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 accompanied by five photographs (of landscapes, the Amani Institute and Tengeni Station). The first chapter contains descriptions of the city of Tanga and its population, comprised of “Europeans”, “Arabs”, “Indians” and “Negroes”. It also contains accounts of the local language and of German colonialism (Averintsev expresses his distress at the treatment of black people, comparing it to the treatment of Russian serfs), “Negro” dances, schools and nature. The second chapter recounts Averintsev’s journey to the Amani Institute and describes the institute itself and his work there. The third chapter provides details of the German colony and describes the practice of “safari” and how free hunting endangers many animal species. It also discusses the “negro population” and their habits. The fourth chapter illustrates the author’s voyage south and the lives of Europeans in the colony. It also provides accounts of animal species and reflections on serfdom and the alleged differences between black and white people.

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. 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 conduct his research in East Africa instead. 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.