Grogan's Epic Walk

 

A review of Crossing the Heart of Africa – An Odyssey of Love and Adventure by Julian Smith, Harper Collins, NY, 2010

 

Readers, if any, of this blog will recognize that I enjoy books about travel in Africa. This is an interesting one. Author Smith’s gimmick is that he retraces the epic 1898 journey of Ewart Grogan, who walked from Cape to Cairo in order to secure the hand of the woman he loved. Smith too parallels Grogan’s quest, not only the route up the spine of Africa but with reflections on his relationship with the woman he is soon to marry.  I was not smitten with Smith’s romantic musings, but I did enjoy the alternating segments of what Grogan endured (and wrote about) and what Smith encountered. Obviously much had changed, especially in terms of transportation – Grogan walked while Smith used public conveyances – bikes, buses, boats, planes, which were much, much faster.  Smith’s journey is fleshed out by sporadic conversations with Africans that shed light on topics of the day whereas Grogan’s encounters with locals were often threatening, dangerous, and ultimately resolved through violence.

After Grogan succeeded in his quest (Smith stopped short), he did marry his beloved Gertrude (Smith married his love too). The Grogans moved to Kenya where the two became notable personages in the settler community. Grogan was a thorn in the government’s side, but a successful entrepreneur both in business and agriculture.  Among his efforts were vast sisal plantations in the area around Taveta on the Kenyan/Tanzanian border.  There he built an imposing house, dubbed Grogan’s castle, on a barren hilltop.  I was stationed in Mombasa from 1981-84 and visited the abandoned and dilapidating “castle” on several occasions.  It was indeed testimony to a vanished era and a monument to a remarkable man.

A sordid past of racism and paternalism

 

A review of Empires in the Sun by Lawrence James,Pegasus Books, NY, 2017 

This is an interesting history of Africa told from the perspective of the colonial powers. Even though events on the continent are clearly the focus of the record, author James relates how European nations viewed and constructed their empires, and then saw them dissolved.  Much of their considerations for empire were justified by “mission civilsatrice” but the underlying reasons were purely political and economic arising from inter European competition, not just for global standing but also for validation of their respective national cultures. For most of the several hundred years covered by the book Africans were depicted as sub-human, ignorant, pliable, savage, etc. Yet throughout James cites how Africans were progressing in defiance of such stereotyping.  And stereotyping it was. I was intrigued by the accounts of how popular media – newspapers, personal accounts, novels, films, comic books, expositions, etc.- shaped European popular views of backward Africans and how such media supported and endorsed governmental aspirations and policies to subjugate the continent.  It is an astonishing portrait of racism.

The history begins in the fifteenth century and progresses into the independence era. It deals with discovery, partition, colonialism, the awaking of independence consciousness, the impact of two world wars, the cold war, wars of independence and finally the end of apartheid.

I found several small errors of fact, but was dismayed by the cover map which neglects to depict the nation of South Sudan. In 2017, the date of publication, South Sudan had been independent for over five years.

This chronicle is detailed, sometimes too much so. The narrative jumps around from place to place in Africa and from year to year. Certainly, a reader needs already to have a solid background in African history to appreciate such convolutions.  That being said, I found the book readable and provocative because it does indeed elaborate on a long missing perspective on the history of the continent.  

Intrigue and Murder - What is Rwanda up to?

 

A review of Do Not Disturb – The Story of a Political Murder and an African Regime Gone Bad by Michela Wrong, Public Affairs, NY, 2021.

 This is a critical expose of Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his iron rule of his nation. The departure point for the critique is the 2014 murder of Patrick Karegeya in a Johannesburg Hotel.  Karegeya was a Kagame’s former colleague and chief of external security for Rwanda. But like several other of the regime’s founding fathers, Karegeya ran afoul of strong man Kagame. Patrick was imprisoned, humiliated, and fled into exile where he was executed by agents of the Rwandan regime.

The thrust of the book is to document how it all came to happen. Author Wrong earned investigative journalism stars by interviewing hundreds of Rwandans and Ugandans who were intimately connected to the story. They praised the personality, the ebullience and intelligence of Karegeya and detailed his slowly simmering disenchantment with the Tutsi regime that he helped construct.  Ultimately, Karegeya fell victim to the type of extrajudicial killing that he himself had once supervised. It was an ironic end.

Author Wrong digs deep into various personages involved, especially focusing on current president Paul Kagame. He is portrayed as cunning, vindictive, callous, and aloof. And he was like that from his youth. As president he fed on suspicions and rumors and then ordered actions to demean, imprison or kill his supposed adversaries. It is a troubling portrait of a man with too much unbridled power.

In contrast to Kagame was Fred Rwigyema, the initial leader of the Rwandan Patriotic Army who died during the first days of the invasion in 1990. Fred is portrayed as a uniter, a commander beloved by his troops. A martyr to the Tutsi cause, in speculative retrospect Rwigyema would have been a different type of president.

I found the history of how the various RPA stalwarts grew up in Uganda and how they interacted with each other from an early age to be instructive. Particularly pertinent was their various roles during their adhesion to Museveni’s National Resistance Army and their relationships to Ugandan heavyweights. 

Author Wrong marshals her anti-Kagame denunciation with statements from other once prominent Rwandans who too were chased away by Kagame.  Some like Hutu politician Seth Sendashonga (and presumably Karegeya who organized an exiled political party) were murdered because they posed a legitimate threat.  Others, however, became disenchanted with the direction Kagame was taking the nation, were associated with real dissenters or just ran afoul of Kagame’s intolerance for views other than his own.  The totality of the accusations reveals a policy of carefully choreographed – but often inane - plots designed to kill exiled opponents.   It is a stinging indictment of Kagame and of his ruling style.  

Disclaimer. I was the U.S. Ambassador in Rwanda during the early years of renewed Tutsi rule just after the genocide. I knew Patrick Karegeya, then-Vice President Paul Kagame, and many of those whose stories and comments also appear in the book. I understood at the time that Rwandans could be duplicitous and that they valued an ability to obfuscate, for example regarding Rwanda’s heavy handedness in quashing the northern insurgency or involvement in neighboring Zaire (now Congo). Although during my time strains were evident with regard to Hutu political personages and Tutsi survivors, the core Rwandan Patriotic Army team appeared to be solid. They adhered unwaveringly to the established party line.  The sorts of internal fallings-out that Michela Wrong reports did not reveal themselves until later.

Patrick Karegeya was head of the External Security Service. In that capacity I had dealings with him. He was most helpful on August 7, 1998 the day the American embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam were blown up. We in Kigali feared that we might too be on a terrorist list. In addition to a quick response from the military to safeguard our premises, Patrick assured me that no Al Qaeda operatives were in Rwanda.

 Comment: This book is quite critical of Paul Kagame in both a personal and policy sense. It is accurate, at least in the sense that it sums up the experience of those who fell afoul of the regime and were/are pursued for it. The indictment is overwhelming. As is probably obvious (and footnoted), many comments were made anonymously.  Such information strengthens the argument, but anonymity undermines it at the same time.  I am not sure what the other side of the coin is but would urge readers to reflect that there might be one.

Error:  In the chapter on genocide, Wrong writes that “French, Belgian and American nationals were airlifted to safety…” True most French and Belgians flew out, but the Americans left via an overland convoy to Burundi.

Omission: I am sorry that Author Wrong did not consult my book In the Aftermath of Genocide – The U.S. Role in Rwanda. There are several tidbits in there such as the saga of how Rwigyema’s assignment to the U.S. Command General Staff College was swapped to Kagame or more on how ADFL leader Laurent Kabila came to U.S. attention.  

Final comment: State ordered extrajudicial killings have become all too common, viz in addition to Rwanda, add Saudi Arabia, Russia, Israel and unfortunately the United States.  Aside from highlighting the issue, what can be done to halt the practice?

Hemingway in Africa

 

A review of True at First Light by Ernest Hemingway, Scriber, NY, 1999.

Everything you wanted to know about a hunting camp on the slopes of Mt. Kilimanjaro in 1953.  This fictional memoir as it is described is drawn from the journals of Ernest Hemingway. The material was edited down posthumously by his son Patrick, himself a big game hunter in East Africa. The book was published in 1999 long after Hemingway’s death in 1961.  Yet the work harks back accurately to the fifties. It is full of description, dialogue and anecdotes.

There is essentially no plot. The first half of the book revolves around securing a lion for Mary to kill and the second half about preparations for Christmas.  There is ongoing dialogue, way too much of it I thought, between Ernest and Mary and amongst others. But that is how the story, such as it is, progresses.  You learn that Hemingway drank, slept, ruminated, hunted, bickered with Mary and had eyes for a Kamba girl. You learn that he had – for the era – surprisingly positive relationships with his employees. He treated everyone with dignity and evidently enjoyed real friendships with several.  However, he was still the Bwana, the proprietor of the camp and the employer. So, he was apparently loved and respected, but always with a bit of caution. Nonetheless Hemingway sought to ingratiate himself with those around him. He appeared to enjoy the status of being the Bwana without the burden of being a famous writer.

When the journal turns to hunting, it is spot on, obviously based on real encounters and legitimate understanding of the process.  Hemingway’s portrayals of the Kamba and Maasai people indicates astute observation and grasp of their respective cultures.   The material is occasionally humorous in some overblown descriptions of characters or actions but also in the ongoing joke of Hemingway being central to his own fictitious religion

I happened to be reading this book – that I found in searching a library website – when the PBS series on Hemingway was broadcast. In reality, Hemingway did spend months in Kenya in 1953 running the hunting camp he so ably describes.  During this period, his marriage to Mary was in trouble, but there is only a glimmer of that in the book. As part of an effort to salvage it, the two took a small aircraft to see Murchison Falls in Uganda.  The plane crashed there as did their rescue plane upon taking off.  Hemingway suffered brain injuries that would only manifest themselves over time. To recuperate he installed himself in a fishing lodge at Shimoni on the Kenyan coast where he drank copiously for months. Mary left him.

I doubt if True at First Light adds much to Hemingway’s literary reputation. It is in fact what it purports to be - a fictional memoir.  It is kind of interesting, but not gripping. Parts are boring. Only African or Hemingway aficionados will enjoy it.  

A tramp across Africa

 

A review of Walking the Nile by Levison Wood, Grove Atlantic, NY, 2015

 

As the title indicates this book is a travelogue. Intrepid walker Lev Wood undertook to trudge alongside the Nile, as close as paths and roads permitted, from its initial spring in the hills of Rwanda to its delta on the Mediterranean Sea. All told it was a trip of 4800 miles and took eight months. Along the way, Wood met many friendly folks, some unfriendly ones, and a host of suspicious government officials. He was feted, praised, and welcomed in some communities and viewed cautiously or even hostilely in others. All asked, why would anyone, especially a white man, walk such a distance? It was puzzling.  Wood himself had no clear answer, except that was what he was doing. It was his adventure and quest.

Wood was in Rwanda twenty years after the genocide, yet the vestiges of it lingered. He trekked through miserable heat in northern Uganda and lost a companion to heat stroke. He found an ongoing civil war in South Sudan and had to skip a most dangerous section. He crossed the deserts of Sudan and Egypt. In Egypt especially he was frustrated by excessive suspicion and bureaucracy. Finally, he made it to the sea.

All told it was indeed an epic journey and Wood recounts it well – the trials, tribulations, inner worries, interactions with those who accompanied him and with people he met along the way. I know five of the six nations he traversed so I pulled out my maps and vicariously enjoyed the journey.    

Not all who wander are lost

 

A review of The Explorers by Martin Dugard, Simon & Schuster, NY, 2014.

 

Author Dugard uses the conflict between 19^th century searchers for the source of the Nile Richard Burton and John Hanning Specke as the vehicle to delve into the exploits and psyches of explorers writ large. He covers personalities including St. Brennan, Columbus, Cook, Livingstone, Scott, Shackleford, Hillary and Lindbergh.  He is interested not just in what they did and the often-awful trials and hardships they endured, but what made them tic? What made them - self-selected for the most part – devote themselves to exploration?  What motivated them?  To answer these questions, Dugard dipped into both physical and psychological explanations. How did their brains work and function differently from others?  What truly motivated them? He concluded it was not riches or fame, but the completion of the quest itself.  This is aptly demonstrated in the saga of Burton and Specke, two men of decidedly different temperament who yet united in the quest to unravel a great mystery of their age – the source of the Nile. Dugard keeps the Specke/Burton theme ongoing throughout the book even as he illustrates characteristics exemplified by them in other notable explorers.

I thought the book wandered around too much. It is not chronological. Additionally, I thought Dugard over-analyzed the psyches and motivations of people long dead on flimsy evidence.  That being said, I enjoyed the various thumbnail sketches of famous explorers, where they went, what they endured and what they accomplished.     

 

Military Prowess - German Resilience in East Africa

 

A review of African Kaiser – General Paul Von Lettow-Vorbeck and the Great War in Africa, 1914-1918 by Robert Gaudi, Caliber, NY, 2017.

This is a fascinating account of the life and war of  Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck, the German commander in East Africa who fought and strategically retreated, effectively stymieing Allied forces hundreds of times larger for years. The only undefeated German commander in the war, von Lettow-Vorbeck surrendered his troops in (then) northern Rhodesia days after the armistice was signed in Europe.  A genuine military genius and heroic leader, von Lottow-Vorbeck, while personable in a social context, could be cold, calculating, and ruthless in pursuit of military objectives.

Scion of a Prussian aristocratic family, like many of his forbearers Paul was destined to be a soldier.  His route into the German military establishment in the 1880s was typical, but he yearned for action. He gained overseas experience in China during the Boxer Rebellion. He also saw service in German South West Africa in the early 1900s combatting Herero and Hottentot uprisings. Author Gaudi details these formative experiences which gave von Lettow-Vorbeck insight into foreign cultures and methods of combat. These insights helped him frame the tactics he would use against superior forces during WWI.

Colonel von Lettow-Vorbeck became military commander in German East Africa in 1914. As the world tumbled towards war, he prepared for conflict.  His approach stood in stark contrast to Heinrick Schnee, Germany’s Governor of the colony who advocated neutrality.  Although on the same side, the two would continue to differ throughout the war. Lettow-Vorbeck’s plan was to engage British forces, to draw them into conflict, to compel Britain to deploy massive numbers of troops and resources to engage him. He doubted if he could win a campaign. However, his calculus was to the extent that Allied resources were tied up in East Africa they would not be available for the war in Europe.  This premise proved to be correct.

Initially von Lettow-Vorbeck had a small force of less than three thousand Germans and about ten thousand African troops.  His use of black troops was derided by racist British adversaries, but he knew they were loyal to him and could fight.  Of course, this number dwindled enormously over the course of the war. Ultimately, British Empire forces engaged in the chase numbered over three hundred thousand, plus naval assets deployed to control the Indian Ocean.

The history of the war which author Gaudi recounts in detail tells of several major confrontations such as the British attacks on Tanga and Taveta. Beyond that he personalizes the conflict and key people involved, especially von Lettow-Vorbeck.  Gaudi draws on official documents, diaries, and memoirs from both sides of the conflict to elucidate not just on tactics, but also emotions, pains and reflections.  The violence of war was horrible for all involved. Even so, it was the hardship of the bush that was most debilitating to both sides. Diseases of all types, especially malaria, killed thousands. Lack of food, ammunition and equipment especially plagued the isolated Germans.  At one point during the war the high command in Berlin authorized a zeppelin, flying from Europe, to resupply the beleaguered forces but it never arrived.  Similarly, Gaudi tells the saga of the British search and destroy effort aimed at the German battleship Konigsberg which took refuge in the Rufiji River delta.  After the ship was sunk, Germans put her big guns on carriages and used them effectively in succeeding years.

In summary, African Kaiser, is a definitive biography of Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck and a superb history of World War One in Africa.  I pulled out my maps of East Africa, tracked the action and thoroughly enjoyed the read.