Hello from Bwana Moja. Africa is NOT "The Dark Continent"

[SFRanger7GP]

If you live in the springboard jump position to be offended, you can always find a way. In my experience, "Dark Continent" or "Dark Area" was an area considered unknown and mysterious and often unmapped or with limited mapping. "Red Zone" was a dangerous and enemy controlled or operated area. None of these names had anything to do with anyone's skin or race. As I have been retired for 18 years, I am sure the new "woke leadership" developed a 112 slide power point presentation for mandatory training explaining how people without a purpose in life are offended. Again, in my experience, the people that are offended by common terms and names are normally some of the biggest racists you will ever meet.

I am sitting at a small coffee shop in the mountains of Colombia writing this. Most everyone knows me here as I am the only Gringo (doesn't offend me) and my wife is directly or remotely related to the entire town. As I sit here, most everyone that passes greets me or stops to talk to me. They all call me "Don Mono". Literally it means "Mr. Whitey". It also means "Mr. Monkey". Mono is cute/pale/blond as an adjective and monkey when it is a noun. I resemble both. I am not offended at all.

Rapport is something that is a lot of work to gain, yet it can be lost quite easily. When rapport is lost, it takes a lot of sincere effort to regain it.

Well, my favorite cantina just opened. "Don Mono" is going to swing over there and have a whisky.

Welcome to AH, Bwana Moja.

 

[Red Leg]

As others have done, even most who disagree with what seems to have been the primary subject of your post, I also welcome you back to the forum. Jerome has created a great opportunity for discussion of not just African hunting, but hunting worldwide. I have no doubt that your contributions to that dialogue can and will be invaluable. But this is a different subject matter that you opened, and it too is worth discussing.

Many of us represent life and professional experiences, education, and hunting knowledge that is fairly unique for a forum like this. I imagine it is even the equal of a CNN correspondent convivium. I presume, in part, that the mystery and adventure Africa represents has often most appealed to those who have read and studied its history, and who had the ability to create the means to indulge that fascination. As much as I have enjoyed hunting there, I have treasured equally time wandering through the ruins of Buffalo Camp, standing on the slopes of Isandlwana, comparing San rock art to similar petroglyphs I have photographed in places as diverse as Arizona and Saudi Arabia, poking around the ruins of a German fortification in Omaruru or sitting at a fire with the OvaHimba.

I am fortunate to have assembled a rather extensive library over my lifetime. Its contents were no doubt influenced by a father who was a historian and my own profession of arms. It is also influenced by my family's long history on this continent. Among those volumes are numerous British and later American works that carry the reader on adventures deep into the heart of mysterious, and then largely unknown, corners of the world. Those written during the late Victorian period are particularly noteworthy for their trademark grandiloquent language - a tradition that continued into the early 20th century. To my mind, and to that of what I would term serious traditional historians, the terms The Dark Continent or Darkest Africa fall squarely into that genre.

Drawing conclusions from history is hard enough; judging it is usually a fool's errand. L. P. Hartley wrote an otherwise forgettable book in 1953 titled "The Go Between." It is worth knowing only for its opening sentence. "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." We currently are in the midst of what I hope will be a relatively short and forgettable period where judging the past by the standards of the present is in vogue. "Wokeism," particularly when applied to history, is little more than an emotional tantrum thrown without the context history demands. I stood in Segovia Spain not long ago watching a demonstration by several dozen earnest but woefully ignorant young people demanding that the great Roman aqueduct there be torn down because it had been built by slave labor. Steve Ambrose and my father were friends dating back to the end of WWII. I would love to hear their comments over a bourbon as they discussed this strange "dark place" into which our culture has crawled.

So, I shook my head and rolled my eyes when I first read your post. Finding offense and then attributing the term "Dark Continent" to harmful effects upon not just yourself but apparently to the population of a whole continent was to my mind an act of profound conceit. However, I exercised the 24 hour rule before responding, and will allow that you were serious. I would simply suggest that if it is a terminology that you do not like, then do not use it.

I have enjoyed several of your articles. Wasn't that crazy about the perfectly placed shot video - I apologize for forgetting the title (though I believe I actually own the DVD) - my hand doesn't stretch quite that far to my own back. I'll chalk it up to your then youth. Please stay involved with the forum. You have a wealth of experience to contribute.

 

[Flipper Dude]

What is this 24 hour rule of which you speak? Methinks I might stand to benefit from such discipline.

Oh hell. Who am I kidding?

 

[Roller]

So from your SCI article, "A successful shoulder-heart shot makes it 100 percent impossible for a buffalo to charge you. It’s that guaranteed." But you state that the respective buff "...made it 40 yards before taking a dive." I guess if you normally shoot buff at over 100 yards away ( I believe you state this one was 117 yards away), that's a true statement.

On my last trip to the "Dark Continent", I took the same successfully placed shot on "Black Death" at less than 20 yards and I can personally attest that your over -generalized assertion of being immune from a charge is flawed.

But hunting dangerous game isn't too exciting when it's so far away, it's not that dangerous.

To each his own however.....welcome to an extremely entertaining (and usually informative) forum.

 

[Nickcusato]

Henry Stanley, the journalist of "Dr.Livingstone, I presume?" fame after running into the Scottish missionary, is who coined the term 'Dark Continent'. Stanley used the term to describe the continent that was so vast & mysterious to Europeans. He made no mention of the phrase being related to the color of the inhabitants. This was a few years before the Congress of Berlin, the conference that carved up the continent for the major European powers to occupy and dictated how the resources would be divided. The term 'Dark Continent' was not a racially motivated statement but one of reverence to Africa's vast unknown.

Henry Morton Stanley | Biography, Books, Quotes, & Facts | Britannica

Henry Morton Stanley, British American explorer of central Africa, famous for his rescue of the Scottish missionary and explorer David Livingstone and for his discoveries in and development of the Congo region. Learn more about Stanley’s life and accomplishments in this article.

www.britannica.com

Hope this clears it up a bit. Cheers.

 

[375sunrise]

IGNORE!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Phil Giordano]

I confess I'm a bit tired of hearing about what I have to do or even think about the subject of racism.
What I know for sure, is that I'm absolutely not racist.
I also know that "Dark Continent" has nothing to do with racism.
So I will continue to use this term.

 

[Phil Giordano]

...and, obviously, welcome aboard.

 

[Monsai52]

I agree with most here that I don't consider the term "Dark Continent" as overtly racial. Though to maybe put a slightly different perspective on it, I doubt the term was originally coined by those who were actually living there, but more likely originally was applied and used by the explorers and adventurers, generally from the European and colonizing countries. The term does have some Victorian paternalistic overtones.

BTW, welcome to the forum!

 

[Nickcusato]

So from your SCI article, "A successful shoulder-heart shot makes it 100 percent impossible for a buffalo to charge you. It’s that guaranteed." But you state that the respective buff "...made it 40 yards before taking a dive." I guess if you normally shoot buff at over 100 yards away ( I believe you state this one was 117 yards away), that's a true statement.

On my last trip to the "Dark Continent", I took the same successfully placed shot on "Black Death" at less than 20 yards and I can personally attest that your over -generalized assertion of being immune from a charge is flawed.

But hunting dangerous game isn't too exciting when it's so far away, it's not that dangerous.

To each his own however.....welcome to an extremely entertaining (and usually informative) forum.

To quote my 14 year old son after my shoulder shot at 40 yards & he being behind me during the subsequent charge of a wounded Cape Buffalo in Limpopo, "Dad, I think I pee'd a little".

 

[Roller]

To quote my 14 year old son after my shoulder shot at 40 yards & he being behind me during the subsequent charge of a wounded Cape Buffalo in Limpopo, "Dad, I think I pee'd a little".

Yes, mine was '"dead", but he didn't know it yet.

Subsequent spinal hits were necessary to convince him.

 

[npm352]

Some people will search far and wide to find something to be offended by. This is the culture we live in, and quite frankly, we don't need this $hit in the hunting community.

I really couldn't care less what you think of me or anyone else using the term "dark continent." It isn't about race. No one is being derogatory towards Africans in saying that.

 

[BRICKBURN]

.............
Drawing conclusions from history is hard enough; judging it is usually a fool's errand. L. P. Hartley wrote an otherwise forgettable book in 1953 titled "The Go Between." It is worth knowing only for its opening sentence. "The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there." We currently are in the midst of what I hope will be a relatively short and forgettable period where judging the past by the standards of the present is in vogue. .

I can only hope.

 

[Rubberhead]

I might go back to the Dark Continent one day but my next hunting travel will probably be to the Great White North.

 

[Flipper Dude]

Take off, hoser

 

[TERMINATOR]

A woke hunting God lecturing the unwashed hunting community.

Wow

Wonder what daddy did to make his fortune allowing Jr. to spend his youth roaming Africa on Safari with his Jerrett 375 and Double Rifles that cost more than working people spend on their safari’s

It is obvious this dude never worked a day in his life. Good thing, because most coworkers would find him insufferable to be around.

Thanks to Randy Bo for letting me know whose articles to ignore

 

[TXhunter65]

I've thoroughly enjoyed all my trips to the Dark Continent. I hope to return again and again.

 

[wesheltonj]

Welcome. Sorry, but “The Dark Continent” will remain my vocabulary. I don’t find it racist or colonial.

No disrespect, but if the locals are finding that offensive, they must be watching too much CNN.

 

[318AE]

And I thought the CRF vs push feed subject was contentious….

 

[Tokoloshe Safaris]

Obviously you have not had to deal with ZESA (Zimbabwe Electric Service Authority).

Lon