Call Of The Wild

Saturday's Blog visits Tanzania for the second week in a row, you lucky people... must be the call of the wild. 😉

The Republic of Tanzania has existed as a sovereign state since 1964 when the recently independent East African countries of Tanganyika (on mainland Africa) and Zanzibar (a large island off its coast) chose to amalgamate - one nation under the equator.

Tanzania boasts a beautiful freshwater lake (L. Tanganyika), an iconic mountain (M. Kilimanjaro), a UNESCO world heritage site in Serengeti National Park, the historic capital city of Dar es Salaam ('House of Peace' ), and with a buoyant economy and 62 million inhabitants (comparable in size with France, Italy and UK), is the most populous country south of the midline - all of which might arguably qualify it to be called the jewel of modern Africa.

But Tanzania is also one of the longest continuously inhabited places on earth, as excavations in the Olduvai Gorge (part of the Great Rift Valley) have yielded hominid remains dating back two million years. Maybe it's why over 100 languages are still spoken in the country. That's quite something to think about. (Pause for thought.)

However it's the lake I'm primarily concerned with today. Tanganyika in Swahili (the de facto national language of Tanzania), simply and fittingly means "sail the wilderness" from tanga (sail) and nyika (wilderness).

the call - sailing the wilderness (on Lake Tanganyika)

I wrote a blog last year about water as the essence of life (linked here in case you'd like to check it out: Essence ). Although it is second in several respects to Lake Baikal in Siberia, second oldest, second largest (by volume) and second deepest, it is actually the longest lake in the world and holds 16% of the planet's fresh water, so its importance in the genesis and sustaining of life on earth should not be underestimated. I think it's no coincidence that Lake Tanganyika is to be found in the area of Africa that has been called "the cradle of civilization".

As an eco-system, the lake is home to freshwater crocodiles, hippopotamuses, terrapins and water cobra along with 250 species of cichlid fish. A staggering 98% of these fish are unique to Lake Tanganyika and studies of fossil remains suggest they first evolved in Tanzania approximately 45 million years ago. It is interesting (to me at least) to speculate that life on land as we know it may have emerged not from the sea but onto the sunny shores of the world's longest freshwater lake some 13 million years ago.

It is entirely probable that Tanganyika was fished by early Homo Sapiens during the stone-age as far back as 3 million years, first from the edges with cast nets and later by boat from the surface, once wood-working skills were sufficiently advanced. Fish from the lake still provides 60% of the animal protein in the diet of Tanzanians. Maybe that omega-3 rich diet was a factor in our ancestors' impressive brain-development (and I'm only half-joking.)

the wild - a croc (in Lake Tanganyika)

The lake even saw naval action during the first world war when the British were fighting to gain territory in what until then had been known as German East Africa. (German imperial ambitions had led to them annexing Kenya and Tanganyika in the 1880s.) In the Battle of Lake Tanganyika, two British gunboats, HMS Mimi and HMS Toutou, which had been dispatched from England by sea then rail and road, mounted a surprise attack on the German ships that controlled the lake, used it as a supply route and a base from which to attack the allies. Mimi and Toutou captured the gunboat Kingani and sank the Hedwig, which left only the main craft, Graf Goetzen, and Captain Zimmer chose to scuttle it rather than allow such  prize to fall into British hands. By July 1916 Lake Tanganyika was firmly under allied control.

The battle was the inspiration for C.S. Forester's novel 'The African Queen ', later made into a film by John Huston starring Humphrey Bogart and Katharine Hepburn.

As a postscript, the scuttled Goetzen was raised from the lake bed in 1924, converted into a passenger ferry and renamed MV Liemba. One hundred years later it is still heroically and somewhat smokily plying the waters of L. Tanganyika, mainly these days as a tourist attraction. 

the survivor - MV Liemba (on Lake Tanganyika)

When I re-read my copy of James Joyce's 'Ulysses ' recently, a folded paper with a faded (incomplete) draft of a poem dropped out. I thought I might to try and finish the experimental piece - titled 'Tanganyikan Fling' - although I've no very clear idea what I was thinking at the time. I wrestled with it like some slippery water cobra for a few days, because it had some intriguing lines in it: gumboot diplomacy... five-toed sleuth... dazzled by Zanzibar's dark booty etc. However, it seems to be escaping my clutches, so no poem this week. I fall back on Charles Bukowski's sage advice about forcing the creative process: "You don't try. That's very important." 

Thanks as ever for reading my stuff, S ;-)

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Court

We're approximately halfway through Wimbledon fortnight, so given the week's theme is  court , I thought I'd lob you another tennis-related blog. Are we all set? (Oh, this one's got zebras in it too.)

That modern tennis should be played on a court probably has less to do with the fact that it was once the sport of kings at their royal courts (Louis X of France, Henry VIII of England and many others) and more to do with its true origins as a game devised by French monks in the 12th century and played in the courtyards of their monasteries, square or rectangular open spaces with cloisters all around and a rope or net strung across the middle.

It wasn't actually called tennis back then either, but 'Jeu de Paume' (game of the palm), for the ball in those days was struck with the flat of the hand. Rackets weren't introduced until a couple of centuries later, possibly first in the palaces of Moorish Spain, for the word is believed to derive from the Arabic 'rakhat' (which also means, coincidentally, palm of the hand). As for the word tennis, that is almost certainly of French derivation, because 'Tenez' (in the sense of hold, take or receive) is what the player about to serve would traditionally call to his/her opponent at start of play. 

And when it comes to that rather strange system of scoring (love, fifteen, thirty, forty et cetera), that also dates from medieval France and my favourite theory is that wooden clocks were used to keep score, which progressed in quarter-hours - for there is evidence that love was 'l'heure' (as in top of the hour or zero minutes), 'quinze' and 'trente' (fifteen and thirty) are obvious enough as anyone who has watched the French Open can attest, and back in the day next would have come 'quarante-cinq' (forty-five, not forty): "we are winning 30, we are winning 45" (translated from Latin, 1522). 'Deuce' is interesting. Its derivation is straightforward enough, 'a deux du jeu' (two away from a game),though it is unclear why at deuce (45-45 originally, now 40-40) a player needed to win by two clear points and not just one (in a progression from 0-15-30-45-60).

Are you still with me? The modern game of Lawn Tennis, so named shortly after the invention of the lawn-mower allowed for the preparation of a uniform, close-cropped grass playing surface, was devised in the UK in the middle of the 19th century and the world's first tennis club was founded at Leamington Spa in 1874. A year later the Marylebone Cricket Club encoded Major Wingfield's 'Rules of Lawn Tennis ' as the popularity of the sport began to outpace both badminton and croquet. Those rules have remained largely unchanged (apart from the introduction of tie-breaks) for nearly a hundred and fifty years and the world's oldest and most prestigious lawn tennis championship, known affectionately as Wimbledon, has been contested each summer since 1877 apart from brief lapses during the two world wars, making this year's the 136th Championship. It was still an amateur game with no prize money until 1968, when professional players were permitted for the first time. This year the total prize money is a staggering £44 million!

Yes, but what about the zebras? you ask. Very well. 5,000 miles away from the plush and manicured splendour of Wimbledon's eighteen championship grass courts, plus its twenty grass practice courts and eight clay courts, you will find in the middle of Tanzania's Serengeti national park what I consider to be the most unusual tennis court in the world (see below), located at Singita's luxury tented holiday camp in Sabora.

Sabora, Tanzania (i)

Singita is a South African company founded in 1925 which owns and runs game lodges in the south-east of the continent (Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zimbabwe) for holiday-makers looking for something out of the ordinary. Singita in the Tsonga language means 'place of miracles'. 

It's not really my intention to publicise Singita's Sabora holiday offering, though they claim to be conservation conscious and environmentally friendly. I've not been there and never shall, though I think it would be pretty amazing to play a game of tennis on Sabora's clay court watched over by an audience of zebras and wildebeest. What a juxtaposition. Naturally there would be mint tea, iced lemonade or something stronger available between sweaty sets - and the camp boasts a swimming-pool and a spa for freshening up afterwards. 

Of course there would be little chance of rain stopping play. The occasional stampede might be more of  a concern, or a playful leopard nipping in to chase a tennis ball, or some unfazed zebra needing to borrow one of the net-posts to scratch that irritating itch under his stripey chin, bless him.

Sabora, Tanzania (ii)

Back to Blighty and Wimbledon fortnight, and it seems only right that I should serve up a tennis poem today. I've been tinkering with putting this memory into words for several years, so figured it was high time to close it out. I'm not convinced it's a winner, so it will be interesting to see what kind of reaction it gets. 

You needn't think of it as any sort of response to John Betjeman's 'A Subaltern's Love Song ' (which graced another tennis-related blog this week). Unlike JB's, mine is rooted firmly in actuality, not fantasy, and unlike JB I have been scrupulous in avoiding naming Miss Wendy Jones at all in my poem (let alone nine times, ffs). J 

Double-Faulted

I remember a red clay court in the rain

one lost Wednesday summer afternoon

water spattering on sticky sycamores 

flicking off the sagging net each time

one of us faulted. Mostly you I recall.

Jesus Green Tennis Club evokes forever 

a memory of my thwarted teenage lust 

linked to a smell of wet dust and shame.

You were out of sorts not on your game

but too embarrassed to try telling why

and because it had been your suggestion

we play as opposed to taking advantage

of your parents being away I blundered on 

till you spat out I'm not at home to visitors.

At that I vaulted the net to offer a hug

but caught a toe as I leapt and sprawled

in the dirt at your feet. You didn't laugh

you cried. Only later as we sat on a bench

sharing a ciggy in thin June drizzle did you

explain about pads and belts and pain.

I'll leave you with one more photograph of the Sabora tennis court, replete with wildebeest and zebras.

Sabora, Tanzania (iii)

Thanks for reading, S ;-)

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