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Uzuzi wa Majina

Mfano wa uzuzi wa majina ya maziwa kwa sababu ya safari za wavumbuzi wa wilaya karne ya 19 ya kristo na ya 12/13 ya hegira.

Tafsiri ya maneno machache kuhusiana na Maziwa ya Turkana na Chewe Bahir, ambayo yalilipwa majina ya Ziwa Rudolfo na Ziwa Stefani (kabla ya mwaka wa 1975 AD/ 1398-1399 AH) katika safari moja ya Amiri Teleki ya Ostria kwenda kuwinda wanyama huko Kenya. Tafsiri hilo lilifanyikwa kutokana na lugha ya Kiitaliana, na kitoleo kile cha asili kimechapwa kufuatana baadye.

"Kila mwendo wa hatua mandhari ilipata kuwa daima na ukiwa zaidi, na ganje kabisa. Magenge makali ya miinamo yalibadilishana na vibonde vilivyorashwa na makokoto. Kile kibadaliko ya kimoja cha kupofua kiliendelea mpaka mwisho wa mbili.Tulitumaini hivi sasa tu tutatambua kisima kimoja kidogo na kitope cha maji ya rangi majani, ambayo twaweze kukomesha kuona kiu kwetu, kumbe kupanda mwinamo wa kiasi, kwa ghafula, wonyesho mkubwa na kutupumbaza ulidhahirisha mbele yetu. Tele ya ushikamano moyoni kwetu ilitudhanisha kwamba kile kitu kuwa zuka tu. Tulipopanda tena juu zaidi, polepole mlima wa pekee palisimama kutuzingia, na umbo laini u sawa mbavu zote. Kilikuwa burkani. Kwa mashariki ya mlima nchi ilikuwa popote panapana, nchi tambarare ya dhahabu kwa kuwa angazwa na jua. Bila mwisho kwenda mashariki tako la burkani lilionekana kama kutoka nje kwa kina kutokuwa na chini, utupu ambao ulikuwa na sisi zote mfano wa siri. Tulifanya bidii yote tukawezea kufika mwisho wa ncha juu ya kilele, na hapo mbele ya macho maduwaa yetu ilijihudhuria dunia nyote nyingine mpya. Utupu kama kwa uchawi, ulijijaziana na milima mizuri ya kuandika picha, na magenge makali, pa mchanganyiko wa vibonde na mifo, zilizofunga katika upande zote na kutengeneza mwamba mmoja kando ya ziwa la kijuujuu rangi ya samawati nzito lililotandaa mpaka kule mbali kupita mtazamo wetu. Kwa muda mzima, tiliwa na ububu na ufuraha, tukaliangazia. Logwa na sura nzuri ya mandhari iliyokuwa mbele yetu ...Jazwa na shauku na radhi kwa ajili ya hali ya maana juu ya cheo chetu aliyetuonyesha Ukuu Wake Mtukufu na wa Milki, wa Mwanamfalme Rudolfo ya Ostria, Amiri Teleki alibatiza eneo la maji, subiwa kama lulu ya thamani kubwa sana katika picha-nchi ya ajabu tulilokuwa nalo mbele zetu, Ziwa Rudolfo" (Von Höhnel, The Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie, 1894)."

[Ludwig von Höhnel alikuwa pili wa hukumu wa Amiri Samuel Teleki Von Szek katika safari yake ya Kenya Kaskazini miaka ya 1887-1888. Yeye na Amiri Teleki walikuwa wazungu wa kwanza kuona Ziwa la Turkana. Baada ya kurudi kwake, von Hohlen aliandika hekaya ya safari ile. Mpimo wa kitabu chake katika kiingereza ulifanyikwa katika gazeti ya 'New York Times'. Mnaweza kusoma mpimo huu katika Kiingereza chini ya ukarasa hiyo]

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Il battesimo dei Laghi Africani

'Il lago Turkana: un "mare di giada" circondato da lava, rocce e deserto' fu l'oggetto di viaggio di una spedizione scientifica nel Kenya settentrionale di Franco Pellicioni - per vedere la sua prinicipale pagina web scattate : FRANCO PELLICCIONI

"Ad ogni passo lo scenario diventava sempre più cupo e completamente desertico. Scoscesi pendii rocciosi si alternavano a gole cosparse di detriti. Questa accecante monotonia continuò fino alle due. Ci aspettavamo ormai di imbatterci solo in qualche piccola e fangosa pozza d'acqua verde, con la quale estinguere la nostra sete quando, salendo un declivio moderato, un enorme e stupendo panorama improvvisamente si aprì davanti a noi. Tale fu la nostra emozione che pensammo che la cosa fosse una mera fantasmagoria. Andando ancora più in alto, gradualmente un picco isolato si erse intorno a noi, con dolci e simmetrici contorni da ogni lato. Era un vulcano. Ad oriente della montagna la terra era uniformemente piatta, una pianura d'oro accesa dal sole. Sempre più ad est la base del vulcano sembrava uscire da una profondità senza fondo, un vuoto che nell'insieme rappresentò un mistero per noi. Ci sbrigammo il più possibile a giungere fino alla sommità della cresta, quando davanti ai nostri occhi stupefatti si affacciò un intero nuovo mondo. Il vuoto, quasi per magia, si riempì di montagne pittoresche dagli aspri dirupi, un guazzabuglio di gole e valli, che si chiudevano da ogni lato a formare una cornice per un lago dalla superficie blu scura, che si estendeva ben al di là del nostro sguardo. Per molto tempo, ammutoliti e deliziati, lo fissammo. Ammaliati dalla bellezza della scena che era davanti a noi…Pieni di entusiasmo e grati per l'interesse dimostrato per i nostri piani dalla Sua Altezza Reale e Imperiale, il Principe Rodolfo d'Austria, il Conte Teleki battezzò la distesa d'acqua, incastonata come una perla di grande valore nel meraviglioso scenario che avevamo di fronte, Lago Rodolfo" (Von Höhnel, The Discovery of Lakes Rudolf and Stefanie, 1894).

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Review of von Hohlen's book

LINKS : Ludwig Ritter von Höhnel ( * 6. August 1857 in Preßburg; † 23. März 1942 in Wien) war ein österreichischer Marineoffizier, Afrikaforscher und Geograph.

[Von Höhnel was the second-in-command of Count Samuel Teleki Von Szek's expedition to Northern Kenya in 1887-1888. He and Count Teleki were the first Europeans to see Lake Turkana, which they named Lake Rudolf after the expedition's patron Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria and Lake Stefanie, named after Prince Rudolf's wife, Princess Stéphanie of Belgium.]

Original review of the publication of the translation of Lieut. Ludwig von Hohnel's book transcribed from an article which appeared in the New York Times in 1894. The passages in the review have been emboldened where it addresses the same passages as in the translation above, and in the passage in Italian .

Big Game from a Savage Land

DISCOVERY OF LAKES RUDOLF AND STEFANIE. A Narrative of Count Samuel Teleki Von Szek's 'Exploring and Hunting Expedition' in Eastern Equatorial Africa in 1887 and 1888. By his companion, Lieut. Ludwig von Hohnel. Translated by Nanch Bell. D'Anvers. Illustrated. In two volumes. New York: Longmans, Green & Co.

This is not so much a story of discovery and research as a narrative of adventures.Count Teleki, who was at the head of the expedition, the operations of which L:ieut. von Hohnel describes, went into Africa, we judge, without great expectation of altering the map of the Dark Continent, or of contributing much of value to the fund of information already extant. His purpose seems to have been to take a ramble through the African wilds, to see for himself what they contained in the shape of people, beasts, vegetation and scenery, and, above all, to enjoy a prolonged season of hunting in a region plentifully stocked with big game.

The Count was the owner of a large estate in Transylvania, and had been a sportsman all his life, but had had to do only with comparatively mild-mannered beasts. He longed to come face to face with elephants, rhinoceroses, hippopotami, and lions. Having ample means, he determined to go to Africa, and thither he journeyed in the Fall of 1886. He took Lieut. von Hohnel with him to conduct the researches which every African explorer is supposed to make. The Lieutenant was well equipped with apparatus for scientific observation and with means for preserving specimens illustrative of animal and vegetable life. An excellent camera was a part of his outfit, and from the abundance of pictures that accompany the account of his travels, it is manifest that the instrument was freely used.

The story of the scientific knowledge which Lieut. von Hohnel acquired is told briefly in appendices. It has been told in full in several publications in German magazines and in bulletins of various scientific bodies. The Lieutenant is credited with having taken out of Africa several reptiles and amphibia not previously shown in civilised countries.Of coleoptra he secured more than 1,000 specimens, comprising 247 species.

Of these, 60 species were pronounced by the Curator of the Royal and Imperial Natural History Museum of Vienna new to science. Nothing is said of the Lieutenant's scientific work in the body of his book, the aim of the writer being simply picturesquely to describe Africa as he and his friends found it. He carries this aim in a minute, but by no means monotonous or wearisome, record of the progress of the expedition from the time it left Zanzibar until, about two years later, it reached Mombasa.

While Count Teleki was going about, tagged after by natives laden with his armament of shot guns, elephant guns, and rifles, blazing away at beast, bird, and reptile, the Lieutenant was keeping the natives in order, hunting up the runaways, flogging the unruly, watching against thieving, in his leisure moments collecting bugs, snakes, mosses and ferns, and all the while familiarizing himself with the country and its people.

The Teleki party did not encounter any people which had not already had visits from white explorers. It found nowhere absolutely untutored savages. This is apparent from the fact that upon the border of each domain that it entered it was forced to negotiate for the privilege of proceeding further. It seems that already the Dark Continent is illuminated to such an extent that its natives, once easily dealt with in trade because they could not see beyond the bright speckled cotton fabrics which the explorers were wont to place well in the foreground, can now take into view an entire caravan, to the very last porter or donkey, as the case may be.

Turkey-red calico, polka-dotted with yellow, still has charms for them, but the man who should offer a bolt of it to a Masai chief as the price of a safe passage across Masailand would be firmly and not overrespectfully invited to "come off." In these days the Africans demand of explorers copper wire anklets and bracelets, swords, pistols, guns and samples of everything else in the luggage train. Ten years from now they may ask for 7 per cent mortgages, interest and principal payable in gold. Count Teleki found before he had been in Africa three months that he must fight his way or send for more material for gratuities, and he chose the latter alternative.

But, though the explorers spent their days, for the most part, with peoples with whom dwellers in civilized lands are somewhat acquainted through reading of them, they seemed to have lived among these peoples upon terms of greater intimacy than usually prevails between African explorers and natives. Count Teleki was not looking for any particular thing, such as the source of a river, the end of a chain of mountains, or a lost travelller, and had therefore to consult only his own convenience as he moved about. If it suited him to stay a month in proximity to a native village, he staid. He frequently left behind the main body of his caravan, and, accompanied by small escorts, made trips to localities reported to be exceptionally stored with lions, elephants, and other wild creatures.

This resulted in affording Lieut. von Hohnel opportunities for becoming acquainted wth the people. Through these long sojourns he got valuable insight into African home life and knowledge of customs, morals and tribal relations. He gives his readers the full benefit of what he saw and learned. Putting the work of his pen and his camera together, he furnishes a story that is highly instructive, while it is at the same time decidedly readable.

The account of the discovery of Lakes Rudolph and Stefanie, upon which he bases the title to his book, is of minor interest compared with the rest. The lakes were discovered by accident while the expedition was on its way back to the coast, and was lost in a wild, volcanic country. For days the desire of every man in the expedition had been to discover an adequate supply of water. They were perishing with thirst. Suddenly they came in sight of a great blue lake stretching further away than the eye could reach. The caravan quickened its pace, and with the utmost possible rapidity made its way toward's the lake's shore. At length, after hours of sharp walking beneath a blazing sun, the thirsty men came so near the water that they felt justified in casting off their burdens and making a rush for it. They would bathe in it and drink of it.

The lake was named while it was still at a distance, and its discoverers were full of joy at finding it, and were delighting in its grandeur and beauty. They called it Lake Rudolph, after his Royal Highness, Prince Rudolf of Austria, in recognition of the great interest he had taken in the expedition. They would have chosen almost any other name than that had the christening been put off until, having spat great mouthfuls of the lake out upon its own bosom, they were in humour to revile it instead of admiring it. this lake is situated, we are told, near the massive volcanic pyramid known as Mount Kuriall, west of Samburuland, and considerably south of the mountain called Longendoti. The other lake, a sheet of water about fifteen miles broad and seventy-five miles long, was found in the neighbourhood of the Trr range. Count Teleki named it after the Archduchess Stefanie.

Upon the shores of this lake thousands of vultures and other scavenger birds were feeding upon fish which lay in great quantities in various stages of decomposition. Lieut. von Hohnel could not tell how these fish first came ashore. He suggests that the lake might have been overstocked or the fish might have been stranded by venturing close inshore in a temporary rise of level, and failing to get back to deep water when the lake receded. The guide who led this expedition through the region in which is Lake Stefanie was positive that the lake was receding. It was several feet lower than when he visited it three years before.

As a matter of course, the Teleki explorers were subjected to hardships in various steps of their journey. Sometimes there was great suffering among them from disease ; sometimes they were compelled to endure much in their conflicts with hostile natives. Some of the hired men who went out from the coast failed to return to their families. One of the illustrations in Lieut. von Hohnel's book is entitled "Gesila's End." Poor Gesila lies stark upon the ground, clothed only in a turban and clout. On either side a vulture stands, and upon a tree above is perched another in the act of descending to take his share with the two others. In the distance we see the caravan moving in single file, winding its way toward the horizon, every man, no doubt, thankful that he had not yet come, like Gesila, to be food for vultures.

A few were reserved for death from poisoned arrows, but their deaths were abundantly avenged. Wherever he went Count Teleki, after the first hostile encounter with an evilly-disposed people, established his reputation as a good man to be let alone. On one occasion, after he ahd given battle, he brought into camp 19 prisoners, 90 cows, and 1,300 sheep and goats. "Of course, there was not nearly room enough for them all, and the evening and night were passed in the very greatest discomfort. The cows bellowed, the sheep and goats lifted up their voices, the women and children wept and moaned, while our own men shouted and danced with joy." It was not long before the tribe from which these prisoners and animals had been taken were in a humor to treat Count Teleki with respect.

Readers who have the blood of sportsmen in their veins will enjoy with great interest the appendix to Lieut. von Hohnel's story containing extracts from Count Teleki's game book. These show that the Count regarded as legitimate game any living thing, human beings excepted. We find entries like these : "April 24 - Bagged one rhinoceros ; April 25 - Three gnu antelopes, one zebra, one gazelle Thomsonii ; April 29 - One rhinoceros, five guinea fowl ; June 9 - One hartebeest." Other entries tell of the shooting of buffaloes, wild boars, roebucks, snipe, flamingoes, pythons, crocodiles, giraffes, monkeys, ostriches, leopards, lions, partridges, hare, and elephants. The entry for Jan. 25, 1888, shows that on that day the Count killed two buffaloes, wild boars, roebucks, snipe, flamingoes,few days later, at the base of the Nyiro, he shot two elephants, the tusks of which weighed 200 pounds. He is credited with shooting a white rhinoceros. Referring to the exploit Lieut. von Hohnel says :

"I am perfectly aware that science does not admit the existence of a white variety of the rhinoceros group, and therefore I do not claim the distinction of a separate species for our booty ; but I do say that its skin was very much lighter than that of any other animal of the kind I ever saw. It was of a light silvery gray, and white was certainly the right word to use for it."

Published: February 18, 1894
Copyright © The New York Times

Lake Rudolf was renamed Lake Turkana, and Lake Stefanie was renamed Chewe Bahir in the 1970's.

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