One exacting condition of the environment that we encountered was the constant exposure to disease. Dysentery epidemics were so severe and frequent that we scarcely allowed ourselves to eat any food that had not been cooked or that we had not peeled ourselves. In general, it was necessary to boil all drinking water. We dared not allow our bare feet to touch a floor of the ground for fear of jiggers which burrow into the skin of the feet. Scarcely ever when below 6,000 feet were we safe after sundown to step from behind mosquito netting or to go out without thorough protection against the malaria pests. These malaria mosquitoes which include many varieties are largely night feeders. They were thought to come out soon after sundown. We were advised that the most dangerous places for becoming infected were the public eating houses, since the mosquitoes hide under the tables and attack the diner’s ankles if they are not adequately protected. We rigidly followed the precaution of providing adequate protection against these pests. Disease-carrying ticks were so abundant in the grass and shrubbery that we had to be on guard constantly to remove them from our clothing before they buried themselves in our flesh. They were often carriers of very severe fevers. We had to be most careful not to touch the hides with which the natives protected their bodies from the cold at night and from the sun in the daytime without thorough sterilization following any contact. There was grave danger from the lice that infected the hair of the hides. We dared not enter several districts because of the dreaded tsetse fly and the sleeping sickness it carries. One wonders at the apparent health of the natives until he learns of the unique immunity they have developed and which is largely transmitted to the offspring. In several districts we were told that practically every living native had had typhus fever and was immune, though the lice from their bodies could transmit the disease.
- Isolated & Modern African Tribes, Chapter 9, “Nutrition & Physical Degenaration” by Dr. Weston A. Price
Why I Never Plan to Go to Africa
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Jon Octavius Kleiven
Yeah, that, and, also, you know, I hear the collective transport offers down there are below any reasonable standard!
That cinches it, then.
Truth be told, I probably want to go to Africa at some point. It’d be fun to see the jungle, savannas etc, and the Pyramids are in Egypt, so… But Weston A. Price surely made it sound pretty bad in the 1930′s!
Actually a pretty fun book, all in all. It’s sort of weirdly racist, in that Price is obviously writing from a world where race politics are quite different then today. It also offers a neat insight into what people were actually eating before they got modernized (a big interest of mine lately).
I am only really interested in what people used to eat to the extent it can help me justify eating or not eating whatever I want… But I hear someone on the Discovery Channel recently stated that it has been revealed that gladiators were vegetarians. That was somewhat interesting.
Yes, I’ve heard that as well. Some camps proclaim the reason must be that they were vegetarians because it was beneficial to have some measure of protective fat, and it’s very hard to actually gain weight on non-processed foods (bread products, beer & honey being the only thing that conceivably over-eat to some extent). Other camps take the more accepted argument of the supposed health-benefits of vegetarianism to be the cause.
I might write up some of my current thoughts about diet on the blog in the coming days.
Please do. While not a topic I would usually be interested in, knowing the author gives me the necessary modicum to wish to read any article not overly long on most subjects.