The Diana Files – The Huntress-Traveller Through History
By Fiona Claire Capstick
A huge summer storm poured inches of rain over the highveld, but we were snug over tea or gin-tonics in Johannesburg’s Westcliff Hotel bar, the Polo Lounge. It was hard to tell which emitted greater energy – the amazing, unstoppable Fiona Capstick or the wind and lightning raging outside.
Fiona’s 360-page masterpiece, The Diana Files – The Huntress-Traveller Through History, published by the ever prestigious, quality conscious Rowland Ward, is the fruit of persistence of character, sincere enthusiasm for the subject, years of research and writing, and great care finding the right publisher. Yes, even the well-connected Fiona, who has both a New York literary agent and her foot in the door with top houses, had to fight to preserve her vision of the integrity of the book. Jane Halse and Brian Marsh turned out to be the best partners in this endeavor because they have allowed the book its full span – from discussing women as hunters in gatherer-hunter cultures through to SCI’s Diana Award, and virtually EVERYTHING in between: ancient Egypt, feudal Europe, the hunting queens of Europe, Victorian stag-stalking and tiger-hunting ladies, explorers and the huntress-settlers of Kenya, right up to the 21 st century and Joan Gordon who wrote the Foreword to The Diana Files. She puts it best: “Fiona’s descriptions make the mind walk right into the situation as if the reader were living the adventures of the courageous women in this book.”
Only someone with Fiona’s tenacity and organization could also have succeeded in assembling this once-in-a-lifetime photo gallery that is one of many of the great pleasures of this book. There are dozens of fascinating black and white images of all the ladies with their wild animals, weapons, and dogs – even their stylized studio portraits. There are also 24 colour pages of us, the “modern” huntress-travellers.
Fiona recounts with style and intelligence the compelling lifelines of these ladies. Putting aside the great reading about huntresses under the Raj, in Alaska and the Caucasus, Tibet and Nepal, a nice chunk of the book is devoted to Africa, The Great Adventure. It is a virtual Who’s Who of the explorer, filmmaker, sporting spouse, farming and writing huntresses of Africa. If she existed, she exists in these pages.
Fiona tells in depth the often-overlooked story of elephant-hunting Delia Akeley, first wife of Carl Akeley, the father of modern taxidermy. Delia backed him up with her .256 Mannlicher Schoenauer and heroically rescued her wounded husband under unimaginable circumstances, only to subsequently destroy her marriage because of her obsessive love of her pet vervet monkey that literally tore her life apart. Delia became a successful expedition leader in her own right, collector/huntress, taxidermist, and authority on African wildlife and peoples. She died in 1970 at age 95.
The more familiar stories of Florence Baker, Karen Blixen, Vivienne de Watteville and Mary Kingsley are refreshingly narrated. To Beryl Markharm’s story, only Fiona could add: “The Africans on the Clutterbuck farm where she was raised belonged to the Kipsigi ethnic group and spoke Kalenjin, a Nilo-Saharan language and the mother tongue of several closely allied Rift Valley ethnic groups, especially the Nandi.”
Even with figures like buffalo-charge-provoking filmmaker Osa Johnson, I found many stories I had never heard: her being granted a big-game hunting license in Tanganyika, simultaneously making the Twelve Best Dressed Women list, probably wearing the first “jungle chic,” and her ruined and sodden end. I did not know that on Isak Dinesen’s first safari with her husband, Bror Blixen, she shot 44 head of game of 20 different species with her .256. I also learned that Edward VIII had been the man-hungry Beryl Markham’s lover long before Wallis Simpson got hold of him, and that she received a “remittance” from the Crown from 1929 until her death in 1986 just to stay away from the future King of Great Britain!
A quick summary of just a few of the African huntresses covered:
Cara Buxton, who arrived alone in Africa at 35 and traveled mostly on foot from Cairo to Nairobi in 1910. She supported herself training teams of oxen for plough or wagon.
Elizabeth Cross, “the matriarch of three of the most respected families in African big-game hunting, wildlife conservation and farming, the Craigs, the Powys and the Dyers.”
Kathleen Seth-Smith, the mother of the noted safari figure Tony Seth-Smith. Although Kathleen was gored by a rhino, six weeks later she undertook a 300-mile safari on foot. Her worthy .275 and .350 bolt-action rifles went on auction at Sotheby’s in September 2001.
Rose Cartwright, a friend of Denys Finch Hatton since childhood, who became Bror Blixen’s assistant PH and briefly held Rowland Ward’s record for eastern bongo.
Lady Gwladys Markham, who became the second Lady Delamere and the Mayor of Nairobi. She hunted plains game, elephant, rhino, hippo and lion with her first husband and Bror Blixen in Uganda, Sudan, and the eastern Belgian Congo.
Celia Salmon, who successfully hunted between 40 to 50 bull elephants in Uganda.
Mary Hastings Bradley, who accompanied Carl Akeley in 1921 on his gorilla
expedition along with her husband, 5-year-old daughter and the nanny. The author of Caravans and Cannibals (1926), she was probably the first western white woman to see gorilla.
The practical Diane Strickland, author of Through the Belgian Congo (1922) and witness to atrocities in that vast country.
Gabrielle Vassal, who accompanied her doctor husband on expeditions through French Equatorial Africa.
Edith Cecil-Porch for whom “the safari was more one of the spirit, of self-discovery in congenial company, of self-sufficiency.”
The extraordinary Margaret Trappe – the first and only female PH on the East
African Professional Hunters Scroll whose life story is due a full biography.
The incredible Polish-born East African PHs and outfitters Laddy and Ada Wincza, authors of Bush and Plains (Amwell Press, 1983). (In December 2004 I was thrilled to meet face-to-face the still charming 91-year-old Ada and her daughter Eva in their Rowland Ward store in Sandton, South Africa.)
What is exceptional about Fiona’s writing is her ability to set each life into its historical context using all kinds of interesting information and asides. For example, in the chapter on the Herbert Cousins who traveled alone on camel through British Somaliland in 1905 hunting gerenuk, Speke’s gazelle, Somali oryx, lion and black rhino, she neatly sums up the geo-political history of the region, the significance of the fact that British Somaliland was administered by the government of India until 1898, and the society into which the ladies ventured. “They were entering a country populated by a bewildering mix of nomadic clans and sub-clans with very highly developed oral traditions, especially concerning genealogy. Most of the people were of Cushitic origin, some clans straddling the border with Ethiopia. Other clans could trace their roots to a common ancestor, Samaal, hence the name Somalia.” Fiona doesn’t neglect mentioning that the Herberts carried three 12-bore shotguns and a .410, two double-barrelled .500 Express rifles, three Winchester rifles, and a single-barreled .350, plus a 12-bore “shikar” pistol.
Few other “hunting” writers provide such an abundance of valuable background information to fans of safari – or Shikar – life. For example:
*Nairobi is from the Maasai “Ngari N’Enrobi,” the Place of Cold Water after the nearby river.
*The ports of the Kenya coast were settled by the Shirazi people of south-western Iran and Arabs from southern Arabia.
*The word “safari” is from the Arabic word “safara” meaning to travel. Already in use in Nairobi by 1906 to describe a hunting trip, it was Theodore Roosevelt’s book, African Game Trails (1910) that spread its use around the world.
Fiona also seeks evidence of women’s greater sensitivity to the “greater” story behind each safari – the people, the weather, their awareness of the importance of conserving nature for the future, their understanding of the “why” of hunting, and how hunting transformed them and their lives.
For Karen Blixen, writes Fiona: “Hunting was a sensuous and intellectual experience. It followed the rituals of seduction – identifying and appreciating the prey, stalking it with patience and knowledge, finally possessing it through the kill.” Blixen herself described safari life: “It makes you forget all your sorrows and feel the whole time as if you had drunk half a bottle of champagne – bubbling over with heartfelt gratitude for being alive.”
Ultimately, Fiona’s description of the impact of hunting on Blixen’s life applies to many of these women: “The hunt had helped mould her character and interaction with life. Her talent germinated in Africa and has become the legacy of the world.”
Although not herself a huntress, the same could be said of Mrs. Peter Capstick. Fiona, I have always applauded you; this time, I want to stand up and cheer.
The multilingual Fiona Capstick studied modern languages in South Africa, Italy, France and Germany. A former officer attached to military intelligence in the South African armed forces as a translator and interpreter, Fiona is a sworn translator for the High Court of South Africa. The widow of author Peter Capstick, Fiona is also the co-author with Adelino Serras Pires of The Winds of Havoc: A Memoir of Adventure and Destruction in Deepest Africa .
The Diana Files contains outstanding reference material – rare in a “hunting” book:
* a first-class map of Africa with the List of Former and Current African Place Names - perfect for those of us who forget which countries made up French Equatorial Africa (Chad, CAR and Gabon); which Congo is which: Belgian Congo, the former Zaire, is now the Democratic Republic of Congo; French Congo, now Chad, the Central African Republic and Gabon; or Congo Brazzaville, now The Republic of Congo;
*a glossary for the meaning and origin of every “foreign” word that appears in the
text from dibáltig (Somali) to jodhpur (Hindi) with kikoi, nabob, and sudd in between; plus the proper spelling of the Muslim greeting Salaam Aleikum (Peace be with you) and the Muslim Holy book, the Qur’an;
*a select bibliography worthy of a dissertation, and;
*a first-class INDEX so the reader can trace wherever Lord Delamere appears in a lady’s life, or who hunted in the Ituri forest.
Some Interesting Facts from The Diana Files.Sidebar “By 1905 two Australians, Victor Newland and Leslie Tarton, had established the
first professional safari outfitting company in Africa. Carl Akeley was reputed to
have been their first client.”
“A system of game laws, licences and fines, with origins in the ‘Queen’s Regulations’ of 1897, had been promulgated in 1902 by Blayney Percival, British East Africa’s first game warden.”
“Paul du Chaillu, the eccentric French-American explorer, was the first white person on record to have hunted a gorilla. This occurred in 1856 in what is today the Republic of Gabon.”
“’Boy’ refers to a native male servant, be he an adult or a youngster. The usage in colonial Africa is traced back to the Telegu and Malayal languages of southern Indian and their word, boyi, a palankin-bearer, a special servant, and to a similar word in Hindi, bhoi. The word found its way into English usage in the early 17 th century when the British first established a presence in India. The use of the word was not triggered by unfettered racism but by the borrowing of an Indian expression in situ for servants.”
Unforgettable Quotes.
“If I should wish anything back of my life, it would be to go on safari once again with Bror Blixen.” Karen Blixen
“The essence of elephant-hunting is discomfort in such lavish proportions that only the wealthy can afford it.” Beryl Markham
“Elephant are never within three miles of camp. It’s hardly cricket that they should be.” Beryl Markham
“I thought how curious it is that the people who love animals most are often they that hunt them. There are the maddening theorists in the world who will not admit such a paradox. Yet who knows more of the ways of birds and beasts than the gamekeeper? … We hunt what we love because we want to posses it.” Vivienne de Watteville.
The Diana Files , published by Rowland Ward, exists in three editions: the sturdy Standard Edition ($70/60 Euros); the signed and slipcased Collector’s Edition ($115/95 Euros); and the 26-copy Remarque Edition ($200/170 Euros).