This is the blog for the Bentari Project.
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Paul Robeson [1] died in 1976, the year I graduated from college. I first began admiring him on a school day afternoon in the early 1960s. One of his movies was featured on an after-school TV matinee. It was Sanders of the River , a 1935 British film [2] . Paul did not play the title character “Sanders”. But he did receive top billing as “Bosambo”,...
Read full postSaturday, January 29, 2011
During my early teen-age years, I noticed how active mom was in our community for causes such as fair housing, peace and putting an end to racial discrimination. She often welcomed many people of color to our home for luncheons and meetings—one of whom was the irrepressible Bobbi Gary [1] . Bobbi’s life shines for us and brightens our path toward b...
Read full postFriday, January 28, 2011
As a small boy, I had no black friends because there were no black families in my neighborhood. We lived a stone’s throw from Laurelhurst Park, where the cozy homes were all painted different cheerful colors, but the people who lived in them were all white. The fact that only white folks lived in our neighborhood did not seem unusual to me—when I w...
Read full postSaturday, January 22, 2011
In the story of Bentari, many historical events are important parts of the backdrop. The main conflict is between German soldiers during WWII and native people living an ancient tribal lifestyle. Some events are mentioned with attention to historical accuracy, e.g. how Hitler wrote Mein Kampf, the general way in which Hitler’s National Youth progra...
Read full postThursday, January 20, 2011
Steve Siegel was a good friend and tennis partner for several years until he moved back to Chicago and we fell out of touch. In Portland, Steve was an EPA attorney and, later, an elementary school teacher. He was an activist for animal rights. As volunteers, Steve and I each gathered 1,000 petition signatures in the effort to ban steel-jawed leg-ho...
Read full postSunday, January 16, 2011
Bill Wallauer is a wildlife video photographer. I had the great pleasure of meeting Bill [1] . Lately, I have re-united with him through the magic of Facebook! Some time ago, we corresponded the old-fashioned way after Bill kindly read Bentari . Thanks, Bill. Gombe5 March 2000Dear Tim,Thank you so much for the Christmas Card(s). It was very kind of...
Read full postSaturday, January 08, 2011
Bentari is a book about Africa and a book about heroes and an adventure tale about battling steep odds. It is a book about a community with ancient customs and the challenges to sticking together that people face—especially through hard times. Bentari is a book that recognizes all times are hard. Were it not for a few brave individuals and their he...
Read full postSaturday, January 01, 2011
Thanks to our friends Robert Briggs and Diana Saltoon-Briggs for introducing me to the work and adventures of Beryl Markham. We met Bob and Diana at Tabor Space [1] listening to Bob read poetry to jazz. [2] These are two enlightened people who continue to teach many of us about peaceful, balanced ways—lifestyles for true success where wealth is mea...
Read full postWednesday, December 29, 2010
One reason I loved Beryl Markham’s book West With the Night [1] was her passionate treatment of animals. In chapter 9, she puts us all in our place with this neat passage told from the perfect point of view—an animal looking down, or up, on us humans. “To an eagle or to an owl or to a rabbit, man must seem a masterful and yet a forlorn animal; he h...
Read full postMonday, December 27, 2010
Here is a sample of some beautiful writing by a heroic woman—Beryl Markham, [1] who grew up in eastern Africa during the colonial era that is the backdrop for Bentari . Beryl Markham’s book West With the Night [2] is so beautifully written that Ernest Hemingway lavishly praised her writing skill. From West With the Night , ch. 7—“Praise God for the...
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