Rasharasha: To Africa for a Rose
by Emma Ellis
This forthcoming non-fiction book, Rasharasha: To Africa for a Rose, tells the story of an Australian Gallipoli-survivor and pioneer who in 1925 staked his family’s future on the discovery of an old English rosebush flowering improbably in an African wilderness. On this slender evidence of the existence of a water course, Frank Anderson sent for his wife and daughter to join him in establishing a farm named Rasharasha in the Maasai highlands of Tanganyika.
Recounted through the experiences of the three women in Frank Anderson’s family - his wife, daughter and granddaughter - and drawing on an extensive archive of original documents, this book offers unique insights into the precarious colonial life of a family across five continents during the British Empire’s closing century.
This book is pending publication: enquiries can be sent via the Contact page.
Frank Anderson, 1890-1961
Dramatic 20th century events unfolding in Rasharasha: To Africa for a Rose take place across five continents: Australia, Asia, Europe, Africa and America.
Blending the family story with wider historical events, the story first evokes early colonial life in Albany, (Western Australia) and moves to Gallipoli (Turkey) and Yokohama (Japan). Then it moves to such East African locations as the Serengeti Plains, Ngorongoro Crater, Mount Kilimanjaro and the safari town of Arusha, although, of course, the main focus is Rasharasha, an isolated sloping valley near Arusha, Tanganyika (now Tanzania). The name, Rasharasha, means ‘light rain’ in Swahili, and in the Andersons’ time, ‘land of mists’.
Much of the book is set in the context of East Africa’s personalities such as resident Denys Finch-Hatton (immortalised in Out of Africa) and visitor Ernest Hemingway (Green Hills of Africa, Snows of Kilimanjaro), along with other names associated with Kenya’s aristocratic and often infamous ex-pat residents.
Frank Anderson and his family are revealed as people who become extraordinary through force of circumstance. Threaded through the story are those vital, yet often unacknowledged, roles played by those, particularly women, who support others’ hopes and dreams. The Andersons faced dramatic circumstances where survival required courage, new perspectives and transformation. They exemplify our common human desire for a secure home, community and honourable livelihood, needs shared by all living beings as they compete for those most precious of resources – land and water.
This account of a way of life now long past reveals surprising facts about a period of history that not only still resonates with us but also defines the lives we live today.
Shown to the right is a rose similar to one planted then abandoned at Rasharasha in the early 1900s. It was of a traditional English variety, fragrant and elegant, yet tenacious.
For the Anderson family, this rose symbolised how to grow, adapt and survive, even in radically changed circumstances.
Three Generations of Women
Rasharasha: To Africa for a Rose is told in three parts that focus in turn on Frank Anderson’s wife, daughter and granddaughter, all united by their love for Frank and for their farm, Rasharasha.
Honor showed resourceful courage as she ventured into the unknown, ultimately finding the key to the family’s survival… Patricia held the complex venture together in the wilds of Africa… Jeannine picked up the pieces as the dust of the Winds of Change settled.
Honor: Honoria Ethel Anderson, née Hassell, 1893 - 1980
Patricia: Ethel Patricia Wright, née Anderson, 1918 - 2011
Jeannine: Monica Jeannine Cook, née Wright, 1944 -
