The wind makes dust: Four centuries of travel in southern Africa
by Ben Maclennan (Tafelberg)
Offbeat and unusual are two ways of summing up this anthology of Southern African travel par excellence, but they hardly do it justice. In fact, it’s hard to describe a book that has everything from boys’ own adventure stories, terrifying and blood-curdling wildlife encounters, and downright weird and bizarre accounts of times past.
It all begins with Vasco da Gama, that pioneering ‘accidental†tourist who opened the trade route round the horn from Portugal to India. An account from one of his voyages launches chapter one, which covers the years 1470 to 1700 with an introduction that reads: ‘In which a noble lady is stripped naked, shipwrecked sailors eat frogs, dogs, local residents and their dead comrades, Jan Verdonk surrenders his hat to a rhinoceros and we are told of a nation with eyes in their feet.â€
Get the picture? It’s riveting stuff!
Chapter two, covering 1700 to 1800, contains accounts of ‘the most farting animal under the sun, some extraordinary smoking — and the effect of tobacco oil on a snakeâ€.
I kid you not, the accounts are at times hilarious and simultaneously a marvellous window on the past, illustrating how Africa built up its reputation as the Dark Continent.
There’s warnings from David Livingstone against the dangers of constipation, political comment from Anthony Trollope: ‘Our duty to the Kaffir, of course, is to civilise him—†and Gandhi’s recollection of travelling by train from Durban, a week after arriving in the country as a newly qualified lawyer. A first-class ticket was booked for him, but he was thrown off the train in Pietermaritzburg by railway officials after a passenger alerted them to the fact that a ‘coloured†man was travelling first class!
The book ends with the year 1900 and a poignant comment from Zulu Ndukwana ka Mbengwana, historian James Stuart’s chief informant. He talks about the land before the white man came: ‘Paths, private or public, slightly used and greatly used, traversed the country in all directions. There were no such things as roads, for there were no wagons. In no place could a man be said to be trespassing; there was freedom or right of way in all directions.â€
For those of you who want a whole new vision of Southern Africa, this is an absolute must. It’s a fascinating read and well worth the addition to the coffee-table collection.