Recent Comments

Feeds

african plains

Posted on January 20, 2008 @ 4:56 pm by massimo | Filed under: africa, another green world, blog, travel, wordpress

amboseli kenya aynaku illustration travel

I come from a hilly region and I’m not used to open prairies and plains.
This is the reason why, I can’t forget Amboseli National Park’s breathtaking views, one of the most classic of Kenya: the gigantic Kilimanjaro mountain, with its 5,985 meters dominating the plains.
Noteworthy Kilimanjaro is not within the limits of Amboseli, in fact it is not even in Kenya. The reason? Upon the partition of East Africa into two spheres of influence, German and British, England had two mountains vs. none for Germany, so queen Victoria gave the Kilimanjaro as a birthday present to her nephew-grandson, kaiser Wilhelm II.
Looking at the map you will notice the absurdly straight line that divides Kenya and Tanzania: as a matter of fact, this border also divides the one people who had always lived in these plains.
Ethnic and political turmoil are presently upsetting Kenya… It’s easy to understand how such imposed artificial borders are part of Africa’s problems throughout.

Illustration Friday’s topic is: plain

the Papalagi

Posted on January 5, 2008 @ 4:49 pm by massimo | Filed under: another green world, blog, books, fun, people, wordpress

papalagi aynaku travel illustration

In 1920 a South Sea Chief’s comments on Western Society, The Papalagi, which means, the White Men, were translated into German by Erich Scheurmann.
These speeches by Tuiavii of Tiavea were not delivered as yet, but the essence had been written down in the native language, out of which the first German translation was made. Tuiavii never intended to have his speeches published for the Western public, nor to have them printed anywhere at all. They were strictly meant for his Polynesian people.
Yet Scheurmann, without Tuiavii’s consent and definitely in disregard of his wishes, took the liberty to bring these speeches to the attention of the Western readers, convinced, that for white people with their Western civilization it could be very worthwhile to find out how a man who was still closely bound to nature saw them and their culture…
These days I am reading one more time The Papalagi and find out the booklet still 100% actual. To know more about Tuiiavi’s point of view, here is a link to his almost complete  writing.

Illustration Friday’stopic is: 100%