Number 35 namibia 2017

Morenga

“There are also bright moments in dark times, which appear brighter the darker the times are” (Uwe Timm, Morenga)

When “Morenga” first was published in Germany in 1978 it nearly gave rise to a scandal. How could a German writer, Uwe Timm, dare to destroy the myth of an idyllic, bucolic german colony in Southwest-Africa, now Namibia? The book tells the story of the army veterinarian Gottschalk, who is sent to the colony to take care of the many animals involved in the fight against the uprise of the Nama (Hottentots) against german rule in the years 1904-1907. However, the book more is a collage where the story of Gottschalk is interwoven with extracts of military reports of the time found in german archives, indigenous and colonial legends and quotes relating to the natural history of the area. The book relentlessly unveils the atrocities of this unequal fight, where at times more than 5000 men on the german side faced 260 armed nama. As the story evolves, the doubts about the rightfulness of the german conquest and brutality against the indigenous population in Gottschalk increase. The fight becomes a struggle between Gottschalks conscience and his sense for duty and obedience towards his superiors and his county.

“A large area next to the kraal had been enclosed with barbed wire. Sentries were posted in front with fixed bayonets. Beyond the fence Gottschalk could see people, or rather skeletons, squatting—no, something halfway between humans and skeletons. They huddled together, mostly naked, in the piercingly hot sun” …. “[s]omeone had lettered a sign and hung it on the fence: Please don’t feed the animals” Uwe Timm, Morenga

Marenga is the leader of the Nama, a brilliant army leader as even the Germans admitted, who was called the black Napoleon. In Timm’s book, he mostly is invisible in the background, a mirage bringing horror and death, but never seen. The war cost the german taxpayer 584,78 million mark. On the other hand, in the year 1904/1905 the german colonial society for Southwest-Africa made a profit of 230.000 mark, in the following year 750.000. The war cost the lives of between 40,000 and 60,000 Herero and around 10,000 Nama and is now considered the first genocide of modern times.

The war against the Nama was fought in the southern part of Namibia, a desert of unbearable heat at daytime and freezing nights. A serene landscape full of aesthetic beauty for the traveller today and a hell for anybody who wants to earn a living or in distress or war. Endless sand dunes and inaccessible mountain ranges had to be crossed by such advanced means as horses and mules or the own feet of the combatants and ox carts for the equipment. Most of what was transported on the carts were provisions and fodder for the animals. The few water holes were well known by the Nama and favourite places of ambush. Like in other dry places camels were introduced to increase the independence from the water holes.

That way the war not only cost the lives of people but also of numerous horses, oxen and wildlife. Cattle was taken from beaten Nama groups and rather allowed to starve to death than given to their now imprisoned former owners to avoid their death by starvation. A sudden fashion for hat decoration by ostrich feathers led to the near extinction of these birds. The feathers were exchanged for brandy, which kept the locals in a constant state of intoxication.

“You will be able to follow our activities in this country for years: the skeletons of the dead animals along the way and the graves of the fallen are the milestones” Uwe Timm, Morenga

Swakopmund is still proud of the German heritage

“How do you want to colonize a country if you don't even bother to understand the natives?

– with an interpreter and a rhino-hide whip” Uwe Timm, Morenga

Many of the streets in Swakopmund still have German names

And the businesses have German traditions

The german colonisation of Southwest-Africa started with the establishment of missions and isolated settlements in the middle of the 19th century. Only in 1884 the area officially became a german colony. A consortium of bankers and investors established die Deutsche Kolonialgesellschaft für Südwestafrika (german colonial society for Southwest-Africa) in 1885. There were probably never more than 11000 germans settlers in the huge area. Uprisings against the german rule occurred constantly until 1907 and were crushed with such brutality that the British neighbors in South Africa and even the parliament in Berlin protested. Eventually, with the start of WW I, troops occupied the colony from South Africa. Namibia was released into independence only in 1990.

"Altstadthof"

Today Namibia is one of the showcase counties of successful development in Africa. It is well managed, safe, the government has constant income from a variety of mining businesses and until recently tourism was booming, not the least because of the increasing problems in other sunny destinations on the southern hemisphere.

Modern Namibians in Windhoek

In the sparsely populated desert it is a good idea to rent a 4x4. They come equipped with a fridge, camping table and chairs, a stove and tent(s) on the roof. But the roads in this southern part of Namibia are a horror. In the best case we drive on corrugated gravel which makes you feel like you sit in a massage machine. The noise in the cabin is unbearable, the dust even finds it way inside past the closed windows. One of the locals tells us that you have to drive at least 100 km/h over this type of road to feel comfortable. I do not dare to go faster than 80 km/h. We pass a couple of overturned or wrecked 4x4’s – with a tent on the roof, that is rented by tourists. But the road can get even worse. In the Naucluft desert it is so bad that people drive in the deep sand on the bank. We have the feeling that the car slowly falls apart. The electricity starts failing, the bumper gets loose and I fix it with duct tape. This gives you a feeling how transport must have been when even these roads did not exist. Every gully was an impregnable barrier for an ox-cart. What we drive in a day on the bad road was a ride of 4 days on a good horse, maybe a day less on a camel. Much more for an ox-cart, and a horse alone could not carry the necessary amount of water and fodder. Even the narrow gauge light rail built by the germans to connect the ports of Swakopmund and Lüderitz with the interior were slow and prone to attacks, sand drifts or water shortages.

Most of the businesses in the country seem to be owned by white people. The shiny 4x4’s are driven by whites. Their workers sit on the load area of the pick up trucks. Everybody is friendly but there is a big difference between the white and the black neighbourhoods. Our campgrounds, which always have a private bathroom and kitchen area, are posher than most of the houses of the poor. The shops seem to exist in two different worlds. In the white neighbourhoods of the towns the properties are surrounded by solid walls of at least two meters high. Nobody walks in the street after sunset. Even short distances at night in Windhoek or Swakopmund are done by taxi. Even so the standard of living is relatively high, there are by far no equal opportunities for the different parts of the population. In particular in the north of the country life in the indigenous villages, where families try to make a living on the basis of little plots of land and a couple of cattle, seems to have changed little in the part hundred years. Although the general prosperity seems to be higher than in the corrupt, mismanaged neighbouring countries like Angola or Simbabwe, the consequences of colonisation are still visible everywhere.

Modern development in Windhoek

German street names in Windhoek

Strangely enough, the country nevertheless is proud of their german colonial history. Historic colonial buildings are restored and in many towns they have even kept the german street names. And of course there are breweries and german pubs selling pork. It is hardly perceptible how such a short and negative period (officially the time of german colonisation only lasted 30 years) can have such a long-lasting impact on the culture and perception of a people even generations afterwards. And how the negative experience can turn into a positive feeling for the former colonizer.

Old and new in Windhoek

"Tr. [General Trotha] says that the entire tribal area of the Herero should be crown land, that is, released for settlement. Allegedly the best land in the southwest, good pastures and a lot of water. A nice thought that there will be eyes in this wilderness who read Goethe and ears who hear Mozart."

(To end the Herero revolt General Trotha drove the tribe of the Herero into the waterless desert of the sand dunes and kept them there until most of them had starved to death….. ) Uwe Timm, Morenga

German church in Windhoek

Station and railway memorabila in front of the station in Windhoek

On the piste towards the southern desert

Campground in the area of Sossusvlei

A spot for a braai is always there

Sossusvlei

The famous dead trees of Sossusvlei

On of the highest sanddunes of Sossusvlei

“This land is like a stone and people die hungry and thirsty in it” Uwe Timm, Morenga

typical road in the South of Namibia

Dry gorge between Sossusvlei and Swakopmund

Desert road between Sossusvlei and Swakopmund

in the monotonous landscape you can easily overlook a turn

trees and shade are rare

Weaver bird nest in a tree

Phantom Tree (Moringa ovalifolia)

Where is my food? (Gemsbok, South African Oryx)

"the sand gnashed between his teeth" Uwe Timm, Morenga

Springbok in the desert

Solitaire, a truck stop in the desert

Remainders of a railway track near Swakopmund

Petroglyphs near Twyfelfontein

near Madisa Camp

Village in the Caprivi strip

sweeping a ground of dust - Sisyphus at work

Preparing reeds for the roof

Carrying water from the well

Hut of an 18 year old girl who just gave birth. She has to stay in the hut alone for weeks

Before the wheel was invented

“Colonialism and imperialism did not only mean rule over humans but rule by and over animals too. There would not be imperial conquests without animals. Animals are the requirement for imperial processes, with which they are interwoven in diverse ways. Imperial processes are changed by animals and influence them at the same time” Uwe Timm, Morenga

German fort in eastern Etosha

"the incorrigible grew wise when he bled" Uwe Timm, Morenga

Cafe in Tsumeb

In the streets of Tsumeb

"the person who drives in the car will never be the friend of those who walk" Uwe Timm, Morenga

"language is the necessity of our loneliness" Uwe Timm, Morenga

Tsumeb is a mining town. For the mines the locals were useful workers

Number 34 Ecuador 1996

Good and Quick (“The old patagonia express” Paul Theroux)

The book “The old patagonia express” by Paul Theroux first published in 1975 is one of the classics of travel literature. From his home town Boston Theroux took the train all the way down to the Patagonian Pampa – as far as that was still possible at the time. On route he also ends up in Quito, Ecuador. His idea is to take the railway from Quito down to the port of Guayaquil, the Guayaquil and Quito Railway, in short, the “G and Q” or “the Good and Quick”, “as it is known to those who have not ridden on it” (Paul Theroux).

The main street of Alausi

The only platform of the station in Alausi

The G and Q is part of the dilapidated Ferrocarriles de Ecuador. The main line connects Quito not only to Guayaquil with a branch from Sibambe in the direction of Cuenca in the South, but also to Ibarra to the other ecuadorian pacific port of San Lorenzo in the North. The northern part was only finished in 1957. In 1996 there was still a train running from Guayaquil to Riobamba, there were frequent Autoferros between Ibarra and the market town of Otavalo and the odd train from Ibarra to San Lorenzo.

The North bound G & Q arrives in Alausi

Nine of these engines were delivered in 1992 to replace Theroux's railcar and the steam engines

 

The connection from Guayaquil to Quito took 36 years to build. The first section was opened in 1873, but it took until 1908 for the first train to arrive in Quito. The total length of the railway is 965 km, of which 446 km are in the Southern Division (Division Sur) which starts at sea level at the harbour of Guayaquil with a ferry to Duran and then heads east into the Andean mountains. To reach Quito at an altitude of 2850 meters the line first has to reach its highest point at Urbina at an altitude of 3,609 metres. Some tricks were necessary to achieve that difference in altitude. The best known is the Devil's Nose (Nariz del Diablo) where the train shunts back and forth along a rocky promontory between the stations of Sibambe at 1800 m and Alausi.at 2346 m.

Unloading in Alausi station

In 1996 even the serviceable parts of the railway were in a deplorable state due to general neglect. In 1992, the railway had received a last delivery of 9 Alstom AD24 BBB diesel engines with the numbers 2401-9. This made an end to the service of the last, antiquated steam engines and autoferros, buses adapted to railway use, but did not improve the reliability. During the El Niño In 1997 and 1998 the railway was severely damaged by heavy rainfall. However, in 2008 the president Rafael Correa named the railroad a "national cultural patrimony" and announced the restoration. Indeed service was restored between Guayaquil and Quito by 2013.

It is written in all guidebooks that the ride on the train over the devil’s nose was one of the touristic highlights of a visit to Ecuador and in addition one of the few in the country which did not involve excessive physical exercise at a height of above 2000 m. So we took the bus to Alausi, a little village in the Ecuadorian highlands surrounded by steep mountain slopes. The town center is built around the station and the train uses the mostly deserted main street.

Market day in Alausi

Indios in their colorful clothes dominate the streets. Even the women wear the typical bowler hats above their long braids. Only on sunday the quiet streets of Alausi fill with the indios from the surrounding villages to buy provisions and sell their products. And then, twice everyday, there is another disturbance of the peace. A roaring sound can be heard in the distance. Only after considerable waiting the sound turns into a rumble and slowly the train arrives. Most of the few travelers, mainly tourists, sit on the top of the wagons to enjoy the ride. Local hustlers climb up to sell snacks or drinks. When the train arrives from Guayaquil, ordered goods which do not fit in a bus like building material are unloaded. A flat car carries banana trunks and fish. They are sold directly from the train. The fish has been lying on the flat car in the simmering heat of the tropical coastal plains since the departure in Duran in the early morning and has developed a considerable smell. Fortunately most of it has been sold before the train arrives in Alausi.

Why did I not buy one of the nice indian bowler hats?

Sale of the fabric for the indigenus clothes....

...and next door there is somebody to tailor it

After a long stop the train continues its journey. In 1996, the uphill terminus is Riobamba. The remainder of the line to Quito was not in use any more.

We make a reservation for the next day. When we take the train down the devil’s nose to Huigra, we can return on the uphill train the same day. It’s not really clear to me why anybody should make a reservation since most of the people sit on the roof and the proper seats are empty anyway.

Cabbage the size of a pumpkin

Another item lost in time.... tapes

Different types of Andean potato

The scarf can be used to carry a baby as well as a shopping bag

Fresh chicken for the sunday lunch

The next morning we proceed to the station. Since Alausi is a small town it is not very far and the train can be heard a long time before arrival.

The train leaves main street for Riobamba

Finally the train arrives. And most of the space on the roofs is already occupied. Even the locals have resorted to the roof. Some people also sit on the almost empty platform of the flat car. Those who are actually inside the train seem to be mostly railwaymen. There is no guardrail on the roof. After the train starts to ease down the steep mountain slopes, somebody falling down would not only end up at the base of the freight car, but probably also roll down the slope for a couple of hundred meters. Nevertheless nobody gets scared and moves to the safety inside. I guess an accident has happened some time later, because on recent pictures all the roofs have a guardrail.

The hustlers board the roof of the train for their daily business

Snacks?

The danger is increased by the swaying of the wagons due to the poor railbed. And indeed, it only takes a short while and the slow moving train comes to a complete stop. After some time we dare to climb down t have a look. The first boogie of the engine is derailed. Apparently they are used to that. This is the reason there is so much staff on the train. They cut yucca leaves and somehow manage to get the engine on the track again. To avoid further derailment, they produce some tools and readjust the rails on the spot before the train continues over it. I hope the train will not derail on one of the steep slopes. To my knowledge there never has been a very serious accident on this line before, so why should it happen today? For safety, there is a brakeman on every handbrake on the roof of the wagons.

Shoeshine?

The station sign of Alausi announces a height of 2347 m. Our destination Huigra is at 1255. To get the train up and down, it has to Zig Zag along switchbacks up the mountain slope of the Nariz del Diablo above the station of Sibambe, which is at a height of 1800 m. The train is pulled into a terminal, then pushed up or down to the next terminal, from where it continues by pulling. This is a cheap way of avoiding a spiral tunnel.

With the roofs fully loaded the train starts the descent towards the coast

The train approaches devil's nose

The hand brakes of the wagons are manned

The train is pushed up the first switchback of devil's nose

However, there are a couple of tunnels on the line between Sibambe and Huigra. It is not a problem being on the roof.as long as you sit down – nobody seems to have any worries.

Get down, the tunnel

We arrive in Huigra at lunchtime. Close to the station Indian women have set up little eateries. The stop is long enough for the people on the train to have lunch. After the train finally leaves we seem to be the only ones waiting at the station for the train back. We get the full attention of the few locals left at the station. They come together around us when we show postcards from at home. Popular are n particular a postcard of an old express steam engine with huge wheels and of a beach with topless women. When I offer an old railwayman to select one, he takes the steam engine.

Arrival of the train in Huigra

Loading of the goods bound for the coast in Huigra

Residents of Huigra looking at my postcards from Europe

When the upward bound train finally arrives, the flat car is full of fish. Not deterred by the smell the villagers come together and extensive bargaining starts. It looks like the train will wait until most of the fish is sold. On another flatcar is a bulldozer, engine running, and big junks of fire wood. After we have left Huigra, passed the Devil’s nose and reached the spot of the previous derailment, the fire wood is unloaded. It turns out that it will serve as replacement sleepers for the repair of the line.

Siesta in Huigra between the departures of the two daily trains

Different means of transport

Lunch for the travelers is ready

Dog waiting for the leftovers

Flat car selling fish from the coast to the people in the mountains

While in Ecuador, Paul Theroux meets a lot of people, local fellow writers, long lost family, expats. None of them has taken the train. It does not surprise him. In South America, trains are for the “semi-destitute, the barefoot ones, the Indians, and the half-cracked yokels”. Therefore for him riding the train is a good introduction to the social miseries and scenic splendours of the continent.

Lunch is ready for the travelers. The arrival of the train is a source of income for the locals

The fish and fruit shop on the uphill train

The fish is cooled in boxes with ice

In his time the train was a railcar. He tries to get a ticket, but it seems to be always full. He asks somebody why it is so popular. They tell him “it‘s not popular, it is small”. Eventually, after having met so many people, observed the miseries of the country, he leaves for Peru. He did not get the chance to ride the G and Q train.

The uphill train has arrived. The little draisine is used by the workmen to roll back down the hill

First class

View of the station of Sibambe from the last swithback of nariz del diablo

During the stop in Huigra the flat car which carried the fish is loaded with what we think is fire wood. Another flat-car is loaded with a caterpillar. The engine stays running also after the train finally departs. The firewood is unloaded after a while along the line. It is used as sleepers. 

After loading some firewood the train continues

The line is in a deplorable state. Suddenly the train stops. The front boogie of the engine has derailed. The many men idling in the train get off. Apparently this was the purpose why they rode the train. Now they get active and put the heavy engine onto the rails again with the help of .... yucca leaves. Afterwards the line is realigned with the help of some firewood and the train can continue.  

Repairing the rails after the engine was derailed

Those sleepers definitely need replacement

Source:

Paul Therous, The old patagonian express

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empresa_de_Ferrocarriles_Ecuatorianos

Other stories about Ecuador:

https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2020/10/number-42-ecuador-1996.html

https://h-s-coronastories.blogspot.com/2021/12/number-77-ecuador-1995.html

Look here, Paul Theroux: There is something you havn't got: Ticket of the Ferrocarriles Ecuadorianos for tourists