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, professor, traveller and writer. Born in Kursk into a merchant family, he studied at the local gymnasium before enrolling at Moscow University’s Faculty of Natural Sciences. He spent a semester in Leipzig and Heidelberg, a few months in Switzerland and then travelled to the Sevastopol biological station in Crimea. In 1910, he and his fellow student Vladimir Troitskii 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. After four months, they returned to Russia and soon divulged their observations. Puzanov delivered two lectures in Moscow and Saint Petersburg (1910-1911) before publishing a series of articles entitled Essays on North-Eastern Sudan in the journal “Zemlevedenie”, for which he was awarded a silver medal by the Society of Devotees of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography. After graduating in 1911, he pursued a career in research and academia, working in Crimea for many years.

Sources

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

B. Mazurmovich, Ivan Ivanovich Puzanov, Moskva 1976.

 A.F.

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