Kamante Gatura was a young Kikuyu boy when he first came to Karen Blixen's farm, suffering from a serious leg ailment that she helped treat. He stayed on afterwards, eventually becoming her cook — and, by Blixen's own account, an extraordinarily skilled one, with a natural instinct for flavour and presentation far beyond what his circumstances would have suggested. Their bond, formed across a vast gap in language, culture, and status, became one of the most quietly moving relationships in Out of Africa.

Kamante's story continued long after the book's publication — later in life, he worked with photographer Peter Beard to record his own memories of the farm and of Blixen, giving him a rare thing for someone in his position at the time: a voice of his own in the story.