MUSING ON A CHALLENGE While held in a prison camp deep in the wilds of Africa, Italian POW Felice Benuzzi painted his inspirational view of Mount Kenya, and planned an illicit ascent of its peak
FELICE BENUZZI/STEFANIA BENUZZI ARCHIVE X1, SANTACHIARA ARCHIVE X1
When amateur mountaineer Felice Benuzzi first laid eyes on Mount Kenya, on 13 May 1942, he was completely smitten. Entranced. Instantly possessed with the idea of climbing it. The fact that he was in prison, with no release date in sight, only heightened the Italian alpinist’s inherent urge to inhale the East African mountain air.
Benuzzi knew a long-term escape effort from his prisoner-of-war camp was bound to end with failure, additional punishment, and possibly a bullet. But a bid for temporary freedom – just enough liberty to summit Africa’s second-highest peak – perhaps that might be possible. The last place his British captors would think to look for an absconder, he reasoned, was at the top of a mountain.
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