How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
I found Kinanjui sitting up straight in the car, immovable as an idol. [...] He was always an impressive figure, tall and broad, with no fat on him anywhere; his face too was proud, long and bony, with a slanting forehead like that of a Red Indian. (2.5.14)
Chief Kinanjui of the Kikuyu is compared in a metaphor to an idol. Why does the narrator choose this term instead of a statue? Maybe his African race points to the answer, because she isn't thinking of the saints in the French mission, but rather African religious statues. Also, she compares him to a "Red Indian" or Native American, another "other" race. It's like all the races that aren't white are blended into one "other" for her.
Quote #8
White people, who for a long time live alone with Natives, get into the habit of saying what they mean, because they have no reason or opportunity for dissimulation, and when they meet again their conversation keeps the Native tone. (3.1.2)
At first glance it's kind of funny to think that white people would "dissimulate" (which is a fancy word for fibbing) only when they're around other white people. What was Colonialism, really, besides a huge dissimulation? The key, though, is that there is no "reason or opportunity" to lie when they're "alone with Natives", because being with another race is like being alone—there's nobody to lie to because the Natives are not equals. Ew. This statement makes us want to take a shower with a pressure washer: it's just that disgusting.
Quote #9
The young women were very inquisitive as to European customs, and listened attentively to descriptions of the manners, education, and clothes of white ladies, as if out to complete their strategic education with the knowledge of how the males of an alien race were conquered and subdued. (3.3.13)
We can see the Somali women as sort of parallel to the Baroness. She's a stranger in a strange land, soaking up information on the races that she comes across. Farah's wife and her family, too, are foreigners in East Africa, looking to learn about the white race. That puts the Baroness under the microscope for once.