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NatGeo Sep1989
The Shakers' Brief Eternity
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OPENING A BOXFUL OF HISTORY
(MALAWI: FACES OF A QUIET LAND
PT eae
eS Peas ed |NATIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC
SEPTEMBER 1989
The Shakers’ Brief Eternity x
At their 19th-century crest, the Shakers numbered 4,000 bel
4 spiritual perfect
she purity of their faith
mart
ers
inal life devoted to achiev jon.
fh fewer than a en members remain,
beauty of r work ip endure. Cathy
grapher Sam Abell capture their spirit
Retracing the First Crusade.»
1 of Pope Urban 1 to reclaim the secre
difrey of Bouillon
‘ope in 1096. Tim Severin travels
g their route—gaining
Heeding the
infidels,”
n northern
s by horseback c
new insights into the crivsadlérs' quest. Photographs by Peter Essick.
A Bygone Century Comes to Light 15
bilia relating to the
centennial of George Washington's first inauguratio
after a hundred y ing contents that prove the
of a preliminary Robert M. Poole reports,
Malawi: Faces of a Quiet Land»,
Paul The: rice to find
octogenari Banda keeping
s operied
racy
throt
Himalaya Sanctuary»
ing beauty of Nepal, an innovative nature pre:
ing the locul people
Amid the breatht
serve safeguards
fragile environment, Invol
thor-photographer €
hey to its success, 5
Samurai Aphids:
Survival Under Siege ws
Within a placid and unobtrusive in:
© Orient produce
g. Their home:
up, some aphid spe
ste to defe
their wThe boundary be n heave nd earth under a veil of mist that
The Shakers’
By CATHY NEWMANBriet EternityISTER MILDRED BARKER, 92, of Sabbathday Lake,
Maine, tells the story with an exasperation born of suf-
fering too many fools:
‘The man, she recalls, whisked through the smal!
muscum at the Shaker village, admiring the spare, ele
gant furniture.
“Too bad no Shakers are left,” he chucked.
“t'm left,” she snapped.
She is tiny, gray, fierce, with dark, piercing eyes behind wite~
rimmed giasses. She endures, with fewer than a dozen others in
Maine and New Hampshire, as steward of a relizious society
founded some two centuries ago. In 1845 Shaker membership
totaled nearly 4,000 in 18 communities from Maine to Kentucky.
‘The final amen has yet to be murmured, those left remind us
that they are not dead yet. But nostalgia intrudes. We see them as
if looking through a stereopticon from an attic trank_
‘The reality is granite tough. Shakerism is religion, demanding,
uncompromising. As a tenet of faith, Shakers are celibate; their
fife, communal, Who would accept such sacrifice? Those whe had
heard the trumpets of salvation. “I found perfect heaven," wrote
one convert
In glorious, if impossible, quest the Shakers committed them-
selves to perfection. Like other utopians, they wanted to create
heaven on earth. But the dream dangled just beyond reach, a
reminder that, like all mankind, they were only human,
“In the spring of 1780, I heard of a strange people living above
Albany, who said they served God day and night and did. net com-
mitsin, ..." Soa contemporary named Thankful Barce wrote of
her first encounter with the people known as Shakers, so-called
‘because they trembled from head to foot in religious transports;
‘Their leader was Mother Ann Lee,
“Her countenance appeared bright and shining, an angel of
glory,” Thankful Barce wrote. “As T sat by the side of her, one of
her hands, while in motion, frequently touched my arm; and at
every touch, .. Tinstantly felt the power of God... ."
A blacksmith's daughter born in Manchester, England, in 1736,
one of eight children, Ann Lee could neither read nor write. She
married a blacksmith, bore and lost four children, Tormented, she
swung from despair to visions of glory, Joining a sect of religiaus
reformers known as the Shaking Quakers, later to be known as
Shakers, she became their leader.
Tn her 30s she had a vision of Adam and Eve in intercourse. To
her this was the original sin, ‘To be saved, humans must be celi-
bate, recapture innocence, and emulate Christ's humble life. Only
then could each soul experience its own Second Coming
Widely persecuted, she and eight believers set sail in 1774 for
America and settled at Niskayuna, which they also called Water-
vliet, eight miles northwest of Albany, New York
Mother Ann believed she represented the second appearance of
the Christ spirit; the sect's formal title is the United Society of
Believers in Christ's Second Appearing. Haly Mother Wisdom was
the female nature of God, The idea of a deity with dual aspects,
male and female, placed women on equal footing with men
With her flock she combed the spiritual pastures of New
Photographer Sas ABELL has contributed to a dozen GrocRarHic
articles, including “The World of Tolstoy” and another on wild rivers.
304
“SHE IS THE MOST PERFECT
‘Shaker I have known,” Sister
Frances Carr, standing, says of
‘Sister Mildred Barker, seated.
The two belong to the lust
working Shaker community at
Sabbathday Lake, Maine. In
1774 Shakerisin’s founder,
Mother Ann Lee, lender of a
splinter group of English
Protestants, fled persecution
andsailed to America with
eight followers. Settling at
Niskayuna, New York, she trav
eled around New England,
preaching that salvation was
[Link] all If the reward was
(great, 50 was the cost. Shaker
belief demanded « morally per~
fect life patternedt after Christ,
inclucting celibacy, obedience
to elilers, and confession of
sins, Says Sister Mildred: “Alt
the Shaker does is done in
the eye of eternity.”
National Geographic, September 1080England, barvesting converts, But she died in 1784, without ever
secing-a Shaker village established. In the following decavles Shak-
ets made the step from scattered converts to settled communities,
‘By 1800, 11 communities had formed. Soon after, the Shakers
pushed west, founding two communities in Kentucky, four in
Ohio, and one in Indiana. The gospel was spreading.
A plain marble stone marks Mother Ann’s grave. The Water-
vliet Shaker Cemetery abuts a baseball stadium, built several years
‘ago over protests from surviving Shakers. Now the crack of ball
against bat punctuates summer nights,
“Tdan’t suppose the ball field does anyone any harm,” Martha,
Hulings sighed, looking-at the ranks of headstones. Martha, now a
teacher in Kingsport, Tennessee, spent her childhood with the
Watervliet Shakers. “I felt more secure here than anywhere else,”*
she said. “It’s probably the only love I've known."
She is 74. Nearly 69 years have passed since the couple who had
adopted her, but couldn't cope, left her with the Shakers. We
‘Tres OVAL. nox with its delicate
swallowtail joints has become
practically emblematic of
Shaker design. These belong to
Pleasant Hill. The carefully
aligned tacks are made of cop:
er, not iron that might rust
anid mar the wood. Also the
‘work of Shaker hands and
heart, a song in the spirit of
faith sold for $450 at auction.
‘So too a fine Shaker chair, with
its stim, spare lines, may be
worth tens of thausands of dale
lars—to the dismay of living
Shakers, who resent the focus
on the material at the expense
of the spiritual. “People don't
see the chair aka consecration,"
said Sister Mildred.
Thomess Merton, priest and
Writer, was ore Who did. "The
peculiar grace of a Shaher chair
is due to the fact that it was
crossed the road to the South Family property where she grew up.
és of Suddenly she wasa child. “That was my room on the third
ete ntaiae floor,” she pointed. “remember staring out that window when T
came and sit on it." was sent to bed early.”
‘When the Watervliet Shaker community closed in 1938, the
South Family property was sold and the clapboard dwelling house
cutup into apartments by the new owner.
‘The woman who lives in Martha's old room inyited us in.
“Ever see any Shaker ghosts?" I asked.
“They say @ white spirit lives here," she replied.
Martha paled. “Oh, my goodness, that must be Pauline."
‘The grapevine that hugged the side of the trustees’ house was
uprooted years ago, but she remembers,
“Lpicked a bunch of grapes for Pauline, the woman who cared
for me,” she said. “I ran to lay them in her lap.
“Don't you know these are not ours?” Pauline frowned.
‘They're the family's. To take them is to steal.”
The Shakers’ Brief Eternity 309“Hands to work, and hearts toGod"
With THE FOUNDING OF
‘Now Lebanon, Now York, in
1787, Shaker belief took form
in-communities where members
could work and pray. Believers
were organized inte groups
known as families. Membership
crested in 1845 at 4,000 or so,
then declined a5 fewer joined.
Apostasies also pared dawn
numbers, After nearly adecade
of contemplating Shaker life,
2
n
EE
a 2
astingoen.D Cy
Vi
‘SHAKER COMMUNITIES
fm Existing Community Restored butidings or museum
4, NEWLERANON, KEW Vor
Crrantes
2 WATERULIET, Kew York
(irenraa6)
m9, [Link]
(iraa 97)
4 HANCOCK MASSACHUSETTS
irwa-t9¢)
Wb HAEWARD, MARRACMLSETTS:
(yyatcpii
m0, OWTERQUAY. NEWHAMPSHRE
((7R2BRESENT)
7. TYRRIGHAM. MASSACHUSETTS
(rraena7s)
mo ALFRED, Maine
Efren rean)
mm. FARELD, MEW HAlARSHIRE:
firs si
10, SHLEY, uRSRADMUsET TS
ives room
11, SABBATIED A Lal, MAINE
tree mreaenty
mie PLEASANT Im, MeNTUCIEY
(aoe 181%)
‘Thomas Brown could not accept
doctrine: “As [ heard one of the
brethren say, not long since:
“Phe gospel Is just like a tunnel;
the farther in, the narrower it
grows,’ " Others; unable to:
conform, were pushed out. From
a Pleasant Hill journal: “Lucy
Lemon was kindly invited to go
to the world, She went!" Today
fewer than a dozen Shakers
remain in two villages, *
Mother Robocca
‘Jacksan, ane of several
black Shakers ed
‘email group of toliowere
in Philaclolhia during
the second ied of
q
15, UROONVELASE OHO
(age 302)
WATERVLIET, Ceti
(isos "B01)
SSOUTH Unban, KENTUCKY
(sor-raas
‘Gores AINE
(oe resi
WEST UNION, OKANA, |
(anette
SAVY, MASSACHUSETTS.
(nas
h dec
1848
Whirling Gi
=
ah rualise, wl
received divinely inspired
au
mie
=n
sof di
Shaikers
ned or
‘nOgTEWATER, o¥00 bok in children
(leaer00)
‘SODUS-AAY. NEW YOR T
eases) hi
‘GROWEL AND, WEE YOK
(ise)
or b
mH
h as boys cared for in
19th ce
28 tury by Brother
f Waterviier
¢). Most left before sign-
nt. Elder Shakers
Pot shove
BE NARCODSSEE; FLORIDA (18-191)
1 VONTE CAN GEORGIA (Th 1802)
ipted this
resigned,
National Geographic, September 1980VILAGE MAPS were drawn as-a
matter of pictorial record keep-
ing, such as this detail showing
the Church Family property at
Alfred, Maine, done in 1845 by
Brother Jostua Bussell. Tha
1896 round barn at Hancock
(left) could house more than 50
head of dairy cattle, More tike a
fine piece of machinery than a
barn, it was efficient ant mod
ern for its time. Ten wagoris at
a time could cart hay up @ ramip
to the top level, then exit with-
out backing up. The cattle oceu-
pied stalls ringing the middle
level, Trapdoors behinet statts
allowed casy removal of
manure, stored in a pit belaw
ground level and tised to fer~
tilize fields.
The Shakers’ Bricf Eternity
I didn't mean to steal, 1 just wanted to bring them to you.’
““That may be, but now you must sit on your chair and eat
them all. So you won't forget’
“Tobeyed,” Martha recalled, “Each was harder to swallow
than the one before."
It was a harsh lesson, given by love, Hadn't Mother Ann said,
“The reproof of a friend, is better than the kiss ofan enemy"?
HRIST SAID “Be ye therefore perfect"; the Shakers
accepted the challenge af bringing heaven down to
earth, In the otherworldly air of a Shaker village, the
tesponsive soul found safe harbor, “I-came upon vaca-
tion at 16,” said the late Sister Lillian Phelps of Can-
terbury, New Hampshire, “E felt { was in the company of angels
‘When it came time to go back to Boston, I said I wasn’t going.”
But the fence around a Shaker village could not exclude human
failing. A sister, now in her 90s, wide-eyed behind glasses, wearing:
pink-flowered slippers three sizes too large, recalls: “Nothing
worse than a graup of women, Such jealousiest They would tattle
on each other to the eldress. They complained about me looking in
the mirror, The eldress called me in, sat me down, and said 'T
don't know why you spend so much time looking in the mirror.
‘There's nothing about you to admire.’ "
‘The challenge lay in excising imperfection. Community welfare
dictated the pruning of individual vanity. If the individual
couldn't, leaders would,
‘To tend body and soul, the village was divided inte several fam-
ilies of as: many as 100 members, Each had its own house
‘Two elders and two eldresses in each family monitored spi
behavioral issues, Trustees handled business dealings with the out-
side world. Ultimate jurisdiction rested with the parent ministry at
New Lebanon (later renamed Mount Lebanon) in New York.
Families were named for their geographic relation to the central
Church Family, where the meetinghouse stood. There was typical-
ly Notth, South, East, and West Family, New members entered
agathering order, progressing to the church order, where they
ned the covenant, Herause the community was celibate, but
cluded men, Women, and children, the dwelling house was
vided. Men and women entered separate doorways, used separate
stairs, sat on opposite sides of the meeting room.
N SPRING’S TENDER GREEN I journeyed to Canterbury, ona
ribbon of road that unfurls past New Hampshire's maple
groves and apple orchards, Shaker sisters live here, but it is
more a museum now, a still life in white and green: meeting-
house encircled by a picket fence, manicured herb garden,
trim white shops and dwellings, clean-swept stone walks, “There
is no dirt in heaven,” Mother Ann said,
How beguiling this orderly blueprint of how to live, Many found
the life congenial. Said Brother Robert Wilcox in 1849, “Tam per-
fectly content. I have enough to eat and drink . , . good clothes to
wear, a warm bed to sleep in, and just as much work as I like and
no more.” Small wonder the villages attracted “winter Shakers,”
who joined with the first snow and left with spring thaw. That
drop-ins were tolerated is.a measure of Shaker charity
It extended beyond village boundaries. In 1846, during the
313on Village se
ant Hill ir
fire
hose attracted
potato famine
thousand bushels of
Kentucky sent
After the |
one
Dg, members came from
the ranks of @
by Shakers from those who landed on Shaker doorsteps
orphans, widows, families fallen on hard times. Thus Shakes
attracted t vers into the 20th cer A Ca ‘bury sister
explained her arrival: “My mother died. My father remarried, and
my stepmother didn't like me
1€. To their dismay
na small proportion of the chil
After 1845 membership b
Shakers couldn't ensure that e
dren they reared would sign the covenant. “We gather in man
children, but when they come to act for the , 8 large portion
of them choose the flowery path of nature rather ian the cross,
fretted Bi Isaac Youngs in the 1850s. Of the 197 children
raised at Mount Le from 1861 to 1900, only one joined, says
Priscilla B ry Shaker communit
wer, a historian of 19th-cen
sé the decline? No.
s would have ended
id stumble. From a 19th-ce
alias Nahum
y—thinks there is not room
Did celibacy ca As Brewer points out, if
th
ion. Some di
Backstiding —Hanania
at were so,
Davi
ve for the exp.
intellect! Suppose we should say ligst!
Toa Shaker, celibacy is a given. Says Sister Frances Cart of
Sabhathday Lake, Maine: “Celibacy frees us to be able to love
and I'm speaking of Gospel love—to love
tricted by pe
lace community over self-interes
hing to
veryone and not be
onal love,
was the more difficult
mit your will
toc
piritual
did not
hun
woman
nity was know
i sisters. To pri
as uni
of brethren ar
convinced that politics was ¢
did not
vote
ial issues. They spoke out on abalition, child wel
‘age, compulsory ¢ducation, labor ri
Equality was not just x homily; it w
Il, There were b
s part of Shaker life, Mem:
cks like Mother Rebecca
bership was open t
Nati
THR DA
theparent mintst
nt, in of
fect ruling that no new Sh
nterbury «
thas changed
members
Sabbethelay Shake
Arnold Hadd and Brother
th (left), embody
their community's c
s, Brother
strong personalities o
{ thetr Lawyer
each side
esn't understand,” saya
In truth, the wort
Ithas
anothe has
ial Geographic, September 1989Jackson, who led a small group of Shakers in Philndelphia, Jews
and American Indians were also welcomed
pacifists, the Shakers, particularly those in Kentuck:
scape the effects of the Civil War. South Union, Ken:
losses of crops, stock, and buildings
‘Trade was disrupted there and at Pleasant Hill, The Shakers
cared for and fed soldiers on both sides
Said an officer tot “Madam, I fear yeu will kill us with
good vittles,”
“Better that, than with a bullet."
‘The Civil War was a visible sign that the nation was changing.
But the sre f economic and. geographic expansion had
Hac ven earlier, After 1836 no new communities were suc
sfully founded. Those who might have joined the Shakers had
other options
Faced with shrinking membership, communities dwindled,
then closed. Tyringham, Massachusetts, in 1875. North Union,
Ohio, in 1889, Groveland, New York, in 1892, Pleasant Hill,
ntucky, in 1910, They were blotted up by a world that
bolted past to an indus
Thou;
could not
tucky
suffered sev
ister
crac
had
ial, urban age
Perhaps the ultimiate disposition of these shuttered villages
s something about th Today two Shaker
omimunit! e state prisons, +. of another lies under a
municipal airport, and yet another is a housing development
‘Two short-liv munities — White Oak, € and Nar-
coossee, Florida—are totally erased
HE LAST ELDRESS of Canterbury sat in the kitchen
the trustees’ house peeling broccoli with skil
She has been blind for more than five years
“T was the only one of six girls who decided to stay
L watched as they left one by one for the world
Bertha Lindsay, then 90.
Catching a slight hesi
the path not chesen
“Oh, Lloved to keep hor utd would have loved to marry
But I've never regretted my choice. I've been a happy woman,”
She and 92-year-old Eldress Gertrude Soule, formerly «
bathday Lake, are the last members of the parent mi
which moved from New Lebanon to Hancock to Canterbury
third sister, Ethel Hudson, also in her 90s, lives across the stre:
sole occupant of a dwelling that once housed a hundred
hands,
id
ncy in her voice, I say something about
istry,
“Eldress Bertha,” Task, “itisa She to seek perfec:
tion, Is there anything less than perf ou?
“Some would say I’m too independ .
in ahigh-collared
If
Eldress Gertrude glances up, A tiny wr
sand Shaker net eap, she pulls he
"T'll say
ot surprised hn few Shakers are left,
amrod
Bertha
patiently,
rophecy said our numbers would diminish, Still, we ki
order. The hands drop off, but the work ‘
‘The work falls to other hands as well. The South Family
property of Mount Lebanon was purchased by a small congreg:
tion of Sufis, 2 religious community with Islamic roots. I visited
and was directed toa building that once housed the Shake
316 Natio
na drying att
at Sabbarhday Lake, which hos
maintained an herb business
since 1799. Shaker communities
were primarily agrartan and,
hanks to the care lavished on
ps anul livestock, exempla
of productivity. Dependence on
nature nurtured a wry respect
Aprit 1: Whip
gf this morning,
pring ia here at last. Prfiday
8: Snow ,... Whippoorwill
itunie Frozen up." With
Sunday
worship service from winter
quarters in the brick dwelling
house :to the 179:
house
Geographice attic at the H
June Sprigg reache
ack Shaker Vil
up and twisted
ard cireumscribing the room. A Shak-
might well be such a pegboard; nearly
very room had one. From irs and clocks hung out of
the way. The peg"s hand-turned extra work for the crafts-
an, ensured it would bear the weig!
t pulling out
Such hidden detail marks Sh;
unstudied simplicity becomes a statement of belief. Shaker scholar
Edward Deming Andrews called it Religion in Wood. What the
eye worships is this: The chair that ses no more wood than need-
hat could have been made across but gently
curve, rungs that ever hit osts that soar.
Examine
hit of a small cupboard with
r craftsman:
p-Iis elegant
of ston
ould 1
ed replacing. Solidity prevails. This is the work of people
ded to be al nel for a less
at just work," explains Ed Nickels, director of collections
“Tt's work with purpose,” Work wa of Shaker
Perfection crossed from the spiritual to the temporal. “Do al
your work a5 though you had a thousand years to live, and as you
would if you knew o-morrow,
Impressed by the excellence of the SI é wor
became their customer, They sold, arn things, chairs,
baskets, blankets, hats, hides, seeds, apples, pickles, candies, pre
eves, herlvs, and brooms
The passion for perfection extended to anything their hands
touched en ‘ir soil was perfect,” Amy Bess Miller remem:
bers. “Not a rock ora pebble in it
Work was a consecration. “Put your hands your
hearts to God," Mother Ann said. But the result was not meant to
bean icon. A bench was to sit on. A table to eat on. Does heaven
have chairs?
¥ THE TIME LOT aches the block, it is rai
patter on the yellow-and-white tent muffles the auction:
s staccato. “Let's start 009," says Will Her:
It is his sixth Shaker auction, held at the Mount
which is now a school
Henry is in, late 30s. His speech ac < with each lot,
wering adjectives like “ch
Le I Revol ‘ood, oak, origi
I varnish finish, South Family, New Lebanon, N.Y. c.18
handsome: a high revolvin with slender legs and spindle
back, mad mile from where it will be sold
lible
‘om the front row: a young man with
is stunned. There
sts to set a pace. The high oper
to scare off competition. It nearly. works. Henry starts to
hammer down the chair when—
itd number 180 shoots up from the bas
d Klank, a University of Mary
inig for television actor Bill Ci
It belongs to30 YEARS
he
were in the divelling-hotixe
attic at Canterbury (ahove) still
lide out effortiessty, The pine
used is “clear,"*or unflawed.
‘The Shakers did not have 4
rk wees worship,
the task, "A man can show his
religh
‘Ontons as
The Shakers’ Brief Eternity
“$35,0002” asks Henry. He lonks at the first bidder, David
Schorsch, who nods
At
$60,000. Bids lob b:
his card stays
‘The jull worries Henry. A break in the rhythm can kill the
action. He push 10,0007"
‘The crowd is silent. In this part of the country that kind of mon:
ey buys asmall house. Henry [Link] Schorsch, whe quietly
an eyebrow in assent
Klank? He shiakes his head
“Other bids?” Henry asks. A pause, then "Sold!
The $80,600 chair sets a record for Shaker furniture sole
tion. The buyer, 23-year-old David Schorsch, « New Vork Cit
dealer, bought it, he said, because he'd always wanted one. (The
cord has fallen more than once since then: Last March a candie-
0,000.)
all the people that mone
Sabbathday Lake wh
Shaker chair. She shakes her head.
“Tdon't want to be remembered as a chair,” Sister Mildred
Barker grumbles when I ask her opinion. My welcome to Sabbath-
day Lake is grudging, 1 call for an interview and am told too many
steps up to $5,000 increments, $5$,000
4c and forth. At$75,000 Klank waver
But
uld feed,” says Sister
nicl of the $80,000
stories have been written already. “Frankly,” says Sister Mildred,
“don’t recognize us in any of it.”
She'll see me anyway. Set in the lake country of southwestern
Maine, Sabbathday Lake is haven to nine believers, five women
ranging in age from 60 to 92 and four younger, newer members
A highway bisects the village. The rumble of trucks rudely
shakes the windows of the brick dwelling house where Sister
Mildred greets me.
How da you want to be remembered? Task
“Asa Shaker... who tried to live by the precepts,” she say:
Sister Mildred came to the Shakers 86 years ago, Her father had
died. Her mother, unable to support her ehildren, placed young
Mildred in the care of the Alited, Maine, Shake
here was an older sister, Paulina
called. “Toved her. She was taken ill
was dying, she asked if the c ne in.” Mildred was
last in line, When her turn came, the failing sister said, “Mildred,
promise me something, Pro you'll be a Shake
“| promised her,” Sister Mildred said, “but it tool r
pany years to fulfill the promise and t
knew what that meant.”
ger," Sister Mildred
suddenly, When she
Sprir
iren could ec
Sister Mildred does not volunteer this. It com
history recording made two decarles ago
At morning's end, Sister Mildred sgives me alight peck on the
heek. “You're in," she says. The next day she rebuffs practically
all questions to show I am not really “in” after all
Something gentle is embedded in the toughn tiet glow
like the glimmer of a lantern at dusk. To those who know her, Sis
ter Mildred epitomizes Shaker values: compassion, love, total ded:
ication. No compromises here, She is rigorous, a drill
the soul
There is bituerness
y Lake. It
o, [tis the subtext in talk at
directed at the world's obsessto Sabbathday
under the pbathday the rancor is blunt, the hu
able ey say Sabt
nthe Eas{ to vate int dential
fed that it wou
to do on election day
ay rift, a mor $ :
Shaker schola ob Emmlen explained it thus: “If a ship i
king, do y down ni t bailin Von?
The going-down-. y's. Some
time in the mic-1960s t] parent mi closec covenant
vew member:The Shakers’ Brief Eternity
the now closed
enant. Noncovenanted
a Shaker life, he says, but the parent ministry
arly e of them doing so within existing
Iris not Shaker-like to engage in authoritarian
tation, he adds, so the ministry simply counseled Sabbath-
sinst admitting new members, Nonetheless, it contin-
It will not go gentle into that good night.
The dispute turned so bitter that for a time in the early 19705
Canterbury cut off Sabbathday Lake’s income from the trust fund
“They hoped t to our knees,” a Sabbathday Lake sister
After discussion between lawyers for both sides, the funds
were reinstated. These days, the n d, but little
is forgiven. Communi: iS Hinnitedd,
Itis acanker that will not heal, adi
being Shaker. The peaceable kingdo
“They're scared and fadiry
acts like it’s a big yard sale
“They want everything but the crass,"" Sister Mildred say's
a world that presumes to understand, but doesn’t.
We in the world miss a lot abs cans to be Shaker
Hancock Village curator June Sprigg. “Perhaps it’s like heing
color-blind. The
At Canterbury in June of l
way in her sleep. “Tam
spre
Shaker familie:
confta
day Lake
ues to dos
ncor may have
ation rei
action to the business af
is anything bu
ays an observer, “and the world
nt what i
are hues the rest of us can't see
t year, Eldress Gertrude quietly
ery tired,” she sighs before climb.
ing the stairs to retire. Will the coming year witness more suc
ts? A-close friend of the Shakers thinks so: “I
holding their breath and waiting. They can relax and
Several hundred attend the eldri
Hadd and Sister Frances come from S:
out of duty than remorse. More out of t
cl go
5 funeral. Brother Arnold
bbathday Lake
Hessness th
perhaps, a mourner discomfits them with Citing a
prior commitment, Frances and Arnold leave early. There is no
neutral terr Not even the grav
In truth we want to bel
en. To hear of the
the elders had an open line tot
communities reminds us
the chair cracks; the per-
Yet, what must be remem his:
the body shook in
of our own imperfect
fect ending proves elu:
red
e was 4 joy so
asy,
RING-BLESSED SUNDAY at Sabbathday Lake
the morning hush
of lambs. Soon
Shakers will walk from the
ling house across the road to their 1794 white
ghouse. The interior Shaker ti
inal, uniretouched sinee it was applied 2
They file in, two brothers and five sisters, sitting
sides of the room, joined by eight guests fra
Rising out of the silence, their voices—somehow t
all but angelic—cher To b
Gi sung in this room is to touch the hem of hea
"Tis the gift to be simp!
Tis the gift to be free
meet
trim is
n opposite
n the world
ansformed,
ur “Simpl
en
a familiar hexrt son;
And when we. sin the place just right
and delight.
Amen, oruin, hurch bears witness to the i
the Byzantine Enipire that preceded t
of the First Crusaddealized in hi
the perfect knight, God-
frey leads crusaders in a
[3th-century illustra-
fer th
tion. L he brow of
€
Godfrey's castle in
Bouillon, Belgium
inthor, astride the heavy
horse Carty, and hi
companion, horse expert
Sarah Dormon, take up
the route Godfrey fol-
lowed to the Holy LandAll roads lead to Jerusalem
With a call to arms against Seljuk Turks pushing into
Asia Minor, Pope Urban TI launched a holy war to
win bark Christendom's shrines. A metley vanguard
called the peasants’ crusude set gut in the spring of
1096 behind the firebrand preacher Peter the Hermit
but met disaster in Turkey. Other groups left after
the harvest. Tens of thousands of knights, foot sat-
diors, and pilgrims had converged on Constantinople
bythe next year. An engraving (above right} depicts
‘one of the battles on the way to Jerusalem, which
‘was captured ini July 1099 and its Mustim and Jewish
population put to death: Nine centuries Inter the aa-
thor spent eight months riding the crusaders’ route,
SOVIET
UNION
—— Aethor's route (907-1988)
— Godtray of Bewillon (096-tO) and
Peter the Hermit (1096)
— of Toute (0098-1007)
— Pabert of Novmandy (iove-r059)
= Boherond of Tasco (1096-1087)
—— bistin of 97-1998)
Balog
ay ian too one
Dashed fine icicaten yrcattrin rout.
eb entry cages in parentheses
334 National Geographic, September 1959NA RIGHT May morn-
ing to the sound of trum.
pets we rode out of the
castle and took the road
for Jerusalem
There were four of us: Sarah Dor-
mon—Irish and 22—two horses, and 1
Before us lay a journey that would carry
usmorethan 3,000 mileste the south and
east across ten countries. Nine centuries
earlier the same route had been followed
by one of the most remarkable hosts in
history—the warrior-pilgrims of the
First Crusade.
All my life I have been fascinated by
those legendary knights and their fol-
lowers. With the symbol of the cross
stitched to their clothes, the crusaders
marched until theit shoes were shred-
ded, their tents rotten, and their horses
too weak to carry riders, They com-
pleted the only truly successful Crusade
to the Holy Land. They endured three
years of battles, starvation, and disease,
and at the end they stormed the walls of
Jerusalem and captured that holy city.
‘They left an indelible mark on the histo-
ry of hoth Europe and the Middle East
‘The kingdom that the crusaders
éstablished was to Inst nearly a century
before Saladin won it back, and in that
time Europe and near Asia became
locked in an embrace of culturesthat has
no end to this day.
At the start of the Crusade in 1096
dozens of aristocrats answered Pope Ur-
ban TI's call to free the holy places from
the control of the infidels of the East.
‘The medieval bards claimed that Duke
Goulfrey of Bouillon was the crusader
par excellence,
Their own chronicles reveal that
338thirsty, and fanatic. Yet they risked their
ury and suffering on earth, anda hope of
f the © many
them, Duke Godire r returne
. He died in Jerusalem and wa
jed near Christ’s tomb in the Churcl
af the Holy Sepulchre
ER THE VEARS I have te
mast of ther
es. Butin 198
follow Duke €
when E dec
anc not just any kind of
ean Arden breed
Tnee
of heavy horse na
if France: and Belgiur
Cone
cemetery of Worms, West Germany. He
atleft) gardens with a friend. The cross a
ting faiths led to tragedies. Israeli Ma
ish population. Near the crusaders’ line of march in Bavaria, Maria Pfaller (abo
sta to the area's enduring religiaus devation
eavy horse was thé main battle tank of
struck terror into ny foo!
soldier unlucky enough to stand in the
harge
In northern France I found and
bought Carty—three-quartersof a ton of
eth
mnmense nel cri
a business in 1
rant. In my
Courtmacsherry I enlisted the
Tor SeyERIN hus tracked Ulys u
i GROGRAE i f
Sindbad ( 82), endan (Die-
This is the second magazin
Perer Essick, who photographed
is psalms in the
aders attacked the Jew-Cracking their whips as # drive their herd acro
puszta, or plain, of eas ell, a distinctive feature
pastureland, provi. baigy Nation:Sarah Dormon, manager of alecal gour-
met restaurant, who had owned horses
and ponies since the age when most chil-
dren acquire their first bicycle. Satah
had an uncanny ability to know what a
horse would think or do five minutes be-
fore the animal itself made up its: mind.
Five feet two inches tall and lfin,
Sarah possessed a wry sense of humor,
proved able to pick up foreign languages
asif through her skin, and didn’t care a
Jot for medieval history, In Courtmac-
sherry she agreed to help out with Carty
“just for a few weeks.”
A yearand a half later, as we trudged
across the Middle East's Jordan Valley.
in searing July heat, Sarah was still
muttering that it was a mistake to talk
to strange customers in.a restaurant.
Our ride began in the courtyard of
Godfrey of Bouillon’s castle in Belgium,
where our departure was hailed by the
Jocal tourism office with a taperecording
ofthe Irish national anthem, followed by
acannon shot fromthe battlements. The
Jatter sent Sarah's mount, a little bay
mare acquired in Ireland and named
‘Mystery, skitteting off at a panicky gal-
lop, Splendidly fit and supremely good-
natured, the fittle mare lacked only one
attribute—brains.
Carty’s superabundance of brawn
was no blessing either. In the first half
mile I learned what he was-designed
for—and it certainly wasn't riding! An
animal so huge is the ideal load carrier;
he can carry any amount at his pancer-
ousand majestic pace, But Carty'sshat-
tering plod was excruciating to a rider.
He slammed each massive foot down
with a bone-jarring thud that I felt right
up through my spine. The knights of the
First Crusade hadasecond, lighter horse
known as a palfrey for everyday travel,
and they saved the heavy horse for pack
carrying and for battle
Bruised and aching, I sympathized
Retracing the First Crasade
with those original innotents who joined
the Crusade with little notion of what
they faced and even less of how to equip
‘themselves. In # 12th-century chronicle
Guibert of Nogent wrote; “The poor
were soon inflamed with so burning a
zeal that none stopped to consider the
slenderness of his means, neither wheth-
et it'was wise for him to leave his house,
‘is vines and his fields... . Truly aston
ishing things were to be seen, things
which could not but provoke laughter:
poor people shoeing their oxen as though
they were horses, harnessing them to
two-wheeled carts on which they piled
their seanty provisions and their small
children, and which they led along
behind then.”
HERE was no controlling such
an explosion of fervor. The
great lords began to muster
two armies in France; another
was raised in Ttaly; and Duke Godfrey
assembled his forces from the Low
Countries and Germany. The plan was
to rendezvous at Constantinople, But
many bandsof ordinary folk impatiently
set out ahead of them, This unruly
vanguard seethed across Europe, often
acting no better than brigands and
massacring Jews in the Rhineland.
‘The largest group, led by a firebrand
preacher named Peter the Hermit, was
scathingly dubbed the “peasants’ cru-
sade." Itsadvance guard was led by nly
tight knights. As Sarah and I soon
learned, peasants marched faster than
princes: Peter's motley followers aver-
aged nearly 18 miles a day on their way
across Europe, while Godfrey's army.
managed only 15% miles. Sarah and I
found it took us some three hours each
morning to feed, groom, and inspect
our horses properly, atid once under way
we were limited by Carty’s numbingly
slow gait. Even gentle Mystery was so
M1irritated by his ball-and-chnin effe
che took an accasiénal nip at him to hur
ty him along. But Carty simply igno
her. Hispain
nto believe the old talesof un
jet that I
fled
hreshold wasso
war-horses emerging from the fray
tling with arrows like pincushions
Noe
route acn
bo
burg
his army set foot on the Via Militaris, the
ancient Roman road I
e knows Duke ecise
Godfrey's pi
s modern. Belgium, Luxem:
2, and Germany. But at Regen:
the banks af the Danube he and
ing to Asia
As best we could, Sarah and 1
followed the Roman tracks, while Carty
adeled substance to the erusnders' rey
tation for d
ruction and pillage
reat beast proved to be a one:
He combined hi
with an unquenchal
resillt was
d-span Bavarian vil
to buy a loaf of bread for lunch
ng Carty’s reins to Sarah, 1
ge bakery, Cart
0 the out
Sarah and Mystery
rehed ov
huge strength
fosity, and the
ly mayhem, In a spick
menace
ge Sarah and I
side wall. To
rand thrust
enormoushead into the bin to invest
eate ed, he simply raised his
head, whereupon the bin tore out of the
louc
ncrete
ng like a nose
's muzzle; th H
Foramome
‘rom: (
the street and sprayin
8 cont
and wide. Shamefaced, Sarahand T rode:
quickly c
wn with
think what would
Duke Godfre
heavy
age, leaving the n
Ishuddered
have happence
on an unsuspecting Lown
timates of the crusaders’ total num:
bers vary, from their own wildly ex:
ds of thousands
gerated figure of huni
to elikely numberof 4,000 or 5,000
Retracing st Crusade
punted knights and squires and $0,
foot soldiers, plus countless civil
Casualties én route were high, espe
among the horses. Many of the
y horses died from lack of food or
harsh conditions
from
particularly
heat. During our trek across Germany
rly farmers would scramble down
from their tractors to pat Carty and tell
us of the days when they used heavy
horses on their farms. But when they
heard how far we intended to go with
Carty, they looked skeptical. “He'll
never get to Turkey," they warned
And in the next country, Austria, a
young livery-stable owner was so taken
with our behemoth that hema
offer: “If yc eda home for him,
Wherever he is, I'l
mean
wer
just Jet me know
come and fetch him."
Duke Godfrey's first
the kingdom of
hallenge wa:
Hungary. The country
was ruled by a king named Colomar
rst-rate army that
who commanded «
Profoundly moved, pilgrims flock to
Medjugorje, Yugoslavia (above), wher
several villagers claim daily visits feom
the Virgin Mary. Similar visions inspired
crusaders, In Serbia, which was crossed
by Gadjrey, a mank devotes himself to
chores at the Ljubostinja monastery.could block Godfrey's advanct
2 to Gyérey Gyirffy,
historical ge
dling
Col
man was
uperstition
cin Bu
jon telling people not
Profe
t, "Coloman
secuting witches,
witeh
And, of course,” he added, “Colo:
man knew just how to handle the Cr
red that Ge
ulm, he insi:
nt Baldwin, the
4 the pil
i they were out of Hu
Our own traverse of Hung
nest cour
in
all Europe for et
friend whe
ry riding,”
rganizes horse tours across
Ve. Don’t
lle paths. J
ss course, H
worry
a comp
horses, 21
ou can
ive farms,
robust Har
t. when it cam
ses, the Hun}
uting he
il the Irish
ule
] AVING FooLIsItLY ridden
y from Belgium
I decided That
M-year-old
hat had
National Geogra
ic, September 1989taught several tricks by the wrangler,
and on Command he would lie prone ¢
the ground of walk on his knees.
“That's all we need,” Sarah com
“a performing horse.
antics we were halfway to
being acireus already
at Teast, Vugosiavia w
corning than Hungary. “T
are no facilities for riders in Vugoslavia’
had the curt reply te my inquiry to
Belgrade, “We suggest you abandon
your trip.” But we persisted, and again
the horses were our passports to hospi-
tality and help. The Yugoslav country-
folk welcomed us wherever we went
In late July, almost three months into
our journey, a heat wave struck south.
very nearly lost
ollapsed from the
mented dryly,
one point he
heat, and Sarah and I frantically poured
buekets of water over him to coo! bim
down. After six hours he rallied, but I
began to suspect that he would ne
make it all the way to Jerusalem
At the Bulgarian border we were
ed by sizable reception committee
8
organized by Theodore Troev, a Bulgar-
Sts
d for-
ment. It was
letter
ian member of my crew from
voyage. A local hi
ward, flourishing a
modetn version of the welcomin
that Alexi
emperor of Constantinople, had sent to
Duke Godfrey. An Eastern Christian,
Alexiushad set the Crusade in motion by
appealing to Pope Urban I for help
agninst the Muslim Turks
But hunger, not history, was Mys-
n ste
Comnenus, Byzantine
riority, Our previous few days in
Yuuoslavia had been lean go
jamished., As the historian
began his oration, Mystery spotted two
Bulgarian girls in traditional costume
holding welcoming bouquets of flowers
and th
Sidling over, she lunged for a Goral
snack, Not to be outdane, Carty ambled,
Retracing the First Crusade
Dancers abounded on
the crusaders’ campaign,
cutting down many men
before they reached Jeru-
salem. In what is now
Turkey, legend says,
Godfrey survived a bear
attack, illustrated in
ipt
a medieval manus
(below). Near the
author’s route through
the Balkan Mountains,
a friendlier bear dances
to a tune from a Gypsy’s
gadulka.
345Fresh fish netted in
reaehed Car Asia and rendezvous
point for the ofhe finished hisrecitation, pinnedtothe tres, a chaplain with the crusePeter himself escaped the slaughter,
Beyond Istanbul and the Sea af Mar
mara; Sarah andl | picked up the tracesof
the Roman road through pine-forested
mountains, Now and then we encoun-
tered groups of woodcutters bringing
down timber on slender but incredibly
tough pack ponies, each animal a mav-
ing mound of brushwood.
It was here on a bleak day in October
1096 that Peter the Hermit’s peasant
army had been ambushed and butch-
ered. An account of the battle says that
the Turks followed the panic-stricken
peasants back to their camp, where,
“going within the tents, they destroyed
with the sword whomever they found,
the weak and the feeble, clerics, monk
old women, nursing children, persons of
every age.
Bypassing the massacre site, the cru~
saders and a contingent of Alexius’
forces besieged the fortified Turkish
town of Nicaea, known today as Lenik
Sarah and I camped for aday or two be-
side the city and rode around the walls,
justas Godfrey must have done to scout
the defenders’ pe
History recounts that during the siege
a gigantic Turkish soldier raged up and
down the battlements, hurling rocks at
the beéstegers with deadly effect. At
Jength Godfrey himself took up a bow
and with a single well
picked off the giant
After 45 days Nicaea fell, but not to
assault. The defenders made a secret
deal with Emperor Alexius' ambassador
and handed the city over ta his troops,
not to the crusaders. The hard-pressed
pilgrims were bitterly disappointed.
They needed gold and valuables to fi-
nance their continued march to Jeruéa-
Jem and had counted on Nicaea’s loot
Alexius bribed the leaders with lavish
wtifts, but the rank and file were not even
allowed inte the city except in small
-aimed arrow
Rotracing the First Crusade
eyo
I, show respect,
worshipers in Istanbul
kiss the hand of the
Ecumenical Patriarch of
the Eastern Orthodox
Church (left).
In the same city dur-
ing the First Crusade,
Emperor Alexius
extracted an oath of fealty
from Godfrey of Bouil-
lon (above, kneeling),
binding him to deliver
lands won in battle to
the Byzantine Empire.
349First to fall, the Seljuk city of Nicaca
(modern iznii) was watled on all sides,
protected by Lake Ascanius in the rear
and defended ty a fierce and skillful foe.
The crusaders besieged the city, then
hauled boats overland from the Sea of
Marmara, launching them on the lake.
Thus blockaded, the Turks surrendered.
ntor
Carty’s replacement was a mountain
pack pony named Zippy, whe
a third Carty'ssize. Zippy wor
ual put in look that uld have
him an Oscar among pack ponies He
ould give the impression that he was
ove ‘hed erloaded, and uncerfec
ust at the moment he was
ing makingarun forit
ud
flat-footed.
Zippy w
kick his leg
J me,
sh and the three horsesand I set off
gain in A
snowmel
We
um, where the
footwa, een Szair pinned the ad a
tarmac, and seve nes were crusher
She curled up in agony, and as J rushe
to pick her up, L received clear directions
nere to locate the medicinal gin ir
ddlebag
retired Carty with full
crusade. He had dom
Turk
miles as fier a
the same fate as his forebears that had
4 f heatand e
Jesert steppes, True to his p
Austrian friend collected Carty and too! x
him back to the Vienna W
ion in Turkey’
f the Turks as they turned in
Retricing the First Crusade 3811 to Aleeiuis—on condition that the
hePlaying ut war, el
preserve the game of cirit, a galloping
re of central Turkey
exchange of blunt lances enjoyed by the
Seljuls around the time of the Cr
Ine village near Kayseré, a tearful six-
pid bay is showered with lira and
words of encouragement to prepare him
for the Mustim rite of circumcision
jonent, whether Tu
ingly faced the shatte
red greatly
ubbed bet i hands. ¢
fond wretchedly enough,
ut we lost most of our horses, so that
Why are
jo
answer was easy for Muslim
ors to grasp: “We are making a hi
he holycity of Jerusalem:
Just beyond the town of Kayseri we
The crusaders passed this way in
atumn 1097. Winter was coming o
no im
Jerusalem, What dri
diate pros
the T
Antaky
elopement was Yabar ating undigested sceds pic
Turkish —a_palow ininial dung, and pes
hauling basker
unr at Antnk
ly used and s
ified, @ mass of 00: ‘ously
pot, bathed and nd open th
They
delayed more than a kish arm
They laic th late, to reliew
fortific I ztheenone of the
on that the he
Antioch, a Selju
Turkish coast. The city had re:
wen after the cr
reinforcementssentfi
old Roman road (
turned the tabi
slip ov ah
citadel held out.
relief army
crusaders
now trapped
spes grew dim,
en St
without sup
plies. As
claime
party
ad, a lance was Found. Thus
inspired, the crusaders threw them.
upon the Turkish enemy—and prevailed.Un
decided to t
lem e old ¢
ow of a crusader igh Jordan. ‘Theré
rdanians and
inl pet
vould about the ¢ Jordan Riv
floors,” he ar 3ridge, From our ca
History moldie
The
xt morning was stifli
past group:
pints, and eld
h guarding the Israel
he horse
heck
and antitank d
we
aseri mine
forward positions, It was not so differ-
moats andl
aders bh
ent, 1 thought, from the
wate
encountered
When the p
‘usalem on the seventh of June
imssighted the walls af
1099,
y must have been half crazed by the
i
Some stood with tears running down
their faces, knelt and kissed the
dusty read. Their zeal was great eno
to launch the assault against
hing their ga
rise exertion of rez
he infidels
imm was
lacking
ext
aly the equip
Mountof Olives
o attack without delay
hermiton
em
“God is all powerful," the hermit
“If He wills, He will storm the
ven with one | yn June 13
ders flung themselves into th
eedlessly that they wo
nt aside the
declar
wall
th
battle so
tides
jans who themselves had captured
the city only the year before—but for a
crucial shortage of scaling ladders. The
leading Christ knij fell back
hand severed from his arm
] ORMORE THAN THREE WEEKS
| the hest waited while two
| giant siege towers were
constructed. Duke Godfrey
f initiated the successful break
On July 15 the siege tower in
which he
th
Beams were run out at rampart height to
make a bridge, and the first knights
charged ac
E
irs were shocked by the terrible massacre
red and pushed to
weakest point of Jerusalem's wall
in their hatd-bitte
contempoi
C
that followed as the maddened crusaders
rn wed through the city in a bloody
catharsis for that appalling, three
journey
“No one hasever seen or heard of such
jaughter of ” recalled one
knight grimly
was full of their dead bodies.” The tem
ple where the Muslims maze their last
ditch stand, he
with their blood.
pagan
Almost the whole city
was "streaming
Uprooted by this century's clash aver the
Holy Land, children of Palestinian refu-
gees huddle next to their family’s eamel-
hair tent in @ camp outside Amman,
Jordan. Their homeland, sacred to Mus-
lims, Christians, and Jews, has long been
history's battlefield.Thoughts ef John the Baptist sustained crusaders as they made trips for water from
Jerusalem through the wilderness to the Jordan River, where the prophet conducted
ministry. Severinand abewe, reached the Holy Land in stertimier—as dict, slowed by bickering among their leaders and detours to plunder thehe siege ended when Godfrey and his knights
overran the ramparts from a tower and stormed
the city. The defenders and their wives and children
were massacred with such ferocity that the victors
“waded in blood up to their ankles.”
364 National Geographic, September 1080A plaque in Jerusalem's Qld City wall “Weeping for jay,” the crusaders secured
the spot where Godfr his the shrine of the Holy Sepulchre (below
od the Satacenderenies, N ;. thought to be the tamb of Jesus Christ
Christendom haited their triumph, ev
Tesocie ale rel : « Mustims plotted to reconquer the Holy
the Christian Kingdom of
hat the
were ultimately unable to held
first hed wenA Bygone Century
Comes to LightMALAWI:
FACES
OFA
QUIET
LANDHEN the Life President of Malawi, Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda,
enters Kamuzui Stadium (on Kamuzu Highway) under the huge sign
“Long Live Kamuzu,” he does so like a conquering hero, In fact
one of his titles—and the name by which he is known in-all the
villages—is Ngwari, Conqueror. His grand entrance is alway
procession of one, and then he is mobbed by a thousand women
dancers, deessed alike in Kamueu-print cloth, who bear him forward along his lap of
honor, while 60,000 Malawians in the stands look on in respectful silence
It is as though he has come from the last century in his formal black suit with a
‘ont and @ wateh chain, a homburg hat, and—the one African accessory—a
swirling fly whisk, which he flourishes likea whip, His style has not changed since
Malawi's indepencence 25 years ago. He is $3 years old, and one of the longest-
serving heads of state in the world
His beliefs too are as old-fashioned and uncompromising as his clothes. He is puri-
tanical in matters of na-
tional dress—he sent out
adecree that all hemlines
in Malawi must come
below the knees and that
long hair on men is. an
aberration. A staunch
Presbyterian, he is an
elder of the Church of
Scotland. Although the
dates are hazy, the
events in Banda’s life are
unusual, and in Malawi
they have acquired an
epie quality—how at the
age of 13 he walked a
thousand miles to South
Africa for an education
(working his way south
menial in. hospital
and a laborer and inter-
preter in amine), Banda
a
as
THE IMAGE of their leader, women dance around Batdaduringa sed the money he had
Mother's Day celebration. A cer whisk proclaims the absolute saved to buy a ticket on a
ity of the diminutive octogenarian. freighter to the United
374
tates, where he earned
the degree of doctor of medicine from Mcharry Medical College in Nashville, Ten
nessee. But that was not the end of his medical studies. He crossed the Atlantic to
Scotland and enrolled at Edinburgh University, and with his British qualification he
practiced medicine—a family doctor greatly estecmed by his patients —first in the
north of England and in the 19403 in London.
He is also a classicist, “No man is truly educated who has not studied the ancient
Greeks and Romans,” he bas said, When he discovered that no school in Malawi
pable of teaching Latin and Greek, he founded Kamuzu Academy, known
as “the Eton of Africa,” where such subjects are required. He is described as
“Founder and Proprietor” of the academy, Along with Newari and Life President,
was ¢
another appropriate title for this tenacious autocrat would be “Founder and Propri-
ctor of Malawi.
Paut THERON, an American novelist and travel writer based in London, has written about
rail Journeys across China and the Indian subcontinent for the GEoGRAPHIC. This ts prize-
winning photographer Ett Reev's debut in the magazin
National Geographic, September 1989I first set eves
and I was.a
Malawi was still Nye
le school outside Limbe. He
been ere nthe floor
de above him. He
litical di
ssophy of the doctor who knows
nade a speech, ittle wooden
and T listened with the en
an. I was
was dressed like amo
tism (his has always been t do-it-my-wa;
best}, and the terror the cabinet m
one made Dr, Banda inc
jescent with but what was most
he gave his speech in English —he had lived away from his
th aps his mother tongue wa:
nd shrieked in Chichewa each time Banda pa:
i Thad only r Howed to.q
en he was heared somewhere in his Rolls-Royce
raffie and p : way for the Cc
wspape
bout—no one was
the party
quired that
ned domine:
pompous, something
jok Ce nly he a
vision of what he wanted
Malawi to become, but te
me stich a vision seen
unattai without an:
ion —th:
was, alter all, the 1960s
T left Malawi in Qetob
hat 0
days were num:
feuk at Sanjike Palace in Blane
ed that Dr, Banda was still the same but th
nsame ways, had Malawi. [saw how his
‘anity than on a constructive use of power and was off a spit
it of publi His hard work and clo with Malawians had been an [r
spiration, His politi and Sou
ic management had produced
Malawians. It had tal
my youth Thad
time to see that
puritanical. The last
tive and quiet-minded
1asen to go oon
go to an atlas to find out where
next to finger-shaped
Ithad on
It textbook
Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malay
paved road, a handful of doctor
et Lan 375‘om, the cou
example of an underdeveloped countr
hyperbole. N
al per capita in
mortality
on people. Onily five Malawians w
adu
medical doc ne of
With a climate that could prod
y, hookworm, =
bitable
endlie
its pov
hts, and frost,
d people afflictec
F
sickness, and malaria, Malawi ought to hi
But it was not. Its people we:
stic I had ever met
rty and its depend a the outside world, Di
wi in power pc | was not one
bors would ar from it, M
ated assertion in Banda’s
the so-called front
was the first Afr
try to estab
Africa, a
arecipient of South
id
at polit
attached
town of Limbe,
chief staple. Sptsrred ty
represented al
in mud huts ar
ble or chair, thei
sent to Malawi, and I have always con:
life
in the way that
wi—its low, rounded hills and h
ts roads of red mud, and the w
me—the “land
ire.” Octe
s0 the month of fir urn method of clearing
g it for cultival at is practiced throughout southern Afr
gave a smoky haze t they were p:
larly dramatic; Whole ranges of f flame wri
and and presideways to the summits, I thought of my students—
of the great distances they walked barefoot to school; ¥
of their mud huts, and the way they studied at night
by the light of greasy candles or oil lamps. I thought: “aA
of their laughter, and the day we planted a litte mebavoa 1
tree in the school yard
What had happened to it all—to the students, to
the trees and roads, to the school itself? What of Dr-
Banda? What happens, anyway, to developing
countries years later? In Africa it aften seemed as
though more of them disintegrated than developed.
T wished Malawi well, and I never stopped wonder
ing about it. The wonder was itself a sort of hope.
$B Patugee setttament arms
apie
i Gomi
‘1 SEEMED TO ME on my return that Malawians
were better dressed but that the woods were
more ragged—the hills showed the effects of
serious deforestation. There were more peo-
ple in evidence: They crowded the roads, they
jammed the buses, they had plowed and plant-
ec most of the visible hillsides, Malawi was no
longer a'country of cyclists; it was.a wilder-
ness of pedestrians. The population had dow-
bled. It now stood at more than eight million,
not including some 650,000 refugees from the
guerrilla war in Mozambique. Per capita income
had increased to $160, but buying power was
about the same, or less. More people wore shoes,
Some aspects of Malawi seemed eternal. The market
traders still sold love potions and smoked fish and fried
locusts, as well as elegant baskets and sturdy sandals made
from rubber tires. Malawi's cash erops— peanuts, ter, coffee,
sugarcane, and tobacco —were unchanged, though their value on
the world market continued to fluctuate,
‘The aroma of woodsmoke still hung over the countryside, and
except for the people in the few main towns, Malawians still lived
in mud huts with grass roofs and worked as subsistence farmers,
‘The tractor was still not common in Malawi, nor was the television
set, Censorship was fairly brisk and forbade the propagandistic
China Reconstructs as well as the erotic Kama Sutva and the novels
of Emile Zola and Vindimir Nabokov. The telephone directory for
the entire country was not much thicker than this copy of NaTIONAL
GEOGRAPHIC.
After arriving as the liberator of Malawi, Dr. Banda was still president. ‘These
days in his speeches he stresses the need for what he calls “the three essentials" —
food, decent clothing, and a house with a roof that doesn't leak. It seems a modest
proposal for a political program.
Great importance is given in Malawi ta respectability—to looking decent and
behaving politely, Four signs on the heights of Kamuzu Stadium are jettered Unity,
Loyalty, Discipline, and Obedience. It is very much a churchgoing country,
practically every religion and sect represented, from Islam, Roman Catholicism, and
Hinduism, to Methodism, the Assemblies of God, and Jimtny Swaggart Ministries.
‘The Jehovah's Witnesses were banned by the government and persecuted by the
Malawi Young Pioneers, a paramilitary unit of Dr. Banda's Malawi Congress Par-
ty, for their refusal to join the ruling party. ‘There is only one party, Dr. Banda is
Malawi. Faces af a Quiet Land a7idence of AIDMORNING SHA
Rift Valley syst
pl
jes aquariums around the world with unique species of tropical fish
president for life, and parliament, for all its English wigs and knee breeches, is little
more than [Link] stamp for lis policies and prograi
“They call me @ dictator,” Banda bas sald. “But if'so, then I am.a dictator by the
people, for the people, and of the people." Wher I first heard that saying 23
ago, I thought it was a joke. It has proved to be a political credo, and it seems to
have worked. Even with all of Malawi's disadvantages of being landlocked, with
little industry or raw materials and an essentially agricultural economy, the country
has remained stable and orderly and good-tempered.
RESIDENT BANDA’s biickground as 4 physician has given him insights into the
medical problems that face the country. Leprosy has been just about elimi.
nated, and what malnutrition exists is chiefly due to misunderstanding
Malawi is able to feed itself. There is a large teaching hospital in Lilongwe
called, unsurprisingly, Kamut Central Hospital—where on Banda’s initiative &
scheme for training para-
medics was started
One of these clinical
officers, as they are
called, is Ben Kadzola,
who received his second
ary school education
from Peace Corps volun-
teers in the 19605 and.
went on to complete a
folur-year course at
Kamuzu Central
“T can pull teeth,” he
says, “Tcan do appen-
dectomies, Tean clean
and stitch wounds, | can
deliver babies and do
many other medical
jobs.” He runsa health
center in Limbe, where
nereal diseases are a
problem: “Fift
refreshes « fisherman at Lake Malawt. Part of the Great ad
Africa’s third largest loke generates tourism and sup: five other health conte
was been recog-
nized as # serious problem in Malawi and is currently being studied by the World
Health Organization (WHO), which recently tested a 20 percent sample af blood
transfusions from high-risk patients and discovered one in five to be infected with
the HIV virus. In February 1988 South Africa deported a thousand black migrant
workers who were carrying the AIDS virus: The majority of these men were Mala-
wians, At that time Malawi had not yet admitted the problem, Now there are AIDS
posters in most public places, saying, “Have a Safe Journey—Don't Come Back
with AIDS" and “Despite the Pleasure AIDS isa Killer.”
Tasked Kadzola about AIDS. He told me he got two or three suspected AIDS
casesa menth, but that he did not treat them—he referred them to the main Queen
Elizabeth Hospital, The symptoms he looked for were similar in some ways ta those
associated with tuberculosis—sudden weight loss, continuous fever, general malaise,
and enlarged lymph glands, but without the chest pains and the cough,
Ben Kadzola was typical of many former students of the Peace Corps I met on my
return visit. He considered that he'd had a good education, he was serious about h
Nationai Geographic, September 1989he spoke Ex
iho
Malawi school system under way, and to p
nations, Kadzola wa
dren—and, as he rem
Population growth
large families h:
one can entirely explain
, his wife i:
one of Ma
¢ birthrate at more th
Mal:
wi's infant-mort
birth
mpared with 7? per
South Africa.
So far only m: efforts hi
prosperous with fewer children
Jo have a high birthrate in Malawi,"
medical officer in the
Ministry of Health. “We
ce it by
would like to re
spacing births or by limit
ing th
It was Dr. Ntaba whe
told meoft
leprosy, but he sa
both tub
laria contine
reats. Sere
ust ning for
tu
ried out
being stud
cally by a multinational
ulosis is being car
emati-
team of experts.
One the great
this coun
S. Ambas
e Trail TI
their prablems, they don't
then. They face YOunGsare
typical in another way: He
taught him. He did not regard his Peace Corps
ican foreign policy —they were people who c
re the students for t
had a ve
till of childbearin:
n3
000 for Zimbabwe
id U
ty rate,
2 to Malay
cent @ year
and 75 per 1
ince Mal:
S.-trained Hi
00 for
of every American
san aspect of
work, to get the
rucial exami
nine chil
awi's most serious problems, but the pridein
A statistic tha
which is 150 per 1,00
cks in
ted
bassador Trail says that his ex¢ nee in Mala: the most
satisfying of his career: “Malaw steful for the aid they get (some 25 million
pllars from the U. S, annually], They don't waste it, they put it to good use, and
why it keeps comin
en housed inn
have been integrated into existing villages, A
Land medical atte
antind
nts fi
auth of Lilongwe the
Land
warped and turned
mbered hu
c necessary than now
And for this orderlin
tra
n Malawi and Mozambii
ea, quadrupling ship
Another counts
antagonistic. No
at resettlement centers ot
nsus is taken regularly,
and hosp
1m the United Nations and aic
dd refugees
ality Malawi
uintries
al position of
land to the west of
upland pieoy
biquethe road isa foreign country. It is on this road, near the town of Ncheu, that one of
the large settlement areas is situated —hill after hill of newly daubed mud huts
“Twill go home when it is safe to do so,” one Mozambican said to me. He was
holding his small daughter, He said his wife and two other children had been killed
by the antigovernment guerrillas, allegedly supported by South Africa.
He did not deny that there were many refugees who still had vegetable gardens
across the border and that they entered Mozambique to tend them, returning to
Malawi to receive the flour and beans that are stacked in bags nearby —fifts of the
United States and West Germany.
The tefugee settlement near Neheu did not have the temporary look expected.
It seemed like a poor, but not deprived, village. Several refugees complained that
they were being confined there —that Malawi policemen rounded them up when they
tried to leave [Link] work
Officer Patrick Mzungu (in Chichewa his
ne Theans “white man") of the Main-
wi police told me that
there was. ten o'clock
curfew in- most of Mala-
though it
ot strictly enforced.
e refugees,
zungu said, “If we
didn't keep them in the
camps, these people
would travel throughou
the country, taking jobs
and staying forever
Walking through the
Neheu area, I marveled
at the organization that
ensured that these thou
sands of refugees were
fed, clothed, housed, and
even taught. The food
distribution was less im:
pressive to me than the
ight of about 70 young-
vouched inside a
large metal-roofed hut
d school one sweltering day, all
writing carefully on
rithmetic lesson, but the class was as attentive and rever-
ALONE ON THE WATCH, a youngster wards off the chill of dusk before head.
ing home with his family's cattle, Far most Malawians, childhood is the
onset of a life of werk, providing little chance to atte
scraps of paper. It was an
ential as at a church service
“The refugees have been a blessing in disguise,” an old student of mine, Wyse
Mambo, told me. “Malawi was brought to the attention of the world and was seen
as having a helpful and responsible attitude.”
ALAWI was my first experience of the world outside America —but nothing
in Malawi was related to home: It was not just the tea planters and the
tobacco farmers, living on remote estates, or the mostly white clubs with
their cricket pitches and billiard rooms and afternoon te
Most of all it was the Africans. I had ne n people with so few possessions
and such high hopes. My classes wert made up of skinny barefoot children who
wanted to be doctors or lawyers, They had impressive audacity and ansbitia
seemed to come from nowhere; like waits through the mist on cald Mal
ings, and they were claiming their place in the world.
382 National Geographic, September 1989The homework in their copybooks always smelled of woodsmoke and the mid-
night oil of the lamps in their huts. They had beautiful handwriting—it was-one of
the legacies of the mission school system. They remained good-humored and atten-
tive all day—it was very rare to have discipline problems. Their English was fine,
and it improved and became Americanized in the two years that T taught them.
‘They were studious and hopeful. The very nature of Dr. Banda’s rule meant that
they did not harbor any political ambitions, and, because of that, teaching them was
joy. It was a country in which people were afflicted by tropical diseases and had a
life expectancy of 38 years. I wanted my students to live long and healthy lives, and
for them to be happ:
I had first met them in the rainy season of 1964, when they were barefoot children
in their mid-teens. Boys and girls alike tended to shaye their heads, for the simplicity
of baldness and because of lice. What a pleasure it was for me 23 years later to sce
that they were still alive, still well and happy, and that they had families and jobs.
Little spindly legged
William Bvumbwe was
now x heavysetman of 40,
& purchasing officer with
@ Blantyre oil company
and the father of three.
Wyse Mambo worked for
Portland Cement. Pretty
Chrissie Nzumwa was a
community-development
officer with four children,
Norah Malinki had. be-
come a teacher, Golden
Makata made orthopedic
shoes, solemn Matthias
Kaunjika worked in the
Department of Informa-
tion, and math whiz:
Frank Kunje was in the
Department of Income
Tax. Itwasall good news.
None of them had struck
it rich, but they were all SWE8T OFFERING of cor passes from child to mother asthey wait to see a
doing well. Yet wanted Sditional healer. In a nation proud of large famities, disease and malnu
ja heartt fron teen trition take the ves of 15 of every 100 children during infancy.
William Bvumbwe
spoke for them: “Weare better off than at the time of independence. Malawi is uni-
fied and peaceful.”
I was gladdened but not surprised to learn that one of my former teaching col-
Jeagues, Sam Kakhobwe, had risen to the top, and after senior posts in the treasury
and as ambassador to Zambia, Ethiopia, and West Germany he had become the
highest civil servant in the country, secretary to the president and the cabinet
“When Twas 12 years old," Sam said in his Blantyre office, "T used to stand out-
side the tennis courts at the Blantyre Sports Club over there" —he pointed out of
‘the window. “I used to throw the balls back when they went over the fence, and 1
always hoped at the end of the day that I would find one to play with at home. Some
days I watched rugby at Limbe, looking through the fence.”
He could have spoken bitterness, because these were white clubs, white
teams in a British protectorate controlled and dominated by « handful of white
farmers and bureaucrats; instead, he was smiling out the window, with a fondness
for the innocence of the happy memory.
Malawi; Faces of a Quiet Land 383