MARY KINGSLEY'S AFRICA

One of the benefits of having a blog is that in the course of research I occasionally stumble on something really interesting that I would never have known about otherwise. Such is the case with Mary Kingsley, an influential but today little-known African explorer of the late 19th Century. I'm reading her book, "Travels in West Africa" right now and it's the best book on that continent that I've come across in years.

I'm guessing that Kingsley was the prim and proper Victorian model for Catherine Hepburn's character in "African Queen." She traveled for a while with an Irishman who its tempting to imagine was a bit like Humphrey Bogart. A coincidence? I don't know.

When Kingsley was a middle-class little girl in Victorian England her well-traveled father used to tell her stories about what was regarded as "Darkest Africa." Kingsley was so excited by these stories that she saved her money and threw herself on the continent as soon as she was able. That was a brave thing to do since West Africa was known as "The White Man's Burial Ground" due to the prevalence of disease and hostile natives. Another English woman who preceded her had her hands chopped off and was left for dead by guides who stole her supplies. Nevertheless, Kingsley was undaunted.

Kingsley had her own take on Africa. She believed in self rule for the Africans but also believed that they needed Britain's indirect guidance.  She disliked many of the village huts she saw which she regarded as unaesthetic. She was even critical of African birds which didn't tuck their wings firmly against their sides as Victorian birds should but were unkempt and slovenly.

It's fun to imagine what the natives must have thought of her. Lots of them had never seen a white person before. I picture her emerging unannounced from the leaves, arrayed in Victorian finery, and casting disdainful looks at the birds and huts she saw.

She talked about the "fan" who were nomadic tribes who were thrown off their traditional land by hostile neighbors and were forced to settle on some other tribe's land in order to survive. As you can imagine the different tribes sometimes hated each other. In order to survive men took wives in different nearby tribes in order to have friendly contacts there and meals that could be safely eaten without poison. For people in that position European monogamy must have seemed like a formula for suicide.

She met different traders, many of them town-influenced blacks, who had European goods to trade, but theirs was a dangerous profession. To raise the price of an item, regardless of the difficulty in obtaining it, was to invite a massacre. When the time for trading was near lots of tribesman came to the trader fort and just hung out for days, sneaking magical trading powder (a guess: lion's dung?) into the traders food and sometimes squatting on the dinner table and looking longingly at the trader's meal. He could shoo them away but he had to be careful not to offend lest he invite bloodshed.

I hope the reader will forgive me for writing about the negatives, which are always more fun to read about. She certainly encountered a lot of beauty and kindness as well. That's reflected in the last paragraph of the book, which I'll quote here:

A MAP OF PRE - COLONIAL AFRICA

I don't know about you but I'm fascinated by historical maps. The best ones are seldom reproduced in poster size so if you want a spiffy one on your wall you have to pay collectors' prices for originals. If I could afford it, near the top of my list would be this one (above) showing Livingstone's route across Africa in the pre-colonial 1860s and 1870s.

It's hard to imagine now, but most of the sub-Saharan African nations we're familiar with today didn't exist then. Africa was "Darkest Africa." Few outsiders had a clear idea of what was in there. Livingstone's trek across the central plateau illuminated for the first time a wide swathe of the territories on either side of his route.

 His trip (above) was no bowl of cherries.

 This picture (above) may be from Stanley's account of finding Livingstone; I'm not sure.

Poor Livingstone was even attacked by a lion.

One of Livingstone's goals was to end slavery in Africa, and he succeeded in at least putting a crimp in it. During the colonial period the British arrested arab african slave sellers like the ones above. Unfortunately Livingstone's geographic findings opened the door to colonialism.

 You can see (above) why Africa has so many problems today. Modern national borders haven't much to do with the old ethnic boundaries.

The modern system system attempts to unite wildly disparate people into the same state. Those are Watusi above, a giant people.

They're in the same nation as the Pygmies, who are the world's smallest people. Seeing these pictures reminds me of the old saying: "One law for the ox and the squirrel is tyranny."

I'm also reminded of a book I read a long time ago called "Congo Kitabu" which claimed that the Pygmies were being enslaved by their giant neighbors, and were in danger of becoming extinct. Yikes!

BTW....on another subject....

Here's (above) the last picture of Pluto taken before the expected (and temporary) transmission blackout. That'll only last a short time, then we'll get better pictures from an even closer vantage point.

Gee, I have to say that this side of Pluto is disappointing. It looks like a common dirty snowball. No wonder it was demoted to dwarf planet status. The side facing Charon was a lot more interesting. It had a giant hexagonal crater, which needs to be explained. I've seen a few hexagons in space photos: one covers one of Saturn's poles and a couple more look like shock waves from deep space novas. 

Oh well, maybe trained eyes will deliver more meaning from the picture. 

AFRICAN KINGS

Modern Africa is a continent of contrasts. You have to wonder if these are genuine primitive tribesmen living in the outback, or if they're sophisticated city dwellers who are wearing the old-time clothes for some cultural event. 

My admiration for African art knows no bounds, partly because they realize the value of cartooning. Look at the cartoony furniture; look at the cartoony mask behind the king.

All tribes are not equally gifted in their ability to create great clothes for their king. These threads (above) just don't fit right.

The costumes here (above) look Hindu rather than African but the carvings on the throne look African. I include it because it's a reminder that one function of a king is to administer justice. In some cultures only royalty are fit to preside over courts because only they are presumed to have no personal stake in the disputes they judge.

Framed pictures like this one would be a great gift to give to a lawyer. The engine of impartial justice takes many forms. All over the world people crave it, and will make great sacrifices for it.

Probably the king doesn't live in this (above) room. I imagine it's a sacred space where the tribe's totem images are kept. On the other hand, maybe he does live here. I'll assume that this isn't what you'd call a wealthy tribe.

Some tribes are luckier. They're rolling in dough. They can afford to put up their monarch in a sumptuous modern palace like this one (above).

That's all I have to say about kings, but maybe there's space enough to describe a village in Mali (above) that I just discovered. It appears that the village is overpopulated and the people have to live shoulder to shoulder in the confines of a small space.

Talk about crowding...if you sneeze, the next man's toupee falls off. 

The odd thing is that there appears to be plenty of space (above) just outside the perimeter. There must be a reason for the crowding but I can't imagine what it is.