Elsamere, where Joy Adamson’s spirit still lingers

On the shores of Lake Naivasha is an old rustic house that has resiliently remained pre-colonial. Elsamere Conservation Centre, which welcomes tourists in droves, is where Joy Adamson’s memories still linger.

The author of the bestseller ‘‘Born Free’’, which was turned into a successful film, came to the spotlight with her moving account of how she had raised a captive lioness, Elsa, before returning her to the wild. She nursed days-old lions and cheetahs to life and protected them from poachers.

She was murdered by her worker, Paul Nakware Ekai in 1980. Years after her death and that of her husband, George Adamson, who was slain by bandits in 1989, their house Elsamere still carries their resilience and wild love, right from its history and even location.

The Elsa Trust, a group of her friends from the UK who have been taking care of the property, has not changed it much. On the walls are paintings of animals, which are signed in calligraphy “Joy”. The carpets and mats in the main house are hand-woven.
The house still has the brass utensils that Joy used and her decorations still hang on the walls.

Named after lion

Susan Chepkemoi, an educator at the centre, says the animals in the paintings had been nurtured by Joy’s hands at one point in her life. Whatever she loved, she kept a permanent memory of.

Elsamere is named after one of her lions. The house has a old Victoria-look with minimal bohemian decorations.

There are only a few structures overlooking the lake, swallowed by the bush that makes up most of the 56 acres of land.

At Elsamere, it is easy to see how nature and the wild prevail. The signs read “Wild animals at night. Please take care”. Around 6pm, a tower of giraffes walk comfortably along the footpaths used by people during the day. At dusk, the warning sign is quite clear ‘‘Wild animals at night.’’ Warthogs, zebras and baboons also lurk around the lodge.

From the glass windows, visitors can watch the hippos leave the lake and climb up to the compound to graze. The dreaded Cape buffaloes occasionally traverse the lodge at around 10pm, a time when visitors are advised not to leave their cottages.

As Naivasha changes and life in the lake reduces due to pollution, Elsamere has remained with the memoirs of Joy, 37 years after her death.

The resilience with which this place has maintained its old allure is likened to the personality and character of the conservationist who was known to be very strong and opinionated.

In 1943, the adventurous spirit of a 27-year-old Joy Adamson landed in Kenya, then a British colony. She was born in the Czech Republic in 1910. A lover of nature, and all that is natural and artistic, Joy married her third husband George, a game warden, with whom they adopted a lion cub — Elsa. George had shot Elsa’s mother in self-defence.

The journey of nurturing and caring for the three-day cub until it was ready to be released to the bush formed a great part of the book ‘‘Born Free’’, detailing the intimate relationship between two species that never saw eye to eye.

The book sales are what enabled Joy to buy the land in Naivasha on which the Elsamere now stands. ‘‘Born Free’’ which spawned two sequels, a song and a film and, captivated millions including Queen Elizabeth II of England. When one visits the centre there is an opportunity for people to leave a trace or a journal of some sort. You plant a tree and date it.

In the house, there is a room that now acts as a museum.

Therein, her uninhibited curious spirit lives:  there are pictures that she took with people she met while travelling including the Queen Elizabeth who graced the launch of a film.

On that day, she wore a dress with a design similar to the queen’s. She also has pictures when she was receiving awards for her conservation work. There are others which she was photographed with an old manual singer sewing machine and her sewing kit.

There are old cameras and projectors that she used with George . In the 50s, the government tasked her to paint all the tribes of Kenya and some of original pieces hang on the Elsamere lodge wall.

Much is known of her work because Joy kept a journal of every little event in her days: what she did, where and with whom, what she thought about it, and when.