Explorers' Trials and Tribulations in the Search for the Nile

 

River of the Gods – Genius, Courage, and Betrayal in the Search for the Source of the Nile, by Candice Millard, Doubleday, NY, 2022.

 

River of the Gods is an in-depth investigation into the lives and psyches of explorers Richard Burton and John Hanning Speke.  The author did an astonishing amount of research and artfully employs quotations and citations from hundreds of letters, journals, and official records from the era.  The sheer amount of material available gives evidence to a pre-electronic culture where people wrote things down.

The two protagonists in this epic were men of strong views and towering egos. They connected first in an effort to explore the Horn of Africa. Failures and misunderstandings there festered for years and resurfaced later when the two joined to find the source of the Nile. Departing from Zanzibar with a huge caravan of porters, they headed into the interior of what is now Tanzania. Their safari was rife with obstacles, bad weather, insects, desertions, hostility from indigenous tribes, sickness, and inadequate supplies. Once on the shores of Lake Tanganyika they were determined to prove that it had a northern outlet which was the Nile.  They were unable to make that determination. Exhausted in spirit and body, and out of supplies they began the trek back to the coast.  While Burton lay ill, Speke mounted a trek to a northern lake.  He subsequently spotted Lake Victoria, which he named in honor of his queen, and proclaimed it the source of the Nile.

Returning to England the two bickered openly about the facts. Ultimately Speke was funded for a second expedition to determine the truth. Accompanied by James Grant he did circle Lake Victoria and verified that the Nile exited from it.  Even so, Burton and Speke’s personalities and standing in society continued to clash leading to a planned public debate in England on the issues. However, on the day prior to the encounter, Speke died in a hunting accident.

The value of this book is not so much its recitation of the facts of the explorers’ journeys, which have been well described elsewhere over the years, but in the in depth look at the personalities of the two men – their foibles, passions, strengths, and prejudices.  It is a fascinating study.

I have, however, several quibbles with the book. First the cover contains a photograph of Murchinson Falls on the Nile, a sight that neither Burton nor Speke ever saw.  Why imply that they did? Secondly, the author refers throughout to the lake as Lake Victoria Nyanza without noting that ‘Nyanza’ is a local term for lake. So, Lake Victoria Nyanza is ‘Lake Victoria Lake.’  Finally, she neglected to tell the after-the-fact story that the British colonial government erected a statue of Speke overlooking Owen Falls, where the Nile begins, with a plaque stating that Speke was the first man to ever see that sight. Shortly after independence the new Ugandan government dismantled the monument noting that Ugandans had been seeing the sight for centuries.

My quibbles aside, this is a book worth reading.

 

Abduction in the Serengeti

 

A review of The Lioness by Chris Bohjalian, Doubleday, NY, 2022

 

This novel is a thriller with an ostensibly simple plot. A group of movie stars is kidnapped while on safari in the Serengeti in 1964.  Alternating between flashbacks (mostly boring) to key moments in their lives, the protagonists struggle with their captors against the backdrop of vicious wild animals. Death lurks on all sides – from ruthless Russian captors or leopards, snakes, or hyenas. Plenty of people die.

The Africa setting, that is descriptions of the game reserve park are accurate, but geography is way off – equating an easy drive, for example, from the Serengeti to Albertville, Congo. Oops! that is hundreds of miles distant and there is a huge lake in the way.  The motive for kidnapping slowly leaks out as the novel moves forward. It is implausible, but it does keep the tale going. Afterall this is fiction.

The author inaccurately described a wrecked land rover when one character insists that another roll up the windows, so the dead inside won’t be eaten by scavengers.  Land rovers in the 1960s all had sliding windows, not roll-ups.  Similarly, the author describes a leopard attack that probably could never occur. But again, cut him some slack. It is fiction.

As improbably as the story is, I enjoyed the novel.

Election Saga, Bangui

 

I wrote this piece in December 2020 prompted by what had been going on during the past few weeks in America.  I submitted it to the Foreign Service Journal. It was finally published in the June 2022 edition as a Reflections piece.  

Election Saga, Bangui

     Election day in the Central African Republic in 1993 was busy. I sent all embassy personnel hither and yon as election observers. I too made the rounds of voting precincts in Bangui.

    Voters lined up and waited patiently for their turn. They then marked their ballot and stuffed into the box, always accompanied by a resounding “a voté”  - by a nearby poll watcher. Everything went smoothly.

    After closing the precinct officials and party poll watchers hovered around the counting table to ensure that ballots were correctly tabulated. Then the box was sealed and transported to the Supreme Court for the final official tally. Nonetheless, it quickly became apparent that incumbent President Andre Kolingba was destined to lose.

     Two days later, at mid-morning, I got a phone call at the office from Chief Justice Edouard Frank. “Ambassador,” he said, “They are going to kill me, if I start the count.”

    Whoa! I thought. “Sit tight, I’ll be right over,” I replied.

    There was too much at stake for the nation and for the process to let it collapse at the end.  I told my driver Robert to put on all the flags, and we drove to the Supreme Court. I found Justice Frank in his office. He was clearly shaken by the threat, emanating, he avowed from the presidency; but after calming down he realized his duty.

   With my support he agreed to go forward. So he and I, followed by the other justices, all in their judicial robes, walked across the courtyard to the court chamber. I took a front row seat, and the process of counting began. It proceeded without interference.

   Meanwhile I contacted my German and French colleagues. At least one of us was present for the entire count.  Kolingba came in fourth. (I was later told by a contact in the presidency that our presence in the court room had, indeed, caused a plan to disrupt the proceedings to abort.)

     However, President Kolingba, who had obviously been misled by his entourage as to his popularity, was not yet done.  That afternoon he emptied the prisons, apparently in hope to cause civil unrest so that he could declare martial law and nullify the election.

     A key part of this plan was to release former President Jean Bedel Bokassa who was president from 1966 to 1976, declared himself Emperor Bokassa I and ruled as such until 1979. Kolingba thought that the people might either rise up to support the aging mentally diminished monarch or revolt against him.  Either way, it could result in martial law.

     There were no uprisings, however. The city remained tranquil while thousands of prisoners in their prison-pink shorts headed home. Bokassa’s family moved him quickly into a protected residence, where he rusticated and eventually died.

     To his credit, Kolingba finally conceded. He acknowledged the validity of the results and the election of Ange Patassé as president. One of his final acts was to bestow the Order of Merit of the Central African Republic upon me, my French, German and European Union colleagues.

      Ironically, one of the first acts of President Patassé the next week was to award the four of us the same medal as a token of appreciation for our role in mandating the election. So, we each have two.