Literature: Books of Albert Schweitzer
concerning medicine in the African rain forest
Medical reports from Africa:
1) On the edge of the primeval forest (orig. German:
Zwischen Wasser und Urwald (Edition Haupt, Berne 1921 -
Spanish: Entre el agua y la selva virgen)
2) Letters from Lambarene 1924-1927 (orig. German: Briefe
aus Lambarene 1924-1927)
3) Out of My Life & Thought (orig. German: Aus meinem
Leben und Denken 1931 - Spanish: Mi vida y pensamientos)
Other sources
Sources for the time from 1924-1927 in Lambarene are also
the reviews of the C.H.Beck Edition, which were mainly
written for the donors of the hospital:
--
Messages from Lambarene. First and
second review (spring 1924 - autumn 1925). C.H.Beck
Edition, 164 pages
--
Messages from Lambarene. Third review
(autumn 1925-summer 1927). C.H.Beck-Verlag, 74 pages
The reviews are also available in Swedish, English and
Dutch, English with the title: "More from the Primeval
Forest" (Life + Thought, p.219)
Albert Schweitzer 08: Living conditions in
Africa in general
February 14, 1924
Departure from Strasbourg
Wife Helene stays in Europe because of health problems
(Life+Thought, p.214)
There are destroyed steamers on the African coast line
- almost 12 wrecks washed up by storms
From Freetown, the drive along the coast requires a lot of
caution because of the many shallows that push out into
the sea. Right at Cape Sierra Leone one can see a steamer
stranded years ago on such a rock slab. Almost a dozen
such wrecks will show up in the next few days. In order to
save kilometers our captain dares to stay so close to the
coast (p.482) so that we never lose sight of it. He has
made the path several times. That is why he is even
allowed to enter ports at night that can only be
identified by a single light. (Letters from Lambarene,
p.483)
March 10, 1924: Cape Palmas - an upturned ship on the
beach - the steamer reaches the Gulf of Guinea
On Monday, March 10th [1924], around noon we are passing
Cape Palmas. We can clearly see the palm trees on the
heights that give it its name. To the north of the
lighthouse there is a big ship that the hurricane has put
on the beach and turned over so that the keel is looking
towards the sky (letters from Lambarene, p.483).
From Cape Palmas the journey no longer goes south, but
east, into the Gulf of Guinea, to the countries around
which the Niger draws its enormous bow. (Letters from
Lambarene, p.484)
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
Port of Sassandra (Ivory Coast) - unloading
cargo onto boats in front of shallow harbors
<In the boat that carries us ashore through the
surf of the small port of Sassandra, on the Ivory Coast,
the oarsman's captain says to Noël, who is traveling in
shorts: "You are still too young to come to Africa!" To
save his dignity, I interject: "Yes, but he is clever
and capable," which is an approving "Ah!" triggers.
(Letters from Lambarene, p.484) [...]
The boats typically have 10 rowers and a helmsman who
handles the big flap behind. They load only a few boxes
or barrels. The heavier the boat, the more vulnerable it
is in the surf, because it can then no longer snuggle up
to the waves up and down nimbly enough. The crew of an
unloading boat receives around 10 schillings for each
trip. Often the ship has to anchor so far from the beach
that they can only make 3 or 4 trips a day. This is then
an expensive unloading. The freight to these African
ports is also not cheap for the ship, although it is
relatively high. Under certain circumstances, even
during calm weather, it may have to lie for a day to
unload only 20 tons. Or several ships happen to come
together in such a port. Then the number of unloading
boats is insufficient and there are waiting days for the
ships having arrived last.
Unloading cargo on boats in shallow harbors: damages
provoked by blacks
In addition to these inevitable losses, there are those
that are provoked by being negligent or by inefficient
operations. In Sassandra I see the rowers loading boxes
of sugar and sacks of rice into a boat that is still
half full of seawater when it comes back through the
surf. "Please empty the boat first," I tell the guide.
"What for (letters from Lambarene, p.486) are the
insurance companies for damaged freight for?" he
replies.
Unloading cargo onto boats in front of shallow
harbors: The port's schedule means long waiting times
In a port, I don't know in which one, the rule applies
that it is no longer allowed to unload from 11:30am
until 2:00 pm and from 5:00 pm onwards. At 11 a quarter
of a quarter I see 2 unloading boats approaching the
ship from land, which took them more than one hour. At
the moment when they are to be loaded, the rowers clap
their hands to signal that it is half past eleven and
drive back the way empty, although they would have had
their load in only 10 minutes - the sea is very calm. At
2 o'clock they push off again from the land and at half
past three they are back along the ship. In former
times, the rower teams were resting and eating when they
had come back during the day and in this way the turns
were arranged. Today everything is reulated so any
efficiency is blocked and much time is lost and nobody
gets a profit of it. How many hours does our ship dance
around by its anchor chain on these roads, waiting for
the unloading boats!
African ports with bureaucracy: "A whole afternoon"
waiting for the "issue of the health certificate of
our ship"
And more time is lost proceeding formalities of arrival
and departure! One time we are waiting a complete
afternoon for leaving the port, a health certificate of
our ship is missing, with the stamp of the port doctor.
I am calculating with the captain that we loose by all
these inefficient conditions and delays proceeding
formalities of arraival and departure during the way
there at least 4 days. The way back may be the same, so
these are 8 days lost during the complete tour. The
costs of the ship with the crew of 36 men are 150
English Pounds a day. Therefore, the freight of the ship
could cost 1200 English Pounds less (Letters from
Lambarene, p.487) and the goods could be cheaper for
people in Africa when the work for the unloading teams
and when the work of the officials would be efficient
and not inefficient.
The port of Sekondee on the "Gold Coast" - and a
little plague
The port of Sekondee, on the Gold Coast, has been
declared contaminated because of some plague cases in
the inner [of the country?]. Nobody is allowed to come
on board from the shore and nobody is allowed to go
ashore from the ship. Unloading is permitted, but the
port police ensure that only boxes and barrels move
between the ship and the unloading boats.
Despite the poor quality of the ports on the Gulf of
Guinea (Pepper Coast, Ivory Coast, Gold Coast and Slave
Coast) there always was a living trade. Because these
ports have their position at the intrence of big lagoons
connecting the sea with wide regions of the inner of the
country and with rivers which come down from the Niger
River water shed.
Sailing ships with rum and gunpowder - the blacks
then act drunk against the sailing ships
And one has to see also this: The sailing ships of
former times were not affected of the unfavorable ports
as the modern steamers of today. Sailing ships had a
shallow draft which permitted to enter the lagoons where
they sold their rum and gunpowder. Well, when a sailing
boat was in such a lagoon this also was a trap and
attacks by the natives were not rare because rum and
gunpoweder were just the ammunition developping the joy
for robbery. In the Sassandra lagoon there was a crew of
a sailing ship killed in the 19th century yet, only one
ship-boy could escape.
Guinea - the origin of the "Gulf Stream" and
countercurrents
During the trip along the coast line of Guinea I am
again on the command bridge and I am learning about the
mysteries of these waters where the Guls Stream has got
it's origin. As it's well known the Gulf Stream is not
streaming in a unique streaming leaving the Golf of
Guinea and then to the north, but there are streams and
counter streams just side by side (Letters from
Lambarene, p.488). Already at the height of the coast of
Liberia this strange play can be observed which the sea
maps can only show in an incomplete way despite of all
research about it. Nobody knows precisely if the ship is
in the stream or in the counter stream. In 24 hours
depending on the course of the ship it can change
several times from the current into the countercurrent
and from the countercurrent into the current. Streams
and counter streams have speeds of 3 to 10km/h.
Depending on being in a stream or counter stream, the
ship can win 100km of way in 24 hours or loose, this can
be found out the next day with the determination of the
position in correlation with the sun on midday - will be
a good or bad surprise.
Ivory Coast - the wood test with the current
In the roadstead at Grand Bassam, on the Ivory Coast, I
take the opportunity to roughly calculate the speed of
the current. When there is no wind, when our anchored
ship is positioned in the direction of the current, I
throw pieces of wood from the bow, which I have begged
from the ship's carpenter, into the water several times
and calculate how long it will take to get to the other
end of the ship to get. The ship is 106 meters long. The
timbers cover this distance in 5 minutes and 48 seconds.
The current goes along the coast in the direction from
west to east and is therefore a countercurrent to the
Gulf Stream. Despite the inhibition of the beach, which
is only 200 meters away, the water here moves with a
speed of about one kilometer per hour along the coast!
Harbor of Cotonou with quarantine - passengers have
to go to Fernando Po - stories of "American" natives
Although we had no contact with the country in Sekondee
and meanwhile we were admitted without quarantine in
Accra, on the Gold Coast, and in Lome, in Togoland
(letters from Lambarene, p.489), we are in Cotonou, the
port of Dahomey, declared in quarantine. We have to
unload our cargo in the strictest of seclusion, which
does not help to speed up business. Some colored tween
deck passengers who have come on board on the Gold Coast
and want to go to Cotonou are not allowed to land and
have to go with Fernando Po, even though they are
penniless and do not know how to get back from there. I
feel sorry for them and tear myself away from my book to
show them my condolences. I take a look at the book that
one of these negro passengers has in front of him. He
reads stories of "American" natives in English. I myself
hold a well-worn volume of familiar "American" native
stories in my hand, which a boy from the vicinity of
Strasbourg gave me as a present to Africa. After the
negro passenger has come to terms with his fate, we sit
next to each other and read "American" native
stories under the African sun.
March 22, 1924: Port of Cotonou - a birth on the
ship? - Prepare the feeding bottle 8 times a day?
We are going on near Cotonou, it's night and the date
has just changed to March 22 [1924], and the only woman
on board is giving birth to a child on board with a
doctor as assistant. The baby was awaited only for
Duala. As no other woman is on board, I have the duty to
cure mother and child so I am busy for some days: Heat
in a ship's kitchen in the tropic is horrible; eight
times a day I am there for preparing the baby's bottle.
And as the child - a boy - cannot see yet what is day
and what is night, teh boy sleeps during the day and is
shouting in the night. Then I have to walk with it
around in the hot dining room where his cradle made of
wood is placed. And also Noël has to help. He (Letters
from Lambarene, p.490) has to accept also to be a nurse
when he is in Africa.
[This story sounds pretty impossible. African women
actually always breastfeed their baby WITHOUT a feeding
bottle].
March 26, 1924: The Spanish colonial island of
Fernando Po - guest workers because the population was
destroyed - cocoa at an inflated price
Wednesday, March 26th [1924], we are in the small port
of Santa Isabella on Fernando Po. Fernando Po is a
volcanic island off the Cameroon coast, belonging to
Spain, of extraordinary fertility. The cocoa grows
particularly well on it, although the best cocoa does
not come from Africa but from Guatemala. But the great
difficulty on Fernando Po is finding workers to grow
cocoa. A resident colored population no longer exists,
so to speak. It has been worn out by the cruel forced
labor previously practiced. Fernando Po, a true
paradise, is therefore dependent on workers who move
there. But no African colony allows their blacks to
emigrate. The current governor has now managed to sign a
contract with the negro republic of Liberia, according
to which every year so many Liberians are allowed to
work in Fernando Po for a certain period of time.
Thereupon he is considered the savior of the island,
although the workers granted by Liberia are far from
sufficient, and was given a statue in bronze in front of
his palace. Nothing illuminates the African labor issue
as brightly as this memorial on Fernando Po, sparkling
in the sun. Because workers are hard to get, they have
to be paid with high salaries and they have to be
treated very leniently. They do very little. That is why
the cocoa that the fertile island produces is far above
the world market price. So it could not be sold at all
if Spain had not imposed high tariffs on all cocoa that
did not come from its colonies. All of the cocoa from
Fernando Po moves to Spain. The Spaniard drinks cocoa,
which is much more expensive than the other Europeans,
in order to artificially maintain cocoa cultivation on
one of the most fertile islands in the world. (Letters
from Lambarene, p.491)
Duala (Cameroon) March 27, 1924: Mother with baby has
to wait 2 days because of stamp issues
In the dark of night, the captain maneuvers the steamer
out of the small bay in a virtuoso manner, and on March
27th around noon we are in Duala. Since the passport of
our mother with baby does not have all the stamps it
should have, she has to stay on board until further
notice, and Noël and I stay with her, as she would have
no one else to look after. After two days, permission
was obtained to disembark her for the time being as
sick. My last job is to carry her down the swaying
stairway to the launch, marveled at by Kroo people as a
strong man. Then we hurry ashore as free people.>
(Letters from Lambarene, p.492)
Losses of goods
A considerable part of shipments from Europe to Gabon is
lost due to transport damage (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.379).
Trip to Gabon - hardly any agriculture -
the killer gang of the "leopard people"
1924
Cruise Cameroon-Gabon - arrival in Cape Lopez (Port
Gentil)
On Monday we go on board of the mail steamer
"Europe", which took me to Africa on my first voyage. In
two days we will be in Cape Lopez, which is now called
Port Gentil. On the beach I am recognized by natives who
are delighted that "our doctor" is back again. (Letters
from Lambarene, p.499)
Gabon: Cruise from Port Gentil to Lambarene on the
steamer "Alembe"
We leave Cape Lopez on Maundy Thursday
afternoon on board of the river steamer "Alembe", on
which I also made my voyage up the Ogowe in 1913. How
old and frail and dirty has it got! Among the white
timber merchants on board I meet some friends from
before and am warmly welcomed (letters from Lambarene,
p.500)
In the quiet of Good Friday I move back between the
water and the jungle. There are the same antediluvian
landscapes again, the same swamps overgrown with
papyrus, the same crumbling villages, the same ragged
blacks. How poor this country is compared to the Gold
Coast and Cameroon ... poor because it is so rich in
precious forests! (Letters from Lambarene, p.500)
Gabon: Everyone works in the timber trade - nobody does
agriculture anymore
The exploitation of the forests comes at the
expense of the cultivation of food. These have to be
introduced. Wherever we stop, the same thing is unloaded
again and again: sacks of rice, boxes of ship's
biscuits, boxes of stockfish and barrels of red wine.
(Letters from Lambarene, p.500)
Gabon: The killer mafia of the "leopard people"
At the ship's table, after the wood prices and
the labor issue have been dealt with, the discussion
turns to the societies of leopard men, whose mischief
has increased everywhere in recent years. They are
distributed all over the west coast of Africa. The
[Jesus Fantasy] missionaries from Duala told me that
they are coming to areas (letters from Lambarene, p.500)
which for months have been so under the terror of the
leopard people that after dark no one dares to leave the
hut. Two years ago, a leopard man also committed a
murder at the Lambarene mission station. (Letters from
Lambarene, p.501)
Leopard people are people who are obsessed with the
belief that they are actually leopards and as such must
kill people. When killing them, they try to behave like
leopards. They go on all fours; they tie leopard claws
or iron claws to their hands and feet to leave traces
like leopards; they injure the carotid artery of their
victims like the leopard does. (Letters from Lambarene,
p.501)
The "leopard people" mafia: the magic potion and the
belief in "magic power"
What is really strange is that most of leopard
people are becoming like this just involuntarily. They
are made like this by the leopard peiople society
without knowing about it. Friom the blood of a murdered
person a magic drink is prepared. Then an elected person
gets a drink with a little bit of this magic drink in
it. Having drunk this mixture it is presented to the
victim having enjoyed the magic drink and by this would
be member of the association. Nobody defends against
this offer. The belief of having magic force with a
magic drink is dominating them. They obey without will.
(Letters from Lambarene, p.501)
The "leopard people" mafia: the test of courage for
the inauguration
First they normally have to hijack a brother or a sister
where leopard people is attacking the victim and killing
it. Then they have to murder themselves. (Letters
from Lambarene, p.501)
The "leopard people" mafia: suicide in the group
An official in the interior of the Ogowe
area, who had received orders during these months to
control the mischief of the leopard people, had captured
90 suspects. But they didn't reveal anything, they
poisoned themselves all in prison. (p.501)
May be this society of leopard humans is a movement of
pure superstition, or it's a group for revenge and
plundering. It's not known. In Africa there is a great
development of rebellion going on, and there are more
secret societies coming up. There is new superstition,
primitive fanatism, and mordern Bolshevism having
strange connections on the black continent. (Letters
from Lambarene, p.502)
Living conditions in the tropical part of
Gabon on the Ogowe River
--
The Ogowe river basin is in the southern
hemisphere with winter from May to October as the "dry
season" and with summer from October to May as the "rainy
season", with a short dry season of 3-4 weeks in between
from Dic.25 to the end of January with the heat peak (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.323)
-- average temperatures in the dry season (winter) are 25
to 30ºC, in the rainy season (summer) 28 to 35ºC; the
nights are not cool (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.323)
-- Lambarene is always [almost always] calm, wind only
comes up during the short tornado thunderstorms (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.403), and in the evening there is
always a light evening breeze and palm trees rustle softly
to the loud music of crickets, toads and animal screams
from the jungle (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.451)
--
only 2 months of dry season: In the
tropical part of Gabon on the Ogowe River there is only
two months of dry season in July and August, and that too
is not safe (letters from Lambarene, p.529).
The dry season and the dangerous sandbanks in the Ogowe
River
-- in this dry season the river level sinks considerably
and you can go for a walk on the sandbanks (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.455), whole villages are camping on the
sandbanks and they are fishing there (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.343,455), so that less patients come to the
hospital (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.455) or the
mentally ill are transported in the dryness to a sandbank,
where they can romp around unbound (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.360)
-- sandbanks at the hospital in Lambarene also serve as
"mailboxes" to anonymously unload sick people there
(letters from Lambarene, p.675)
-- shipping during the dry season is very dangerous: when
steamers get stuck, it may take days for getting away
(letters from Lambarene, p.670,684), or if motor boats hit
a sandbank, they become defective (letters from Lambarene,
p.531), or if wooden rafts run into a sandbank, the entire
raft has to be dismantled and reassembled, the loss of
time is up to 8 days (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.411)
-- always after the dry season there are new waves of
patients when the fishing season is over (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.455)
-- the Ogowe river area is approx. 1200 km long, at the
lower reaches of the Ogowe is 1 to 2 km wide, the delta is
200 km long, a total of 350 km are navigable to N'Djôle,
with primeval forest on the riverbanks (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p. 321) - cultivation in the tropical
climate is good for coffee, pepper, cinnamon, vanilla,
cocoa, oil palms, rubber (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.322) and for corn is yielding in 4 months (letters from
Lambarene, p.613).
--
then there is hill country with rapids,
which can only be driven with small screw steamers and
canoes, with prairie and forest on the riverbanks (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.321).
--
the bay and the timber trade: The Ogowe
Estuary is in a bay, ideal for a port with calm waves.
Overall, Africa has few such natural harbors. The timber
trade with tree trunks from the jungle is flourishing in
this bay, because the calm waves are ideal for loading
wood onto the merchant ships (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.322).
--
wooden boards: Beams and boards have a
high value, also as used goods, because there are hardly
any sawmills in the jungle (letters from Lambarene,
p.677).
--
canoes: Canoes are carved out of thick
tree trunks, have no steering, a paddler has to steer at
the end of the canoe, always in coordination with the
paddlers at the tip of the canoe (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.356).
--
canoes: maintain canoes
Canoes have to be repaired and tarred again and again
(letters from Lambarene, p.606)
--
canoe trips:
-- In Africa there are tropical plants whose leaves and
roots have an euphoric effect, so that an activity is
possible for 1 day without hunger, thirst or fatigue, but
more and more euphoria and exuberance develop (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p .362).
-- Light and heat are reflected by the river water (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.356-357).
--
tornadoes and sinking ships: Tornadoes
and sinking ships or canoes because of tornadoes are
always possible on the tropical-African Atlantic coast
[because the coast is at the same height as the Caribbean]
(letters from Lambarene, p.582)
--
tornadoes destroy the roofs of leaves:
Every tornado constantly provokes holes in the canopy of
leaves, which then have to be repaired and every 2 to 3
years the canopy has to be covered again (letters from
Lambarene, p.640)
The roofs are so bad that Albert Schweitzer is always busy
with repairs in the afternoon (letters from Lambarene,
p.640).
[and patients become sick and die when it's raining into
the the hut - see
chapter
7].
The whites in the jungle of Gabon
-- the Whites from Europe or the "USA" get tired and
anemia comes after 1 year, after 2 to 3 years they are no
longer able to work and need a break of at least 8 months
in Europe
-- there is a high mortality among whites, e.g. in
Libreville (the capital of Gabon) at the coast with a
mortality of almost 14% ("almost 14 on 100") (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.323)
-- before 1914 are living about 200 white people at the
tropical Ogowe River: planters, timber traders, merchants,
government officials, Jesus fantasy missionaries (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.324)
-- and until 300 years ago there were powerful black
tribes living on the Ogowe River, but in 1914 everything
is in ruins, because the slave trade and the alcohol of
the whites has destroyed the black tribes (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.324)
-- the Orungus in the Ogowe Delta have almost completely
disappeared (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.324)
-- the Galoas in the area of Lambarene are a maximum of
80,000 yet (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.324)
-- tribes from the interior of Gabon are pushing into the
void: the Fans (Pahouins) are supposed to be cannibals,
they are stopped by the colonialists, not to destroy the
other tribes
-- Lambarene is the border between the Pahoins and the old
tribes at the lower reaches, the Orungus and the Galoas
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.324).
The whites with their goods destroy black craft
-- the blacks had a high tradition of carving (p.429) with
household appliances (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.430)
-- cords were made from bovine fiber
-- salt was extracted from the sea
-- the imports from Europe destroy this craft
-- there used to be carved wooden buckets, -> now there
is the enamel pot from Europe
-- there used to be carved wooden dishes, -> now there
are rusted dishes in the grass near the village
-- many crafts are forgotten
-- young black people are no longer learning to make cords
from bark fibers, to make sewing thread from the fibers of
pineapple leaves, to make canoes from wooden trunks (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.430).
The whites destroy the brains of the blacks with
alcohol
-- Schnapps from Europe (p.430) and from the "USA" and
Canada (p.431) are destroying African societies, small
children get drunk with the elderly, schnapps is not
forbidden because the government is cashing high tariffs
from them. The self-destructive income of the colony and
the customs are the reason why the consumption of alcohol
is never banned, and if the tariffs are raised and the
alcohol price rises, the consumption will NOT decrease
because of that (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.430)
-- when the government is asked to finally ban alcohol,
the government asks how one should replace the customs
duties on alcohol (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.430-431)
"I am not indiscriminating in claiming that
most of the liquor for Africa ... is imported through
North American trade." (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.431)
Palm wine of the black
-- the local alcohol is only the palm wine, "a palm tree
juice", it is never available in large quantities because
production is prohibited, so the blacks have to drill
secretly into the palm trees in the forest, and palm wine
is not durable, i.e. for palm wine is available for 3
festivals a year, but not more, and certainly not every
day all year round (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.431)
-- Fresh palm wine tastes like fermenting grape must,
hardly makes you drunk. But the blacks add certain tree
bark, so that the people are then heavily drunk (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.431)
-- from 1919 on there is a governor who tries to ban
alcohol and wants to put the colony on healthy feet (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.431).
Gabon with a criminal tradition in the jungle: the
natives only want to plant after slash and burn -
depending on the dry season (!)
-- the blacks have a tradition of planting after slash and
burn, the soil is fertilized with the ashes of the fire
and then freshly planted on the ashes as fertilizer
-- when the dry season does not come and its also raining
in July and August, no slash and burn operations can be
carried out, and then nothing is planted - so that is of
course a mindless reaction, not planting anything (!!!)
(Letters from Lambarene, S.603)
-- every 3 years a village clears the area under
cultivation (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.419)
Planting would also be possible when it rains, maize in
the tropical climate already has yield in 4 months, but
the blacks in Equatorial Africa prefer to eat the maize
that is intended for sowing. Instead of hunting, famine is
"celebrated" (letters from Lambarene, p.604).
There are wild boars to hunt, but the hunters are
hypnotized and just don't hunt because there is "famine"
(letters from Lambarene, p.605).
Or there would also be hippos to be hunted, but that is
not done either (Letters, p.536-537).
Bananas and cassava can always be planted in the tropics -
but the blacks refuse to cultivate them if they have not
been cleared forest by fire before (letters from
Lambarene, p. 605).
Also das Verhalten der Schwarzen mit der
Tradition, nur nach Brandrodungen anzupflanzen, weil
dann eine dünne Ascheschicht die Erde bedeckt, ist total
KINDISCH und SELBSTZERSTÖRERISCH. Die Asche der
Feuerchen zu Hause wird nämlich NICHT gesammelt -
zumindest ist das NICHT EINMAL erwähnt].
[The myth of ashes as fertilizer - the childish,
destructive behavior of the Afros concerning
agriculture
So the behavior of black people with the tradition of
only planting after slash and burn, because then a thin
layer of ash covers the earth, is totally CHILDISH and
SELF-DESTRUCTIVE. The ashes of the fires at home are NOT
collected - at least that is NOT EVEN mentioned.
Cultivation is also possible under roofs during the
whole year, and with permaculture in the steppe. NOTHING
is done like that under Albert Schweitzer...]
Dry season in Gabon
-- everything grows best during the dry season
-- vegetables and cabbage do not grow in tropical rain
(letters from Lambarene, p.606).
[People never get the idea of roofing garden
beds].
Brick production in the jungle in Gabon: exactly 2 dry
months (July + August)
Bricks are only produced in Gabon during the dry season in
July and August. The clay is extracted in the swamp and
then burned. Nobody wants to help, many are going
"fishing" and then Schweitzer is reducing the rations and
is losing his good reputation (Letters, p.529). In the
end, Schweitzer loses to the blacks. They don't help for
the bricks. For the year 1924 it doesn't matter because
the dry season is not coming... (letters from Lambarene,
p.530).
Dry season in Gabon with sunshine: drying bricks in the
sun - can go wrong
So if you plan, e.g. to dry bricks in the sun, the plan
can go wrong if the drying season is not coming (letters
from Lambarene, p.529). Quote (translation):
"There are no covered rooms to dry the bricks.
So you have to dry them on the floor in the sun. Only
July and August are good for this, when it usually
doesn't rain here." (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)
The Jesus fantasy pastor Silvanus said to Albert
Schweitzer about the dry season of 1925: "Now every day is
worth 3 days." (Letters from Lambarene, p. 606).
--
Coconut trees: Coconut trees are growing
everywhere, sometimes the coconuts are rotting on the
ground because nobody is going to fetch them (letters from
Lambarene, p.557)
--
Goalas, Pahuins, and the often criminal
Bendjabis: From 1913-1917, only blacks from
the Goala and Pahuin tribes come to the Lambarene hospital
- then from 1920 approx. also "wild blacks" come to the
river - people from the interior of the country - in 1924,
the Bendjabis, they make up 20% of the population at the
Ogowe river (letters from Lambarene, p.547) -
unfortunately they speak many different languages and
some of them can NOT be understood, one has to cure and
operate them without communication (letters from
Lambarene, p.555) - and unfortunately the Bendjabis also
often have a high crime rate and terrorize the hospital
and the patients with robbery and theft etc. (letters from
Lambarene, pp.553-559, 578)
--
Letters of condolence: Albert Schweitzer
always has to write a condolence letter to the relatives
after a death, that is always very depressing for him
(letters from Lambarene, p.584, p.673)
The doctors' nicknames in the hospital of Albert
Schweitzer
The native blacks give doctors their own nicknames:
--
Dr. Albert Schweitzer (from April 19,
1924) is the "chief" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
--
Dr. Viktor Nessmann (from October 19,
1924) is "the little doctor", whereby "little" means
rather "young" (letters from Lambarene, p.540), Dr. Viktor
Nessmann is also called "Ogula", the "son of the chief"
(letters from Lambarene, p.585)
--
Dr. Marc Lauterburg (from March 16,
1925) is also called "N'Tschinda-N'Tschinda", as "the man
who bravely cuts" (letters from Lambarene, p.585)
--
Hippos:
Hippos are a danger to
canoes
Hippos are a constant danger for canoes, can capsize
canoes, destroy entire loads, and if the crews cannot
swim, people drown (letters from Lambarene, p.606)
Food on the Ogowe River in Gabon
Poor diet on the Ogowe River
--
Hardly any agriculture on the Ogowe River:
the food is poor, there is hardly any agriculture and
mainly white rice is imported from Europe or Asia, so all
strong blacks are working in the timber and logging
business cutting trees, this brings in more money than
agriculture (letters from Lambarene , p.635?)
--
Bananas + cassava + fish: the main
plant-based diet is bananas and cassava tubers, in the dry
season in the fishing season also fish (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.367).
--
Imports from Europe for the Ogowe River:
Potatoes and grain are not possible in tropical climates
because they grow too quickly in tropical climates, which
means that the potato plants do not develop any tubers at
all, and the grain is missing the ear with the grain. Rice
cultivation is also impossible in the tropical climate.
Cows can't stand the tropical grass. So flour, rice, milk
and potatoes have to be imported from Europe, and
therefore life in Gabon at the Ogowe River is not so cheap
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.323).
--
imports from the cr. "USA" for the Ogowe River:
-- Tobacco (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.367)
-- Petroleum (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.418)
--
the role of Tenerife: Here potatoes are
produced for Africa and Europe, vegetables and sweet
bananas also go to Europe (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.330).
--
inner of the country with cows is not a
problem (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.323).
Almost only white rice
-- only eating white rice is damaging the intestines of
the blacks, which lose their resistance, so that the
blacks then become susceptible to the smallest pathogens,
because they usually drink the river water, where the
pathogens are, which they normally tolerate without
problems, but combined with the white rice then they get
one infection after the other (dysentery) - with a
wholefood diet that wouldn't be a problem (letters from
Lambarene, p.635)
White European education and relaxed mind
against blacks in the jungle - the whites think the
jungle is against whites [because the whites understand
NOTHING about mother earth] (!)
Albert Schweitzer about the blacks in the African
jungle without mental relaxation
-- they are "nature children" (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.434)
-- the blacks don't know any high education, no mental
relaxation and suffer more in the jungle than the whites
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.452)
-- other whites also have their "reading" when they live
in the jungle of Africa, e.g. the book "Aurora" by Jakob
Böhme (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.452)
-- When whites live in the jungle of Africa, there is a
constant battle
-- against the unreliability of blacks
-- against attacking animals
-- Albert Schweitzer calls these living
conditions the "terrible Africa prosaic" (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.452).
-- the nature of the jungle has power here, newspapers are
hardly worth anything in jungle Africa
-- the European psychological terror (called Jesus fantasy
"mission") and vanity (with highly developed technology)
is nerving, looks abnormal
-- in the jungle, nature is everything and a human being
is nothing - in civilized technology Europe nature is
nothing and a human being is everything - THAT is the
difference between Europe and jungle Africa (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.452)
Elsewhere there is clearly seen that the whites are the
eternally aggressive and the blacks the relaxed people:
Mentality of the Afros with peace politics
and against war: For the killed people one has to pay!
African law: whoever murders someone in a dispute has
to pay for it!
-- if someone kills another human being in a dispute or
manslaughter occurs, the aggressive party has to PAY for
the dead: Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Already 10 men [from Ogowe River region] have
died in this war!"
10 people have already died in this war!" said an old
Pahuin. "Yes, then why don't these tribes come together
to discuss the palaver? How can they all pay for these
dead?" The natives have the obligation to pay the
persons killed in wars, not important if they are
winners or loosers." (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.453)
-- therefore any acts of war are avoided in the black
African society (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.453)
"Christian" colonialism of the whites
destroys other cultures
[Supplement: The entire colonialism is based
on criminal Christianity and the gay pope: In 1493 he
defined a "Tordesillas line" parting the complete workd
between Portugal and Spain. Albert Schweitzer is not
aware of this important detail].
Colonialists brought diseases + atrocities reducing the
population in Africa
-- the whites from Europe adorn themselves with a fantasy
Jesus and are eliminating other colored populations or are
reducing them more and more [by imported diseases - as it
happened in the "USA" too]
-- the whites commit injustices + cruelties on and on and
the colored peoples have to endure all of this [and do not
know what is actually going on!]
-- the whites destroy the colored peoples [not only with
deportations and forced labor], but also with schnapps,
alcohol and diseases and only provoke misery, that is the
total cruelty of the whites [in interaction with the black
governments]. Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"What have committed the whites (all nations)
to the colored peoples since they detected the far
countries? What does it mean that many populations have
died out already where the Europeans arrived adorning
themselves with the name of [Fantasy] "Jesus"? Other
populations are just before extermination or are
constantly reducing! Who describes this injustice and
cruelty which they have endured during centuries by the
populations of Europe? Who dares to judge what schnapps
and all the dreadful illnesses which were brought in by
them have created among them with misery!
When history would make a list in a book listing what
all happened between the whites and the colored people,
so there would be masses of pages about events from
former times and from these times which should be turned
without reading because of too dreadful content." (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.472)
[Supplement: Corrupt, black governments
In doing so, however, Albert Schweitzer forgets the
inability of the black governments, which are acting
partly deliberately against their own populations
driving them into hunger by not organizing agriculture
with stimuli. It even may be like this that black
governments are bribed by the whites and let die the
black population so the whites get all mineral resources
almost for free. In Peru it's just the same: the whites
come with mining companies and the corrupt government
wants the high mountains of Sierra without population
for exploiting and destroying it - see the mines of
Huancavelica or of Cajamarca...].
Albert Schweitzer wants a collective punishment
-- when white doctors heal colored people, then it is an
atonement for the suffering that the Afros were inflicted
by white colonialism (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.472-473)
-- for every white bullyman + murderer a doctor should go
there to heal
-- whoever is a colonialist has a humanitarian
responsibility
-- many colonial powers do not even have enough doctors
for the few colonial doctor positions
-- every single one should contribute, but with the
organization in Europe in the background (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.473)
-- one can deliver colored people from their pain
-- and those who have been healed and who have been
operated on should help at the hospital so that other
people can be healed and operated on (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.474)
-- European doctors should heal "far away" in order to
realize the "humanity culture" (Edge of the Primeval
Forest p.475)
[Conclusion: Albert Schweitzer is one of the
first "doctors without borders"]
-- a European doctor with modest means can achieve a lot
and save lives with just a little bit of "exotic medicine"
(tropical medicine) "outside"
-- against malaria with quinine + arsenic
-- against ulcer diseases: Novarsenbenzol
-- against dysentery: with emetine (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.475) and a microscope for finding
out if it's cholera (Letters from Lambarene
, S.663)
-- so the "exotic medicine" (tropical medicine) has made
great progress in the last 15 years [from 1900 to 1915
approx.] (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.475-476)
The "Christian" warmongering from Europe thinks war is
a "noble need for fame"
-- a magazine from Europe says that the whites have an
crazy destructive need for fame and that is why they keep
making war (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.471). Albert
Schweitzer quote (translation):
"In those days I read an article in a magazine
(p.470) which stated that there will always be wars
because a noble need for fame is ineradicably rooted in
people's hearts." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.471)
-- black people think a lot, even without school
education, they think a lot and come to a conclusion (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.455)
-- old natives make an impression on Albert Schweitzer
with their spiritual life (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.455)
-- the blacks mercilessly show the whites the mirror
[against the war mentality of the whites]
The blacks think "deeper" because they are not
distracted from life by the NWO media
-- the blacks feel deeper because they are not distracted
by the stupefying war media from Europe and North
"America" (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.456).
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"First of all, I notice that the natural child
is much more "thinking" than is usually assumed. Even if
it cannot read or write, it has thought about a lot more
things than we think. Conversations that I have with old
natives in my hospital about the last questions of life
have touched me deeply. The difference between white and
colored, educated and uneducated, disappears when one
comes to talk to the jungle people (p.455) about our
relationship to ourselves, to people, to the world and
to the eternal. "Negroes are deeper than us because they
don't read newspapers," a white man said to me recently.
There is some truth in this paradox." (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.456)
[Albert Schweitzer does not seem to be aware of the
whole manipulation of the "high lodges"].
So it is easy for good blacks to show the
[arrogant-narrow-minded] Jesus fantasy whites the mirror
and to put them to shame (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.459).
Mentality of the Afros: Rumors say that
tehre are ghosts and demons
Birth among primitive peoples
-- The faces of the mother and the newborn baby are
painted white to scare off demons or to deceive them (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.458)
Mentality of the Afros: stealing + lying +
unreliability
-- for black people it is difficult to become a reliable
person and to get rid of the tendency to steal and lie
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.459)
-- Black people think that if there is a temptation one
should use it and they think that stealing things is
"normal" (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.459)
[This kind of thinking I could observe also in
Peru: familiar persons think when it's possible to steal
then stealing would be allowed! Until they are detected
with a trick and police is coming!]
Mentality of the Afros: Death is "normal"
-- the blacks think that death is something "natural", the
fixed idea with a "last judgment" is unknown with the
blacks (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.456)
-- Blacks are ethical rationalists with "a natural
sensitivity for the concept of the good" (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.457)
Mentality of the whites: The eternal
defamation of the white Jesus fantasy missionaries
against the blacks
The white mission school is educating proud, educated
blacks
-- the white Jesus fantasy missionaries destroy the
African culture, and that is why many Afros reject the
black Christians who come from the missionary schools who
have attended the mission schools and at the same time
feel "better" than the not educated Afro masses (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.459)
[The Jesus fantasy missionaries are dividing
the African society, they are provoking social rifts,
arguments, frustration, etc.]
-- black children with a school certificate from a mission
school feel better than others (p. 459) and lose the
connection to the family, lose themselves in pride and
conceit (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.460)
The defamation by Jesus fantasy missionaries against
the blacks - until the next Christian world war comes
...
-- the white Jesus fantasy missionaries with their Rome
fantasy Bible claim that blacks live with a "worldview
without history"
-- the white Jesus fantasy missionaries with their Rome
Fantasy Bible claim that the blacks do not want to see the
light of Jesus fantasy christianity, with which one could
neutralize the "ghosts"
-- the white Jesus fantasy Christians claim, "that in all
events only the will of God rules", [as if there were no
other worlds] (Edge of the Primeval Forest,, p.456)
-- the belief in ghosts of blacks provokes fear and should
be unethical, should be superstition, but the Jesus
fantasy belief should provoke freedom, should be ethical
and should "free" the blacks [until the next "Christian"
world war comes and destroys everything !] (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.457)
The conversion to the brutally racist Jesus fantasy
Christianity
-- sometimes the white "Christian" defamation against the
black culture is successful and the blacks let be "their
superstition" [and accept the new Jesus fantasy
superstition] (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.457-458)
-- the Jesus fantasy missionaries complain that some black
people have relapses and do not want to give up their
"superstitions" (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.458)
The brutally racist Christians from Europe want to
force black people to "drive out" ghosts and fetishes
-- Albert Schweitzer claims that the ghosts and fetishes
of the blacks are being driven out with friendly irony
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.458)
-- at the same time the Europeans still have habits of
native inhabitants who are called "pagans" by the
[arrogant] Jesus fantasy Christians (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.458)
-- Albert Schweitzer differentiates between "heart
morality" (renunciation of revenge) and bourgeois morality
[doctrine of the "Christian" family, illegitimate children
and orphans are excluded from society] (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.458)
Black Mentality: Black polygamy and its
purpose on the Ogowe River
Polygamy is useful, like a security system. The [stupid]
Christians are inciting against polygamy and want to call
concubines as "illegitimate" (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.432).
[When there is no insurance system, polygamy
is a safe system for securing the livelihoods of women
and children].
The point of polygamy: all women get married
The terror missionaries are inciting against polygamy
(p.431) and want to manipulate the government to abolish
and forbid polygamy by law (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.431-432). But polygamy has its point [when there are no
insurance systems and when women are not emancipated]:
-- women in Africa do not work for wages
-- unmarried women only cost families
-- in order to marry all women polygamy is needed (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.432): Albert Schweitzer quote
(translation):
"Where people live in bamboo huts and society
is not yet organized in such a way that a woman can earn
a living by working independently, there is no place for
unmarried women. ANd the precondition for marrying all
women is the law of polygamy." (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.432)
Tropical Africa: The mothers have to breastfeed for a
long time because there are no dairy animals
There are no cows and no dairy goats in the jungle, so
polygamy is useful, because
-- Mothers have to breastfeed their babies for a long
time, they live legally protected for 3 years with the
child and during that time she is no longer wife, but also
lives a lot with her parents, and after 3 years the
weaning festival comes and she returns to the husband's
hut
-- with polygamy the man has other women for the household
and the plantings without any problem, so the first woman
is never overloaded (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.432).
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"In the jungle there are no cows and no milk
goats. So the mother has to breastfeed her child for a
long time if it is not to perish. Polygamy safeguards
the child's rights. After the birth, the woman has the
right and the duty to live only with her child for three
years. At first she is no longer wife, but only mother.
Often she spends most of this time with her parents.
After three years the weaning festival takes place and
she returns as wife to her husband's hut. This life for
the child is only conceivable if the husband meanwhile
had another wife or other women to look after the
household and the plantations." (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.432)
Tropical Africa: Blacks don't know lost widows and
abandoned orphans
There is an enforced right of inheritance: when a man
dies, the next familiar man inherits the woman with
children and has to take care of them. With the consent of
this closest relative she can then marry someone else
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.432). Albert Schweitzer
quote (translation):
"There are no lost widows and no abandoned
orphans among the primitive peoples. The next familiar
man inherits the wife of the deceased and must maintain
her and her children. She enters into the rights of his
wife, even if she can later marry someone else with his
permission . " (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.432)
With this right of inheritance at the death of a man it
can happen that a 14 year old boy inherits a wife and
children (p.433). When the woman remarries, the boy keeps
the rights to the children and his duties in terms of
buying a wife or the bride price - pretty hard (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.434). Albert Schweitzer quote
(translation):
"In this country it can happen that a
fourteen-year-old boy is the representative of a
"family". This is how it goes. He has inherited a woman
with children from a deceased relative. The woman has
(p.433) married anew husband. But with this the rights
of the boy on the children and his duties to them are
not touched. When there are boys, so later he has to buy
a bride for them; when there are girls, so the men who
want to marry them have to pay a brideprice." (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.434)
Tropical Africa: Tolerant women among each other
The relationship between women is usually good and
tolerant. A wife doesn't want to do everything alone and
she likes to have a helper (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.433). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"The relationship between women is usually
good. A negress does not like to be the only wife,
because then the maintenance of the plantation, which is
the woman's affair, falls to her alone. Maintainance of
plants is much work because the plantations are normally
far away from the village in some hidden place." (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.433)
Lambarene: Example of a chief with 3 women in the
Lambarene hospital
If a chief comes to the hospital with 2 young women and
that is not a problem, later the first wife comes along,
that is not a problem either (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.433).
Albert Schweitzer thinks that polygamy will disappear
on its own:
Albert Schweitzer claims that when beautiful houses and
agriculture come, polygamy will disappear by itself (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.433).
So one shouldn't change anything in the African system
without need, and the Jesus fantasy Christians should keep
their mouths shut with their fantasies [which always
define orphans and "illegitimate" children] (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.435 ).
Blacks and the women
Blacks against blacks: Black women is
pawned until the husband can pay
Some black people pawn a second wife in case they can't
pay a debt. This is how a patient in Lambarene wanted to
do it, but Albert Schweitzer refused (letters from
Lambarene, p.665). Quote from Albert Schweitzer
(translation):
"Someone who is really serious about his
promise [to pay for the operation with bananas or other
fruits] wants to leave his second wife with me as a
pledge until he returns with the gift. I reject this
method because the pledge is difficult to keep..."
(Letters from Lambarene, p.665)
The African mentality: the man has to buy
a woman
Black people are buying women and therefore have to earn
money (letters from Lambarene, p.527).
Black people have to save money to buy a woman (letters
from Lambarene, p.535).
Case: wife leaves husband - dispute over bride money
If a woman leaves the husband, the ex-husband demands the
bride money back from the family (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.385).
Case: Buying a woman on partial payment can cause
the woman to disobey
Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"At the moment he [the medical assistant
Joseph] is unmarried because his wife left him when he
was a cook on the coast to live with a white man. The
purchase price for a new partner would be around 600
francs. It's possible to pay the marriage fee also in
installments. But Joseph does not want a wife on
installment because he thinks this is “a bad thing.” “If
one of us,” he told me, “has not paid his wife in full,
he has a bad life. She does not obey him and accuses him
on every occasion that he has nothing to say to her
because she has not yet been paid." (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.387)
Case: woman is auctioned
-- it is legally possible with the blacks that a family is
auctioning one of their wives in order to do a "big
business", but it is inhuman and has nothing to do with
love (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.434)
The bride price - marriage is a money business in black
Africa - forced marriage
-- a bride price for a relationship is like a dowry
-- marriage is always a money business, but it should
remain an "accompanying circumstance"
-- there is no romance with relations among primitive
peoples
-- about marriages are taken the decisions within the
family council, the girl doesn't have much to say (!)
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.434). Albert Schweitzer
quotes (translation):
"When the affair is with a girl being
auctioned being ordered to a man without being asked
there must be a protest of course."
"But when the affair is that following the national
custom that the man who is vacating a girl and the girl
says yes to marry him will pay a certain sum to the
family so there is no objection to this as it is in
Europe with a dowry."
"So we do not have to fight the buying of women as such,
but only to have an educational effect on the natives so
that they do not give the girl to the highest bidder,
but to the one who can make her happy and for whom she
feels affection."
"Usually the negro girls are not so dependent that they
can be sold to the first best. Of course, love does not
play the same role in marriage here as it does with us.
The natural child knows no romance. Usually marriages
are decided in the family council. Generally they are
happy." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.434)
Marriage age 15 - girls are "promised" from around 12
years - forced marriage is normal
The marriage age for the girls is mostly 15 or 16, from
about 12 a man is determined for them, the family
determines the girl's husband (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.434-435). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Most of the girls get married at the age of
15. Almost all of the girls in the girls' school of the
mission (p.434) are destined for a man and marry as soon
as they are released from school." (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.435)
In special cases, parents promise their unborn baby
already during pregnancy, e.g. to pay debts (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.435). Quote from Albert Schweitzer
(translation):
"That girls can be promised before they are
born, I learned from the story of an unjustifiable woman
purchase, which once happened at Samkita and was told to
me by a missionary. One man owed 400 francs to another
man, but didn't think about it, to repay it, but bought
a woman and got married. As they sat at the banquet, the
creditor came and heaped accusations that he had bought
a wife instead of paying his debts with the money. The
palaver began. They came to an agreement at the end that
the debtor promised the creditor the first daughter that
would be born out of his marriage, and with this
solution the creditor was satisfied and was taking part
of the festivity. After 16 years he came and applied the
marriage. And in this way the debt was paid." (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.435)
The mentality of the Afros in "natural
medicine": the healers ("fetish men")
The African healers ("fetish men") sometimes give too high
doses so they are poisoning their patients. The fetish men
then work together with Albert Schweitzer in Lambarene and
cases that do not heal with them are referred to Lambarene
(letters from Lambarene, p.658).
The mentality of the Afros in "natural
medicine": The fantasy that powdered tree bark would
heal wounds - but provokes amputations (!)
The healers of the black natives in Gabon have the wrong
fantasy that wounds would heal springking powdered tree
bark into the wound. But this only provokes a rotting of
the whole body part even provoking an amputation (letters
from Lambarene, p.587). Quote from Albert Schweitzer
(translation):
"His tribal comrades [...] treat him in their
own way with powdered tree bark. This has the success
that in the end the whole arm forms only a gushy surface
and the general condition of the man becomes worrying.
We show him his case, whereupon he, on the advice of
hospital inmates, asks for the amputation. After we have
heard from witnesses that he himself wants it that way,
the operation is carried out. He returns to the
lumberyard healthy and grateful, only with one arm. "
(Letters from Lambarene, p.587)
Mentality of the Afros: no money box there
The blacks don't know what is a money box. Albert
Schweitzer installs a money box for his helper Joseph
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.387).
Afro mentality: Buy bad goods from Paris
Blacks buy goods from Paris even if they are spoiled or
worn, e.g. patent-leather shoes, which always stood in the
sun in a shop window, with burned varnish (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.387).
Catch animals (wildlife) in the jungle
-- Hunting is hardly possible in the African jungle,
because the dense undergrowth protects the animals well,
hunting is only possible on the grass steppe, but where
there is no wood (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.407)
--
Elephants: Elephants like to eat the
bananas, in one night they can eat away a whole field
(letters from Lambarene, p.634)
-- Elephants in the jungle of Africa are in the swamps
during the day and during the night they plunder the
banana fields of the people (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.444). Quote (translation):
"During the day they stay in inaccessible
swamps and then at night they plunder the previously
explored plantations." (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.444)
--
Elephants at the end of 1924: Elephants are
eating up the banana fields: The food shortage
is getting worse because of the elephants, who were able
to reproduce quietly because of the neglect elephant hunt
and now they are big groups eating one banana field after
the other one (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.442). Albert
Schweitzer quote (translation):
"I'm worried about getting the food for the
sick [in 1924 during the coming famine]. There is almost
famine here ... because of the elephants. In Europe
people usually imagine that the wild animals, where the
"culture" comes, are going to die out (p.442). This may
be the case in some areas, but in many regions the
opposite is the case. Why? For three reasons: If the
indigenous population declines, as is the case in many
places, the hunt is less. And [second point] the hunt
becomes bad because the natives forget how to chase
animals in the primitive and often so ingenious way of
their ancestors. [Now] they are used to hunting with
rifles. However, little powder has been distributed by
any state in all of Equatorial Africa since years to
make revolts impossible. In addition, they are not
allowed to own any modern hunting rifle, but only old
flintlock shotguns. Thirdly, however, the fight against
wild animals is therefore also less vigorous. because
the natives don't have time anymore. They make more
money with timber trade and rafting the logs to the sea
than with hunting. So the elephants can thrive and
reproduce fairly unchallenged. We get to feel this here
now. The banana plantations in the villages northwest of
here, from which we get our food, continue to be plagued
by elephants. 20 elephants are enough to devastate a
large plantation in one night. What they don't eat, they
trample down." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.443)
--
Elephants destroy telegraph lines:
Elephants like to walk where the whites installed their
telegraph lines passing the rain forest and they also like
to walk following the cuttings passing the rain forest,
and then the elephants are destroying the telegraph lines
by rubbing against the posts or even knocking down posts.
In this way, telegraph lines are blocked for days in Gabon
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.443). Quote from Albert
Schweitzer (translation):
"The elephants are dangerous not only to the
plantings, but also to the telegraph. The line that
leads from N'Djôle to the interior has a special story.
It's forming a channel in the rain forest showing a way
and this is attractive for the animals. But even
irresistible are the straight poles where the elephants
are rubbing themselves, this they like very much.
Pushing strongly the poles are broken on the floor. Then
the next pole will get it's same fate. In this way, a
strong elephant can destroy a complete telegraph line,
and days can pass (p.443) for repair by the next
surveillance post for having the damage repaired." (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.444)
The traditional elephant hunt: cut the Achilles heel
Black people have a tradition of killing elephants by
cutting their Achilles tendons, but if they are discovered
the elephant wins (letters from Lambarene, p.653). Quote
from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"Now the lumberjacks are thinking of killing
the animal in the style of their forefathers by sneaking
after it and cutting the Achilles tendons of its hind
feet with a machete. How many thousand elephants were
defenseless in the forests of Central Africa in earlier
times in this insidious way and killed. But the blacks
at Samkita lack the practice that their ancestors had.
The elephant notices the attack and attacks them. He
throws the next one into the air and bores his tusks
into his body, whereupon the elephant continues his way
calmly." (Letters from Lambarene, p.653)
The new elephant hunt with the rifle of the whites
The elephant hunters approach an elephant within 10 paces
and then fire a fatal shot. But if the shot is not fatal,
then the elephant hunter has got a problem (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.444). Quote from Albert Schweitzer
(translation):
"The artist was a famous elephant hunter at
the same time. When hunting, the natives sneak up to 10
steps to the elephant and then fire the flintlock
shotgun at him. If the shot is not fatal and if the
animal detects them, they come into one unpleasant
situation." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.444)
Wildlife: Fishing on sandbanks: Camping on
the sandbank
--
dried fish: fishing is mainly worthwhile
in the dry season when the water is low (letters from
Lambarene, p.536)
In a river with low water during the dry season, an entire
village population can camp on a sand bank:
-- the whole village camps on a sandbank in tents for 2
weeks, fresh fish is eaten, boiled, baked, stewed, and
fish is dried and smoked for storage
-- at the beginning a ritual is carried out: Schnapps and
tobacco leaves are put into the water in order to put the
"evil ghosts" in a good mood, so that a lot of fish is
caught and against damaging events
-- from such a fish action the village then returns home
with up to 10,000 dried or smoked fish (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.343)
-- on the sandbank many old people get pneumonia and after
returning they die from it (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.366).
--
Hippos:
A canoe full of hippopotamus
meat
When during the dry season it's raining so the dry season
is no dry season, and when there is no agricultural
cultivation in the jungle, the population is forced to
stock up on meat by killing hippos, but then one has to
search and hunt for days or weeks (letters, p.536) and it
is not said that the hunt is successful - but you PERHAPS
win a canoe full of hippopotamus meat (letters from
Lambarene, p.537).
--
Whaling by Norwegians off Cap Lopez
In August, the whales of the southern hemisphere swim as
far as the equator to escape the cold at the South Pole,
thus Norwegian whalers are in Cap Lopez. (Letters from
Lambarene, pp. 606-607)
[The government of Gabon apparently allows
this or is paying for the whaling license well. It's not
told that the wale meat is also distributed to the
population in Gabon].
-
Sharks in the ocean: The ocean in front
of Africa is full of sharks, the sharks are attracted by
kitchen garbage from the steamers and they also come to
the ports (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.334).
--
Mismanagement: Gabon of 1924 is in a
complete mismanagement (a lot of timber trade and hardly
any agriculture) so that is a "misery and horror"
(Letters, p.502), and additionally the government does not
support the handicraft, so that the population lacks of
the basic handicraft (Letters from Lambarene, p.557?)
Wildlife in the jungle: insects
--
Insects in the jungles of Africa
--
Tsetse flies: The tsetse flies "Glossina
palpalis" spreads sleeping sickness. Tsetse flies are as
big as the European hummingbird flies, but they fly
silently and sting and suck blood through the thickest
fabric - since tsetse flies never want to be discovered,
they never land on white color, so the best protection
against tsetse flies is to put on white clothes. The
blacks suffer brutally from the tsetse flies (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.357).
Animals in the jungle
Birds, monkeys and palm trees in the jungle
-- Birds and monkeys spread the oil nuts of the oil palms,
and now Albert Schweitzer inherits whole groves with oil
palms for palm oil products
-- Palm kernels are sent to Europe to squeeze palm oil
[why is there no oil press in the mission?]
-- Patients with foot ulcers are allowed to open palm nuts
(letters from Lambarene, p.630).
from August 1914
Lambarene: Monkey meat becomes normal to eat
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.453)
-- monkey meat is donated by a Jesus fantasy missionary
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.453)
-- monkeys are the easiest game to kill
-- monkey meat tastes like sweet goat meat
-- in the eyes of some whites, eating monkey meat is the
beginning of cannibalism (anthropophagy) (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.454).
The hippos in Gabon
Lambarene June 1925
Case: hippopotamus overturns a motorboat in the river
(Letters from Lambarene, p. 606)
Hippos often feel annoyed by canoes and are threatening
the canoes with trumpet roars (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.370).
Hippos also attack fishing boats, overturning them and
then chasing people, which can result in broken bones,
e.g. a broken thigh (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.369).
Lambarene: termites in first-aid boxes
April 1915
[Termites eat away at the wood so that whole
houses can collapse].
In the case of the wooden box of the hospital which is
attacked by termites, the following must now be done:
-- the termites are detected by their "sticky" smell (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.446)
-- the attractant for the termites was a medical syrup
that was dripping from a leaky cork bottle (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.446).
Lambarene: soldered cans against the small weevil
-- Flour + corn for the chickens in the hospital are
soldered in cans, so Helene Schweitzer is now learning to
solder
but: The small weevil (Calandra granaria) is also
penetrating the soldered cans, and in a short time the
maize is turning to dust (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.446)
Albert Schweitzer fights against vermin
-- small weevil (Calandra granaria)
-- termites
-- little scorpions
-- stinging insects.
--> Every step in the housework becomes a risk and one
has to be careful with every movement, not like in Europe,
where it's possible to reach safely and blindly into the
drawers (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.446)
Albert Schweitzer fights against black wandering ants
(Dorylus)
-- Albert Schweitzer's house is [what bad luck!] at an ant
road of the black wandering ants (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.447)
-- the wandering ants wander through territories in
parallel columns (p.446), they run very fast, much faster
than European ants (p.448) at a distance of 5 to 50 m
(p.447), the big ant hikes take place especially at the
beginning and at the end of the rainy season [in September
and May] (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.448)
-- the wandering ants bite and one can hardly remove them,
or the pincers get stuck in the skin (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.447-448)
-- during the hikes all small animals are eaten away, also
big spiders that are saving themselves on trees (Zwischen
Wasser + Urwald, p.447)
-- the black wandering ants usually swarm out at night, so
there are always night attacks
-- chickens warn with scratching and a "strange chuckle"
--> chickens have to be let out of the hen house, so
they don't become victims, otherwise the ants attack the
chickens, crawl in their noses and mouths and the chickens
suffocate and are eaten by the wandering ants, chicks are
all eaten, they can't chuckle
-- Albert Schweitzer then fetches water from the river,
which is mixed with Lysol [disinfectant -
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lysol],
and the area around the house is watered with it (p.447)
Lysol smell drives the ants away and many ants are
drowning in the water (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.448)
-- the worst was so far a week with 3 ant hikes with the
wandering ants (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.448)
Ports in Africa without piers
Loading operations off the African coast
Most of the ports in Africa do not have a pier, i.e. no
protective dam against high waves, so that the cargo is
loaded onto the dinghies using the ship's crane. In Grand
Bassam (Tabou, Cotonou) it is very extreme, the cargo and
the people are heaved in wooden boxes onto the dancing
boats, sometimes it doesn't work and the cargo gets wet.
Africa lacks safe harbors (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.336).
Cyclones and rains are constantly coming (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.336-337).
The dangerous sun in Africa
The tropical sun in Africa - the dangerous sunshine
behind the clouds (!)
When the sky is cloudy, the sun is said to be much more
dangerous than the direct sun, this is reported by white
people who have already been to Africa (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.337).
Sunshine in Africa without hats provokes fever and
delirium, or even sunstroke. A "colonial doctor"
recommends treating sunstroke like malaria with quinine
injected intramuscularly, because whoever is infected with
malaria and then gets a sunstroke gets a severe course or
the sunstroke then triggers malaria attacks (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.371 ).
If vomiting occurs with the sunstroke, the water supply is
set up with saline solution in the arm vein (1/2 liter of
distilled and sterilized water with 4.5 grams of saline)
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.372).
The black principle: black people don't
want to work
-- the black Africans do not want to work and let
themselves be paid dearly by whites, so that the Afros are
more expensive than the Europeans in the end (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.418)
-- Employment contracts are only verbal and can be
terminated at any time (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.420)
-- Black people are only used to casual work, but not
regular work (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.420)
-- Black people can work well for themselves if, for
example, is about slash and burn for new banana fields,
but they are not working with prevention in advance (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.419)
-- a black African needs money
-- to buy a woman
-- to buy his wives great things like sugar,
tobacco, fabrics
-- to buy himself an ax, or alcohol, or he is
a fashion freak and is buying new, fashionable clothes
from Europe (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.419)
-- when black people have got the money they need for
their project, they leave the workplace, regardless of
whether they are needed or not, regardless of whether
there is a crisis or whether there is a new demand for
wood etc. (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.420)
The helpless government of Gabon wants to force blacks
to work
-- the government of Gabon wants to introduce a poll tax
of 5 francs annually in order to get all black people to
work (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.420-421)
-- In addition, the merchants in the factories offer
European consumer goods, schnapps and tobacco, and the
Afros buy what they like, e.g. European music boxes
(p.421), because African women like them so much (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.421)
[The alcohol sale destroys the Afros' brains].
-- with the measures of the Gabon government, the blacks
become greedy for money, addicted and even more unreliable
towards the whites
-- blacks don't work without supervision and Albert
Schweitzer has to e.g. play the overseer 3 hours a day so
that the blacks work 3 hours a day
-- the white employers then are deporting black people
from far away so that there is no connection to their home
village (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.422).
-- the consequences are a lot of homesickness, moral
decline, a lot of food problems because only white rice is
available at the Ogowe River, a lot of frustration +
schnapps enjoyment, alcohol abuse - and the people live
close together and have many diseases and ulcers (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p. 423)
-- the government of Gabon is planning compulsory work
with compulsory obligation for a few days to work with a
merchant or planter (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.424)
-- compulsory work elsewhere brings again many problems
because of the family that is far away, because of the
food for the slave laborer, because of the distance, and
that can all degenerate into slavery (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.425)
-- and the result is that the blacks are fleeing to remote
villages so that the white stations cannot oblige them
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.427). Albert Schweitzer
quote (translation):
"For the frond and requisitions, the villages
that are closest to the settlements of the whites
naturally come into consideration. No matter how gentle
and fair the government may be, these natives find it a
burden and are more and more emigrating to more distant
areas in which one has peace and quiet life. Thus, in
areas with indigenous peoples and low population
density, a void gradually forms around the settlement of
the whites. " (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.427)
-- as a result, the Gabonese government forbids blacks to
move their villages
-- and the government orders the relocation of distant
villages near white settlements or to certain points of
caravan routes (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.428).
"Save up"
-- The workers receive half their wages, the white
employer saves the other half for the blacks, which is
paid out at the end of work
-- mostly the black workers need the money to buy a woman
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.423)
-- after the payment everything is quickly given out and
when they return home the blacks stand in front of their
families without anything (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.423)
The government grants "concessions" to large companies
over large areas
-- such "concessions" to big companies can degenerate into
slavery like in the Belgian Congo, or it can have an
educational effect like at the upper reaches of the Ogowe
in Gabon in the area of the "society of the upper Ogowe"
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.426)
The colonialist has too much profit
Generally it is the case that the colonial profits are
increasing and the black population is decreasing at the
same time (Edge of the Primeval Forest p.428)
[by spreading diseases across Africa, and by
deaths during transports]
The timber trade is ruining African
agriculture - and the blacks don't work at all without
supervision
from the 1880s
Logging in Africa near the rivers
Africa has neither roads nor trucks, and the jungle floor
in Africa consists only of roots and swamp. One would have
to build roads at high costs. In addition, the heat in
equatorial Africa makes it impossible to bring foreign
workers from other climates to the region (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.404).
Gabon: The timber trade is withdrawing all craftsmen - but
sometimes the timber traders also make losses
-- the logging and timber trade in Gabon is about okoume
trees (letters from Lambarene, p.549).
-- there are no black workers for the construction of the
hospital in Lambarene, they are all active in the timber
trade and cut or transport jungle wood to the coast [to
Cap Lopez, now Port Gentil] (Life+Thought, p.215)
So: In Gabon there is "timber trade fever" and the work at
Albert Schweitzer is often not attractive for the Afros,
BUT:
-- the Afros often lose a lot of money in the
timber trade (!)
-- some wood merchants donate something to
Albert Schweitzer for the hospital (letters from
Lambarene, p.528). Quote (translation):
"Joseph [...] the timber trade fever has
converted him too. He and some friends have leased a
large area of forest to exploit with day laborers who
were recruited for a year. I have to promise him to get
free time whenever for controling his affairs. As for
now, his wife is replacing him as overseer of the
workers at the lumber yard, which is three days' journey
from here. But I fear that Joseph, like so many natives
who are self-employed in the timber trade, will lose
money instead of making profits.
I am very happy that some of the few indigenous timber
merchants who have achieved something give me
considerable gifts for running the hospital at the
suggestion of Emil Ogouma. They want to contribute
possibly the amount of money that Mrs. Kottmann's
journey arriving here will cost. But I don't know if
that much will come together. "(Letters from Lambarene,
p.528)
-- so Albert Schweitzer obliges some relatives of patients
to do construction work, but they are not enthusiastic
about it or they even disappear. (Life+Thought, p.215)
from 1910 approx.
Logging in Gabon now in the interior of
the jungle - the timber trade is becoming more
complicated
All good wood from the river bank is cut away
The lumber yards on the river banks are all gone, and new
lumber yards are only in the inside of the jungle (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.405).
The timber trade on the Ogowe River is now very unsafe:
-- the wood yards in the interior of the forest are dry at
low tide, flooded at high tide and connected to the Ogowe
River (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.404-405). Quote
(translation):
"Usually they [the good lumber yards] (p.404)
are located far in the forest, but at high water they
are connected to the river through a narrow watercourse
or through a pond, which then becomes a lake." (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.405)
-- tree felling on lumber yards inside the jungle is only
possible in the dry season between June and October (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.408)
-- when white organizers ask black people about good wood
places, black people lie to white people and only show
them the bad wood places in order to get presents again
and again (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.405). Albert
Schweitzer quote (translation):
"The natives keep the knowledge of such places
[good logging sites] to themselves and try to mislead
the whites who look for them in their area. A European
told me that the men of a village were showing him
timber places during over two months receiving rich
gifts without end like tobacco schnapps and clothe from
him every day. But he did not find any good timber place
that was promised for having a good yield. Most
recently, listening to an overheard conversation, he
learned that they were deliberately not showing him the
good places, whereupon the friendship came to an end."
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.405)
Blacks never want to be on time
-- Blacks cut trees freely without white organizers and
then sell the wood cheaper, but the blacks never deliver
on time, that's not their mentality - under the guidance
of a white they deliver on time, but the wood is then more
expensive (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.405). Albert
Schweitzer quote (translation):
"The big thing here is not to own forests, but
to have felled wood. The wood that the negroes cut for
their own account and offer for sale is actually cheaper
than that which the Europeans cut with hired workers.
But the negroes deliveries are so uncertain that the
trade cannot rely on them. They might think of
celebrations or fishing trips when there is great demand
for wood. So every company buys wood from the natives
and cuts at the same time trees with hired workers."
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.405)
Camping at the wood yard in the interior of the jungle
- and constant famine
-- People camp at the wood yard, food is a big problem,
and long transports with bananas and manioc are also
impossible, because they rotten quickly: Bananas is
rotting in 6 days, manioc is rotting in 10 days (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.406).
-- white timber merchants are organizing rice and European
canned goods (p.406-407), especially canned sardines, but
for having a change in their diet they also organize
canned asparagus, Californian fruits for the black
woodcutters - so the most expensive canned goods that you
hardly eat in Europe, are consumed in the jungle of Africa
to cut wood there - it's a complete nonsense (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.407)
-- Hunting is hardly possible in the African jungle,
because the dense undergrowth protects the animals well,
hunting is only possible on the grass steppe, where there
is no wood (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.407)
-- Albert Schweitzer clearly means that it's easily
possible to starve to death by hunger in the wood yards in
the forest if you are not careful (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.407)
Camping at the lumber yard in the interior of the
jungle: homesickness, decay, diseases
-- the white employers then get black people from far away
so that there is no connection to their home village (Edge
of the Primeval Forest, p.422).
-- The consequences are a lot of homesickness, moral
decline, a lot of food problems because only white rice is
available at the Ogowe, a lot of frustration + schnapps
enjoyment, alcohol abuse - and the people live close
together and have many diseases and ulcers (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p. 423)
-- the white colonialist is destroying the African society
by decoy policy into the "distance" (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.424)
-- the solution would be to educate craftsmen THERE in the
villages (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.423-424)
Lumber yards in the interior of the jungle: cruel
living conditions
-- the black loggers working on timber yards are
constantly attacked by the tsetse fly during the day and
by the mosquitoes at night
-- some of the black loggers stand with their whole legs
in the swamp
-- the black woodcutters are full of malaria (fever +
rheumatism) (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.407).
Felling trees in the lumberyard: bulky roots - lianas -
diameter must be between 60 and 150cm
-- some of the gigantic trees have very bulky roots to
withstand tornadoes
-- so the actual trunk sometimes only starts at a height
of 2m (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.407)
-- the tree is connected to other trees with lianas and
does not fall at all when it is felled below (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.408)
-- on the ground the trunk is cut into 4 to 5 m long
pieces, everything that is less than 70 cm in diameter is
not for sale, remains on the floor and will rotten, and
pieces that are too thick also remain, the trade only
wants between 60-150 cm in diameter (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p. 408)
-- the 4 to 5m long logs weigh almost 3 tons
-- the way to the watercourse is then cut, that is a fight
against roots and tree tops and branches that are still on
the ground, the branches are sometimes stuck in the ground
-- some routes also lead through swamps and have to be
filled with wood
-- then 30 people roll a log over the path with rhythmic
shouting, if there are irregularities on the way, winches
are used, or the path goes uphill, or the path sinks, then
a winch is always needed, sometimes people only manage 80m
a day (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.408)
-- until the flood in November, all wood must be in the
water channel or pond, which then has a direct connection
with the river in the rainy season (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.409)
-- the second flood in spring is often not high enough
-- every 10 years approx. the first flood (in autumn) is
not high enough and all logging is lost, that was e.g. the
case in November 1913, many timber traders and teams
remained in debt (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.409)
-- The wood that remains is being eaten away by tropical
bark beetles (Bostrichidae) and is gone in 1 year (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.409)
Lianas and the binding of wood
-- Lianas are the best free ropes from finger thick to arm
thick. The pieces of wood are tied together to rafts with
lianas (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.410).
The dangerous trip of the rafts on the Ogowe River to
Cap Lopez
-- the raft is bound and a floor is installed on it made
of thin wood, with a fireplace and a house on it, in front
and behind there are large oars, 15 to 20 black people
live on the raft as a crew who know the sandbanks (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.411)
-- the distance from Lambarene to Cap Lopez is 250km, for
a raft that's 14 days of travel, in the last part the last
80km are slow because the tide of the sea is pushing
against it, and the water is salty, then a canoe is filled
with water beforehand, and it only goes forward at low
tide, at high tide people wait on the riverbanks (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.412)
-- if a raft gets stuck on a sandbank, this is a disaster
because one has to take the raft apart and put it back
together again, that can be special work for up to 8 days
- and time is always of the essence due to a lack of food
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.411)
-- during the trip on the river, the black crew on the
rafts is exchanging some tree trunks with cheap tree
trunks and sells the expensive tree trunks to black
villages (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.411-412)
-- the black crew on the rafts is often lured away from
their trip when they are making too long rests in the
villages, when there are festivities in villages, then
it's just not important to meed deadlines, so the ship in
Cape Lopez has to wait and the timber merchant has to pay
fines every day loosing his profit (Edge of the Primeval
Forest,, p.412)
The Ogowe Delta: 30 km narrow river arm - 15 km sea
shore - with all dangers
-- Risk: Meet the right arm of the river: The raft has to
go exactly into a 30 km long, narrow, curvy river arm that
flows directly to Cape Lopez
-- If this arm of the river is missed, the raft lands in
the middle of the bay and the ebb current carries the raft
out into the open sea at 8km / h
-- Risk: 15km of the sea shore: when the raft arrives in
the bay, the raft can then be pegged in shallow water
along the shore with poles to Cape Lopez, that is 15km of
bank stress, winds are a great danger: when winds drive
the raft into the sea, people in Cap Lopez are observing
this and maybe call a boat with an anchor that will save
the raft
-- Risk: Big waves in the sea: If the waves are too high,
the raft breaks and the crew rescues themselves in the
canoe
-- Risk: Ocean current: If a canoe that is driven out to
sea by the wind is not rescued, it will be pulled out into
the sea by the ebb flow and will sink with the entire crew
if no rescue takes place (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p
.413)
-- Rescues only come by chance when a launch (big boat) is
currently under steam (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.414)
[Africa has not invented yet systematic
lifeboats, systematic towing with motor boats in the bay
or the delimitation of the beaches for rafting].
The "wood park" of Cap Lopez
-- when the raft arrives in Cap Lopez after all risks, it
is integrated into a double row of rafts, this double
chain of rafts is fastened with iron rings and wire ropes,
the installation is checked every few hours, and dolphins
jump over the trunks (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.414)
-- when there is a longer time to wait for a steamer for
the transport to Europe, the trunks are rolled ashore
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.417)
-- it happens that in the night a rope breaks and all
rafts disappear with the ebb flow, so this is a complete
loss for the white timber merchants (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.414)
-- or a tornado comes and blows all ropes, that is also a
total loss for the white timber traders (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.414).
[The African governments systematically refuse
to build piers to protect their ports].
The wood steamer to Europe
-- the steamer for the transport to Europe waits in the
bay, the launches (big boat) bring the rafts with blacks
on them, who knock out the fixing ring for each trunk
before loading, then the chain is put around the trunk,
accidents may happen when blacks slip between the tree
trunks crushing their legs
-- if there comes a stiff wind or a tornado, these are
other risks of loss (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.415)
[The African governments systematically refuse
to create ports for the steamers to Europe].
-- after the loading of the wood into the wood steamer the
raft crew of blacks returns to the Ogowe River because Cap
Lopez is without food production, there is always a
shortage of food there. The blacks then use the received
salary to buy all sorts of things in the factories,
tobacco, alcohol. The blacks don't know the word "to
save", then after a few weeks they are bankrupt and the
logging starts all over again (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.416).
The bay of Cap Lopez
-- is very rich in fish (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.469)
Wild wood in the bay of Cap Lopez
-- in the bay of Cap Lopez many wild tree trunks from the
primeval forest are swimming around, so in the bay of the
Ogowe River loose logs are constantly drifting
(p.415-416), which could not be integrated into the rafts,
the floods in the rain forest brought them down the Ogowe
River and now they are in the lagoon without control,
there they are then stuck in the mud of the estatuary
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.416)
-- Wood that is swimming in the sea for a long time is
attacked by the shipworm (Teredo navalis), a small shell
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.416).
1914
The export of timber from Cap Lopez
-- from this spot there are 150,000 tons of wood per year
-- Mahogany (Ombega)
-- fake mahogany (Aucoumea klaineana), the wood is softer
than mahogany, is mainly suitable for cigar boxes and also
for furniture, sometimes more beautiful than real mahogany
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.416)
-- other types of wood on the Ogowe River are e.g.
-- Rosewood (Ekewasengo), red
-- Coral wood, red
-- Ironwood, it's as hard as metal gears
-- white wood, that is "like moirated satin"
-- some woods are not even known in Europe
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.417).
The Jesus fantasy missionary Mr. Haug in N'Gômô is a wood
expert with a wood collection (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.417).
Blacks against whites: Blacks cheat white
timber merchants with tricks on timber
-- the black Africans do not want to work and when working
for whites they want a high salary, therefore at the end
the afros cost more than whites (Edge of the Primeval
Forest, p.418)
Fraud of blacks against whites: sale of a cheap wood
with a similar grain + bark
-- Black people sell cheap wood with a similar grain and
bark as expensive wood (e.g. mahogany fakes)
Fraud of blacks against whites: sawing off old pieces
of wood and "integrating" them into the new wood
collection
-- Black people mix old pieces into the wood collection,
the ends of which have only been sawn off (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p.409). Albert Schweitzer quote
(translation):
"Finally the wood is placed in running water
and is fixed at the river bank with lianas. Now the
white timber merchant comes and is purchasing what the
negro has to offer in the different villages. But now
one has to be cautious. Is it really wood of the wanted
species or the negroes have mixed other wood with
similar bark and grain into the collection which is just
near the water in a luring place? Is all wood fresh or
are there old pieces from one year ago or from two years
ago which are just cut at their ends so they look new?
Fantasy of the negroes for cheating in the timber trade
is incredible variable. The newcomer has to be careful!"
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.409)
Blacks are cheating the whites: Leave cheap redwood in
the morass for months so that it simulates black ebony
wood
-- criminal blacks soak hard wood in the morass for months
and sell it as ebony (Edge of the Primeval Forest,
p.409-410). Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"The dearly acquired supply was worthless and
he was liable for the damage himself. The negroes had
sold him some hard wood that they had soaked for a few
months in the black mud. The cut and the superficial
layers simulated the most splendid ebony. Inside,
however, it was reddish. The inexperienced white man had
neglected to saw through a few logs as a test." (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.410)
Blacks are cheating the whites: collect half the
payment several times and disappear, never to be seen
again
-- The black logging groups receive half of the wages
after the logging, and the second half of the payment
comes after the transport to the bay of Cap Lopez. Now
there are black groups who never transport the wood, but
they collect the first half several times from several
white timber dealers, selling the cut wood 4 to 5 times,
and in the end the blacks disappear with the money, never
to be seen again, and the white woodcutters are left alone
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.410). Albert Schweitzer
quote (translation):
"The white timber merchant measured and
bought the wood. The measurement is hard work because he
always has to jump around on the logs turning in the
water. Now he pays half the purchase price. The rest
will be payed when the wood - which has got the symbol
of his company now - has arrived the sea. Sometimes it
happens that negroes are selling the same wood four or
five times, every time cashing the first half of the
money and at the end they disappear somewhere in the
jungle until the trade was forgotten or the white are
fed up with loosing time and money to search the
defrauders. Of course the money is not there any more
because it's converted into tobacco and other items, and
there is nothing for getting the money back." (Edge of
the Primeval Forest, p.410)
Cheating blacks against whites: exchanging logs and
falsifying markings during the trip on the Ogowe River
-- there are black crews who commit systematic fraud while
driving on the Ogowe River and exchange whole trunks at
landing sites, expensive trunks are replaced by cheap
trunks and the expensive trunks are sold to black villages
(Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.411 -412). Albert
Schweitzer quote (translation):
"On the trip it is not uncommon for the
negroes to sell good tree trunks from the raft to
natives exchanging them with cheap wood of the same
dimension and with an imitation of the logo of the
company. Such cheap wood pieces can always been found in
the forest being deposited from the last flood, or they
can be found on sandbanks or in bays of the river. There
are rumors claiming that villages are collecting the old
wood pieces in all dimentions as a stock. The good wood
stolen from the raft is anonymized and sold to other
whites." (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.411-412)
Gabon - since 1919: Much more hunger in Gabon than in
1913, because strong men from the interior of the
country are now chopping wood instead of farming
-- the interior of Gabon is partially depopulated, further
factors of the population reduction are the "Spanish flu"
in 1919, hunger after the war 1919-1920 and sleeping
sickness (letters from Lambarene, p.547)
-- when the strong men from the interior of Gabon have
migrated to the Ogowe River, these strong workers are
missing for agriculture (letters from Lambarene, p.547).
The homeless "savages" then chop wood on the Ogowe River
and do not farm there either. So hunger is inevitable in
Gabon.
--> The government has issued restrictions and
stipulated settlement bans and return obligations (letters
from Lambarene, p.548)
-- others think that the lumberjack savages should move to
the Ogowe River with the whole family, then they would
also plant fields for their families (letters from
Lambarene, p.548-549)
-- But the theory of bringing the family to the Ogowe
River and planting fields there does not work, according
to Albert Schweitzer, because the wood yard will be empty
in 1 to 2 years and the group will move on, exactly when
the plantings start to generate income (letters from
Lambarene, p.549).
White landowners organizing timbering well lay out fields
in advance, which will then be used when the wood is cut
(letters from Lambarene, p.549-550).
Gabon: The timber trade has no profit guarantee - a lot
of fraud and loss are possible
Timber dealers don't all get rich, but
-- often a flood is a godsend to move away the swimming
trunks
-- next year there may not be a flood and no big profit is
possible
-- the woodcutters are often missing (letters from
Lambarene, p.550)
-- those who work in the wood business on credit often end
up with debts (Letters from Lambarene, p.550-551), so
that's so bad that indebted lumberjacks have to be treated
by Albert Schweitzer in his hospital and they cannot even
pay for the food, so they ask for credit "until better
times" (letters from Lambarene, p.551).
Africa since 1919: false pride with ex-soldiers from
Europe
-- some Afro-soldiers who survived the First World War in
Europe have gold crowns put into their mouth after the
war, only to make a show with it and make an impression in
Africa (letters from Lambarene, p.562)
-- some Afro-soldiers who survived the First World War in
Europe have experienced such cruelty that they cannot tell
about it for a lifetime (letters from Lambarene,
p.562-563).
Lambarene with a perforated roof
-- as long as the roofs still have holes, Albert
Schweitzer sometimes gets a sunstroke from all the work in
the sun and can then hardly walk (letters from Lambarene,
p.528-529). Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"In the period after Pentecost [1924] I did
not feel well for a number of weeks. I have to drag
myself to work. As soon as I have come up from the
hospital at noon and in the evening, I have to lie down.
I am not even capable to prepare the orders of
medicaments and bandages in order. The main culprit for
this discomfort is probably the roof of the hospital. I
hadn't noticed that there were some (p.528) small holes
again and I will have gotten a few small sunstrokes
therefore. A patched roof should actually be checked
every day. The slightest gust of wind is enough to move
the rotten leaf bricks against each other so that a new
hole is created. " (Letters from Lambarene, p.529)
[So Albert Schweitzer looses every day time with roofs?
And why Albert Schweitzer is not purchasing corrugated
sheet? Because he is stupid...]
Lambarene without a large canoe: Long bamboo poles, the
rapha palm leaves, the bast - harvest only during floods
or dry seasons
-- Albert Schweitzer and the Jesus fantasy mission do not
have a big canoe for long bamboo poles as rafters, and the
long bamboo poles can only be harvested in certain places
and only when the water level is certain (letters from
Lambarene, p.507-508) . Quote from Albert Schweitzer
(translation):
"The construction work is made even more
difficult for me by the fact that I don't have a large
canoe. The Mission doesn't have one either. They manage
the search for bamboo with two repaired boats of middle
size. Thus I have difficulties to get the bamboo poles
for the roofs. And time is urging. It's not so simple
that one is entering the rain forest for getting some
bamboo. But the big bamboo poles can be found only in
certain locations in swamps. In the region there is only
one location for this to take them out. The locations
far behind in the swamps (p.507) and are not reacheble
neither on water neither on land have to stay outside of
considering. With the raffia palms, which provide the
material for the leaf bricks, it is the same. The same
counts for the plant from which the bast cords are made
to fix the rafters to the roof and for fixing the leaf
tiles on the rafters. For the material for this bast, I
need my canoo being sent 30 kilometers away!
For the possession of places of bamboo, raffia and bast
easily exploitable, the tribes used to wage war with one
another, like the whites over ore and coal mines.
But even the exploitable places cannot be
reached at any time of the year. They are all in swamps.
They can therefore be reached by boat when the high tide
is high enough so one can enter the swamp from the
river, or one can enter the territory when the swamp
becomes so dry in the dry season that you can walk
through it. But the swamp is seldom accessible in the
dry season. Very often the autumn floods are not so high
that the bamboo sites can be reached by boat. So the
time to pick bamboo is the spring flood. Whoever does
not get the necessary bamboo poles in these two or three
weeks runs the risk of not getting any at all and not
being able to build for one year. "(Letters from
Lambarene, p.508)
-- so Albert Schweitzer has to borrow a big canoe and then
still have people available - and then the water level has
to be favorable for the bamboo harvest - this is how 400
to 500 bamboo sticks arrive (letters from Lambarene,
p.508-509)
Lambarene: In 1924 there were "very
different sick people" than in 1913: Now there are
strong men from the interior of the country from logging
(the Bendjabis)
It is no longer just the two tribes of the Goalas and
the Pahuins - homeless wild blacks from the interior of
Gabon are in the timber business - with brutal
consequences
Albert Schweitzer states that "completely different sick
people" came in 1924 than in 1913 because the economic
conditions on the Ogowe River in Gabon changed radically
in some cases with the First World War and the post-war
period since 1919 (letters from Lambarene, p.547):
-- until 1914 there were mainly black patients of the two
competing tribes the Goalas and the Pahuins, in those
times only these two languages were spoken by the blacks
in the hospital (Life+Thought, p.156)
-- from 1924 on many "wild black" without contact to their
home villages are coming, they have migrated from the
inner of Gabon (the Bendjabis - letters, p.554) who work
as woodcutters on the Ogowe River in white territories,
they meanwhile make up about 20% of the population
(Letters from Lambarene, p.547)
-- The hospital was immediately overrun with sick people,
because now not only
Goalas and Pahuins
bring their patients, but also the "wild blacks" (
Bendjabis)
from the interior of Gabon who are now chopping wood near
the Ogowe River, they suffer many injuries by timbering
(Letters from Lambarene, pp. 593-594)
-- often hopelessly "wild blacks" have lost weight
remaining like skelettons and are deposited at the
hospital of Albert Schweitzer, without family members who
are waiting in the highlands for the sick person and for
some earned money (!) (Letters from Albarene, p.554)
-- the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis) from the interior of
Gabon bring many new languages to the Ogowe River, they
speak at least 10 different languages that no teacher in
the hospital understands - helper Dominik can speak some
of the languages, but not all (Letters, p.555), and
therefore, one has to heal and operate without a
conversation - really not a thankful task (Letters from
Lambarene, p.555-556)
-- there is not enough time for common celebrations with
the patients (p.560). So with these "wild blacks"
(Bendjabis) the hospital staff is only under constant
stress (letters from Lambarene, p.560-561).
June 21, 1924
1 motorboat and missionary Abrezol
The river steamer ["Alembe"] brings Albert Schweitzer's
jungle hospital
-- a motorboat with driver, the Jesus fantasy missionary
Abrezol, who can now drag the canoes, two boxes are lying
around for weeks because of lack of time and space
(letters from Lambarene, p.525). Albert Schweitzer quote:
"On June 21st [1924] the river steamer finally
brought my 73 boxes. On the same day a powerful
motorboat arrived for the mission station and at the
same time a 23-year-old new missionary, a Mr. Abrezol
from Switzerland. He learned in Europe, to handle the
motorboat, and makes himself available to me in the
afternoon to haul the canoes that are supposed to fetch
my boxes at the landing place of the river steamer,
where they lie on grass under the open sky, exposed to
the rain and thieves, if they fail to get them all home
before night.
The Catholic Mission lends me their large canoe that can
hold my eight largest boxes at once. The motorboat
allows the canoes to make two trips in the afternoon.
Finally, at sunset, the little steamer from a Dutch
timber merchant, which I have been looking after for
weeks, happens to come along. Of course he is
requisitioned to help with the transport.
At 8 o'clock in the evening, all boxes, with the
exception of the box with the stove, are housed in the
open boat house. They have to stay there for two or
three weeks, protected from the rain as much as the
perforated roof of the boat shed can protect, and as
safe from the thieves as the two sick people whom I put
there as watchmen are on the watch. We don't have the
time and space to unload." (Letters from Lambarene,
p.525)
July + August 1924
No brick production this year because there is no dry
season
In July and August 1924 (normally the dry season) the dry
season does not occur and brick production is not
possible. The Catholic Jesus fantasy mission is losing
over 30,000 bricks (letters from Lambarene, p.531).
[Where's the brick oven?
Bricks need to dry in the sun or in a hot blower in a
brick oven. Albert Schweitzer does not have a kiln for
bricks, because that would also have to be made from
bricks. The Jesus fantasy missions were not able to
build that, because that is "construction worker"
knowledge that seems to be too "low" for them ...]
Early August 1924
Mr. Morel from Samkita is guest of Albert Schweitzer
and experiences a boa
The boa is then distributed to the sick. There is a
struggle for distribution among the blacks (letters from
Lambarene, p.532). Quote (translation):
"At the beginning of August, Mr. and Mrs.
Morel are coming here for a fortnight to start their
journey home to Alsace. They have to take the river
steamer here, as it is not certain whether it will go up
to Samkita when the water level is low.
Near the girls' school, Mr. Morel kills a giant snake
(Boa constrictor). Since she shot was done with my
rifle, I get half of the boa for the hospital, as is
due. Unfortunately, the boa is only 5 1/2 meters long
and not particularly fat. When distributing the
delicacies there is almost a fight among the sick."
(Letters from Lambarene, p.532)
July + August 1924: The dry season did not materialize
- no bananas + no dried fish - hunger threatens -
hunting hippos
-- Since the dry season was missing in 1924, various
activities in agriculture could not be carried out, so
that there is also a risk of hunger:
--> no forest clearing --> no new
banana plantations --> hunger comes
--> no low water --> no big fish
campaigns --> no stocks of smoked fish (letters from
Lambarene, p.536)
Plan March 1925: New house on stilts and the chickens
underneath
There is a lack of housing for employees who live far
away, come late and leave early. Stilt houses are being
built, and the chickens are living under them (letters
from Lambarene, p.569). Quote from Albert Schweitzer:
"On the site of the mission station available
to me, there is just a territory left that can
accommodate a house 16 meters long and 12 meters wide.
In this house will be housed the white sick people, the
supplies, Joseph and the cook. The chickens are housed
under them between the stakes. " (Letters from
Lambarene, p.569)
[Chicken coop under the house in the tropics?
It seems strange that Albert Schweitzer allows chicken
droppings to spread it's bacteria under the house of the
white sick, the supplies and under the assistant Joseph
and the cook of a hospital. This is MURDER].
January 28, 1925
Arrival of a motor boat from Sweden called "Tack so
mycket" ("Thank you very much")
In Sweden since 1922 money has been collected for the
motorboat, it is covered with a canvas roof (Letters,
p.573), it is 8.5 by 1.5 m, has a 3.5 HP engine, drives up
to 12km/h, in countercurrent less, can hold up to 1 ton of
cargo. So now much more and heavier loads are possible,
because fuel costs less than paying the many rowers who
always have to be fed (letters from Lambarene, p.574).
Motor boats have been customary for woodcutters for a long
time already (letters from Lambarene, p.574).
Then:
Two large canoes escape and are found again
The helper Dominik, an illiterate (letters, p.542), but
who speaks some languages of the "wild blacks" (Bendjabis)
(letters, p.555), did not fix the canoes properly in the
evening and now they are somewhere "down there". Dominik
can now go looking for the canoes, first in one forearm of
the river, then in the other one, and he actually finds
them again and his group is celebrated (letters from
Lambarene, p.576-577).
from April 1925 approx.: animals on the
hospital grounds of Lambarene
since April 1925: chimpanzee babies in Lambarene
hospital
-- Chimpanzees: Miss Haussknecht takes care
of a baby chimpanzee named "Fifi", which always hangs on
her apron, the baby chimpanzee comes from a mother
chimpanzee who was shot by a hunter. In January 1926
approx. a European leaves another chimpanzee child so that
from then on two little chimpanzees are playing together
on the hospital grounds (letters from Lambarene, p.667)
[To what extent the small chimpanzees can be
controlled and "contribute" to hygiene is an open
question. Later, the two chimpanzees are a trademark for
Albert Schweitzer's hospital: a new, large hospital will
be built 3km above, and the small hospital will become a
leprosy station and animal hospital].
-- Dogs: Some black people are acting with
cruelty against dogs. This means that whites who are
traveling back to Europe would rather leave their dogs
with Albert Schweitzer in the hospital than give them to
other blacks (letters from Lambarene, p.667).
[Can it be that these animals transmit
diseases?]
-- Goats: Albert Schweitzer's hospital also
wants to install goat breeding so that goats can give more
milk:
The goats are supposed to supply the hospital with fresh
milk (Letters, p.666), so far a goat only gives 1/2 a
glass of milk per day, there is hope for goat breeding and
more milk production in the hospital (letters from
Lambarene, p.667) .
[Why were no goats imported from Europe that
give more milk?]
-- some successfully operated patients often give the
hospital a goat (letters from Lambarene, p.607).
-- Chickens: Albert Schweitzer's hospital
takes care of its chickens for fresh eggs
-- some successfully operated patients give a few chickens
to the hospital (letters from Lambarene, p.636).
Lambarene concentration camp - June 1925:
Famine upstream because there were no slash and burns in
1924 (?? !!)
Gabon with a criminal tradition in the jungle: The
natives only want to plant where there was a slash and
burn before - depending on the dry season (!)
The dysentery is provoking a bad mood in the hospital and
at the same time the news about famine up the river is
even provoking an even worse mood (letters from Lambarene,
p.603).
-- the affected areas of famine are above all on the
border with Cameroon with the caravan route
N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou
-- the blacks have a tradition of planting after slash and
burn, the soil is fertilized with the ashes of the fire
and then freshly planted on the ashes as fertilizer
-- in 1924 there was no drought, it also rained heavily in
July and August 1924, nothing could be burned, so nothing
was planted in 1924 - so of course that is a mindless
reaction not planting anything (!!!)
-- in this way it was in Gabon in the border region to
Cameroon and also in Lambarene (letters from Lambarene,
p.603).
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Our mood, which was very depressed by the
increasing dysentery, is depressed even more by news of
severe famine upstream. The areas bordering Cameroon and
crossed by the N'Djôle-Boue-Makokou caravan route are
particularly affected. The ultimate cause of this severe
famine is the rain that came down in the dry season of
1924. The rainfall hindered drying the soil, slash and
burn and planting. However, the custom requires that
planting comes after slash and burn only. Wood and scrub
are away and the ground is fertilized by ashes. If rain
makes this process impossible, the people simply do not
plant any plants, regardless of the consequences. That's
the customhere, including us. In our area, when the
rains continued, no territory was cut off the forest."
(Letters from Lambarene, p. 603)
But planting would also be possible in the rain. In
Lambarene, rice arrives by ship from Europe and from
India. In the interior of Gabon, however, it is hardly
possible to supply rice from outside by land because it
has to be brought on footpaths and carriers.
[And permaculture with mulching the soil for
fertilizing it is not known yet. And under the mulch
snakes will be another danger].
So in June 1925 the situation is like this:
-- Lambarene is suffering from a slight famine
-- the interior of Gabon is suffering from a severe famine
(letters from Lambarene, p.604).
Albert Schweitzer quote:
"But planting is not blocked when it's
raining, but it's only more work. Instead of burning
wood and brushes, one needs only to put it on heaps,
then planting can be proceeded on the free locations
between the trunks and the heaps. But there was no
resolution to act like this, and therefore no
plantations were installed yielding fruits now. In our
region this fact is not having a big effect, because on
the broad Ogowe River the delivery of rice from Euorpe
and India is possible. But in the inner of the country
with transports of rice by carriers over 100s of
kilometers, the food delivery for the population is only
ristricted now. Therefore there is a heavy famine there,
but in our region only a little one." (Letters from
Lambarene, p. 604)
Gabon - June 1925: Possible corn cultivation was not
done - the corn was eaten - looting - nobody is planting
anymore
If corn had been planted at the beginning of the famine,
there would have been no famine. Maize in tropical Gabon
grows very quickly, is yielding and harvested already in
the 4th month, but the black natives ate the maize instead
of sowing it (!!!). And the hungry in the interior then
also began to plunder where there were still crops to
steal, thus provoking the famine where it didn't exist
yet. The result is that there is no longer any
agricultural cultivation for fear of looters. Everyone is
waiting for a miracle. (Letters from Lambarene, p. 604).
Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Had maize been planted in good time when the
famine began, the worst could have been avoided. Maize
thrives here excellently and is already yielding fruit
in the fourth month. But when food became scarce, the
natives ate the maize that should have been sown. The
misfortune was compounded by the fact that the
inhabitants of the hardest hit areas moved to areas
where there was still some food and plundered the
plantings, which also caused misery. Now nobody has the
courage to plant anything. It would only be for the
looters. The people is sitting in their villages without
will and are awaiting their fate." (Letters from
Lambarene, p.604)
Gabon - June 1925: The people do not want to go
hunting, not even the hunters - because there is
"famine" - they freeze as if in hypnosis
The peoples in Equatorial Africa are not gifted to cope
with difficult situations. There remains hunting in the
jungle or in the steppe (Briefe, p.604), e.g. 20 people
against wild boars, which are not as dangerous in Africa
as in Europe (Briefe, p. 604-605). But:
-- the blacks do not organize the hunting because there is
famine
-- the blacks don't know the slogan "Emergency makes
inventive", but blacks in the jungle are rather living
with the slogan "Emergency makes stupid" (letters from
Lambarene, p. 605).
There are trained hunters in Gabon, but they are
hypnotized and simply don't hunt because there is
"famine". (Letters from Lambarene, p. 605).
Quote from Albert Schweitzer (translation):
"This lack of resilience and this [mental]
inability to adapt to difficult circumstances are
typical for the natives of Equatorial Africa and make
them pitiful creatures. There is no plant food
available. But in the forest and in the steppes meat
food could be obtained. Twenty men armed with bush
knives and lances could surround a herd of wild boars
and capture an animal (Letters, p. 604). The local wild
boars are much less dangerous than the European ones.
But the starving blacks do not get up to it, but they
are staying in the huts and wait for their death,
because there is famine. Here, the rule is not
"Emergency makes inventive", but "Emergency makes
stupid".
I am told that a gentleman from the hungry region has a
black hunter who otherwise kills a lot with his rifle.
Instead of going out to hunt with increased zeal when
the famine breaks out, he crouches with the others in
the hut to die of hunger, where he could save them with
the ammunition that his master has made available to
him. Bananas and cassava are part of the diet. So you
can't live without it. Hypnotized by logic, hundreds and
hundreds are now surrendering to death up there."
(Letters from Lambarene, p. 605)
Old currencies in Gabon
Old "currencies" during the famine in Gabon - Albert
Schweitzer's means of exchange for blacks
-- during the slave trade the highest goods were:
gunpowder,
lead, tobacco and alcohol, and in times of
need these goods are still a medium of exchange (letters
from Lambarene, p.625)
Tobacco as a currency in Gabon - imported from the
"USA"
-- the tobacco is imported from the "USA" and is much
stronger than the tobacco in Europe
-- 1 tobacco leaf = 5 pfennigs = 2 pineapples
-- smaller services are rewarded with tobacco leaves
-- 7 tobacco leaves are tied together to form a "head of
tobacco", value approx. 1/2 franc (Edge of the Primeval
Fores, p.367)
Tobacco as a drug among the blacks
-- a trip with rowers goes with a box of tobacco leaves
("barter tobacco"), with which one buys the food for the
rowers, the leader of the trip sits on the canoe on the
box so that the tobacco is not stolen (Edge of the
Primeval Fores, p .367)
-- if the rowers expect tobacco as a reward, then they
paddle faster (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.367-368).
Barter goods and gift certificates
-- useful barter goods: Albert Schweitzer gives black
people only "useful things" as a reward, which can be
exchanged in the village (letters from Lambarene, p.625),
such as:
"Spoons - forks are not much required - cups,
plates, knives, saucepans, raffia sleeping mats,
blankets and fabrics for clothes and mosquito nets."
(Letters from Lambarene, p.625)
The people who help with the clearing receive a voucher
every 2 days and a gift is given every 10 days. Gifts
require so and so many vouchers, e.g. 1 blanket for 15
vouchers, the most popular are knives (letters, p.625)
with a cord hole to carry the knife around the neck and
not to lose, because blacks had nothing more than
loincloth at that time, they had no pockets . When the
people come to their village they can exchange the knives
for useful things (letters from Lambarene, p.626).
Plantings and fields on the new site of the large
hospital
-- possible plantings are: corn, bananas, plantains, yams,
taro, manioc, peanuts, breadfruit, rice (letters from
Lambarene, p.630)
Planting course
--
Banana trees are cut off, then new side
shoots come (letters from Lambarene, p.630),
-- Banana trees need a lot of nutrients and
use up the soil relatively quickly, that's why every 3
years there is a new slash and burn action installing a
new plantation with the idea that the ashes are a good
fertilizer (Edge of the Primeval Forest, p.419)
[They don't know mulch as fertilizer]
-- Elephants like to eat the bananas, in one
night they can eat away a whole field (letters from
Lambarene, p.634)
-- when
plantain is cut then it has to
change the location (be transplanted) because it uses up
the soil so much that no new side shoots appear
-- the
sweet potato carries for 3 years on
the spot, but rats eat a lot of it (letters from
Lambarene, p.631)
--
yam is rarely grown in Africa
--
taro is sometimes very common in Africa,
but not in Gabon on the Ogowe River
--
cassava tubers from the cassava bush:
The tubers are soaked in water so that the hydrogen
cyanide is dissolved out and disappears. Unfortunately,
wild boars like to eat cassava, so only fenced cassava
fields are safe (letters from Lambarene, p.632)
The cassava root contains cyanic acid, which has to be
washed out under running water for days because it is
fatal if it is not washed out. After enough soaking,
fermentation takes place, a tough, dark dough is created,
sticks are rolled up in leaves and stored that way, for
Europeans it is a strange taste, is like sago in European
soups, sago is also made from cassava (Edge of the
Primeval Forest, p. 406)
--
peanuts grow in the ground, but it has
to be pure arable soil in order to achieve profitability,
which can hardly be had with Albert Schweitzer if he
leaves all the roots in the ground (letters from
Lambarene, p.632-633)
[but roots in the ground are like a fertilizer
by the slow discomposition - see permaculture].
--
sliced breadfruit is a highlight for
the blacks. Raising breadfruit trees is long and
complicated. You have to plant and raise root shoots, many
die in the process
--
rice: mountain rice does not need
irrigation. But birds eat the rice away [seedlings have to
be grown in a greenhouse, and how about scarecrows, Mr.
Schweitzer?] (letters from Lambarene, p.633)
Compulsory plantings
Then there is a lease purchase agreement, the government
of Gabon obliges to grow coffee and cocoa (Letters,
p.633-634) for export, otherwise the land remains in the
possession of the state and does not pass to the lessee.
Coffee: Coffee trees take a few years to
grow before they become viable. Machines are necessary for
unveiling.
Cocoa: Cocoa beans are fermented, the brown
mass is separated from the oil, then the brown mass is
dried as a tablet. From now on the patients will always
get some chocolate as concentrate with their rice, but the
locals don't like it that much (letters from Lambarene,
p.634).
-- Rodents eat cocoa fruits and thus prevent the ripening
(letters from Lambarene, p.634).
Goal: create an orchard
-- an orchard is installed, so: Around the
Albert-Schweitzer-Spital a garden of Eden should be
created, where everyone can take himself, so that there is
no more theft (Life+Thought, p.218). Quote from Albert
Schweitzer:
"Here so much fruit should grow so everybody
can take as he/she needs to have so theft will be
abolished." (Life + thinking, p.218)
The orchard is partly existing already: papaya trees,
mango trees, oil palms
With papaya trees, mango trees and oil palms the situation
is already so far, resp. mango trees and oil palms had
already grown in the jungle, now they were liberated from
the other trees and are bearing now in abundance
(Life+Thought, p.218). Albert Schweitzer quote:
"The papaya bushes that we have planted in
abundance are already producing a yield that exceeds the
needs of the hospital. Mango trees and oil palms,
however, were so many in the surrounding forest that
after the rest of the trees were laid down they made up
entire groves. They were hardly liberated from the
creeping plant where they suffocated, and freed from the
giant trees that overshadowed them, and then they
immediately began to yield." (Life + thinking, p.218)
The fruit trees were imported from the Caribbean ("West
India"): banana trees, manioc trees, oil palms, mango
trees etc. (Life + Thought, p.218)
Growing the banana trees in the hospital area is not
worthwhile, the families of the patients have to help
because (Life+Thought, p.218-219):
"The bananas that I grow with paid workers are
finally much more expensive to me than those that the
natives supply me from their own plantations that are
conveniently located on the water. The natives have
almost no fruit trees because they don't live in the
same place all the time, but relocate the villages
steadily." (Life + thinking, p.219)
And rice must ALWAYS be available when there is a lack of
bananas. Albert Schweitzer quote (translation):
"Since the bananas cannot be stored either
[because they rotten in a short time in a tropical
climate], I always have to have a large supply of rice
in case there are not enough fruiting banana plants in
the area." (Life + thinking, p.219)
27.12.1925: Albert Schweitzer on trips for searching
wood - he lost many weeks with it
With his canoe and 5 paddlers, he has to travel 60km
downwards the river for reaching a sawmill for beams and
boards, it was agreed that 1 steamer would bring him back,
but the agreement was not fulfilled because the steamer
was there 1 day earlier already, so Albert Schweitzer had
to pass 1 week there for waiting the next steamer for
going home (letters from Lambarene, p.638)
With such trips for searching wood, Albert Schweitzer
loses a few weeks in his life and cannot heal (letters
from Lambarene, p.639).
The new hospital: The 10-room house with a double roof
by carpenter Mr. Schatzmann
The 10-room house is getting a double roof: on the top is
put corrugated iron and below are leaf bricks, so it never
gets too hot in the house, the double roof is a
masterpiece by the carpenter Mr. Schatzmann (letters from
Lambarene, p.592).
The barrack with a double roof
The big barrack is 22.5 by 8 m, with mosquito windows and
with a double roof: a wooden roof and 25 cm above the
corrugated iron roof - air is the best insulator (letters
from Lambarene, p.681)
-- with an operating room for normal operations
-- with a small operating room for infected cases
-- with a pharmacy
-- with a room as a medicine store
-- with a room for cloths and bandages
-- with a laboratory (letters from Lambarene, p.681).
January 1926 approx.
A European giving a chimpanzee child
so that now two little chimpanzees can play together on
the hospital grounds of Lambarene (letters from Lambarene,
p.667).
Animal protection when putting poles
-- the holes for the poles are prepared, and animals
sometimes get in there overnight
-- Albert Schweitzer then takes the animals out of the
holes before the poles are set, and he also educates the
blacks to protect animals, not to just kill animals when
they are found in bushes when the bushes are being cleared
(letters from Lambarene, p.667)
-- the instructions work partly with the argument that the
animals were also "created by God"
-- in the end, the blacks sometimes even educate each
other to protect animals, something that Albert Schweitzer
did not expect! (Letters from Lambarene, p.668).
The chimpanzee child Fifi
Fifi has teeth now and can eat alone with a spoon (letters
from Lambarene, p.667).
[Why time is spent for animals and the monkey
children are not given to a zoo remains another
question. Albert Schweitzer will later say, ALL life
counts].
Construction site - August 1926
Floods inundated a part of the garden
and beans and cabbage are partly lost (letters from
Lambarene, p.651).
[Why wasn't a dam built?]
Diet with only white rice is the cause of
susceptibility to the cholerine bacterium
The pathogen "Choleravibrio" is found in the river system
of the Ogowe River, which is "native" there. However, with
good nutrition, the cholerin bacterium is harmless. The
eternal rice food at the Ogowe River is damaging the
intestinal flora, so that the resistance in the intestines
is decreasing with the black people and the river water
with the cholerine bacteria becomes dangerous (letters
from Lambarene, p.663).
The research of Dr. Trensz about the cholera disease with
the cholerine bacterium is in progress and a scientific
treatise is in progress (letters from Lambarene, p.663).