Averintsev, S.V.: Along the Coastline of the Dark Continent (From the Travel Notes of a Naturalist)

Title

Po poberezh’iu Chernogo kontinenta (iz zapisnoi knizhki naturalista), “Priroda”, 1912, 2 (columns 211-240); 12 (1441-1468)

Along the Coastline of the Dark Continent (From the Travel Notes of a Naturalist)

Keywords

Summary

The travel notes are divided into four chapters, and are provided with five photographs (landscapes; Amani institute; Tengeni station). The first chapter contains descriptions of the city of Tanga and its population (divided into Europeans, Arabs, Indians, Negroes), accounts on the local language, as well as on German colonialism (Averintsev is distressed looking at how black peoples are treated, comparing them to Russian serfs), “negro” dances, schools and nature. In the second chapter Averintsev recounts his journey to the Amani institute, describing the institute itself and his work there. The third chapter offers some details on the German colony; it also describes the practice of “safari” and how free hunt endangers many animal species, as well as the “negro population” and its habits. The fourth chapter illustrates the author’s voyage south, and the life of Europeans on the colony; furthermore, it provides accounts on animal species, a reflection on serfdom and on the alleged difference between blacks and whites.

Bio

Sergei Averintsev was a Russian and Soviet biologist and zoologist, the father of Slavist and literary scholar Sergei Sergeevich Averintsev. Born in Moscow, he graduated from Saint Petersburg University in 1900. After volunteering in the Anglo-Boer war (1899-1902), he travelled through Europe to visit several zoological institutes for scientific reasons. In 1910 he left for Java on a scientific mission. Having injured himself along the way, he stopped in Dar es Salaam and decided to remain in East Africa, instead, to conduct his research. During his stay there, he travelled to the Usambara Mountains, where the Amani Research Institute had just been established by the Germans. Following this experience, he wrote a formal report and a study (Preliminary Report on the Trip to East Africa. Part 1; Scientific Results of the Research on Parasitic Protozoa of Tropical Africa) published in “Izvestiia Imperatorskoi Akademii Nauk” in 1911 and 1912), as well as this short travelogue intended for a wider audience. After the Revolution he worked as a professor and researcher for different institutes and universities across the Soviet Union.

Sources

M. Zabrodskaia, Russkie puteshestvenniki po Afrike, Moskva 1955;

E. Gnevusheva, Puteshestvie po Afrike S.V. Averintseva, “Strany i narody Vostoka”, 1965, IV, p. 193-213.

A.F.