GENERATIONS

Great Grandfather Conrad BECKMANN
FAMED GERMAN PAINTER OF THE LATE 1800s

To-day is the 166 th anniversary of the birth in 1846 in Hannover Germany of my Mother's Grandfather - my Great Grandfather - Conrad Beckmann.

The Generations tumble on, and he is now the Great Great Grandfather of our three children : Marianne, Justine and Matthew., and the Great Great Great Grandfather of our Grandchildren : Stephen,Josephine,Gabrielle and Anastasia DIXON, and Emily, Christopher and Daniel Whiting.

Great Grandad you really started something! Thank God that you did , for you would be really proud to see how the shoot of the tree via your youngest son Wilhelm Toby Leonhardt Edward Beckmann flourished through his eldest child Elsie Georgina Beckmann ,not to mention other branches.

Congratulations on your Birthday and on the fact that your paintings are still coming to light via the Internet as late as a few days ago. Here is your Blog to prove it, and to tell all of your amazing story!http://conradbeckmann.blogspot.com.au/

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AFRICA ?

WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT AFRICA? - NO, REALLY? 

NIGERIA FOUND

I don't know about you, but my detailed knowledge of global geography is not something to marvel at. Sure, I can get almost any country into the right Continent , and usually into roughly the right Region. But there are , I have discovered , some areas of particular deficiency. I shall by-pass the subject of all the various "-stans"and "- zhans" which seem to have proliferated generally "up there"in the former Soviet Union. It was rather comforting in those days just to have one whapping great lump of baddies , and easy to know where they were, hemmed in by the CIA, MI5 or is it 6? and the Polaris submarines. Alas, now we have Russia and Vlad Putin trying to stay Vlad the Terrible forever and ever.And this host of feverish "- stans"and "-zhans" all generally unknowable and one suspects dreadful - somewhere "up there".


But Africa  -  she cannot be ignored. Yet there is a problem. Those of us of a certain age.....learned what we know about Africa  through British lenses, when Britannia still acted as if she "waived the rules"and governed great chunks of Africa as colonies.So, what was Africa to us, was British Africa . Thus we knew about the Zulus and their terrible reputation as fierce warriors, and the Masai and their spears, and the tall willowy Swahili and their dancing. But we couldn't accurately place them on the map necessarily.Then the whole thing became much more complicated, Britannia discovered the reality of no longer being able to "waive the rules"at Suez in 1956. Earlier,  The Sudan had won its independence from England and Egypt in December ,1955. It has of course largely proved to be a pyhrric victory.


But a relatively short time later Ghana, won her independence from England and Germany in March, 1957.On the first day of 1960 Cameroon won its independence from England, Germany and France after a rebellion. By 1st July,1960 Somalia had won its independence from England and Italy; it is still in ferment.And on October 1st. 1960 Nigeria won its independence from England.


There was a great procession of countries winning their independence from England in the following years. And as I discover how little I know about them and try to correct that ignorance, we may have the stuff of many more posts. But for the moment, let us keep our gaze on Nigeria.Because it was specifically Nigeria that brought me up short, when I realised I did not know where in Africa it is!


You see, I have the privilege of getting to form a friendship with a Nigerian soon to come to Australia to study. So when I learned where he lives , I went confidently to the map of Africa and found that someone had moved Nigeria! And in its place was Uganda!!! Then slowly, my confidence crumpled and I realised that if I had ever known where Nigeria is, I had forgotten. And then humbly , I had to begin to search for it on the map! Of course I found it where it has always been in the very  "armpit"of West Africa!


That was not all I did not know, my friend's great country has a population of 172.000.000 plus  people . This makes it the most populous country in Africa.And the seventh most populous in the world. And I didn't know where it is!!


Nigeria has three main Tribal groupings:


the Igbo , the Yoruba and the Hausa.


The Igbo kingdom can be traced back archeologically to the 10th Century and lasted until British conquest in 1911 .There is evidence of highly developed metal working techniques and pottery from an early date.


This is a very poor thumbnail sketch, the beginning of my education as I prepare to meet my friend with whom I already have excellent communications.


The West is largely an open book collectively, like Americans we are known better than we can generally know about others. As a courtesy I think I owe it to my friend to learn far more about his country , which contains 25% of the entire population of Africa!  


Watch this space!

THIS IS THE DAY

CONRAD BECKMANN MY GREAT GRANDFATHER

           DIED FRIDAY 3rd JANUARY,1902

You would find a visit to the Blog:http://conradbeckmann.blogspot.com/ at the very least, interesting, even fascinating. It opens a window on the world of North Europe pre World War I and even further back.


My Great Grandfather, Conrad Beckmann was a very successful painter of the time with major commisssions in Germany, sales in America and England and even having some of his work reported on in pre Federation Sydney!


His success had been marred by the long term tragic illness of his wife , with what appears to have been stomach cancer over more than ten years. Her care and "treatment"such as it was in those days consumed most of his income it seems , and led, after her death to my Grandfather's decision to migrate to Australia.The Blog :http://edwardbeckmann.blogspot.com/
tells his colourful story without which I would not be tapping the keys on this Notebook!


They were both good men of pleasant humour, not without faults no doubt,but solid citizens. Now they are literally out of time - may they rest in peace!