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EarthLove: Chronicles of the Rainforest War
EarthLove Chronicles of the Rainforest War ISBN: 978-2-940573-35-6 Description There is a war to save the rainforests of Borneo. EarthLove chronicles the history of the global conservation movement and exposes battles pitting ego and greed versus noble intentions. Who has the power to stop the rape of the tropical rainforests? Rich, athletic, virile Senator Rod […]
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BRUNO MANSER: Swiss “Robin Hood” back from the dead
This short article is inspired by EarthLove. The book is fiction, the issues are real. BRUNO MANSER Swiss “Robin Hood” back from the dead Bruno Manser is a minor character in EarthLove, but his real-life story is the stuff of legend. He disappeared in the Borneo rainforest in May 2000 and has been declared dead. […]
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Enhancing the Narrative
A historian quickly learns there is little absolute truth. The authors of personal memoirs and observer narratives enhance, misremember (sometimes deliberately), censor, and leave out chunks of information.
Rarely, though, do historians try to go beyond the facts and speculate on the emotions, intentions, and psychological motivations of their research subjects.
As a fun exercise, I’ve created several “imagined conversations” between Alfred Russel Wallace and his assistant Ali, based on tidbits of information and provocative clues found in Wallace’s narratives.
What’s His Name?
Why should we care about an illiterate 19th-century teenager from Borneo named Ali? More to the point, why should we spend time trying to learn his full name?
A lad simply named Ali, spent six years travelling with Alfred Russel Wallace throughout Southeast Asia.
The primary source for information about Ali comes from Wallace, who mentions Ali 42 times in his classic book The Malay Archipelago and again in his autobiography My Life. In addition, there are three elements of (convincing) second-hand evidence that add context to Ali’s life, but none of them mention Ali’s family name. Spenser St. John, a close friend of James Brooke, the first White Rajah of Borneo, employed a competent young cook named Ali, and it appears that Ali left St. John’s service to work with Wallace. Brothers Frederick and Arthur Boyle, young English adventurers who explored Sarawak, hired Ali as guide and camp manager. They called him Ali Kasut, Ali of the Shoes, in recognition of the black leather shoes he always wore. And in 1907, Thomas Barbour, a respected American naturalist, met a “wizened od Malay man” on Ternate island who called himself Ali Wallace. The idea that Ali described himself as son-of-Wallace is poignant, but doesn’t help with genealogical research.
What I learned by writing an “enhanced biography” of a little-known 19th-century teenager from Borneo
“Look Here, Sir, What a Curious Bird” What I learned by writing an “enhanced biography” of a little-known 19th-century teenager from Borneo Consider the lives of great men and women who explored the curious corners of the world, who made momentous discoveries in science and technology, who created important works of art. We can safely […]