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Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it,
but he who caught it, chased it.
From the pastoral landscapes of Kenya to Germany’s post-war shadows and the complex promises of America, CHASING THE ZEBRA captures the tension between personal reinvention and global forces of migration and identity. The radical act of choosing one’s own path leads the author to suggest that adaptability and mobility might be the best tools for survival in the 21st century.
I am raising $8000 on the PUBLISHIZER platform, which is specifically for authors.
If I can sell 500 - 1000 pre-ordered books, there is a chance that the book might be represented by a traditional publisher. That, of course, is every author's dream.
If not, I will have to self-publish and will choose the best hybrid publisher that I can find.
The process of designing, formatting, printing, and marketing such a book is extremely expensive, especially because I have included over 60 black-and-white photos.
My father, Dr. Igor Mann, with the late Kenyan President Jomo Kenyatta
Trade fair, Nairobi, ca. 1969
My personal invitation to Kenya's Independence celebration. The British flag was lowered at 11.59pm on December 11, 1963, and the Kenya flag raised for the first time at midnight on December 12.
Me with Maasai warriors, Athi River, Kenya, 1952
ENDLESS WEEPY, SMILY, HUGGY, JOYOUS THANKS FOR YOUR CONTRIBUTION
With Maasai friends, Maasai Mara, Kenya, 2021
Photo: Uli Koch
Male Impala antelope at Samburu National Reserve - one of my favorite places in Kenya
Photo: Uli Koch
WRITING THE BOOK
HERE'S A LITTLE TEASER FROM THE PROLOGUE
The smell of blood fills my lungs with its deep, bitter rank. Flies swarm into my eyes and the frantic lowing of cattle about to be slaughtered echoes through the lab where I am sitting on a high stool looking down through the lens of a microscope. I dare not cry or run away, because Pa has brought me here for a reason. “You vill see vot ze vurld is made of!” he insists in his thick Polish accent. “Ozervise, you know nossing.” Pa slides a petri dish under the lens. I gasp. In the clear liquid is a transparent oval creature with one long antenna and what look like different organs in its body. It bumps against others just like it while tiny hairs at the other end of its body quiver and pulse with frantic energy. I move my eyes away from the lens and see nothing but a drop of water. I look back through the lens and magically, the creature is there, dancing for me alone. “Zis is a cock sidia,” (coccidia) Pa explains. “It is a parasite zat can infect our cows if zey drink bad votter or eat contaminated grass. See – I find zem in ze cow dunk. Zat means our cows are infected.” Cock sidia. I roll the words across my tongue. “You bloody cock sidia,” I practice, anxious to try this new curse on my older sisterPuku. Next! Pa hands me another dish and shows me how to turn the gleaming steel knobon the microscope to focus on a long, whip-like creature with tiny hairs along its sides. It lashes furiously back and forth, back and forth, working its way across the dish. A nematode, Pa says. Ne-ma-tode. I am in love with the words and claim for myself this secret world that only Pa and I will share. I am huge with the discovery; enthralled at this invisible universe, my own playground where creatures more fantastic than any that Puku and I could invent cavort for my pleasure alone.
This circus is mine.
THE BIRTH OF A MEMOIR
This memoir was born as I was walking with dear friend Idanna Pucci along the beach on the island of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya.
"Why don't you write a book about all the hundreds of jobs you've had in so many different countries?" Idanna suggested.
I thought it was a terrible idea!
B-o-r-i-n-g!
But when I sat down to write it, I realized that it wasn't boring at all. At least, not to me. Because each job or new creative venture not only represented my working mind and soul, but also a plethora of personal, political, social, and economic factors that frame a life led on a wisp and a straw. I have an adventurous and curious spirit - it's true - but often, I was simply driven by the need to earn a living. Someone called and offered me a job? I took it, wherever it was. Someone wanted me on their team? I joined. I had a mad idea in my head? I made it happen. Next!
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This memoir took three years to complete, but is partially based on a documentary film that I made called Beautiful Tree, Severed Roots, which examines my family's life and legacy as Jewish refugees in the former British colony of Kenya. That film took nine years to make and was released in 2014. So how many years does it take tow rite a memoir? It takes a lifetime.
CHASING THE ZEBRA has gone through so many evolutions, changes in title, structure, content, and design, that I can no longer remember where I began. As with any memoir, I have struggled to accurately portray not only my own life, but that of those I mention in the book as partners, accomplices, enemies, friends, lovers, relatives, strangers. It has not been easy, and, as the author, one risks stepping into a minefield at every new sentence. So far, nothing has exploded and I am still here to tell the story. But at some point, one must just punch that last period and declare the story to be DONE.
Now that I am DONE, I can see the point of the exercise more clearly. The story is about so many challenges, so many adventures, so many insane events and ridiculously foolish decisions. So much pain, my own and others'. So much joy. My own and others'. It's also about brilliant decisions, life-changing choices, economic rollercoasters, personal relationships, motherhood, family, identity - all driven by endless curiosity. I simply have to see what is around the next corner.
I now see patterns of behavior, threads and webs, questions without answers, new questions, that I had not noticed before. I have become richer for them, I hope, and therefor have more to give.​
I interviewed Reiner Werner Fassbinder as he directed "Women in New York", Hamburg Schauspielhaus, 1976.
Photo: K. Mann
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From l to r: Nairobi, Kenya 1963; Hamburg, Germany, 1974; Sag Harbor, NY, 1986; Santa Fe, NM, 2023.
Photos: K. Mann
Linda Scott's "Stargazers" was one of many sculptures installed in the outdoor exhibition called "Art 'Round Town" - organized by Kenny Mann (l) and Candace Leigh (r) in Sag Harbor, NY, to present sculptural art to those who would not normally visit a gallery.
Photo: Ramershwar Das, NY Times, 7/18/1988
Me backstage with l to r: Benny Andersson, Agnetha Feltskog, and Bjorn Ulvaeus of ABBA, Hamburg, 1974.
Photo: Gesine Petter
Me interviewing Elton John, Hamburg, Germany, 1974
Photo: Gesine Petter
But what do you - dear reader - get out of this book? What is the takeaway?
So what is the point of a memoir? Why should anyone bother to read it? Is it a vanity production, an arrogant way in which to promote oneself? Or is there more to it?
You will have to read the book to find out! It is 2025. I am now seventy-nine years old. I believe that there is some wisdom in my words; some valuable insight and conclusion, some recipes for life. Some relief in noting that yet another woman has survived, no matter what; some entertainment value - read all about me as the oldest "granny on wheels" Instacart shopper in America during the COVID19 pandemic! Do my life experiences have some historic value? After all, I happened to witness important events, such as Kenya's independence from Great Britain in 1963, the Baader-Meinhof terrorist attacks in Germany in the 1970s, the subprime mortgage crisis in the US in the 1980s, which caused me to lose my home to foreclosure, and today, Trump's America which elicits a minute-by-minute fight or flight reaction.​ So perhaps I have something to say, after all. We are all in this together!​​
BE AMONG THE FIRST TO READ "CHASING THE ZEBRA" AND EARN YOUR SUPER BONUS!!
WRITE A REVIEW FOR ME TO GET A MENTION AS ONE OF MY "WITNESSES"....
EARLY REVIEWS
David Lascelles: former New York correspondent and Banking Editor at the Financial Times:
“Kenny Mann’s astonishing memoir propels the reader through 75 years of a world crackling with change, from the liberation of colonial Africa, to swinging Sixties Europe, alternative lifestyle USA, and eventually settling beneath the desert skies of New Mexico where she now resides. It is a personal account of triumphs and tragedies, but also a vivid depiction of our turbulent times. For future historians it is wonderfully verdant material, offering intimate glimpses into events that were reshaping the world.”​​​
Gail Pellett: 1999 Peabody Award Winner for Facing the Truth with Bill Moyers: South Africa’s Apartheid system:
“Kenny “Iki” Mann has crafted a memoir that reports on a dozen lives—all hers—reflecting on a multi-continental journey of adventure, daring curiosity, maddening naiveté, devastating conflict, and fierce love. Mann’s skilled telling of her extraordinary story is rooted in exile. In this compelling saga, she finally comes to terms with the White privileges of her place in Kenya, as well as the deep pain—and joy—of accepting parents, siblings and children. She finds ultimate meaning in African and indigenous concepts of connection and continuity. The route to this profound realization is a fascinating read.”
Tom Clavin: NY Times bestselling author of Halsey’s Typhoon, The Last Stand of Fox Company, Dodge City and others:
“Illustrated with over sixty unique photographs, this story is a lesson in surviving life with a British stiff upper lip, a Kenyan lust for adventure, and a Jewish sensibility. Most profound is the realization that one can come of age several times in one lifetime. Mann’s truly African spirit emerges in her belief in “ubuntu” – the philosophy of: “I am because you are.” The list of witnesses at the end includes every person that has crossed the author’s path. It is a humbling lesson in recognizing those who have touched our lives in one way or another.”
Kathy Eldon: Author of 17 books and founder of Creative Visions Foundation:
“A highly engaging journey…as her Polish-Romanian parents reinvented themselves in the British Colony of Kenya…a recurring theme for Kenny, who later flowed through countries and identities. Her resilience and humor in the face of many challenges will inspire readers to abandon their conventional lives and take off on a grand adventure.”
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Malibu Beach, CA
Photo: Kathy Eldon
Orel Protopopescu: Author of Dancing Past the Light: The Life of Tanaquil Le Clercq:
"How much can one life hold? Kenny Mann, Kenyan-born daughter of Eastern European Jewish refugees, shows us in her marvelous, astonishingly frank memoir, documented by dozens of rare photos. With cinematic detail and an actor’s ear for dialogue, she traces her journey from Africa, to Europe, and thence to North America. Propelled by curiosity, need, desire, love, and an unflagging zest for discovery, she befriends a wide-ranging cast of characters while working odd jobs to pay for her passions: writing, filmmaking, home design, travel, and supporting indigenous cultures.
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Beautifully written and rich in poetic detail, Chasing the Zebra contains more glorious colors than you can find in the beadwork of the Maasai women Kenny invited to sell their wares in her current home base, Santa Fe, New Mexico. She would need more than one life to complete all the jaw-dropping projects in her head. Kenny may not have found it easy to maintain her five-star rating from Instacart, but she has definitely written a five-star book."