this open hostility from her father although she finds solace in her
sister’s protective care.
Resian’s adamant spirit pays off when she triumphs over the treacherous snares before
her to survive death narrowly. She escapes marriage to Oloisudori only to end up in the hands of
Olarinkoi who lures her with the false promise of taking her into safety but he intends to marry
her for himself. She has to physically fight him off in order to rebuff an attempted sexual assault,
overcome sickness and eventually find help through Nabaru who takes her to Minik’s farm. It is
at Minik’s farm that she is reunited with Taiyo, who is unlucky because the olmurunya has been
applied on her and she has lost a dear friend Parmuat who dies rescuing her. It is at Minik’s farm
that their dreams eventually blossom when they receive the good news that they will be joining
the university to further their education.
Kulet’s Blossoms of the Savannah presents a melting pot of cultures and envisions a
social continuum in which culture can never be static. It is a text that recognises individual
psychic dilemmas, one that pits family members against each other and acknowledges the
inevitable clash when an individual’s desires and aspirations are at odds with old and at times
outdated cultural beliefs. Ole Kulet recognises that it is not enough to lay blame on colonial
structures and changing times, we have to take responsibility for our own shortcomings and
individual choices. However, just as certain species of plants bloom in the hot Savannah climate,
we will have individuals amongst us who will thrive or blossom irrespective of the debilitating
cultural hurdles.