Kilimanjaro Tales

Latham, Gwynneth and Latham, Michael

1995

Publisher: Radcliffe Press (an imprint of I.B. Tauris); London - UK
ISBN: 1850438811
Our classification: Autobiography
Found: Seen at Jo A, Arusha Oct 2003
These tales are based on the reminiscences of Gwynneth Latham, who joined her husband Donald, a young doctor, in Tanganyika in the 1920s and 1930s. These memoirs provide a portrait of life in what is now mainland Tanzania, in the early period of that country as a British mandated territory.
Offering an account of medical practice in the most extreme tropical conditions, this is the tale of an English woman who took on the important role of medical assistant to a "bush doctor". Perceptive insights into the connection between traditional medical practice and Western medicine are combined with descriptions of friendships with a wide range of people: colleagues, staff, and locals, settlers and government officials. This is above all, the story of a European family settling in Africa, confronted with new and exciting surroundings and life-changing experiences.

Book ID 721

Lupa Goldrush

Chapter 12

Many Afrikaners (Dutch Boers) were exciled after the Boer War for refusing to take the oath of allegiance to the British Government in South Africa. By ox-wagon they had trekked up to Tanganyika, then German East Africa, where they were received with open arms by the wily Huns, who gave them land at Arusha.

This was not as a benevolent gesture, but so that they could be used as a buffer against the savage, marauding Masai warriors. They suffered sorely at the time, but after the Germans had tamed the Masai, by force and worse, the exiles were left in peace and found that they had been alloted the most fertile land in the country.

From Arusha and Moshi, with their lovely climates and beautiful permanent streams, came the best coffee, fruit, vegetables, the later mostly grown for their seed which was exported to wholesalers in South Africa.

Extract ID: 4568