Africa
Category archives for Africa
Kobou
Posted by Greg Laden on July 16, 2011 
When I first arrived in the Ituri Forest I was shown a camp a group of Efe Pygmies all typically lived in, and told “everyone lives here but the old man and his wife … he’s a bit contentious and there was an argument.” Having read all the literature written in English about Pygmies, I…
HIV, AIDS, MMR, NPR and WTF?
Posted by Greg Laden on June 6, 2011 Thirty years ago yesterday, “the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMR) published a report of five young men with Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia who were treated at three different hospitals in Los Angeles, California.” (see This Blog Post for details). Morbidity and Mortality Weekly is a really fun journal to read. It contains the latest…
A Bend in the River: Get Bent
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2011 On of my favorite books is A Bend in the River by V. S. Naipaul. It is a story set in at the junction of a native and expat community in an African rain forest country with a not very despotic leader (the “Big Man”) at a time when a civil war was about to…
Wild angry baboons on the high cliff
Posted by Greg Laden on May 31, 2011 We three had somehow wound our way down into the canyon without experiencing any really steep slopes, but having walked for several miles in the sandy dry riverbed, Trusted Companion, Young One, and I were now looking rather hopelessly at unsafe-to-climb cliffs on both sides, covered with imposing vegetation of the kind that sports a…
No Way Home
Posted by Greg Laden on May 26, 2011 When wildebeest, such as those famous for crossing the Mara River in Tanzania during their annual migration, run into a crocodile or some other danger it is often the first time they’ve seen that particular thing. This is because most wildebeest don’t live very long so many are on their very first migration. One wonders…
Celebrate Freedom Day
Posted by Greg Laden on April 27, 2011 I started to work in Africa in the mid 1980s. Since I had been admitted to a graduate program that was heavily involved with work in Kenya, it would make sense that I’d work there, but I was well aware of the fact that there would be no work at Koobi Fora until the Koobi…
What is your comfort zone?
Posted by Greg Laden on April 13, 2011 Today, I took out the trash. I may or may not have taken the trash out last week, but I can tell you that the last time I did take it out, whenever it was, I had to drag the trash barrel across ice. Yesterday I went to the gym without a coat or jacket.…
Things are not going well in Libya (and: Where is Libya?)
Posted by Greg Laden on February 21, 2011 The son of Libyan leader Gadhafi/kadafi claims that the “government” (which is not really true but its complicated) will fight to the last bullet against people engaged there in an uprising. Even as Seif al-Islam Gadhafi spoke Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli’s central Green Square, lasting until dawn Monday, witnesses said.…
How to carry your monkey home once you’ve killed it
Posted by Greg Laden on February 2, 2011 Once you’ve killed the monkey, you need to carry it back to camp. Slit the tail, near the end, and poke the head through the slit, so the tail makes a handy strap. Here’s a detail:
How to kill a monkey
Posted by Greg Laden on January 31, 2011 An Efe (Pygmy) man making poison arrows for use in killing monkeys. Ituri Forest, Zaire. Photograph Copyrighted 1986 Greg Laden
King Tut Goes Home
Posted by Greg Laden on January 13, 2011 Remember this?
There are two species of African elephant
Posted by Greg Laden on December 21, 2010 Everyone knows that there are two kinds of elephants in this world: Asian and African. The Asian is the only one that can be trained and the African ones live in harmony with their environment until hunters come by and shoot them. Scratch a little deeper, and the African bush elephant lives by destroying its…
Happy Day of Reconciliation!
Posted by Greg Laden on December 16, 2010 Formerly known as Day of the Vow, as South African holiday, and a time of reflection on dramatic historical and cultural changes.
Elephant Tracks and Child Safety Devices
Posted by Greg Laden on December 10, 2010 It is probably true that every culture has child safety devices. It is also probably true that all of these devices are very limited in their effectiveness.
“Panic among Kenya’s gays”
Posted by Greg Laden on November 29, 2010 Kenya’s Prime Minister wasted no time in abusing the abysmally horrid policy shift made recently by the UN to remark that Gays in Kenya should be arrested. Gay and Lesbian Coalition of Kenya board member Nguru Karugu said Monday the office has received calls from concerned members, some of whom are HIV-positive and fear they…
Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia [citation needed]
Posted by Greg Laden on October 19, 2010 I like Wikipedia, I really do. But there are also some serious, very serious problems with it. I just read the entries on the Battle of Rorke’s Drift, a few related historical entries, and the entry on the movie Zulu, which is about the Battle of Rorke’s drift. My interest here is in looking at…
UN report verifies DR Congo killings “may be genocide”
Posted by Greg Laden on October 2, 2010 Nazi Holocaust: 1939 – 1945 War crimes trials: Fall 1945 DR Congo genocide: 1996-1997 War crimes trials: Still thinking about it. I guess that brackets the range of potential variation. (Note: This does not refer to the other, related genocide of Tutsi, for which trials have taken place.)
The Curious World of Bugs
Posted by Greg Laden on October 1, 2010 The old man crouched slightly as he took small tiny steps forward towards the woman’s ass. I didn’t see what was in is raised right hand, it was hidden from my view by his body draped with a colorful sarong. He crept closer, still crouched and still silent. She didn’t see him coming, but when…
Large Scale Rape Incident in Congo
Posted by Greg Laden on September 25, 2010 The UN’s human rights chief has said the “scale and viciousness” of mass rapes in DR Congo “defy belief”, as a report into the attack was released. Navi Pillay said that, even for the region, the incident stood out because of the “extraordinarily cold-blooded and systematic way” it was carried out. Some 300 people were…
Shamans, Surgery, and the Driveway of Doom
Posted by Greg Laden on September 21, 2010 In which I explore the interface between the Jungian Subconscious and my own primordial anguish.
If your finger falls off, grab it before the dog gets it!
Posted by Greg Laden on September 10, 2010 We were standing behind my friend Andre’s store in Isiro, Zaire, waiting for Andre to finish receiving some orders so we could sit down for some tea, or may be some beer, and do a little black market trading. A big truck with a canvas top stretched over an iron frame was backing up to…
ca 140 killed in Congo boat sinking
Posted by Greg Laden on July 29, 2010 Up to 140 people are feared dead after a boat carrying passengers and goods capsized on a river in the Democratic Republic of Congo, officials say. The accident happened on the Kasai river – a tributary of the Congo River – in the western province of Bandundu. Information Minister Lambert Mende told the BBC the…
John Kasaona: How poachers became caretakers
Posted by Greg Laden on June 10, 2010 Floribert Chebeya Bahizire found dead in Kinshasa
Posted by Greg Laden on June 3, 2010 A leading rights activist in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been found dead in the capital, Kinshasa. Floribert Chebeya’s body was discovered, partially clothed, on the back seat of his own car. source He was last known to have gone to a meeting with the national chief of police, Genral John Numbi. His driver…
Catching Up on the News
Posted by Greg Laden on May 23, 2010 Harakat Al-Shabab is a militant Islamic youth movement engaged in the Somali war. Yesterdaythey mortared the presidential palace in Omgadishu, setting off a fight killing 14 people. A landslide caused by heavy rains and a flooding river on the slope of Nyiragongo killed over 50 people in the DR Congo. A gay couple in Malawi…
A hail storm of biblical proportions
Posted by Greg Laden on May 21, 2010 When I was first in the Ituri Forest, I Noticed there were many kinds of plantains grown in the gardens there They varied by size and shape. One version seemed to have numerous black spots on the outside. When asking what it was called, I found its name was the same as the variety without…
Always look in the refrigerator
Posted by Greg Laden on April 29, 2010 I walked into her tent, went immediately to her bed and turned over her pillow. And there, as plain as day, was a stack of hundred dollars bills, a US passport, and a first class plane ticket to New York.
Lady Duff Gordon’s Letters from The Cape
Posted by Greg Laden on April 22, 2010 Lady Duff Gordon (Lucie) traveled to Cape Town in the 1860s, and chronicled her trip with letters home, which are available from various sources as “Letters from the Cape.” From that volume:
Social Justice in the Tea, Chai, Rooibos, Aardwolf … Everything is connected to everything else.
Posted by Greg Laden on April 2, 2010 CHAI RANT!!!11!! It is time for another Chai Rant.
Race and National Bias in East African Palaeoanthropology
Posted by Greg Laden on February 24, 2010 A half century of struggle has resulted in more than a little change, which we hope is still ongoing.
, which is now available for the 
