AFRICA - THE GETTING OF KNOWLEDGE

AFRICA - IMMENSE AND DIVERSE

AFRICA - the challenge that confronts me for 2015.

As you might have read, I intend to start with Egypt , then move backwards and forwards across the Continent, country by country, learning what I can about each one, and how it relates to the whole, its present but also its past, its peoples and their religions, commerce and prospects.

I will use this map as a point of reference as we examine each country so that we have  consistency in the impression we develop.

It is an exciting, but I must say daunting project .....I hope I am not biting off more than I can chew!!

It will be a good test of my ability to use the Internet for research purposes in the most effective manner, and, as time goes by, should hone those skills quite a bit. So, I won't cheat by starting a day early....but tomorrow New Year's Day it begins -Africa starts in Egypt!

Ready for the work.

A LONG TIME BETWEEN DRINKS

  Me about three years ago before the Doctors got me.

Yes, it has been"a long time between drinks", as the saying goes. But all the medical cares of this fading year are now well behind me, and we are settling well into our fine new home. I even have a moderate sized and well-equipped "study" . So, time to get back to writing. 

To create a discipline around which other writing can re- develop, I have decided that for the New Year I will begin a systematic effort to correct a sizeable deficiency in my knowledge. Like most Australians, I have a very poor grasp on the geography of Africa. In fact, I have found that even beyond that, I have not even had a true idea of the size of Africa compared to Australia.

I want to correct that and, if you wish , you can come along with me through 2015 as I fill in the massive blank spaces in my knowledge of "Mother Africa" as the song calls her.

It has been my pleasure and privilege to actually get to know some African people, in real life and via Facebook during the last several years, and it has opened my eyes to many shortcomings in my world view, and in most Australians' relative ignorance of the giant across the Indian Ocean. 

I am looking forward keenly to learning so much from the rich history, reality, and activity of that energetic continent and her marvellous and varied people, and to correct even my stupid ideas about where various countries are on that Continent.

I would like you to come along with me, and perhaps - especially any African readers - to comment and correct any errors you believe I am  making.

My Africa

Here I am, closing in rapidly on 75 yrs of age. When I was a child, Africa was the "dark continent" of fabled literature, gradually emerging into the false light of Hollywood movies.

Here in Australia, we did not even have the steady flow of news and concerns the British had for their interests in Africa. After all, to them, we Australians were just another lot of convenient Colonials like the African settlers and their native populations. Nor did we have the continual flow of Colonial Administrators  going out and coming "home" with their tales of the lives they had led and the "knowledge" they had acquired ( or perhaps the prejudices they had formed and fed.) No, for us Africa was largely the impression we got from our Mercator Projection maps, literature and , as I say, increasingly from the false light of Hollywood movies.

So what was that all like? Well take a look at Mercator's projection of the world and it is obvious : particularly in the flattened out sphere projections our school maps provided, Australia was very nearly as big as Africa, but the truth is that Africa is about 2.5 times the size of Australia. 

Literature had tended to present Africa as an unending source of mystery and danger to the white man who carried the " burden" of opening up these strange lands to civilisation. The influence of novels , which exploded into popularity in the 1800s and early 1900s was tremendous . The works of H.Rider Haggard , Joseph Conrad and others set the tone. Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" was particularly influential. At the same time the the tale of the finding of Doctor Livingstone  caused a sensation and every child knew the reporter's greeting "Doctor Livingstone, I presume?" . The quest for the discovery of the source of the Nile - finally resolved by John Hanning Speke in 1858,  contributed to a romantic air surrounding the Continent of Africa. 

This romantic legend tended also to flourish as a result, of the very real commercial activities of the British Cecil Rhodes who was not only a mining entrepreneur , but an enthusiastic British Imperialist whose dream was to build a Cape to Cairo Railway to advance and cement British dominance over the African Continent.

Had we, children of my era, been taught about Africa in a systematic way, this Nineteenth Century preoccupation would have been more strongly founded in earlier history as we were taught it. But no, to us, Egypt was Egypt and not so much thought of as part of Africa (even the Romans were ahead of us there - Scipio Africanus for example - and of course, we were not taught why Africa (Egypt) was so important to the Romans ( grain supplies). We were not even taught systematically the importance of the early Church in North Africa with 160 Dioceses  (including Saint Augustine's Hippo)  Suffice it to say  that Mohammed wrote the Koran in A.D.625 and by A.D. 700 Catholicism in North Africa was wiped out in military slaughter.

Nor were we systematically educated about  missionary activity deeper into Africa or about slavery out of Africa and its extermination. The result was that we were left to absorb the Hollywood, therefore American, idea of slavery. That is that it was a racial, black phenomenon period. Of course that suited American political ideas as they had developed by the time of my childhood, but it did not have so much relationship to the whole history of slavery, which has more often been national based (as opposed to race) or later religion based with Christians being made slaves of Mohammedans.

So, I suppose I am saying that it is little wonder that my ideas of Africa, from my childhood became inadequately formed.

Actual contact with African people, strangely enough came to me at about 4 years of age. My Mum and my Aunt Nell were taking me to Manly Beach and we went part of the way by tram. Sitting opposite us were three American Servicemen all in uniform then proudly worn in war time , and all of them black. They very kindly and politely offered to hand me down from the height of the tram while they also helped the ladies. Well! What a surprising bit of courtesy in a time when Aussie men were painfully awkward about any display of gentility. 

                            Me to-day after the Doctors have done their best.

  I hope by now you can get some idea of the reasoning behind my enthusiasm for this project, and I hope that it will prove interesting to you also. For example it might provoke in some of my African  readers  thoughts about their actual first encounter with a white man, and how it went?

I shall give myself a short break before embarking on the project from the first week in 2015 , at the rate of one country per week, save for the tiniest , which I might deal with in the same week as a larger neighbor.  I plan to start in the North East of Africa and progress across the continent in broad bands coming back to the East each time I hit the the West Coast. Accordingly, my first country will be Egypt! A baptism of fire!

JUST LIKE TO-DAY - IT WAS A TUESDAY

YOUR MOTHER NEVER KNEW

ARMENTIERES - THE BATTLEFIELD _ GERMAN BUNDESARCHIV PHOTOGRAPH

On this cool and cloudy Aussie morning

I recall that other Tuesday 14th May, ........96 years ago,

and on the other side of the world:

IT WAS A TUESDAY, WASN’T IT BILLY? JUST LIKE TO-DAY

                 - TUESDAY, 14TH MAY, 1918

Private James William“BILLY”Wilson   Service No. 5659

17TH Battalion, Australian Imperial Force

KILLED IN ACTION Near / Armentieres FRANCE In the course of repelling the German Forces, whose attempt to reach the Sea had already failed.

Did you know it was Tuesday, or in that Hell around Armentieres, blasted to Kingdom Come for miles and miles - did you really care what day it was?

THE ICONIC AUSTRALIAN SLOUCH HAT

They didn’t tell your Mum how you died - blown to pieces by a German shell blast .But your Superior Officer took the trouble to tell my Grandma and Grandad – your Sister Louisa (“doll’s eyes” you called her) and her German husband Ted .

Louisa was distraught at losing her only brother. She loved you so much. In due course, the Army provided your Mother with a Certificate of Burial for which Ted made an ornate carved wooden frame with all the flags of the Allies around its edges. (I guess he inherited that skill from his Grandfather Carl Dopmeyer whose sculpture and wood carving gained him fame in Germany in the second half of the 1800’s.

We don’t seem to have a photo of you Billy, which is strange for your time. But we know a little about you:

You enlisted on 16th November, 1915. You were said to be 27 years old and 3 months, of dark complexion weighing 119 lbs. and 5 Feet 3 ½ “in height. So you were a little bloke by Aussie standards but true to your English born parents’ physique. You had no distinguishing marks on your body. You were a Laborer.

But what’s this? You were Discharged just over a month later on 22nd December, 1915. Because you had insufficient teeth to masticate!

17th Battalion A.I.F. (AUSTRALIAN  IMPERIAL FORCE) COLOUR PATCH

But you can’t keep a good bloke down, and on 24th February, 1916 you enlist again! By now you have a “Fresh” complexion, Brown eyes, Brown Hair, your height is the same but at 27 years and 6 months you weigh in at 116lbs And you have acquired a scar at your Right eye, on your Right thigh and inside your Right knee. Did this happen during your initial enlistment? An accident? All the injury was on your right side and the inclusion of a scar behind your right knee doesn’t sound like a fight!

Whatever the case, the lack of teeth , (stated to have occurred over the 10 preceding years due to cavities)– perhaps you had obtained dentures (?)- did not stop you being accepted again.

You appear to have been buried initially at Fouilloy and later exhumed and re-interred at the great Australian War Cemetery at Villers- Bretonneux.

"

The sun shining down on these green fields of France

The warm wind blows gently and the red poppies dance

   The trenches have vanished long under the plow
    
    No gas, no barbed wire, no guns firing now    
    But here in this graveyard that's still no mans land
    The countless white crosses in mute witness stand
    
    To man's blind indifference to his fellow man
    And a whole generation were butchered and damned
      Did they beat the drums slowly ?
      Did they play the fife lowly ?
      Did they sound the death march, as they lowered you down? ?
      Did the band play the last post and chorus ?
      Did the pipes play the flowers of the forest ?

     (The Green Fields of France - Eric Bogle)

The Australian War Memorial at Villers Bretonneux

On 4 th February, 1919 your Mother received from the Army your personal effects – you know how pitifully few and pathetic they were. You had made your Mother your Next of Kin because your Father had died previously.

 

CONCLUSION

I’m sorry Billy, that I haven’t yet got more information about you and the War you fought, but I am on the job and will set the record straight as best I can.I do now have your official Army records in facsimile. I am still striving to locate a photograph!

You and your comrades, who already went through Hell on earth in France, are in my daily prayers for the repose of your Souls. And we who live our lives to-day are forever grateful to you.

 

*MY FATHER CRYING? WHAT COULD THIS MEAN?

Sixty Six years ago to-day, my paternal Grandma died - at age Sixty - six years.
Here is a Post from 2011 which covers what for Eight Years old me , was a sadly memorable event.

MY FATHER CRYING ? WHAT COULD THIS MEAN ?

                                                      My Dad John Joseph Dixon at about the age I was that morning.........

His Mother Eleanor Margaret Dixon  taken the same day as Dad above.

Friday , 20th August, 1948:  I was asleep in my bed, just clear of the inward opening door of my bedroom at the front right hand side (facing), of our two bedroom timber cottage in Second Avenue Berala NSW. I was woken when the door opened hastily.

There stood my 41 years old Dad .A tumble of thoughts into my gathering consciousness : Dad doesn't wake me in the morning ( Shift work meant he was either at work, or not long in from work and sleeping at this hour),  why was his hat crammed on his head in the house? and....... what! My Dad was crying..... what could this mean?  "You'd better get up quick Anth, Ma has died ",and he sobbed even more. 

Turmoil, Mum was already up at Grandma's which was in Third avenue just behind us and a tad higher on the gentle hill. Up I got, dressed quickly, no breakfast and round we went. The 1900 vintage cream painted timber house, had originally been much smaller, but had been added onto. Up the front steps into the hall and I was taken down to Mum who was busy holding the family together, consoling this one calming that one and meanwhile getting them fed. My maiden Aunt Nell who was a very good hearted soul, but at that stage of her life very tense, afflicted with a bad stutter, suggested while Dad was there that I should be taken into Grandma's room to see her body. You can perhaps imagine my horror - at eight years of age - at the suggestion. I had no experience of death and I had no desire to see the Grandma I loved so devotedly , and who loved me , in death. I would NOT go in.

 Dad was too absorbed in grief to intervene, but mercifully Mum across, asked what the fuss was, saw my reaction and put an end to that idea. I can't remember the rest of the day.

The funeral was some days later from our Church-School St. Peter Chanel's on the hill at Berala.My mind boggled at all the relatives and friends and fellow Parishoners - the Dixons were not the greatest Church goers( masterly understatement - I'm getting better at it!) , but in earlier times the wooden Church as well as the Convent, had been in Fourth Avenue behind Grandma's place  and there weren't many houses in those earlier days ,so " Mag. Dixon" was well known to the Nuns and to many Parishoners. That old wooden Church had been hauled up the hill to the new Parish location sometime in the 20's or 30's,and was now the Parish Hall.

Grandma was 66 years old.

Dad's Father, Thomas James Dixon died on the 2nd August, 1950. I had rarely seen him. He had left the family home many years before, had a major problem with drink, and was not a very endearing person (actually, I'm getting better at it!) He was 66 years old also - I had never realised the coincidence of their ages at death until a minute ago ,when I came to write this !

Deaths in August were to become more common in the family for some reason as you will see if you bear with me.And, as it happened, when my dear Mum died in August, 1971 she was also 66 years old.

This is the Anniversary of one of the more devastating nights in World War II for the Allies in the Pacific, and so we re-post an updated version of a post from 2011:

 This is the Anniversary of one of the more devastating nights in World War II for the Allies in the Pacific, and so we re-post an updated version of a post from 2011:

 

AN UNUSUAL VIEW - DISASTER AND PROGRESS

H.M.A.S. CANBERRA passing under the incomplete Sydney Harbour Bridge - 1930.

In happy times - H.M.A.S. CANBERRA "Dressed Overall"to mark some State occasion apparently firing a Saluting Gun. 

U.S.S. CANBERRA

A picture is said to be "worth a thousand words". The top picture showing H.M.A.S. CANBERRA passing under the Sydney Harbour Bridge in the course of its construction, could easily provoke a thousand words to deal with the various streams of thought it calls forth. Thoughts of Progress and Disaster.

The completion of the Sydney Harbour Bridge some two years later , was to transform the life of the City of Sydney which lies behind H.M.A.S. CANBERRA in the picture which is looking South from Dawes Point on the North Shore of the Harbour. No more would train,trams,buses and cars transfer their passengers to ferries into the City and return to collect them in the evening, no more would the car ferry ( later to cruise the Harbour as the Showboat "Kalang"), ply its trade taking cars and trucks to and fro.The old Sydney would receive a second jolt, which, together with the first, the Underground Railway, would transform its life entirely.There was a strong sense that the Bridge had demonstrated the great achievements Australia was capable of once we shook off the gloom of the Great Depression.

H.M.A.S. CANBERRA was one of two Kent Class Heavy Cruisers in the Royal Australian Navy, the other being H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA.The two 10,000 ton vessels were built by John Brown & Sons on Clydebank and CANBERRA was only two years old when the photo was taken .The ships had been built under the restrictions of the Washington Naval Treaty which limited their armament and armour.
H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA was refitted as the coming of war threatened and her armour at the waterline was increased. She survived the war. H.M.A.S. CANBERRA was not refitted due to budgetary restraints in the wake of the Great Depression.She did not survive even the early years of the war. On the night of 8/9 August, 1942 CANBERRA formed part of the Cruiser Screen protecting the Allied Amphibious Force supporting the landing on Guadalcanal. Ships of the Cruiser Screen had been continuously at Action Stations for nearly two days and fatigue resulting from this factor is thought to have played a part in what happened.
A superior Japanese Heavy Cruiser force with Destroyer Screen attacked during the night and, using the very advanced and fast steam powered heavy "Long Tom"torpedoes and maximum heavy armament fire, they quickly knocked CANBERRA out of action, and sank U.S.S.s  Quincy, Astoria and Vincennes . CANBERRA remained afloat but could not be saved.She became a hazard to navigation and had to be sunk. Ironically this took two hours to achieve. The Allied forces were forced to withdraw leaving the seaway to the Japanese, and abandoning the United States Marines on Guadalcanal. The Marines heroic fighting on the Island has become legendary. Some months later the Allies returned for good and the Marines were relieved.
In an extraordinary gesture which seems to have no parallel in world naval annals, the United States Navy apparently at the decision of President Franklin D.Roosevelt, named one of its Baltimore Class Heavy Cruisers, U.S.S. CANBERRA. This must have been a decision encountering very strong opposition among traditionalists ( and most Navy folk ARE traditionalists around the world) - imagine the furore if it was decided to name a major ( or any) Australian warship H.M.A.S. WASHINGTON!  It was a grand tribute to the heroism and support of the men of the R.A.N. and the people of Australia. U.S.S. CANBERRA was one of the first ships converted to a Guided Missile Cruiser in the post war period. She gave long service and was frequently used on representative visits around the world. When she came to the end of her life , a second U.S.S. CANBERRA, a frigate, was commissioned.
The loss of the CANBERRA left a gap in the Australian Fleet and this was filled by the gift of H.M.S. SHROPSHIRE a London Class Heavy Cruiser, which like the Kent Class, belonged to the County Class  design family.  King George VI had announced the gift saying that SHROPSHIRE would become the new H.M.A.S. CANBERRA. But then the exceptional tribute by the UNITED STATES was announced and it was thought best to retain the name she had.As H.M.A.S. SHROPSHIRE she served with distinction through the remainder of the Pacific War and proved to be a "lucky"ship - only five of her crew died during the war - one drowning and four accidents - none to enemy action. SHROPSHIRE was scrapped in 1949. I have clear personal memories of seeing her on Sydney Harbour on several occasions as a young boy.
I wonder how many other tranquil pictures can so readily conjure up so many memories?

 

And now the wheel has turned again, and the largest ship ever to join the Royal Australian Navy is now afloat and fitting out prior to commissioning, she will be the new H.M.A.S. CANBERRA and after a year or so will have a sister ship, H.M.A.S. AUSTRALIA. 

 

 

                   The new CANBERRA enters Sydney Harbour for the first time.

Posted by vexilla regis at 5:11 PM

MOTHERS' DAY AND A FATHER'S DAY

ELSIE GEORGINA DIXON  My dear Mum who died in 1971 Aged 66yrs.

Here I am surrounded by a pictorial  bouquet of Mothers ! (I think "bouquet"is a suitable collective noun for a group of Mothers!) Each one of them I have had the privilege and joy to share my life with, and each one has been a remarkable example of love and kindness in action, even in the gravest difficulty. 

 Obviously the first Mother I knew was my very own dear Mum,who led a life of self- sacrifice , love and loyalty in the most adverse circumstances.Her love was generous and kind, never in the least demanding. She was the ideal example of her Father's philosophy that love and respect go hand in hand : if you have not got love you will show no respect, if you show no respect, you have no love. 

Grandad hit the nail on the head, and my dear Mum had absorbed the lesson and lived it out.


 

GRANDMA DIXON  ( Nee Boyd) Who died in 1948 Aged  66yrs also.

Next I got to know my Grandma Dixon who lived on the next block one street behind us. Hers was also a tough life coping with a difficult husband.She gave herself to helping many human strays in the family orbit. She was very loving in her treatment of me and in early primary school days I used to walk home via Grandma's place, where she would always be seated on the verandah - waiting for me with a One Shilling piece( with its Merino Sheep Head image on it) clutched in her hand which she gave to me for treats. I can still recall its warmth from her hand, to-day.

GRANDMA BECKMANN Who died in 1965 Aged  79 Yrs.

My Mum's Mother, Grandma Beckmann, was a very special lady. She was more self - confident and outgoing within the family group than my Mum or Grandma Dixon and her love was open-hearted and generous, her hugs big and strong.

 She was totally devoted to her husband "Ted"Edward Beckmann and in the family circle she would refer to him as "Daddy"( they had 9 children!). When I knew him his health was failing, and though she would firmly proclaim that "Daddy and I are going to live on into the (Biblical) Millenium ", looking back ,I can see her anxiety that he was slipping away.

 She was a wonderful example of love and affection and that ,constant and reliable.She had had a tough life with never a lot of money around , and when some windfall occurred an adverse development would sweep it away. She suffered a lot for marrying a  "German" especially in World War I as did the older girls, reproached for being "Germans". I recall her unconditional love of me ,and those strong, generous hugs to-day. And, as she lay close to death in Hospital  , I can recall her calling out "Mummy" - my Grandmother, at the end of her life - calling out for Her Mother!
 

                                            My dear wife Robyn

                      Robyn with Marianne, Justine and Matthew at Mount Wilson


Then we come to the full colour Mums. My dear wife Robyn with our three beautiful children, what fun we had that day in the bracing air and rich autumn tones of Mount Wilson! 

What fun we have had over all the years - and how much of that is due to Robyn , loving loyal, devoted wife and Mother. I guess we have had more good times than all the predecessor Mothers and their families combined and yet we have had a ton of tough times, but Robyn has been a constant source of love and loyalty through thick and thin, and even thinner! No - one could ask for a better Wife or ,the children, a better Mother.

OUR SECOND DAUGHTER JUSTINE  THE MODEL OF A  MOTHER

Premature Daniel only days old 

Is now brilliant and vital Daniel  ,soon to be 7 yrs.

The latest Mother in the family blood line is our dear daughter Justine, Mother to Emily, Christopher and Daniel. Words nearly fail me ( nearly! I always have a few left!) As parents we could not be prouder of this thoroughly modern Mother. She is an exemplary model of love and devotion in effective action , handling even the strain of tiny Daniel's birth when this tiny literal handful of life seemed to us too fragile , she brought him to the fullness of healthy life with dedication and love, without skipping a beat in the care of Emily and Christopher and husband Paul.And like her paternal Grandmother she is a stalwart strength for her parents.








So Mothers of mine, I salute you and honour you , but most of all, I love you unfailingly.

And a Father....?

To-day, 8th May,2014 is Mothers'Day of course, but it is only a few days away from the 24th Anniversary of the death of my Dad John (Jack) Joseph Dixon, in 1992, just short of his June 85th Birthday. Requiescat in Pace

                                    My Dad Jack Dixon at about 6 or so.
                                      Within 5years at age 11 in 1918 he was working 
                                       in Newland's Iron Foundry near Central Station.

                    
                       Without Fathers there would be no Mothers!