The Trouble with Africa
For many years Vic Guhrs has painted
brilliant paintings of Africa – and now in words he puts these portraits into
context and the result is a wonderful portrait of one man’s Africa. We are
fortunate that the man behind this book is an insider – a resident, a traveler
and most of all an artist.’
Paul Theroux
Guhrs’ articles have appeared in various
magazines, and his experiences of camp life among wild animals are recorded in
his book “The Trouble with Africa”, an insightful and humorous memoir. Not
content to merely recount the highs and lows of safari life in observations and
anecdotes, Guhrs delves deeper, and tries to come to terms with the mysteries of
Africa.
The trouble with Africa, he
says, is that once it is in your blood, like malaria, it is almost impossible to
get rid of. And the trouble with Africa is also the trouble with those of us who
settle here: as long as we insist on judging it from a Western perspective, we
will be the outsiders – we will be forever baffled by it.
The complexities of African
attitudes that seem to confound us are perhaps not so complex after all; it is
their very simplicity that we fail to understand. On the road to our civilized
enlightenment have we lost the ability to see life in its fundamental essence?
‘The pain of a sudden scorpion sting.
The kiss of life for a drowning lion…
The monkeys which run like hell on
seeing a painting of a leopard, and the baboons which take a couple of days to
decide that it’s harmless. The idiot who tries to outstare a spitting cobra.
These tales of safari life
are bizarre yet believable, a triumph of observation rendered as accurately and
imaginatively as Vic Guhrs’ wildlife paintings (his sketches and finished works
appear throughout the book, adding to the delight).
The German-born author’s
text revels in the wonders of the wild. But there is also a familiar note of
doubt so common among those from a “can do” European background struggling in
the morass of “so what” Africa. Where the word for animal and that for meat is
the same – nyama. Where planning for the future is pointless. Where it’s easier
to chop down mchenja and tamarind trees to get at the fruit in the top branches.
What about next year? “We are hungry now, and anyway, there are many other
trees…”’
James Mitchell
in the Johannesburg Star
WILD LIFE
www.luangwawildlifebook.com
In a new book, Vic Guhrs teamed up with
photographer Francois d’Elbee to revisit the place of his earlier life and note
the changes that have turned the Luangwa Valley from a little-known wildlife
paradise into a major tourist destination.
The book, WILD LIFE, takes a close look
at the forces that have shaped ‘the Valley’, its people and animals. From
poachers to safari people to game scouts and politicians, it shows the reality
of a game reserve – the side that tourists don’t often see. Francois d’Elbee’s
photography forms a spectacular backdrop to the story. From the early days of
Zambia’s great conservationist, Norman Carr, as the district’s Elephant Control
Officer, Guhrs takes us on a journey through time. From the first ramshackle
safari camps, through the poaching epidemic of the 80’s when the Valley lost
three quarters of its elephants and all of its 5000 black rhinos to organized
poaching gangs, to the present day, when lodges are run by businessmen who love
wildlife, and no longer by wildlife lovers with little business sense.
It also offers an insight into the
age-old feud between the local villagers and the wild animals who threaten to
destroy their crops, their livelihoods, and sometimes their lives, and asks
questions about the sustainability of such places. Do game reserves merely exist
for the benefit of wealthy Westerners, or will it be possible to educate and
persuade the locals that they are of value to them too, and by extension to the
whole of mankind?
Animals in art
Click here for excerpt from the
Wildlife book above
