August
21, 2007 Stone
Town , Zanzibar
|
Met a Hemingway look alike at a stall selling oranges. He spoke passable
Swahili and I greeted him and we both sort of had that “ Where are you from”
look on our faces. He asked what nationality I thought he was and I think
I guessed German. He said he was in Zanzibar right after the Revolution
in 1964 and worked as a teacher. His name is Eckhard Schulz from near
Magdeburg, the home of my Aunt Emma Morgenthau. I asked if he knew the
husband of the writer Doris Lessing who was married to Gottfried Lessing.
By then he was the Consul General from East Germany to Zanzibar and
divorced from Doris. Eckhard, a bit surprised that I would know that
replied that he did meet him several times at functions. Lessing
eventually disappeared in Idi Amin's Uganda and to this day there is no
clue what became of his body or why he was killed. Eckhard is a part time
historian of the German presence in East Africa, something we have in
common. Though his interest is much greater and better connected than
mine. We have both been on several trecks in Tanzania to Taita, Lake
Chala, and other WWI sites including the Moshi War Cemetery. He confirmed
that the large number of British soldiers who died on March 21, 1916 were
killed in the Battle of Moshi that included the bombing of the town by
the British. Fortunately the Brits had only one plane and one bomb. I
believe there was a Royal Marine pilot killed there. He told me of the
Robert Koch room in the old Dar Es Salaam hospital where the eminent
microbiologist worked for a year in the 1890s and at one time returned
for a brief visit. Eckhard went on to Moshi shortly after I left to
replace the biology teacher Ian Smith , whom I knew and with whom I
played rugby. Ian was killed in a car accident. Something I did not know
about. He knew Frank Poppleton, Pat Heminqway and several others I had
known. He didn't know that Dr. Balletto lived near Moshi, but he knew of
the doctor's adventure on Mt. Kenya.. We plan to meet tomorrow for
coffee. We had coffee yesterday at the Zanzibar Coffee House behind the
fish market. We also met a young Swiss couple here to study Swahili
before going to Ifaraka, south of Iringa on the mainland to work for two
years. He is an infectious diseases specialist, HIV, and she is a biology
teacher. We warned her of some of the pitfalls of biology teaching over
here.. They were both feeling frustrated with the methodology of Swahili
teaching.
Another story Herr Schulz has about Gottfried Lessing included some
background about the man. He was a Communist who fled the Nazi's in the
1930s and ended up in South Africa where he met Doris. He appears in at
least one of her early novels. Their marriage eventulally ended and he
returned to East Germany after WWII where he joined the party and became
a member of the diplomatic corps. He came to Zanzibar after the 1964
Revolution, a quite bloody one at that. Lots of Arabs and Indians were
singled out by the masses and systematically liquidated by the Afro
Shirazi party. Many weree literally driven into the ocean. Others shot
and buried in mass graves. Now Indians and Arabs are back in Zanzibar.
Survivors and children of survivors. I know nothing about the
reconcilliation process here. For about 3 years after 64 , the island was
shut down to western visitor. However the Russians, East Germans, Czechs,
and Chinese were invited in and became very much a presence. This was
also the time of the liberation wars in Southern Africa and Zanzibar
became a warehouse for arms shipments to the mainland. Southern Tanzania
was a training ground for many of these groups, especially Freelimo, who
were active in Mozambique under Eduardo Mondolane, a professor on leave
of absence to run a revolution. He spoke to us at Peace Corps training in
Syracuse. He was eventually blown up by sympathizers of Samora Machel,
who was killed in a plane crash that the South Africans are thought to
have engineered. Southwest Africa People's Organization SWAPO was also
active in Tanzania and the African National Congress ANC was in Dar Es
Salaam initially struggling for recognition as the representative of the
South African people in their fight against Apartheid. There were several
organizations also in competition with them. When the ANC was recognized,
the others had to leave Tanzania. At that time I was living just inside
Kenya on the Tanzanian border. One afternoon about 6 men showed up on my
front door asking for help to get to Nairobi about 150 miles through the
bush. They were from one of the discredited political groups. Somehow
they had met the Northern Region rep for the Peace Corps, and he
suggested to them that they cross the border where I lived because it was
for the most part unguarded. I was able to borrow the school's Landrover
and drove them through the bush to Nairobi where they had a contact. When
the school principal found out, the Peace Corps was persona non grata at
the school forever. They met me on the edge of town so it would appear
that I was just giving a ride to hitch hikers. These guys were very
distinguishable in appearance from the multiracial makeup. I know now
they were Cape Coloureds, children of African, Asian, and White
parentage. I'm not sure what polical group they were with, but this
occurred in late 1967.
Getting back to the story Eckhard was telling me about Gottfried Lessing
however, he mentioned that an historian friend in Berlin now has access
to archives of the East German regime, indicating that Lessing was in
negotiation with the South African Apartheid government about something.
Very secret of course, as to each side this would be equivalent of
negotiating with the devil. Whatever either of them had to talk about
will be most interesting to know and how contact was initially made.
Apparently the paper will be coming out shortly and Eckhard will keep me
apprised.
Today, Tuesday it is raining in town. \most unusual for this time of
year.
Signing off from Stone Town, Zanzibar.
This Tuesday evening, I met again with Eckhard Schulz to carry on our
conversation of yesterday. One of my questions of him was to know if he
had ever written articles about Tanzania and particularly about
Kilimanjaro in East German papers. This question came to me in my sleep
last night. His answer was , Yes. The reason I asked was because I had
read one of them in 1969 or 1970. At that time I was in the 5th
Psychological Operations Battalion in Boeblingen , West Germany as an
area studies analyst. My job was to research certain countries to determine
if there were interest groups that would support American activities in
that particular country. Nothing very sinister but just to know in case
the balloon ever went up. There were former East Germans, Czechs,
Russians, and others in that unit, and all we did was read a lot of
newspapers and clip articles of interest, and then spent most of our time
burning those newspapers so no one would know what we were reading or
what was being clipped out. I remember now saving an article about
Kilimanjaro by an East German from Neuesdeutschland . I think it is still
in a folder somewhere in our home. This I confess is a breach of State
Security and which may get me put in Leavenworth when I get home. We both
had to laugh that here we met, old cold warriors who never lifted a
weapon in anger, meeting in a former revolutionary country that is now
being seduced by capitalism. What else could be more revolutionary. He
told of being followed by police when he went to meet a girlfriend in
Russia. Then he told me of the State police investigation into his past
before he went to Africa. Then I realized that the FBI had done a full
background investigation on me and every other Peace Corps Volunteer
before we went overseas. The more we were different , the more we were
alike. There will be a picture of this meeting in Zanzibar on this site
shortly. My cousin and I will be getting photos ready to fill in on all
these letters. One more night in Zanzibar and two more on the mainland,
then I'll be locked into the cabin of Ethiopian Airlines all the way to
Washington on Friday and Saturday.
Stone
Town , Zanzibar at the Palace Hotel Internet Cafe. August 21, 2007
|
|
|


Itinerary
George's
Route
Archive
Aug 21, 2007
Aug 16, 2007
Aug 14, 2007
Aug 12-13, 2007
Aug 10, 2007
Aug 6-8, 2007
Aug 5, 2007
Aug 1, 2007
July 30, 2007
July 29, 2007
July 23-25, 2007
July 24, 2007
July 22, 2007
July 20, 2007
July 15-17, 2007
July 12-13, 2007
July 13, 2007
July 12, 2007
July 8, 2007
June 30, 2007
June 12, 2007
June 11, 2007
Mediation Classes
and Case Studies
Nairobi
Kakamega/Lubao
Bujumbura, Rwanda
Kigali, Rwanda
Goma, Congo
Photos
1960's Africa
Germany
|
|