A review of Hunting for Teddy Roosevelt by James
Ross, Regal House Publishing, 2020.
This is an interestingly odd book. It is fiction intertwined
with bits of real history. The basic premise comes from Theodore Roosevelt’s
African safari which he undertook in 1909 after finishing his second term as
president. Roosevelt took the trip to
escape from the pressures of politics and to reflect upon his decision not to
seek a third term. All this comes out in the book. The fictional plot revolves
around efforts to assassinate the ex-president and his uncanny ability to
escape. The depiction of Roosevelt is
believable, but other characters are not as well drawn.
In reality on this safari Roosevelt did indeed slaughter
thousands of animals purportedly at the request of the Smithsonian Institute
which wanted specimens for its collection. Roosevelt’s actual recollections of
hunting encounters are used to lead into various chapters. His son Elliot accompanies him (true) and they
do have an odd (fictional) encounter with Paul von Lettow (a real German
military officer who commanded the German army in East Africa during World War
I). Other characters – journalist Maggie Ryan, various safari personnel, the
assassin, etc. are all fictional.
Although the story did move along satisfactorily, I became
captivated by the errors, dissidences and leaps of credibility that abound in
the book. Some misrepresentations can be attributed to the various characters,
but most are the responsibility of the author.
The book is fiction, of course, and the author is entitled to rearrange
geography and cultures as desired or necessary for the story, but I found that such
shortcomings substantially distracted from the gist of the tale. For example:
Outlining the intended itinerary from the African highlands,
to the Serengeti, to Mt. Kilimanjaro and then Lake Victoria, zig zags Kenya’s
geography.
Tuaregs are described as slavers in Sudan. In reality they live in the central Sahara, two
thousand miles west.
Roosevelt rode on the “railroad linking Nairobi to Lake
Albert.” The rail line did pass through Nairobi,
but it linked Mombasa to Lake Victoria.
The Swahili word “pembe” was employed at least six times to
refer to local alcoholic beverages. “Pembe” means horn or antlers. The correct
word is “pombe.”
TR is credited with staying on a sisal farm in the
Aberdares. That area is much too cold
and wet for sisal.
“Faru” is used instead of “Kifaru” for rhino. Africans would
have used the correct term.
There are several references to the Congo Free State owned
by King Leopold of Belgium. At the time of Roosevelt’s safari, the Congo had
been taken over by the Belgian government as a colony.
A lion hunt is described as “simba kuwinda” i.e. lion to
hunt, correct would be “kuwinda simba” to hunt lion (object not subject).
Author Ross puts the Samburu people from northern Kenya in Kamba
country (just outside Nairobi). Also, it is proposed to resettle them from
there to Muranga so to free arable land for white settlers. That is all wrong, the arid Athi Plains where
the Samburu ostensibly lived were unsuitable for farming whereas Muranga is
prime agricultural territory. The fact that Muranga, even then, was well
populated by Kikuyu people is ignored. Later the author places the Kamba in
Tanganyika. Why not just deal with the people who really lived there – the
Kamba and Maasai people of the Athi/Amboseli area and the Chaga in Tanganyika
On several occasions the author refers to “mimosa” trees and
“fire” ants. There were no mimosa trees in Africa at the time. Fire ants is an
American, not an African term.
Author Ross describes the bandits encountered in Sudan over
and over as Fulani. The Fulani people are pastoralists who live in the Sahael
region of Africa south of the Sahara, thousands of miles west of the
Sudan. Sudan has many indigenous groups that
engaged in banditry and slavery, why import foreigners?
At one point it is proposed to cross Lake Tanganyika from
Kigoma (in German East Africa) to Kalemie, Congo. The town of Albertville, Congo was not
renamed Kalemie until 1971. This is a grievous error for a former Peace Corps
Volunteer in the Congo.
Equally puzzling was a reference to the battleship Maine
being sunk in the Philippines. Surely Teddy Roosevelt knew it was sunk in Cuba.
The fact that atrocities were inflicted on natives of the
Belgian Congo, including severing of hands when rubber collection quotas were
not met, is a true theme reflected in the novel. However, at one-point starving
and mutilated victims of such horrors are described as Tutsi and their
persecutors Hutu. In actuality,
Rwanda/Burundi, home of the Tutsi and Hutu, in 1909 were under the suzerainty
of Germany, not Belgium. They were not victims of rubber exploitation. I thought this bit to be a gratuitous
reference to genocide which would not occur for another eighty years.
Finally, our intrepid heroes defied geography throughout the
tome covering, by foot or horseback, hundreds or even thousands of miles in
days. On their trek through northern Uganda into the Sudan, they pass just
north of “Victoria Falls.” They might
have been near Murchinson Falls, but Vic Falls were then and still are 2000
miles to the south.
As noted above I enjoyed this novel as much as for the discrepancies as for the tale. However, for those not disturbed by the errors, it is a pleasant extrapolation of Roosevelt’s safari.
