“So, you are telling me, these two claim that they clean this house: this house!” bemoaned an exasperated Professor Dawkins.
“This is one of the filthiest, dirtiest, most despicable places I have ever seen in my life. Here is the bottom line: if this stove and this house is not clean by this weekend, I see no other choice but to find replacements for the three of you. Just so you know, I do not think this place we are forced to live in, is fit for a dog! Must less humans. Are we clear?”
Later, every member of the dirt diggers group came up to Allison and congratulated her for taking a firm stand, not backing down. Making it clear, they too, were tired of living in such filthy conditions, just waiting to invite health issues. Living in an isolated area where getting proper medical attention was less than zero. But as we will soon learn, congratulations showered on Allison were a little premature.
The lazy domestics walked out, returning to their nearby small village, announcing to those who would listen, that they did not have to work. “Especially for those sassy white people who don’t belong here in the first place and should leave. Why should we work? We don’t have to. Those nice folks from the Zambia Aid Society will feed us, won’t they?”
Probably a correct assumption as the Aid Society had been doing it for years. Charlie stood by, listening to the unfolding of this sad story. Just one more tragic story, one of many to be found around the continent of Africa, one would suspect. ****
Rob Porter, U.S. charge d’affaires, acting as interim Ambassador while Ambassador Albert Frohling was back in Washington, DC, attending an Ambassadorship realignment meeting conducted by the Secretary of State Ron Peterson to determine new Ambassadorship assignments. From all indications, coming from the diplomat core and rumor mill, Ambassador Frohling was being reassigned to a China Diplomatic Post. Rob Porter was on the short list to be America’s next Ambassador to the Republic of Zambia.
The interim Ambassador, Rob Porter instantly apologized for his late arrival explaining with the absence of Ambassador Frohling, “my workload had doubled.” He also announced that Ambassador Frohling regretted not being able to meet Professor Dawkins, a true patriot, and polymath with a well-known reputation for her scientific studies and academic achievements. Diplomat and charge d’affaires Rob Porter announced: “I am honored to make your acquaintance as I have heard so many stories of your triumphal accomplishments.”
Dirt digger Peggy asked the one question that was burning in everyone’s brain: “Just exactly what are your duties as an American diplomat serving in a place like Zambia?”
“I’m glad you asked,” responded diplomat Porter. “First, we are here to assist any American citizen traveling around the country when ‘sticky’ situations like losing a passport, for instance, and not knowing where to turn for help. Generally, we request every American citizen visiting Zambia, or any foreign country for pleasure or business, to register with the American embassy or one of the nearest American consulates while visiting any foreign country; not just Zambia.”
“With the travel information provided by visitors to Zambia, our Embassy is in a better position to guide the Zambian government in setting up the requisite number of required hotels, restaurants, and support services to meet the needs of an anticipated large influx of visitors which Zambia did not anticipate nor were they prepared to receive. Plus putting into place, the necessary safeguards to combat Zambia’s virulent crime wave. As you may know or not know, the Republic of Zambia, unfortunately, has a huge crime problem.”
“The Zambia Police Service, as they are called, is overwhelmed in its effort to control rampant, often arbitrary revenge-killings among gangs, extrajudicial killings (the killing of a person by governmental authorities without the sanction of any judicial or legal process), torture, and cruel human rights violation. Unfortunately, if any of these gang members are brought to justice, local judges hand out lenient sentences or dismissals as most are tied to crime themselves.” Just what a group of University Iowa Archeology students did not need to hear—guaranteeing no one will sleep tonight.
“Most of what I just described can be attributed to Zambia’s extreme poverty which Zambia faces with little hope of ending. To help combat this giant humanitarian problem, the U.S. Government provides Zambia with over five hundred million dollars in aid each year. We also have a dedicated work staff who teach and work with the Zambian people to promote economic growth, with our government offering the Republic of Zambia preferential trade status.”
21
In Zambia
It is hardly a secret that the Republic of Zambia is one of the leading African countries in the number of HIV/AIDS cases each year. Teams of doctors from the United States and other countries work with the Zambian government in setting up treatment clinics and educational centers. There is a huge rise in the Zambian tourist industry. With the influx of more tourists arriving every day to visit the famous Victoria Falls, exotic animals, birds, and other attractions Zambia is noted for doesn’t help matters.
Of course, their arrival doesn’t improve the AIDS epidemic as you will always find those persons who gamble with their lives, participating in high-risk sexual activity. Now that I have bored you with all these sobering details or frightened you regarding the Republic of Zambia’s high crime rate, I shall take my leave. But, before I do, you are invited to visit the American Embassy in Lusaka as a guest of the United States Diplomatic Corpse where I promise you; you will be served the best cuisine Zambia offers.
*****
Charlie, brother of Allison, had read lots of books on the plight of Africa. Some of the books were more intriguing than others that he had read. Such were these: Danish author Isak Dinesen’s novel, Out of Africa, is a superb read. A romantic story entailing the life of a Danish woman. Owner of a coffee plantation in Kenya with a cheating husband. The Poisonwood Bible, by author Barbara Kingsolver. A story about a Georgia Baptist missionary family leaving Georgia to live in the Belgian Congo. And my favorite, he mused: Dark Star, Safari written by Paul Theroux.
A book, he thought, everyone should read. “Dark Star, Safari is an accounting of author, Paul Theroux’s trip taken from Cairo to Cape Town via trains, buses, cars, and armed convoys. Theroux, previously living in Africa as a young idealistic member of the Peace Corps found a different Africa after returning many years later. Theroux decided to return to Africa to assess the impact on Africa after many years of receiving aid from Western countries. “Now,” thought Charlie, “being here in the Republic of Zambia, I think I understand Theroux’s message.”
“I thought the message Theroux was trying to get across to his readers, at least in my mind was this: The system failed. The novel does not have a pretty conclusion. At least not one we want to hear. Just having a small taste of African life for just a few weeks, I am beginning to believe in practically everything he said which he personally witnessed and wrote about.”
“I cannot and would not, even if I could, replicate his summation of his long, dangerous, and tortuous trip. A trip that took him from one end of Africa to the other. Perhaps the worst sin and crime committed on the entire continent, again, in my mind, was the invasion of foreign entities, setting up dictatorial colonies. Like proud peacocks, strutting around, showing off their superiority to the poor. Too sad.”
Native African natives obviously did not trust their savior, that’s what the foreign invaders were called, to fulfill their promise of a better life when just the opposite occurred. Their lives are now worse, not better. To totally assess the damage done by foreign invaders would be impossible. The totality of destruction by foreign entities, leaving the most damaging trail of bloodshed, grief, deceit, and pain to the suffering habitants of this gigantic mysterious continent.” [Writers are discouraged from using the term Dark Continent, as the term is considered inappropriate and offensive,].
“The biggest contributors to this massacre, in my opinion, said Charlie, goes to Belgium’s King, Leopold II, ruler of Belgium from 1865 to 1909. And quasi-journalist, Henry Morton Stanley. These cold-blooded butchers from Belgium, arriving in an African country where they had no rights to be, sought out punishment which they seemed to have taken delight in whacking off the arm of any Congo native worker who did not meet his weekly quota of rubber harvesting.
There are many blood-soaking tales written that clearly describe the horrific crimes committed by this monster, Leopold, and his close associate, African explorer, Henry Morgan Stanley. All done in the name of greed; thirst for wealth and fame, nothing else mattered. Same sad story of greed that has been told many, many times before, let us just hope from reading these accounts, we learn from them. The blood-soaked soil of the Belgian Congo will never be erased.” At that time, the saying was true: “The man with the biggest gun rules.” Native Africans with nothing but sticks and stones were no match to modern weaponry.
So how did this relationship between Leopold and Stanley come about? It began at a time when the entire world was mourning the death of their beloved African explorer, David Livingstone. It was not true. The story emanating out of Africa was false. Livingstone was very much alive. One of those who suspected Livingstone was still alive was James Gordon Bennett, Jr., the billionaire publisher of the Herald, New York’s premiere newspaper. With Bennett hiring Stanley to go to Africa and find Livingstone which he did. On finding Livingstone, these are the first immortalized words spoken by Stanley, making him famous and rich: “Dr. Livingstone, I presume?”
“Stanley, a famous African explorer in his own right, was given a substantial sum of money by King Leopold II to help colonize Western Africa: not satisfied in ruling a country about the size of a postage stamp, Leopold wanted to expand the size of his country, to add to his oversize prestige, wealth, and ego. With the help of Stanley, the Congo Free State came into being.”
“This was not Stanley’s first venture into slavery. It was well known at this time in history that Stanley managed to team up with Arab slave traders, pushing deeper into the interior of Africa, raiding villages, and making slaves of men, women, and children—making Stanley very much involved in slavery at a time Europe and other countries condemned slavery. In contrast, Livingstone, a Christian missionary hated slavery, known for making speeches before the people of England, vehemently condemning slavery as evil.”
Charlie continues: “When it comes to raw brutality, lying, cheating and deceit, Benito Mussolini, one-time Prime Minister of Italy, a fascist leader, Il Duce, of Italy from 1922 to 1943 is your man. He was the best. Ranking right up there with the likes of King Leopold II and African explorer, Stanley. In 1935, just weeks after signing a treaty in Geneva. declaring he would not resort to using chemical warfare, Mussolini turned around, using mustard gas against the helpless Ethiopian army.”
“Something he promised he would never do. But then, who would ever trust the word of a lying dictator? Mussolini’s brutal rule of Eritrea, a one-time colony of Italy, in many ways, led up to the tragic Eritrean-Ethiopian war. It was common knowledge that Mussolini used Eritrea as a launching pad to invade Ethiopia, intending to exact revenge for soldiers killed by the Ethiopians during the Italian's first forage into that country to set up an Italian colony.”
*****
The weekend Charlie had so faithfully waited for finally arrived—his Bird Watching Safari trip to the Lochinvar National Park. A well-known bird sanctuary with its location southwest of Lusaka where other trekkers, and bird watchers were waiting for his arrival. The trip was scheduled for the upcoming Saturday. A canoeing Safari—the best kind!
Bird watchers from around the world glided down the Kafue River, the largest contributing river to the great Zambezi. This is the same river, that explorer Livingston in 1863, with the rising current, just above Victoria Falls, traveled down the lower Zambezi in his paddle steamer, a contraption never seen or heard of before. With game parks on both sides of the Zambezi. Charter. operators had it all mapped out in advance. All Charlie and his fellow bird watchers had to do, was show up at Lusaka early Saturday morning and they were off!
The republic of Malawi and the Republic of Zambia are known as a single area for finding the greatest number of bird species. Most popular birds for tourists: The Shoebill Stark, African Pitta, and Chaplin Barbet – the Chaplin Barbet, the only type bird of its kind native to Zambia. The river includes sandy beaches, which in turn, attracts pods of hippos, crocodiles, otters, and Asian water monitors. Large lizards were native to South and Southeast Asia.
Charlie’s little schooner was hollowed out to carry two people. His ‘shipmate’ as it turned out, was a girl! Not just any girl, but an incredibly attractive girl! Charlie, not wanting to make a bad first impression; coming across too anxious in making an introduction, almost falling out of the boat in the process, spoke up.
“Hi! I’m Charlie. Your shipmate, I guess.” “Someday I hope to be your soulmate.”
His shipmate introduced herself as Sara Gladstone from Providence, Rhode Island. The capital, and most populous city in the state of Rhode Island. Not commenting, ignoring his ‘soulmate’ comment. Not letting on that she thought Charlie was cute. She had spied him earlier among the other bird watchers and was hoping they would meet.
So, it seems we have come to a conundrum: what happened to Charlie’s two love interests back in Florida? The first casualty was Lenora. She stopped writing Charlie, ending up engaged to her high school’s football team quarterback.
Then came Charlene. During her first semester in college, Charlene got involved in an affair with her married professor. She, too, stopped writing Charlie. It seems that throughout our academic world, professors hold a lot of sway over their young charges. With some of the professors, not all, using their magnetic personalities and charisma often to take advantage of the young lasses they taught who thought the professors were nothing less than gods whom they worshipped.
As if on cue, the chemistry between the two shipmates seemed to come in even measures. Sara, noticeably incredibly attractive, and intelligent, was offered scholarships from several colleges.
