Monday, May 2, 2016

Teddy in British East Africa

Annamaria on Monday





Digging around, looking for the history of East Africa in the early Twentieth Century, Teddy Roosevelt popped up.  I have always been a fan of TR.  Who wouldn't love the guy who doubled the number of America's national parks and earned himself the title "The Conservation President."

Teddy traveled in Africa for nearly a year from April 1909 until March 1910. At the time he was fifty-one years old and had already served as President of the United States for seven and a half years, and he had a reputation as an author, naturalist, explorer, hunter, and soldier.
His African expedition began in Mombasa, in what was then called British East Africa.  Here is a map of the places he explored:
 



He shot big game and mapped the terrain, documented the lives of the indigenous people, and took examples of the flora and fauna.  He wrote an article for the National Geographic, made a report to the Museum of Natural History, and wrote a book about his experiences called African Game Trails.  
He even took a film crew with him.  The Library of Congress has put up a montage of the some of the film they shot.  I cannot tell you how carefully I look at what's in the background, at what the people are wearing; every single detail informs my vision of the place at that time. 




And you can find his book—both a PDF of the printed volume and, astonishingly, a facsimile of his handwritten manuscript if you follow this link:

From our twenty-first century perspective, going to Africa to kill animals was a brutal idea.  But it was the norm in Teddy’s time for well-to-do adventurers to engage in that “sport.”  Here’s a quote that shows his appreciation for the beauty of what he experienced. 
The hunter who wanders through these lands sees sights which ever afterward remain fixed in his mind.... Apart from this, yet mingled with it, is the strong attraction of the silent places, of the large tropic moons, and the splendor of the new stars; where the wanderer sees the awful glory of sunrise and sunset in the wide waste spaces of the earth, unworn of man, and changed only by the slow change of the ages through time everlasting. - Col. Theodore Roosevelt in Khartoum, March 15, 1910

If you remain unconvinced and prefer to dislike Teddy Roosevelt because he slaughtered innocent animals, you might want to also consider that he won the Nobel Peace Prize for negotiating the end of the Russo-Japanese War and shortly after taking over the Presidency following the assassination of McKinley—at the age of just 42—he delivered a 20,000 word address to Congress urging that they curb the power of corporations.  This the work of a Republican President!

Given what's going on in that party these days, he looks like a saint to me.  Flawed as all saints have always been.  But a saint nonetheless.

I know where Teddy was in 1909-1910, but now I wish we knew where he is when we really need him?

14 comments:

  1. Hear, hear. I'd LOVE to have Teddy as president today. Hell, I'd take just about ANY president from before Reagan, not in place of Obama, but whoever follows him. I'd also take almost any Congress from before Reagan's time, even the Do Nothing Congress of the late 40s was more productive than our current bunch of uneducated pre-schoolers.

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    1. Uneducated preschoolers indeed, EvKa. There are so many in Congress who would rather see the US fail than to see Obama succeed. RATS!

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  2. Republicans were often the good guys, at least through Eisenhower. They have been in the process of devolution since then.

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    1. Right you are, Jono. They look to me as if they are decomposing.

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  3. TR was a president to admire, and though I'm not a hunter, I have no problem with those who hunt responsibly as, in my experience, they are often some of the most vigorous conservationists--regardless of their other political positions.

    Loved the film!

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    1. Glad you liked it, Jeff. What a boon it is to me!

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  4. I love TR too - the part of me that loves and feels most at home in wild places loves that he cared enough to make conservation a priority.

    I also love that he shot video that you can use for research. How cool is that??

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    1. Extremely cool, Susan! It's nice to be writing about an era where such records were possible!

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  5. Hunting animals? I think I was dragged to a residence of TR where animal heads were displayed on ALL of the walls. I didn't like it then nor now.
    And what about promoting colonialism? Not good in my book.
    So, not a fan.

    But the presidential election farce is continuing and it must look absolutely ridiculous to the rest of the world.

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    1. Kathy, I fully understand. Because I have to immerse myself in the atmosphere of the time and be careful about anachronisms, I tend to look at the people in context. It's a stretch to say such a thing, but I wonder what Teddy's opinions and behaviors would be if he had been born a hundred years later. I think he would agree with us. He was quite sensitive for a man of his times. But he had no choice but to be a man of his times and his class.

      Regarding the world's opinion of current events in the US, I can only report what I heard in Europe this past January and February: People were stupefied and afraid of what "gli Americani" or "les Americanes might foist upon the rest of the world.

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  6. Coincidentally, today (Tuesday May 3) the US Amazon "Kindle Daily Deals" includes the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" for $1.99.

    http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Theodore-Roosevelt-Book-ebook/dp/B004DEPH3E/

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  7. Coincidentally, today (Tuesday May 3) the US Amazon "Kindle Daily Deals" includes the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winning "The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt" for $1.99.

    http://www.amazon.com/Rise-Theodore-Roosevelt-Book-ebook/dp/B004DEPH3E/

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    1. Thanks, EvKa. It's nice to know the cosmos consciousness is at work somewhere is my fevered brain!

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  8. Well, I always expect the best of people, especially those who think about more than themselves.
    There were the abolitionists during slavery for one example.
    And activists, Black and white, who opposed apartheid in South Africa.
    And Resistance fighters during WWII.
    And even pacifists during WWI.
    And then anti-war protesters during the Vietnam war, millions of them eventually.
    And then during the Civil Rights Movement.

    A lot of people can and do rise above the horrors and do the right thing according to the laws of their own consciences. It takes conviction and courage.

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