After the Scramble

So I’m finally back in the land of the blogging after being stuck in 738 pages of literary purgatory. A while back a friend picked up a copy of Thomas Pakenham’s “The Scramble for Africa” and, like any idiot, I figured that since I live here I should read it. How difficult could it be? The whole book covers less than forty years (1876-1912) and in pages is shorter than most of the Harry Potter books. Over fifteen years ago I conquered my first one thousand page book, and that was during junior high basketball season. Piece of cake.

But L. Ron Hubbard didn’t write with a British accent. And Rowling doesn’t make obscure references to 16th century British parliamentary history. And neither is printed in a ten point font. With the exception of Ulysses, which I still haven’t gotten through, it may have been the most difficult book I’ve tried reading. (Barry, how goes your attempt?) Too many names and difficult to name places. Lots of anecdotes that seem insignificant until three chapters later by which time you’ve forgotten the details. Lots of blood, hands and ears but not nearly as graphic as “King Leopold’s Ghost.”

But the book was insightful into how the lines got drawn here in Africa. Some negotiation but a lot of it was determined by minor battles, when the supplies of scouting parties got low or when disease simply destroyed caravans. People like Churchill and von Bulow and quite a few others I’d largely forgotten about, got their starts in dealing with the “savages” – normally by killing off entire villages of those who wouldn’t allow themselves to be bought off by blank treaty forms or rolls of velvet cloth. Other leaders who could have come to power because they had the right sort of pedigree or professional background became obsessed with, ignored because of, or financially destroyed by this last unknown place on the planet.

If you’ve got some time on your hands – like while in prison or stuck in a hospital room with three channels with a hacking insomniac for a roommate – it’s worth the read.