Kuki Gallmann's story inspired a film with Kim Basinger
La Italian writer, from Treviso, has lived in Africa since the 70s, where she has faced dangers, difficulties and grief. Always fighting against poachers and paramilitaries.
Kuki Gallmann lives in a wild Eden
There are not many in Italy to know Kuki Gallmann and its history. But the Italian writer, her courage, her strength deserve to be mentioned. His life, his books, inspired a famous film. Dreaming of Africa, directed by Hugh hudson and performed by Kim Basinger right in the guise of Kuki.
In Kenya the woman arrived in the early seventies, following her love, Paolo Gallmann, a Swiss expert in agriculture, always in love with the African continent. With them was Emanuele, born from Kuki's first marriage. The couple bought the large estate of Ol Ari Nyiro, on the edge of Rift Valley, 300 km from Nairobi. The estate extends over hills, gorges and plains, there are savannas, scrubland, forests, rock faces. And it is famous for the abundance and variety of wild animals, especially rhinos, elephants, buffaloes.
The new world of Kuki Gallmann
Kuki experiences the first African years as a happy dream. Discover a new world, animals and their habits. The natives and their language. But fate will come to ask for a terrible bill.
It was 1980 when Paolo Gallmann died in a car accident, a few months before Sveva, their little girl, was born. For Kuki it's a terrible pain but it goes on. There is the estate to take care of and manage. Three years pass and a new terrible blow comes. Emanuele dies at the age of 17 and dies right in his arms due to the bite of a viper, from which he was extracting the poison. Snakes have always been his great passion. It was nyoka, snake, the first Swahili word that Emanuele had learned.
The fight against poachers, the defense of the natural heritage and animals at risk
Kuki goes on. The project that she and her husband had set in motion, the cause for which they had begun to fight. The fight against poachers, the defense of cultural heritage and endangered animals, goes on.
The Ol Ari Nyiro estate becomes a nature reserve. Kuki founds the Gallmann memorial foundation which today is an environmental study and education center for young Kenyans who learn to defend the extraordinary environment in which they live.
Not everyone likes the commitment of this Italian writer, her collaborators and the many who help her in her battle. There are the poachers, first of all, with the enormous income from illegal hunting. And then, above all, in the last period, there are the attacks of the nomadic tribes, composed mainly of shepherds, who in a period of devastating drought do not find free pastures for their animals. Their is a desperate and often in vain battle for the survival of their animals.
According to the association of landowners, the perpetrators of the attack on the woman, which took place a month ago, would be shepherds who had already invaded the 400.000 square meters of land near the Rift Valley on various occasions. The same people who once surrounded and attacked the house with Kalashnikov shots.
Kuki Gallmann, after first aid, was taken to Aga Khan Hospital in Nairobi. As soon as he recovers he will return, together with his daughter Sveva, to Ol Ari Nyiro, to resume their battles. There where, under two acacia trees, the spirits of Paolo and Emanuele rest.
Kuki and the strong bond with the city of Arese
Among the many humanitarian actions carried out by the Italian writer and environmentalist, there are those carried out with theAresina Association "Maisha Marefu" which, in Swahili, means "long life".
Last November, Kuki was in Arese at the solidarity dinner of the non-profit organization founded in 2009 by three women, such as Cristina Cappelletti, Agnese Robustellini and Rossella Ventricelli.
In the historical group of the Onlus there are twelve women together with the three founders, all united by the same desire to give concrete help to the weakest creating primary medicine centers run by local operators and women's literacy projects, as well as shelters for orphans.
Close to Gallmann's Kenyan estate there are 4 primary medicine centers which Maisha takes care of. Her first project is Land of Hope, in the district of Moran in Laikipia, a school for introducing children to the use of computers.
