Corinne Hofmann (born June 4, 1960) is a German born [1] author living in Switzerland, most famous for her multi-million selling memoir Die weisse Massai (The White Masai). [2] [3]
Corinne Hofmann (born June 4, 1960) is a German born [1] author living in Switzerland, most famous for her multi-million selling memoir Die weisse Massai (The White Masai). [2] [3]
Born on June 4, 1960, to a German father and a French mother, Corinne studied in the canton of Glarus and eventually went into the retail trade. At the age of twenty-one, she opened her own clothing store.
In 1986, Hofmann and her boyfriend Marco made a trip to Kenya. There, she met a Samburu warrior named Lketinga Leparmorijo and instantly found him irresistible. She left Marco, went back to Switzerland to sell her possessions, and, in 1987, returned to Kenya, determined to find Lketinga, which she eventually did. The couple moved in together, married, and had a daughter. The Samburu are a pastoralist people related to the Maasai, and live in small villages in an arid area of central Kenya. Hofmann moved into her mother-in-law's manyatta (compound) and learned to live as a Samburu woman, fetching wood and water. She opened a small shop in the village, to sell basic goods. [2]
Hofmann suffered several hardships, including diseases (mainly malaria) and marital problems. Increasingly paranoid jealousy from her husband, possibly a side effect of his addiction to the drug khat (miraa), severely damaged her relationship, and in 1990 she decided to return to Switzerland for good, taking her daughter with her. [2] Later on, she wrote a book about her experiences. The book, titled Die weisse Massai, became a phenomenal success. It has been translated into several languages, and in 2005, made into an eponymous movie starring Nina Hoss and Jacky Ido.
Hofmann has since written four other books, three of which, Zurück aus Afrika (Back from Africa), Wiedersehen in Barsaloi (Reunion in Barsaloi) and Afrika, meine Passion (Africa, my passion), are sequels to the first book. She returned to visit her Samburu family for the first time in 2004. Another visit followed, this time in the company of the daughter she had with Lketinga. The reunion is described in Afrika, meine Passion.
Her most recent book, "Das Mädchen mit dem Giraffenhals" is the story of her childhood in the Swiss province and how she became the woman that she is today, or was at the time she first went to Kenya.
The Samburu are a Nilotic people of north-central Kenya. Samburu are semi-nomadic pastoralists who herd mainly cattle but also keep sheep, goats and camels. The name they use for themselves is Lokop or Loikop, a term which may have a variety of meanings which Samburu themselves do not agree on. Many assert that it refers to them as "owners of the land" though others present a very different interpretation of the term. Samburu speak the Samburu dialect of the Maa language, which is a Nilotic language. The Maa language is also spoken by other 22 sub tribes of the Maa community otherwise known as the Maasai. Many Western anthropologists tried to carve out and create the Samburu tribe as a community of its own, unaffiliated to its parent Maasai community, a narrative that seems that many Samburu people today hold. There are many game parks in the area, one of the most well known is Samburu National Reserve. The Samburu sub tribe is the third largest in the Maa community of Kenya and Tanzania, after the Kisonko (Isikirari) of Tanzania and Purko of Kenya and Tanzania.
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Der letzte Zeuge is a German crime television series set in Berlin. Created by Gregor Edelmann, it aired on ZDF from 1998 to 2007 and was mostly directed by Bernhard Stephan. It stars Ulrich Mühe as medical examiner Dr Robert Kolmaar, along with Gesine Cukrowski as his colleague Dr Judith Sommer and Jörg Gudzuhn as police officer Johannes "Joe" Hoffer.
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The White Masai is an autobiographical novel written by Corinne Hofmann about the years she spent in Kenya. It was published in German in 1998 and translated into English in 2005. A film adaptation was released in 2005.
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