David Read (Author)

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David William Lister Read (born April 23, 1921 in Nairobi , Crown Colony of Kenya , † July 2, 2015 in Momella , Tanzania ) was a British writer.

Life

Read was the son of British parents. At the age of seven he came to the Maasai country , where his mother ran a hotel and traded with the Maasai. Read spent the next seven years here that would shape his life. An outstanding experience for him was the intensive friendship with Maasai boys, through which he got to know and love tribal life up close.

Read was so close to the Maasai people at the time that over time he spoke Maasai better than Swahili and than English. At 14, he went to school in Arusha, which he later in distance learning as metallurgy - Trainee of Tanganyika Department of Geological Survey ended the British military and colonial administration.

During World War II he joined the Kenya Regiment, later the Royal Air Force and then the King's African Rifles . He then worked for the Tanganyika Veterinary Department. As a farmer, he chaired the Tanganyika Farmers' Association from 1973 to 1975.

After the independence of Tanzania in 1961 and the loss of his property, Read worked for the Ango American Corporation in Zambia as an agricultural consultant and then tried again as a farmer in South Africa. In 1979 he returned to Kenya and accepted a position at Lima Limited as an agricultural consultant.

He spoke several African dialects and was highly regarded in East Africa. Read was married with one daughter. He died at the age of 93 on July 2, 2015 in Momella, northern Tanzania.

Works

Barefoot over the Serengeti

The book is about David's experiences between the ages of seven and 14 in the Serengeti , the tribal land of the Maasai, whose customs and traditions are accurately portrayed - albeit from the perspective of the little boy. Jonathan Taylor writes in African Footsteps Magazine 2009 that he “learned more about the Maasai people from this book than from endless anthropological volumes”.

Beating about the Bush

The sequel to the Serengeti book deals with the years from 1936 to 1952 in the Tanganyika colony (now Tanzania), David's first school experiences, the family's move to the gold fields of Lupa and growing up. During the Second World War he led his regiment of Maasai and Samburu warriors from Eritrea to Kenya and later via Madagascar into the jungles of India and Burma.

After demobilization, he works as a veterinary officer, where his childhood experiences come in handy again when he wanders through the African bush and the wildlife parks, where he also investigates ritual tribal murders and gets to know the withdrawn hunters and gatherers of the Ndorobo and Okiek people.

Another load of bull

After working in the Tanganyika Veterinary Department, the Reads decide to live as a wheat farmer on the western foothills of Kilimanjaro , which is only possible because of his local knowledge and language skills without specific training.

Waters of the Sanjan

This is the only non-autobiographical novel Reads, which is largely set in the Serengeti, but dated back to the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. The adventures of the protagonist Dangoya, who works his way up from a little respected family to a recognized leader and has to deal with human weaknesses such as envy and jealousy, with natural disasters such as great drought, but also with colonialists, offer the author ample opportunity to share his knowledge of the and spread over the Maasai and their neighboring peoples. Dangoya introduces the type of enlightened leader who, while respecting traditions, is not afraid to question the skills of medicine men and other elders, for example when decisions are made in a completely drunk state or when it is obvious that they are behind hide ordinary weather changes from seeming magic. In the foreword, Ole Ntekerei Menusi attests to the author that the novel is “an accurate and admirable account of the history of (his) people”.

Literary relevance

One can certainly be divided about the narrative quality of the novels. Their ethnographic significance is indisputable , especially since the Maasai do not know any written form and are dependent on oral tradition . With the literary fixation of their ethnic and social peculiarities, these are withdrawn from possible future oblivion. In any case, the texts are characterized by a precise power of observation and empathic empathy with humans and animals.

literature

  • David Read: Barefoot over the Serengeti . Self-published by David Read, Nairobi 1979; 2nd edition 1980 by Travel Book Club. Reprint 1984, ISBN 9987-8920-2-7 and ISBN 0-304-30057-8
  • David Read, Pamela Brown: Waters of the Sanjan. A Historical Novel of the Masai . Self-published by David Read, 1982, revised. Edition 1989, ISBN 9987-8920-1-9
  • David Read: Beating about the Bush. Tales from Tanganyika . Self-published by David Read, 2000, ISBN 9987-8920-3-5
  • David Read: Another Load of Bull . Self-published by David Read, ISBN 9987-8920-5-1

Individual evidence

  1. ^ About the Author. david-read.com, accessed July 6, 2015 .
  2. ↑ The biographical information comes from the author's website.
  3. ↑ “ I learned more about the Masai by reading Barefoot Over the Serengeti than I have from any of the countless scholarly anthropology tomes of colorful coffee table books written about them. ”Quoted from David Read's homepage.
  4. ^ " The Waters of the Sanjan is an accurate and admirable historic record of my people. ”(P. Xi)

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Read, David
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Read, David William Lister (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British writer
DATE OF BIRTH April 23, 1921
PLACE OF BIRTH Nairobi , Crown Colony of Kenya
DATE OF DEATH 2nd July 2015
Place of death Momella , Tanzania