Near Death in the Desert

 

A review of Skeletons on the Zahara – a true story of survival by Dean King, Back Bay Books, 2004.

 

Not for the squeamish!  Unfortunately, I read this book during the Christmas holiday season when comfort and plenty sustained me.  It was a stark contrast to the squalor, deprivation, and cruelty suffered by the victims of an 1815 shipwreck on Africa’s Atlantic coast. The crew were enslaved and held for ransom by local tribesmen.

The facts of the event were drawn from bestselling accounts written by Captain James Riley of the sailing ship Commerce and one of his crewmen Archie Robbins.  Due to currents, winds, and poor navigation, the ship ran aground off Cape Barbas, in what today is Western Sahara.  The men all made it ashore where they were savaged and captured by local tribesmen. The tribes of that era were Islamic. They hated and feared white Christians, whom they deemed sub-human.  The crewmen were outnumbered and without weapons. To survive they had to comply.   This they did. The narrative describes the ravages of hunger and thirst, of beatings, neglect and deliberate cruelty.   The reader will learn a lot about the human body’s physical ability to persevere. That plus strong mental determination to live sustained the crewmen during their ordeal.

The book is replete with information about the tribes who captured the crew, about their own lives of privation.  The western Sahara (spelled Zahara in the title in recognition of the spelling used in 1815) was a bleak landscape of hard rock, sand and occasional scrub. Water was rare.  This part of the Sahara was probably the most challenging for human life on the planet.  The tribes were nomadic. They relied totally on camels. (A reader will glean more information than necessary about camels.) The tribal culture was dominated by men. The families displayed an astonishing hospitality towards each other, but not to foreign Christians, whom they demeaned, brutalized and starved.

Ultimately, Captain Riley cut a deal with a tribesman to pay a ransom when he and his men were delivered to freedom in Morrocco.  There was much reneging, renegotiating, violence and intrigue as the crew – still slaves – was marched north to safety.  Robbins, who had been separated from his fellows early on, followed a sperate path towards freedom a year or so later.

This is a book about survival.  It is a remarkable testament to the fortitude of individuals who sustained themselves in very trying circumstances.  The book also accurately portrays Northwest Africa of the epoch – its geography, its peoples and its cultures.  One cannot help but wonder how much of the culture lingers on in modern Western Sahara.