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On the Edge of the Primeval Forest: Experiences and Observations of a Doctor in Equatorial Africa
In July of 1913, 38-year-old medical doctor Albert Schweitzer gave up his position as a respected professor at the university of Strasbourg, and celebrated authority on music and philosophy, in order to go as a physician to French Equatorial Africa. First published in 1931, THE PRIMEVAL FOREST is Schweitzer's own fascinating story of these eventful years--a story rich in human interest and high drama.
180 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1921
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About the author
Albert Schweitzer
493 books350 followersAlbert Schweitzer, M.D., OM, was an Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician. He was born in Kaisersberg in Alsace-Lorraine, a Germanophone region which the German Empire returned to France after World War I. Schweitzer challenged both the secular view of historical Jesus current at his time and the traditional Christian view, depicting a Jesus who expected the imminent end of the world. He received the 1952 Nobel Peace Prize in 1953 for his philosophy of "reverence for life", expressed in many ways, but most famously in founding and sustaining the Lambaréné Hospital in Gabon, west central Africa.
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May 5, 2016
This slim volume is a vivid account of Schweitzer's impressions and experiences during his first period in Equatorial Africa (modern Gabon), written "with the help of the reports which I wrote every six months in Lambarene and sent as printed letters to my friends and supporters". The book describes the challenges Schweitzer faced as a doctor in Africa: limited resources, oppressive heat (exposing the head for even a few minutes of sunlight could cause sunstroke), and, of course, terrible illnesses that are unknown outside Africa. Schweitzer was drawn to Lambarene because of the prevalence of sleeping sickness in the area, and he explains the long, tedious, and uncertain method by which the disease was diagnosed:
Schweitzer was sponsored by the Paris Evangelical Missionary society, which had taken over four stations established by American Protestants: these were at N'Gômo, Lambarene, Sakita, and Talagonga. Catholics, meanwhile, were established at Lambarene, N'Djole, and near Samba. Unfortunately, Schweitzer mentions fellow-missionaries only by their surnames, which makes identification difficult: Mr Ford, Mr Ellenberger, Mr Pelot, Mr and Mrs Morel, and so on. Schweitzer gives his opinions on various matters: the state should not enforce monogamy, and the Protestants should follow the Catholic practice of infant baptism, in order build up the church. Schweitzer's own religious motivation for going to Africa is given in the opening paragraph of the book: "The parable of Dives and Lazarus seemed to me to have been spoken directly to us!". The ending is similarly a call to duty: "He who has been delivered from pain must not think he is now free again... He is now 'a man whose eyes are open' with regard to pain and anguish, and he must help to overcome these two enemies... and to bring to others the deliverance which he has himself enjoyed".
A few persons mentioned in passing are worth noting. On his way to Lamberene, Schweitzer stopped off at Paris to talk to his old friend Charles Widor, and books were sent to him in Africa by "Professor Strohl, of Zurich University" (this appears to have been Jean Strohl, a zoologist). He also meets in African a "factory employee called Fourier... Monsieur Fourier is a grandson of the French philosopher Fourier".
The cheap Fontana edition of this book appeared in 1956, and is now (along with its sequel, More from the Primeval Forest) a staple item in the "Religion" section of second-hand bookshops. For some reason, this edition fails to note the original publication dates, and the translator receives no credit. According to Schweitzer's autobiography, the book was commissioned by the Lindblad publishing house in Uppsala:
This consists in taking ten cubic centimetres of blood from a vein in one of the sufferer's arms, and keeping it revolving centrifugally for an hour according to certain prescribed rules, at the same time pouring of! at intervals the outer rings of blood. The trypanosomes are expected to have collected into the last few drops, and these are put under the microscope ; but even if there is again a negative result, it is not safe to say that the disease is not present.Schweitzer also had difficulties with his native helpers, whom he describes as requiring constant supervision. Schweitzer's attitudes towards the natives have since become a source of controversy, and one passage in the book is particularly ugly:
The better a man's mental life and his intellectual interests are developed, the better he will be able to hold out in Africa. Without this safeguard he is soon in danger of becoming a nigger, as it is called here. This shows itself in the way he loses every higher point of view; then his capacity for intellectual work diminishes, and lie begins, just like a negro, to attach importance to, and to argue at any length about, the smallest matters.Elsewhere, Schweitzer expresses a condescending paternalism:
With regard to the negroes, then, I have coined the formula: "I am your brother, it is true, but your elder brother.However, although "elder brother" may be condescending, the word "brother" (as others have noted) is an expression of solidarity. There is no sign in the book that Schweitzer was interested in the "scientific racism" which was so popular during the period in which he was writing, and he sees the conflict essentially in terms of a culture clash:
I wish to emphasise a further fact that even the morally best and the idealists find it difficult out here to be what they wish to be. We all get exhausted in the terrible contest between the European worker who bears the responsibility and is always in a hurry, and the child of nature who does not know what responsibility is and is never in a hurry.One immediately thinks of the agricultural piece-workers of Max Weber's Protestant Ethic.
Schweitzer was sponsored by the Paris Evangelical Missionary society, which had taken over four stations established by American Protestants: these were at N'Gômo, Lambarene, Sakita, and Talagonga. Catholics, meanwhile, were established at Lambarene, N'Djole, and near Samba. Unfortunately, Schweitzer mentions fellow-missionaries only by their surnames, which makes identification difficult: Mr Ford, Mr Ellenberger, Mr Pelot, Mr and Mrs Morel, and so on. Schweitzer gives his opinions on various matters: the state should not enforce monogamy, and the Protestants should follow the Catholic practice of infant baptism, in order build up the church. Schweitzer's own religious motivation for going to Africa is given in the opening paragraph of the book: "The parable of Dives and Lazarus seemed to me to have been spoken directly to us!". The ending is similarly a call to duty: "He who has been delivered from pain must not think he is now free again... He is now 'a man whose eyes are open' with regard to pain and anguish, and he must help to overcome these two enemies... and to bring to others the deliverance which he has himself enjoyed".
A few persons mentioned in passing are worth noting. On his way to Lamberene, Schweitzer stopped off at Paris to talk to his old friend Charles Widor, and books were sent to him in Africa by "Professor Strohl, of Zurich University" (this appears to have been Jean Strohl, a zoologist). He also meets in African a "factory employee called Fourier... Monsieur Fourier is a grandson of the French philosopher Fourier".
The cheap Fontana edition of this book appeared in 1956, and is now (along with its sequel, More from the Primeval Forest) a staple item in the "Religion" section of second-hand bookshops. For some reason, this edition fails to note the original publication dates, and the translator receives no credit. According to Schweitzer's autobiography, the book was commissioned by the Lindblad publishing house in Uppsala:
Zwischen Wasser und Urwald appeared in Swedish, translated by Baroness Greta Lagerfelt, in 1921. In the same year it came out in German (first in Switzerland), and then in English with the title On the Edge of the Primeval Forest, translated by my friend C. T. [Charles Thomas] Campion.The original edition also included some photographs; these do not appear in the Fontana edition.
October 17, 2018
Neuvěřitelný příběh z dob, kdy medicína (a věda) byla ještě jedno velké dobrodružství. Dnešním jazykem by se řeklo, že tenhle Schweitzer byl pěkné sluníčko, když vzdal pohodlnou profesorskou kariéru v Evropě, vystudoval medicínu, založil si neziskovku a jal se svoji humanistickou filosofii uplatňovat v rovníkové Africe skrze léčení domorodců. Výsledkem byla nemocnice pro 150+ lidí (funguje dodnes) a taky Nobelova cena za mír (1952), kterou si určitě právem zasloužil. Některé jeho paternalistické názory na soužití bělochů s černochy jsou sice dnes už překonané (či spíše nepřijatelné), ale to nemění nic na tom, že Schweitzer místo žvanění o tom, co by se pro mírové soužití lidstva mohlo a mělo dělat, zkrátka zvedl zadek a udělal si (téměř) všechno sám. A uspěl.
P. S. Chtěl bych tímto poděkovat národnímu podniku Technometra Radotín, že tuto knihu vyřadil ze svého knihovního fondu, kde se bůhvíjak vzala, a následně se dostala do nádražní knihovny v Řevnicích, a tím i ke mně.
P. P. S. Česky vyšlo jako "Lidé v Pralese" (Orbis, 1965) i se Schweitzerovými poznámkami z dalších let, a tedy asi o 100 stránek delší.
P. S. Chtěl bych tímto poděkovat národnímu podniku Technometra Radotín, že tuto knihu vyřadil ze svého knihovního fondu, kde se bůhvíjak vzala, a následně se dostala do nádražní knihovny v Řevnicích, a tím i ke mně.
P. P. S. Česky vyšlo jako "Lidé v Pralese" (Orbis, 1965) i se Schweitzerovými poznámkami z dalších let, a tedy asi o 100 stránek delší.
December 28, 2011
Am currently reading Albert Schweitzer's collection of contemporary reports from his time as a missionary doctor in what at the time was the French colony of Equatorial Africa (now Gabon) from 1912 to 1917. The reports are grouped together in the book On the Edge of the Primeval Forest.
As well as providing insights into tropical disease and medicine, the book later on gives scope for Schweitzer's developing thoughts on the nature of colonialism, particularly as it relates to the issue of labour.
In a chapter entitled "Social Problems in the Forest", written in the summer of 1914, the doctor-philosopher addresses the "labour problem" in the French colony. His observations are worth quoting and reflecting on. They highlight themes that seem very relevant to our world as it lurches from one economic convulsion to another, and as growing numbers of people ask fundamental questions about the economic system we have come to regard as normal.
The doctor introduces the "problem" as it presents itself to the European:
"People imagine in Europe that as many labourers as are wanted can always be found among the savages, and secured for very small wages. The real fact is the very opposite."
Schweitzer's frequent use of the term "savages" may be jarring to modern readers, but it is worth seeing beyond the crudeness of language to the wider points he is making.
"This [lack of labourers] comes from their laziness, people say; but is the negro really so lazy? Must we go a little deeper into the problem?"
After describing the strenuous efforts of native villagers in clearing virgin forest in order to create plantations for bananas and manioc (a root staple) and their ability to row the Ogowe River and its tributaries for up to thirty-six hours without a break, Schweitzer concludes that,
"I can no longer talk ingenuously of the laziness of the negro."
What, then, can explain the apparent difficulties that the white colonists have in obtaining paid labour from the black native population? Schweitzer offers the opinion that,
"The negro, under certain circumstances works well, but - only so long as circumstances require it. The child of nature - here is the answer to the puzzle - is always a casual worker."
European attitudes towards "the African" during the 19th and early 20th centuries ranged from a view of the natives as "uncivilised savages" to a belief that they were "natural" or "free men." This latter view was expressed for instance by fellow Frenchman Paul Gaugin, particularly in his Primitivist phase of painting. Schweitzer, as have already seen, seems to oscillate between the two views of the Africans as savages and as children of nature.
Continuing with this latter theme, Schweitzer notes that,
"In return for very little work, nature supplies the native with nearly everything that he requires for his support in his village. The forest gives him wood, bamboos, raffia leaves. and bast for the building of a hut....He has only to plant some bananas and manioc, to do a little fishing and shooting, in order to have by him all that he really needs, without having to hire himself out as a labourer and to earn regular wages."
The local tribesmen will hire themselves out only to raise money for a specific and particular object - some sugar, tobacco, an axe or a dowry to pay in return for obtaining a wife.
"If he has no definite object in view for which to earn money he stays in his village."
Schweitzer's conclusion from this approach to labour is interesting:
"The negro, then, is not idle, but he is a free man; hence he is always a casual worker."
This casual approach to paid labour - that it is to be engaged in only as necessary to purchase specific items above and beyond the daily necessities of food and shelter - inevitability found itself in conflict with the economic aims of the French colonists, whose primary concern was in felling and exporting the jungle's rich supply of quality hardwoods for transportation and sale to European markets.
"There is, therefore, a serious conflict between the needs of trade and the fact that the child of nature is a free man."
The colonists therefore have to think about how to convince the natives to work for them. The strategy of the State and its commercial allies is summarised thus:
"Create in him as many needs as possible; only so can the utmost possible be got out of him."
The creation of artificial needs in the indigenous population took two main forms in the early 20th century. The first method was the imposition of "involuntary need" in the form of direct taxation. Every native of French Equatorial Africa aged 14 and above was required to pay a poll tax of five francs a year.
The second area of artificial need was created by the trader and involved the offering to the natives of goods and commodities that they did not have and could not create within their own local environment. Dr Schweitzer describes seeing the stock offered for sale in a single white-owned shop located in the middle of the jungle. The items ranged from the "useful" such as knives and axes, to shoes, material and tools, to the frivolous or harmful such as alcohol, glasses, tobacco, collars and ties, lace, corsets, gramophones and music boxes. Like today's iPods, the latter were apparently extremely popular. Schweitzer describes the local women who "plague their husbands until they have earned enough to buy one."
In conclusion, Schweitzer advances the view that,
"The child of nature becomes a steady worker only so far as he ceases to be free and becomes unfree."
By hiring labourers and transporting them some distance from their locality, and by holding back half of their wages until the end of a twelve-month employment contract, the plantation owners and loggers attempted to break the ties that the natives had with their local tribes and families, and to bind them in economically with the company. Barracks and labouring settlements therefore became the dominant model for ensuring a steady supply of local labour in the French colonies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Rejecting the idea of compulsory paid labour (followed in several European colonies in Africa), Schweitzer advocates allowing the native population to live in their own villages and equipping them them with skills to create their own local industries for their own use and for trade.
Applying Schweitzer's analysis to the current economic scene, a few immediate thoughts occur. Perhaps I will be able to elaborate on them at a future date. For now, they remain bullet points:
- almost no-where in the current economic turmoil can a single voice be heard that is asking the basic question, "what do people actually need?" There is no distinction made between the creation of goods that are needed and goods that are mere luxuries. In fact, were such a distinction made, it would be regarded as Utopian by the mainstream media and culture.
- Linked to the above, the assumption is made by politicians of all types that all economic growth is good, however it is promoted.
- No distinction is made in today's discussion between "work" and "paid jobs". It is assumed that the employer-employee model should be regarded as the only, or at least the primary form of productive employment.
- casual work is seen as second best under the current economic system. This is, in part, because such part-time work does not allow the worker to buy the luxury goods produced by global firms as a means of extracting wealth from the workers. For Schweitzer, by contrast, such casual labour is the essence of economic freedom.
- There is no serious discussion at the present time about the rights of communities or families to obtain a living directly from the physical land around them, without recourse to private ownership or job dependency. The historic British model of communal local land use has been stripped away through waves of enclosure over the centuries, resulting in a population who are essentially landless. This makes it almost impossible for citizens to use the natural environment in sustainable ways to obtain food and building materials. This has happened so long ago, that most workers have no concept that land (or other productive property) could ever be widely owned by free local communities. This collective loss of consciousness and of imagination has resulted in a narrowing of the perceived options as far as economic survival is concerned. And this loss empowers large corporations at the expense of individuals or local communities.
As well as providing insights into tropical disease and medicine, the book later on gives scope for Schweitzer's developing thoughts on the nature of colonialism, particularly as it relates to the issue of labour.
In a chapter entitled "Social Problems in the Forest", written in the summer of 1914, the doctor-philosopher addresses the "labour problem" in the French colony. His observations are worth quoting and reflecting on. They highlight themes that seem very relevant to our world as it lurches from one economic convulsion to another, and as growing numbers of people ask fundamental questions about the economic system we have come to regard as normal.
The doctor introduces the "problem" as it presents itself to the European:
"People imagine in Europe that as many labourers as are wanted can always be found among the savages, and secured for very small wages. The real fact is the very opposite."
Schweitzer's frequent use of the term "savages" may be jarring to modern readers, but it is worth seeing beyond the crudeness of language to the wider points he is making.
"This [lack of labourers] comes from their laziness, people say; but is the negro really so lazy? Must we go a little deeper into the problem?"
After describing the strenuous efforts of native villagers in clearing virgin forest in order to create plantations for bananas and manioc (a root staple) and their ability to row the Ogowe River and its tributaries for up to thirty-six hours without a break, Schweitzer concludes that,
"I can no longer talk ingenuously of the laziness of the negro."
What, then, can explain the apparent difficulties that the white colonists have in obtaining paid labour from the black native population? Schweitzer offers the opinion that,
"The negro, under certain circumstances works well, but - only so long as circumstances require it. The child of nature - here is the answer to the puzzle - is always a casual worker."
European attitudes towards "the African" during the 19th and early 20th centuries ranged from a view of the natives as "uncivilised savages" to a belief that they were "natural" or "free men." This latter view was expressed for instance by fellow Frenchman Paul Gaugin, particularly in his Primitivist phase of painting. Schweitzer, as have already seen, seems to oscillate between the two views of the Africans as savages and as children of nature.
Continuing with this latter theme, Schweitzer notes that,
"In return for very little work, nature supplies the native with nearly everything that he requires for his support in his village. The forest gives him wood, bamboos, raffia leaves. and bast for the building of a hut....He has only to plant some bananas and manioc, to do a little fishing and shooting, in order to have by him all that he really needs, without having to hire himself out as a labourer and to earn regular wages."
The local tribesmen will hire themselves out only to raise money for a specific and particular object - some sugar, tobacco, an axe or a dowry to pay in return for obtaining a wife.
"If he has no definite object in view for which to earn money he stays in his village."
Schweitzer's conclusion from this approach to labour is interesting:
"The negro, then, is not idle, but he is a free man; hence he is always a casual worker."
This casual approach to paid labour - that it is to be engaged in only as necessary to purchase specific items above and beyond the daily necessities of food and shelter - inevitability found itself in conflict with the economic aims of the French colonists, whose primary concern was in felling and exporting the jungle's rich supply of quality hardwoods for transportation and sale to European markets.
"There is, therefore, a serious conflict between the needs of trade and the fact that the child of nature is a free man."
The colonists therefore have to think about how to convince the natives to work for them. The strategy of the State and its commercial allies is summarised thus:
"Create in him as many needs as possible; only so can the utmost possible be got out of him."
The creation of artificial needs in the indigenous population took two main forms in the early 20th century. The first method was the imposition of "involuntary need" in the form of direct taxation. Every native of French Equatorial Africa aged 14 and above was required to pay a poll tax of five francs a year.
The second area of artificial need was created by the trader and involved the offering to the natives of goods and commodities that they did not have and could not create within their own local environment. Dr Schweitzer describes seeing the stock offered for sale in a single white-owned shop located in the middle of the jungle. The items ranged from the "useful" such as knives and axes, to shoes, material and tools, to the frivolous or harmful such as alcohol, glasses, tobacco, collars and ties, lace, corsets, gramophones and music boxes. Like today's iPods, the latter were apparently extremely popular. Schweitzer describes the local women who "plague their husbands until they have earned enough to buy one."
In conclusion, Schweitzer advances the view that,
"The child of nature becomes a steady worker only so far as he ceases to be free and becomes unfree."
By hiring labourers and transporting them some distance from their locality, and by holding back half of their wages until the end of a twelve-month employment contract, the plantation owners and loggers attempted to break the ties that the natives had with their local tribes and families, and to bind them in economically with the company. Barracks and labouring settlements therefore became the dominant model for ensuring a steady supply of local labour in the French colonies of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Rejecting the idea of compulsory paid labour (followed in several European colonies in Africa), Schweitzer advocates allowing the native population to live in their own villages and equipping them them with skills to create their own local industries for their own use and for trade.
Applying Schweitzer's analysis to the current economic scene, a few immediate thoughts occur. Perhaps I will be able to elaborate on them at a future date. For now, they remain bullet points:
- almost no-where in the current economic turmoil can a single voice be heard that is asking the basic question, "what do people actually need?" There is no distinction made between the creation of goods that are needed and goods that are mere luxuries. In fact, were such a distinction made, it would be regarded as Utopian by the mainstream media and culture.
- Linked to the above, the assumption is made by politicians of all types that all economic growth is good, however it is promoted.
- No distinction is made in today's discussion between "work" and "paid jobs". It is assumed that the employer-employee model should be regarded as the only, or at least the primary form of productive employment.
- casual work is seen as second best under the current economic system. This is, in part, because such part-time work does not allow the worker to buy the luxury goods produced by global firms as a means of extracting wealth from the workers. For Schweitzer, by contrast, such casual labour is the essence of economic freedom.
- There is no serious discussion at the present time about the rights of communities or families to obtain a living directly from the physical land around them, without recourse to private ownership or job dependency. The historic British model of communal local land use has been stripped away through waves of enclosure over the centuries, resulting in a population who are essentially landless. This makes it almost impossible for citizens to use the natural environment in sustainable ways to obtain food and building materials. This has happened so long ago, that most workers have no concept that land (or other productive property) could ever be widely owned by free local communities. This collective loss of consciousness and of imagination has resulted in a narrowing of the perceived options as far as economic survival is concerned. And this loss empowers large corporations at the expense of individuals or local communities.
January 1, 2022
In 1913, Albert Schweitzer left behind a stellar academic career in Europe and at age 38, embarked on a life of humanitarian work as a missionary doctor in what is now Gabon in Equatorial Africa. This book covers the first four and a half years of Schweitzer's work, from 1913 to 1918. The writing if both chronological and thematic, as he focuses chapters on specific aspects of his work and of life in Africa. It is interesting how Schweitzer critiques colonialization, stating that anything we give those Europe has colonized is "not benevolence but atonement", yet from his experiences with what he calls "children of nature," sees Africans at the turn of the 20th century in need of someone with some authority over them in order to provide for them. He sees whites and blacks as brothers, but sees whites as "older brothers." His descriptions of the practice of medecine and the diseases prevalent in Africa around WW1 is very interesting, as his his assessment of the social and moral issues facing African culture, highlighting the entrenched moral and legal system even the most remote tribes had developed. Schweitzer's views on humanitarianism and the role of government are just as valid today as in 1920 -- "The government alone can never discharge the duties of humanitarianism ... that rests with society and individuals." An interesting look at misison work, ropical medecine, and humanitarianism from someone whose sacrifice earned him the right to be heard.
April 7, 2023
Went to the library looking for Bamboo Stone and came away with this instead, for no real reason other than it looked interesting. And the first half is—Schweitzer was a missionary doctor from Alsace (when Alsace was under German control), and he spent much of his life in what is now Gabon, establishing and running a hospital. (His Wikipedia article is pretty interesting in its own right, as is his wife's.)
That said: I thought early on that this would be a three-star book with a warning that it displays a fair amount of the racist and colonialist attitudes of the time. In the second half of the book, though, as Schweitzer spent less time talking about his medical work and more time expounding, at length, on his views of Africans, I had to downgrade it to two stars and a warning that it's chock full of racist and colonialist fuckery. As far as I can tell, Schweitzer had good intentions, but he was very much a product of his time and place (the book was first published in German in 1921, and in English in 1922). Reading as he makes arguments for forced labour and gets het up because 'the natives' (the underpaid, overworked, and generally abused natives, mind) don't place the same importance on lumber companies' profits that the lumber companies do...it gets old. In general, some interesting moments, but would have been a more enjoyable read if he'd stayed in his lane and focused on medicine.
That said: I thought early on that this would be a three-star book with a warning that it displays a fair amount of the racist and colonialist attitudes of the time. In the second half of the book, though, as Schweitzer spent less time talking about his medical work and more time expounding, at length, on his views of Africans, I had to downgrade it to two stars and a warning that it's chock full of racist and colonialist fuckery. As far as I can tell, Schweitzer had good intentions, but he was very much a product of his time and place (the book was first published in German in 1921, and in English in 1922). Reading as he makes arguments for forced labour and gets het up because 'the natives' (the underpaid, overworked, and generally abused natives, mind) don't place the same importance on lumber companies' profits that the lumber companies do...it gets old. In general, some interesting moments, but would have been a more enjoyable read if he'd stayed in his lane and focused on medicine.
July 18, 2022
"As we acquire more knowledge, things do not become more comprehensible, but more mysterious."
—Albert Schweitzer
The Primeval Forest ** Read in Libreville and Lope, Gabon (July 2022)
—Albert Schweitzer
The Primeval Forest ** Read in Libreville and Lope, Gabon (July 2022)
August 23, 2017
Of late I have continuously been coming across books on and by Schweizer so I gave up and read one.
While the language is dated this text of the experience of setting up his hospital is valuable. Faith in action and a life in the service of others.
While the language is dated this text of the experience of setting up his hospital is valuable. Faith in action and a life in the service of others.
August 17, 2023
Amazing to see/read what one human is capable of.
February 18, 2017
I picked up this English edition after a futile and abortive attempt on a poorly translated Chinese edition.
Dr. Schweitzer's narrative of his experience and impression is straight forward and to the point. I have read from somewhere that people had criticized Schweitzer for his patronization toward the African natives. However, I don't sense it from this writing. I find him giving the question of relieving the natives a deep thought and trying to provide sincere solutions. His contrasting "child of nature" and "men of civilization" did help in explaining the viewpoints and the thinkings of the natives pretty well.
Dr. Schweitzer's narrative of his experience and impression is straight forward and to the point. I have read from somewhere that people had criticized Schweitzer for his patronization toward the African natives. However, I don't sense it from this writing. I find him giving the question of relieving the natives a deep thought and trying to provide sincere solutions. His contrasting "child of nature" and "men of civilization" did help in explaining the viewpoints and the thinkings of the natives pretty well.
January 31, 2014
Etonnant. Je ne connaissais pour ainsi dire rien d'Albert Schweitzer : il a ouvert un hôpital en Afrique pour soigner des malades, il a reçu le prix Nobel.
Je découvre qu'il a eu une autre vie avant l'Afrique(organiste hors pair et très influent, autorité sur Bach, docteur en théologie, pasteur protestant), qu'il a pris la résolution de devenir médecin pour partir fonder son hôpital en Afrique. Quel destinée.
Mais aussi, quelle déception de le voir succomber aussi rapidement à une forme - certes assez bénigne - de racisme ordinaire. Les "primitifs" (comme il l'écrit) sont paresseux, voleurs, demandeurs d'autorité, ... S'il perçoit et regrette tous les torts causés par le colonialisme, le déséquilibre qu'il amène dans les pays qu'il domine, la perte de la culture africaine qu'il induit, Schweitzer n'en tire pas les conclusions qui nous semblent (oui je sais, presque un siècle plus tard) s'imposer. Il pense encore apporter les lumières de la civilisation à des populations que les blancs contribuent à détruire.
Une vie toute entière consacrée à aider les populations africaines et une myopie profonde face à l'occupation occidentale.
A comparer utilement avec le Voyage au Congo d'André Gide qui, lui, perçoit et comprend tout alors qu'il réalise un simple voyage d'agrément ...
Finalement, un récit un peu froid, sans émotion, peu empathique.
Oui, étonnant.
Je découvre qu'il a eu une autre vie avant l'Afrique(organiste hors pair et très influent, autorité sur Bach, docteur en théologie, pasteur protestant), qu'il a pris la résolution de devenir médecin pour partir fonder son hôpital en Afrique. Quel destinée.
Mais aussi, quelle déception de le voir succomber aussi rapidement à une forme - certes assez bénigne - de racisme ordinaire. Les "primitifs" (comme il l'écrit) sont paresseux, voleurs, demandeurs d'autorité, ... S'il perçoit et regrette tous les torts causés par le colonialisme, le déséquilibre qu'il amène dans les pays qu'il domine, la perte de la culture africaine qu'il induit, Schweitzer n'en tire pas les conclusions qui nous semblent (oui je sais, presque un siècle plus tard) s'imposer. Il pense encore apporter les lumières de la civilisation à des populations que les blancs contribuent à détruire.
Une vie toute entière consacrée à aider les populations africaines et une myopie profonde face à l'occupation occidentale.
A comparer utilement avec le Voyage au Congo d'André Gide qui, lui, perçoit et comprend tout alors qu'il réalise un simple voyage d'agrément ...
Finalement, un récit un peu froid, sans émotion, peu empathique.
Oui, étonnant.
January 6, 2014
The author of this memoir, Albert Schwitzer, was a doctor, musician and religious philosophical writer from Alcase-Lorraine (part of the German empire at his birth in 1875 and after WWI part of France). This book is about the building and running of a hospital in west Africa in Lambarene, later Gabon.
Although this book is colored by European opinions of Africans, his humanity in setting up and treating people where there was no previous serious hospital was courageous. The events set out in this book show the fortitude, patience and endurance needed to deal with such a life in the 1920s.
I enjoyed reading this book because it gave me a few of a part of the world and a time in history I had little awareness of.
Although this book is colored by European opinions of Africans, his humanity in setting up and treating people where there was no previous serious hospital was courageous. The events set out in this book show the fortitude, patience and endurance needed to deal with such a life in the 1920s.
I enjoyed reading this book because it gave me a few of a part of the world and a time in history I had little awareness of.
April 5, 2019
Albert Schweitzer was a doctor at a Christian missionary station in what is now Gabon during the First World War. He was also a theologian, philosopher and organist. His book is about the daily life of a missionary doctor, the suffering and survival of the native people, and man's struggle with Nature. The book is a vivid and engaging description of his circumstances and environment, and he ends with a call to action to his fellow Europeans to help Africa at a time when Europe was just beginning to recover from the war. Schweitzer was critical of colonialism and its effects on native populations, while also describing the difficulties of training and employing the "primitive" natives. This edition includes many photographs that appeared in the original edition.
November 10, 2011
This was the second book which I read about Albert Schweitzer and was given to me by my uncle who was a surgeon. As a young boy it inspired me to want to be a doctor in Africa also (sadly I was not clever enough to be a doctor). The writing style is old fashioned and some of the attitudes may seem a bit condescending for modern day readers, but when put in the context of its time it's an inspiring work about a man filled with a huge compassion. I finally followed in the footsteps of Schweitzer, though in a much less worthy profession and it was his books which eventually led to my spending most of my working life in equatorial west Africa.
June 28, 2021
Schweizer gibt insbesondere im Kontext seiner Zeit gesehen eine überraschend aufgeklärte Weltsicht auf Europa, Kolonialpolitik sowie deren Folgen wieder und verbindet diese mit einer äußerst starken Kritik am Prinzip der Kolonien selbst, der Forderung nach deren Rentabilität, sowie dem damit zusammenhängenden Kapitalismus.
May 30, 2008
I have only read the first of these two Schweitzer books. It is an amazingly philosophical overview of life in west Africa 100 years ago. Beautifully insightful.
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