Puzanov, I.I.: Essays on North-Eastern Sudan

Title

Ocherki Severo-Vostochnogo Sudana, “Zemlevedenie”, 1912 (19), 1-2, p. 163-210; 1912 (19), 3-4, p. 113-171; 1913 (20), 4, p. 95-125; 1914 (21), 3, p. 37-110

Essays on North-Eastern Sudan

Keywords

Summary

The publication consists of eight chapters, covering Puzanov’s whole journey through Egypt and Sudan: From Black to Red Waters, Essay on the Red Sea Coastline of Sudan, Port Sudan, On the Coral Reefs of Port Sudan, Suakin, On the Mountains of Ethiopia, Khartoum, Life in Khartoum and the Journey Back. At the beginning of his treatise, the scholar underlines that, since many Russians have already written extensively about Egypt, he will not focus on a thorough description of Cairo or other popular destinations, instead preferring to write about the Red Sea coast and the subtropical regions of Sudan. The following chapters provide the reader with detailed naturalistic observations, engaging travel impressions and ethnographic descriptions. Considerations about the colonial situation are also included. The essays are illustrated through a photographic collection, which documents the nature and the landscape, the cities, the local population. The photos appear to be both original material shot by Puzanov, and pictures taken by other (uncredited) individuals (for instance, L. Fiorillo, G. N. Morhig).

Bio

Ivan Puzanov was a Russian and Soviet zoologist and professor, a traveller and a writer. Born in Kursk into the family of a merchant, after studying at the local gymnasium he enrolled at Moscow University, in the faculty of Natural Sciences. He spent a semester in Leipzig and Heidelberg, a few months in Switzerland, and then travelled to Crimea, where he resided at the Sevastopol biological station. In 1910, along with fellow student Vladimir Troitskii, he embarked on a journey to Egypt and Sudan. They settled in Port Sudan, where they studied the coral reef ecosystem, but they also toured inland, reaching Khartoum. They returned to Russia after four months, soon divulging their observations: Puzanov delivered two lectures in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (1910-1911), prior to publishing a series of articles entitled Essays on North-Eastern Sudan in the journal “Zemlevedenie”, which granted him a silver medal from the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology, and Ethnography. Having graduated in 1911, he pursued a career in research and academia, working for many years in Crimea.

Sources

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

B. Mazurmovich, Ivan Ivanovich Puzanov, Moskva 1976.

 A.F.

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