Martin and Osa Johnson went to British East Africa in the
1920's in order to photograph wild animals, many of which were
disappearing with the advances of civilization. They ended up falling in
love with the country and as soon as they got back to the U.S. they wanted
to return:
I have been home just four months, and as soon as I
can I am going back. I know exactly the spot I will make for. It lies
away out in the 'blue,' a good thousand miles' trek from Nairobi...It is
paradise, literally as well as figuratively.
It is no wonder that Johnson came to love British East
Africa so much, considering that he got to spend his days wandering around
in the bush, stalking such awesome creatures in such incredible settings
as these:
Can you imagine a parched brown plain rolling off to
a deep blue line against a turquoise sky, and in the foreground a group
of zebras drinking from a pool that is gold in the afternoon sun -
perfect little horses, elegantly striped in black and white...a herd of
giraffes feeding among the gray-green thorny mimosas, animals eighteen
feet tall, their deep burnt-orange hides covered with an irregular
network of white lines...ugly rhinos snorting like great angry pigs just
outside your hut...big as motor cars...King Lion himself...not the
moth-eaten, stupefied lion of the zoo, but a free animal with healthy
skin and mane, and an easy step, and live muscles that play visibly
under his hide?
Most of the book is dedicated to describing his adventures
as a photographer, waiting all day in a blind to get the perfect photo at
a water-hole, or cranking up his motion-picture camera as a lion prepares
to spring. Johnson and his wife also have some exciting times hunting
animals for meat, like when Osa saves Martin's life from a herd of
stampeding elephants. Although most of the area they covered was
uninhabited by people, they did have many native servants who accompanied
them on their travels, and they encountered Masai and other tribes of
people along the way. Johnson sums up his feelings on the native peoples
of Africa in certain terms:
There is something about primitive peoples that
appeals to me. I have no illusion about them. I know that they are
ignorant and filthy in their habits and often, from my point of view,
immoral. But for all that, a savage untouched by civilization has
dignity. He is himself. I respect him as a human being. His code is not
my code, but unless he has been contaminated by association with whites,
he usually lives up to it. And that is more than you can say for the
majority of people in civilized countries.
Martin was once a member of Jack London's boat crew (see Cruise
of the Snark, available from The Narrative Press), and may have picked
up some skills from that famous author: Camera Trails in Africa is
a beautifully-written book. It makes you want to "safari off to some
country that is still God's country" and not only that, it makes
sitting perfectly still in the bushes for twelve hours sound like a lot of
fun.
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