The Bedouin Wife

Index

CREDITS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Prologue

Preface

Cast of Characters

Glossary

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

From the Author

About the Author

Books by O.L.Rigiroli

Author's coordinates

Credits and Acknowledgements

WE THANK THE FOLLOWING institutions for the reasons stated in each case.

"Mama Africa Organization: photos reproduced with permission.

"Wikipedia Foundation: maps of German East Africa.

Prologue

AS HAPPENS WITH MOST of the members of my generation- and not just men- Africa has occupied an important place in my imagination since childhood. At the time I read and re-read all the novels and stories of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Joseph Conrad, Ernest Hemingway, H. Rider Haggard, Karl May, Christopher Wren, Wilbur Smith and many others of the classic period of this genre and even today, I miss the taste of adventure with a special connotation if it took place in the once mysterious Dark Continent. Powerful names like Timbuktu or Zinderneuf evoke romantic stories of courage and danger.

Then there has been all the rich African literature and even I have written several novels and short stories that take place in Africa today, including issues of painful as ethnic cleansing, simple variants of genocide, human trafficking and modern slavery.

But I always miss the spirit of those classic African novels, which happened in imprecise geographical sites in foggy periods and with actors and events that have escaped the scrutiny of history. Is this flavor that I intend to rediscover and reproduce in An African Adventure.

Preface

FOR COUNTLESS CENTURIES the African continent was home to one of the most infamous human activities that have been carried out in history: the slave trade. Though the unfortunates were abducted in various parts of Africa, most of them came from a wide strip around the Equator extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the west to the Indian Ocean in the east, or approximately what today are part of the Republic Democratic of Congo, Zaire and Tanzania.

Often the slaves’ hunters were Arab merchants and warriors in collusion with native chiefs who captured and sold residents of neighboring villages with which they were permanently at war although they sometimes sold even their own people. Then the Arabs used to arrange the transportation of their victims in caravans that crossed hundreds and even thousands of miles along predetermined paths in which many of the slaves died since they were forced to walk those endless routes on foot and heavily chained to prevent them from escaping. Although there are no credible figures of the magnitude of this traffic over the centuries there is no doubt that millions of Africans suffered this sad fate.

Arab traders brought their caravans to the Indian Ocean ports that lie off the coast of the island of Zanzibar, powerful trading center which was also one of the major slave markets. From there the slaves were sold and directed towards Arab countries, Persia and even India, where they would work as cheap labor in agricultural plantations in these countries and even serve as cannon fodder in the armies of their employers whilst women were used to work in housework or were used as concubines or prostitutes. Other routes of these caravans extended to North Africa to supply labor to the plantations of the same continent.

Later befell the expansion of the European empires around the world and in Africa in particular, so that the powers of the continent joined the infamous traffic which fed labor to their farms in the Americas and later in their own colonies in Africa, that in the late nineteenth century covered more than 10 million square miles, or a fifth of the planet's land.

One of the main routes used by caravans of slavers began in a kind of assembly center in Ujiji, on Lake Tanganyika, and ran 750 miles to Bagamoyo, on the shores of the Indian Ocean off the island of Zanzibar; a large number of secondary routes to the same destination converged in the main path. Along this road can still be recognized ruins of strongholds and stations used by the Arabs in their activities.

The current population of the coastal area is an ethnic cocktail of the thousands of people who transited the route coming from across the whole African hinterland.

Eventually the slave trade was banned in most of the world in 1873, under the influence of several western nations including the British Empire, but in practice it continued to exist as an underground activity for decades and we cannot ensure it has been completely eradicated at present times. However the economic equation of slavery suffered due to the persecution and the importance of it in the world began to shrink. Merchants should then seek alternative sources of income.

During the nineteenth century ivory trade began to occupy the economic space left free by the slave trade and acquired a greater magnitude than it. Ivory in East Africa is softer than other regions, which makes it more suitable for carving and with the finding of new uses for that material Europe and America were added to the traditional ivory markets in Asia, including India and China. These two activities constitute the economic background of the events that take place in this novel.

There is also a political context in which these actions are developed. Although there were intermittent colonies of European nations in North Africa since the Roman Empire, a fast process began to develop in the nineteenth century, culminating as expressed before in the occupation of almost the entire so-called Dark Continent by the main powers of Europe. Indeed, at the end of this process in 1914, only the Ethiopian Empire and the tiny Liberia were independent nations and the rest of the vast continent was colonized by England, France, Belgium, Portugal, Spain and Germany.

The Berlin Conference in 1884 had the purpose to establish guidelines for the occupation of territories in Africa by the European powers, so as to limit the conflicts between them caused by the expansion of their empires. From there was born the Belgian Congo and the delimitation of the colonial areas particularly belonging to England, France and Germany.

Germany consolidated its possessions in Cameroon, German South West Africa and German East Africa.

The area where most of this novel takes place is the last of these colonies, located in the Great Lakes region of Africa, comprising areas that today belong to Rwanda, Burundi and Tanzania.

German East Africa 1892 (the year in which our history begins)

Cast of Characters

ALAIN GARNIER: FRENCH expeditionary.

Djamba: Garnier´s Congolese assistant.

Tswamba: carrier and hunting assistant of the manyema ethnicity.

Helmut Westkamp: Lieutenant of the Schutztruppe.

Adia: Westkamp´s native girlfriend.

Abdullah al Shamoun: Bedouin Sheik.

Alima: Abdullah´s wife.

Farrah: Daughter of Abdullah and Alima.

Fadilah: Farrah´s maid service staff.

Ahmed ben Assaff: Bedouin military leader.

Leilah: Farrah cousin.

Faisal al Khoury: Bedouin young warrior.

Karim and Nadiyah: Faisal´s father and mother.

Walaka: tribal chief of the Kamba ethnic group.

Abboud al Kader: powerful Arab leader.

Mohamed el Amin: Elder in Shamoun´s clan , and one of his advisers.

Otto von Holstein Ransburg: Colonel of the Schutztruppe, head of an expedition.

Paul von Öttling: Mayor of Schutztruppe based in Bagamoyo.

Vijay Avninder: Indian captain of a freighter in the Indian Ocean.

Captain Jean Paul Duclós: French intelligence officer in Madagascar.

Colonel Geoffroy De la Fontaine: Alain Garnier´s boss, in Franceville, Gabon.

Dimitriou Ioannidis: Captain of a Greek steamer.

Pierre Chenaut: Delegate of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France, based in Paris.

Glossary

SCHUTZTRUPPE (GERMAN) Forces of protection. German Colonial Army

La illahah illahah (Arabic) There is no God but Allah.

Assalaamu Alaykum: Peace be with you. Greeting.

Bismillah (Arabic): In the name of Allah.

Ya Allah (Arabic): expression of displeasure.

Tawak kalto ul Allah (Arabic): I put my faith in Allah

Boma (Swahili): palisade

Bwana (Swahili) Master, boss.

Kiji (Swahili): village

Simba (Swahili): lion, lions

Temba (Swahili): elephant, elephants.

Swala wa (Swahili): antelope.

Askari (Swahili): Native soldier.

Djellaba (Arabic): long tunic with hood and wide sleeves for male use.

Chador (Arabic): veil with which Muslim women cover their heads and part of their faces.

Nasrani (Arabic): Christian.

Manyemas, Kambas, Konongos (Swahili): Bantu ethnic groups.

Kibanda (Swahili):Cabin, hut.

Aduar: Bedouin camp, consisting of tents and huts.

Baobab: Adansonia digitata. Deciduous tree, typical of Tanzania.

Savannah: Plain, especially if it is very large and has little or no trees.

Fatwa (Arabic): Death sentence declared by a competent authority.

Tirailleurs Sénégalais (French): Regiments of the French colonial force.

Dhows (Arab): Barges, sailing cargo vessels used by the Arabs in the Red Sea, with one or more masts and lateen sails

Chapter 1

CONGO FREE STATE-1892

The man left the heavy backpack on the ground covered with grass and sat on a thick root of a large tree. He watched his men unload the packages carried on their heads and their backs and sit squatting on the floor; he marveled at the endurance of those porters who walked tens of miles with extremely heavy bundles that would exceed what a donkey could withstand. Alain hated the kind of exploitation that he had to subject these men to but to carry out his mission he had no choice. It was impossible to travel the kind of sylvan territories they were crossing with horses or donkeys. His dealings with a manyema wren had allowed him to secure the services of five porters at a reasonable cost, allowing him to carry the tents, supplies, weapons and ammunition and other elements necessary to travel through the tropical jungle and set up camps after each day journey . The men