The Rainbird. A Central African Journey. Jan Brokken.

Długo czekałem na taką książkę przed wyjazdem do Gabonu. Jan Brokken, holenderski pisarz, odwiedzając gaboński interior opisuje swoje perypetie i spotkania z Gabończykami. Umiejętnie wplata w to informacje na temat historii i kultury tego mało znanego nam państwa. Sporo czasu spędzi między innymi w Lope, kilka chwil w Lambarene i Port Gentil. Trochę sztampowo, jak na książki na temat tego regionu Afryki, przeczytamy o życiu Brazzy, Mary Kingsley, du Chaillu i Stanleya. Bez nich przecież, być może, nie istniałby dzisiejszy Gabon w swoim kształcie. Chcąc dopełnić obraz dzikości i tajemniczości tego równikowego kraju autor dorzuci co nieco o ludożerczych Fangach i ich maskach o czterech twarzach (to mnie akturat bardzo zainteresowało), a także o bwiti, ndjembe i halucynogennej roślinie iboga używanej w inicjacyjnych rytuałach. To na pewno świetna książka dla początkujących podróżników zainteresowanych Gabonem i jego kulturą. Cytaty:  

“Inside every Gabonese is a hunter, a slumbering hunter who enjoys the taste of game only when he has killed it himself”.

“Gabonese slaves have originally come from the interior, almost never from the coast. Although the coastal people kept slaves themselves, they didn’t sell them to the whites. The slaves for overseas trade, for Brazil and Cuba, were brought to the coast in long caravans form the heart of Gabon, with no Europeans involved. The coastal tribes, as middlemen to the slave trade, made a pretty penny on comission”.

“In the mid-70s, every African president had to have his own status symbol. For some it was a soccer stadium, for others a cathedral in their native village. But for Bongo it was a railroad”.

“France made no effort to conceal its plans to sell Gabon to the British for a bargain price, and only changed its mind under powerful protest form its clerics – the French missionaries needed protection”.

“The name Fang means ‘those who move onward'”.

“For most African tribes, white symbolizes death – or rather, the transition from earthly life to the spirit realm; that is why the Fang and Pounou rubbed their masks, which represented their ancestors, with white powder”.

“But the tsetse is a secret racist: it seldom lands on a light-colored surface, and avoids white shirts and skin”.

“The fang used to make a mask called the ngontang. A mask with four faces, each with a different shape and expression but also closely related: a father and mother, a son and daughter, or the symbols for life and suffering, birth and death. The mask was rotated during the dance, and faces would flash by”.