African Nights

Kuki Gallmann was born near Venice, and studied political sciences at the University of Padua. Fascinated by Africa since her childhood, she visited Kenya first in 1970, and returned to live there in 1972 with her husband and son.

As a tribute to their memory she founded the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, with the specific mandate of creating on Ol Ari Nyiro Ranch in Laikipia an example of the harmonious coexistence of man and the environment through new ways of combining development and conservation. The Foundation promotes and sponsors the education of Kenyans.

An active conservationist, in 1989 she was awarded the Order of the Golden Ark by HRH Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands for her major and continuing contribution to the survival of the black rhinoceros, and her research into nature conservation in Kenya.

I Dreamed of Africa, her account of her life, the tragic losses of her husband and son and her subsequent renewal through the Gallmann Memorial Foundation, was published in 1991 to international acclaim and became a world-wide bestseller.

Kuki Gallmann lives on Ol Ari Nyiro with her daughter and her dogs.