h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Duncan. I am reading a book at the moment by Gerald Durrell, the animal collector, called "The Bafut Beagles". It describes a trip he made in 1947 to the Cameroons. The part of the trip described in this book is to Bafut, a grassland area in the mountains, above the forest.

I was wondering have you read any of Durrell's descriptions of the Cameroons. Has the country changed much since 1947? Were his descriptions accurate or caricatures?

Bafut is (to my recollection) very much as he describes it and I can verify that the people there do call every type of animal a "beef".

Much of the primary forest has disappeared, so there aren't as many places where the massive trees with flying butresses but the grasslands are in tact. The only true forest left is the national park at Korup, of which there was a spectacular wildlife program made while we were there. However, for a true reflection on the people, you should water down Durrel's work with "Things Fall Apart" by Chinua Achebe which is also set in that area.

One of the animals he was trying to capture, the pygmy flying squirrel, has obviously done very well since the late 40's, as there used to be a few of them in the trees behind the school in Yaoundé. However, I never saw or heard of the hairy frog and feel he may have been hoaxed there .

...very minor comment on your nascent GD article:
- Cameroon is considered to be West Africa rather than Central. Due to its high humidity and location on the corner we knew it as the armpit of Africa but that is a bit unfair (except for Douala, the costal second city which really was like an armpit)

Thanks!

One time when I was at school, Gerald Durrell rang my teacher up in the middle of a Biology lesson...

It then turned out she was taking a sabbattical to go and work with him on Madagascar. We were very very impressed.

..so why isn't that in the "Tenuous connections to the Rich and Famous" thread

(I'm on holiday in 6 earth days...)

I thought one of the Jones boys would have been fantastic as the young Durrell in the TV adfaptation of "My family and other animals" but for various reasons the producers wanted identical twins, so that never happened.
There is still a Fon (though not the one Durrell danced with) There are still fantastic dances held in the grasslands, but I think we should beware of the present tense here. the Joneses left Cameroon in 1986. All modern references refer to the place as "the most corrupt place in the world"(that means it's even worse than Bulgaria!) We were there during an attempted coup, but alas it would take more than a small revolution to get us to re-visit, despite the very happy memories, many of which parallel Durrell's. .