A Rock and a Hard Place
Page 22
Some weeks later, the two other responses came in at almost the same time, one from Britain and the other from Australia. Each carried an apology, saying the professors had been on vacation.
I had bitten my fingernails short by then. It seemed a long time between the delivery of my first review and that of the second and third.
Both had comments, and both provided the magic sentence: They had no objection to awarding a doctorate degree to me. One letter said, “Your conclusions ring true, like the sound of the hard metabasite rock you hit.” I’ve never forgotten that.
The bell of victory had pealed.
* * *
My first opportunity to notify the geological community of my findings came when I presented a paper at the Eighteenth Congress of the Geology Society of South Africa. The congress was held in Johannesburg. Geologists from all over South Africa attended, as did interested scientists from all over the globe.
As the day of my presentation neared, the memory of the disastrous lecture I had given at UCT two years before haunted me. The image of Afrikaner Joost and Professor NASA was clear in my mind. The very thought made me feel clammy. It was like returning to the rack. I didn’t want to go through that humiliation again.
I bolstered myself, knowing I had worked hard and others supported my conclusions. Given that, I was ready to go back into hand-to-hand combat.
Martin asked me to prepare the lecture and give him a trial run. He liked it and made a few clever suggestions for improvement, but it was to be my responsibility all the way.
The conference day came, and I sat in the auditorium with Martin and about sixty other scientists in the audience. A current member of the PRU preceded me in the program—none other than Alan, the student I’d met in the field just before I left Cape Town, and whom Afrikaner Joost had brought to the university. I listened while thinking of my own speech. He referenced Joost’s incorrect findings as if they were true, as he’d suggested he would years earlier.
At last, my name was announced. I stood.
“Good luck,” Martin mumbled, probably as nervous as I was. He had taken a chance accepting me as a student in view of the problems I’d had, and this was where the rubber met the road. I walked onto the stage and to the podium. To the side, a projection screen would display images of my slides.
I swept my eyes across the gathering. My gaze settled on Afrikaner Joost and Professor NASA, sitting close and whispering. Jesus, they are smirking at me again.
I began to speak. I introduced my field areas as background and noted the data I had collected. Soon I relaxed and my words came easily, flowing out in a logical fashion. I had practiced the speech many times, and I knew I was right. My voice was strong; and at six foot three, I dominated the stage.
The audience followed my reasoning that Joost’s published conclusions had to be wildly at odds with reality. All was quiet; people gave me their full attention as I continued. Many of them had heard about the conflict. You could hear a pin drop. I gestured to underscore my points. Several times I stepped to the side of the podium to emphasize the slides projected on the screen. Still the audience sat in what seemed like rapt attention.
After ten minutes of speaking, I found it in me to look directly at Joost and Professor NASA. If I could face a leopard, I thought, I can face them.
I held eye contact until they looked away.
I concluded my presentation and asked if there were questions. There was not one. No objections, no request for clarification, nothing. Silence. I don’t think anyone moved.
“Thank you,” I said. It was like pulling a plug. The audience applauded without hesitation.
I walked back to my seat.
Martin sat straight in his chair and smiled broadly. “You’re glowing,” he told me.
After the program, the head of the geology department at UN-P, Professor Don Hunter, came to me and extended his hand. “Nothing wrong with that speech,” he said.
I’ll never forget those moments. I had won.
As for Joost, he ignored me. He seemed almost indifferent. I got the strangest feeling he hadn’t understood what I’d said.
“You know why he did that?” Joost apparently said to another geology staff member of his department when he returned to UCT. “He did it to get back at me.”
Joost was still trying to avoid reality. He couldn’t face that he was wrong. The final crushing weight of that immoral situation was finally lifted from my shoulders. My life could go on. The slate was cleared of what should never have been.
I submitted an article on my findings to the international journal Precambrian Research, whose external editors reviewed it and then published it in issue 13, 1980, pages 253–274. I fully named and acknowledged my friends as I promised; it would remain available as a reference forever.
That summer, I received my PhD degree at a ceremony at the University of Natal. The dean of the faculty of science tapped me on the head with his mortarboard, and with that tap, I held a degree that no one could take away from me—a dream begun in my youth, fulfilled.
* * *
During my years in southern Africa, I wandered in the Transkei, Cape Province, prohibited diamond-bearing areas, the Elephant Coast, and the Wild Coast. I mixed with the Xhosa, Zulus, witchdoctors, white traders, and Afrikaners. I filled a treasure chest with adventures, some of which I’ve shared. Many more remain locked inside me.
A few weeks after receiving my degree, I heard about an old abandoned mine hidden in the Transkei hills that might contain gold. I’d been accepted as a lecturer at a nearby university and had just finished teaching for the semester.
Ever dreaming, I packed the geology department Land Rover and headed off to talk to trader Henry about it.
Epilogue
Dr. Martin P. A. Jackson later joined the University of Texas at Austin, and over the course of more than thirty years became the world’s foremost authority on salt tectonics. He founded the Applied Geodynamics Laboratory at UT Austin, which is widely considered the world’s premier institution for salt tectonic research. Described as a brilliant man not afraid to take a chance, he was not only my advisor but also my friend. Much to my great sadness, he died May 31, 2016.
Patrick went on to become a well-respected senior geologist working for major mining companies. He chased gold, copper, lead, zinc, tin, and tantalite deposits over most of southern Africa until he decided in the late 1990s to immigrate with his family to Australia, where he lives now. He didn’t complete all the studies he wanted to at the PRU, which bothered him. But someone told him, “Don’t look back, you’re not going that way,” and that—along with his fine character—kept him focused on the present. We remain the best of friends.
Catina completed her MSc in geochemistry. She remains a well-known champion of the environment and women’s rights in southern Africa.
George Swanson died some twenty-five years after I met him at the age of seventy-two, when he was still spry and agile. His son is CEO of George Swanson Enterprises (Pty) Ltd, which continues to be located at the Swansons’ Springbok home I’d come to know and respect.
Afrikaner Joost continued on a few more years until he retired. The PRU was then merged into the geology department at UCT.
Professor NASA returned to the United States, where he lectured in geology at a major university and, lugging around his list of publications, became an emeritus professor.
South Africa, after a long struggle waged by the African National Congress and other activists, saw discriminatory laws begin to disappear from 1990 onward until 1994, when all ethnic groups were allowed political representation in the country’s democracy. Poverty and inequality continue to be widespread, but the country has the second-highest economy in Africa and is considered a middle power in international affairs.
Rhodesia’s Robert Mugabe became prime minister in 1980 and president in 1987, a position he held until 2017. He was considered by many to be a dictator; his country has suffered profound economic and
social decline.
Mozambique held its first multiparty elections in 1994. It remains one of the poorest and most underdeveloped countries in the world.
After graduation, I lectured for the next six years on subjects like metamorphic petrology and structural geology at the University of Durban–Westville in South Africa. Martin Jackson and I published a chapter focused on my work in the book Precambrian Tectonics Illustrated (E. Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, Germany, 1984), coedited by Alfred Kröner, University of Mainz, Germany. Martin, Don Hunter, and four others published the book Crustal Evolution of Southern Africa: 3.8 Billion Years of Earth History (Springer-Verlag, 1982), in which my findings were significantly noted.
After leaving South Africa, I returned to the United States and entered the business world. This led to prolonged environmental work in Russia and Kazakhstan in the wild 1990s when the Soviet Union disintegrated. I started my own company there in the early 2000s and ran it until I moved to Thailand in 2015 to continue writing this book and others concerning my adventures. After traveling for more than fifty years, in mid-2017 I returned to the United States with my Kazakh wife and child.
Reading Group Guide
1.The author tells us that his heroes were “men like James Fenimore Cooper, Jules Verne, David Livingstone, Mark Twain, and Sven Hedin.” How do these men fit with the lifestyle George has chosen? Who are your heroes and how do they fit into your life choices?
2.The author vividly describes the surrounding landscapes throughout the book. Based on his descriptions, how do you think he felt about the African environment?
3.This story takes place in South Africa during the apartheid period, and the author has several experiences with the local rules and culture surrounding this. How did he deal with it? Do you agree with his reactions? Would you have dealt with this differently?
4.Although most of George’s outside research was conducted in solitude, it is obvious from the text that he is curious about people and has a generous heart. What are some examples of where the text shows this side of him?
5.Many of his stories and descriptions have a humorous tone and may have caused you to smile or even laugh out loud. Which ones were your favorites?
6.Instances of George’s curiosity and imagination are woven into this narrative from beginning to end. One example occurs when, while reading The Lord of the Rings, George discovers some termite nests, and he compares them to Hobbit homes. What are some other examples in the story where George demonstrates his vivid imagination?
7.A Rock and a Hard Place is unusual in that the author is studying for his PhD while experiencing these adventures. He shares many details about geology with the reader. What did you learn about geology that you didn’t know before?
8.In chapter 6, George first discovers that the area he was supposed to be studying had no “zones,” which refuted the previous researcher’s claims. As he and Catina discuss this, she advises him to use caution, “They will not want you to show they were irresponsible to accept such erroneous work. Rocks can drop down well with no splash.” Have you ever been in a situation where you had to avoid stepping on toes? How did you handle it?
9.In chapter 7, George hears a story about a Bushman being hunted and killed by an Afrikaner’s father. What parallels do you see between this situation and American history?
10.In chapter 11, Patrick and George encounter a dying gemsbok, whom they name The Lady. Several themes run through this story, including compassion and the circle of life. What did you think about this story? Would you have put the gemsbok out of her misery? Have you ever had an encounter with a dying animal?
11.Throughout the book, George continues his research while deliberating how to confront Afrikaner Joost with his findings. What personality trait does he demonstrate with this story? How would you have handled the situation if you had been George?
12.Bonus Question: The author has left a very pointed message for one of his aggressors hidden as a character in his story. Only those intimately involved in his predicament would instantly recognize this clue. Who—or what—do you think this is? Can you identify it?
Acknowledgments
My highest respect, regard, and thanks to Professor Th. G. Sahama, Dr. M. P. A. Jackson, Professor D. R. Hunter, James McDaid, and Paula Cardoso. Educators and friends, what would the world be like without good people like you?
Years ago, Laurie Rosin reviewed a large, unorganized collection of my stories, suggested a direction to take and edited a first version of this book that she adamantly stated “should be in print.” I thank Laurie for her unwavering encouragement over the years to include her exceptional editing ability. As I worked in various places around the world, my manuscript was edited a second time by Jennifer Barclay and, recently, putting beautiful frosting on the cake, by Elizabeth Brown (who has traveled in Africa herself).
Some of the other people I would like to thank who, each in their own way, have influenced my life and this work: Professors Alfred Kröner, Kalervo Rankama, Peter Fleming, John Gurney and Dr. Kari Kojonen, Michael Carr, John Lynham, Mary Ann and Bob King, Myles Worsley, Gulmira Kaliyeva, and my daughter, Katherine Schade, who provided intriguing comments on the manuscript.
My utmost appreciation goes to Greenleaf Book Group (Danny Sandoval, Jen Glynn, Carrie Jones, Chantel Stull, and Chase Quarterman) as they accepted my narrative nonfiction book within three days of receiving it and, proclaiming it a wonderful book, didn’t stop from that day forward encouraging me to continue my efforts.
Last but not least, I thank Zhanar Zelt, who, as director of CabinNotes LLC and my wife, applied ability, cunning, understanding, and the utmost patience to guide and encourage me as I wrote day after day, year after year. I’m a very lucky man to have her and our lovely daughter, Elizabeth.
About the Author
George left his Buffalo, New York, home in the 1960s when he was seventeen years old to hitchhike across the United States and Canada on such famous roads as Route 66 and the Alaskan Highway (sleeping in corn fields and hedges and among huge pine trees). In the 1970s and 1980s, he continued, building a shack on the shores of the Red Sea (which was burned down by vigilantes), traveling the coastal roads of Yugoslavia (where he ate with gypsies), and venturing farther north to the Arctic Circle to see the Laplander people before encountering his greatest challenge in Africa. He worked as an environmentalist and then developed his own company in the lawless 1990s in Russia and Kazakhstan when the Soviet Union disintegrated. He holds five degrees, including PhDs from universities in the United States, Finland, and South Africa and has published scientific articles. He recently moved to Texas with his wife and child after spending two years in Thailand, working on his books.
George and Patrick digging for diamonds near Bushman’s grave
George and Land Rover in Namaqualand
George’s field area in Namaqualand, South Africa
Namaqualand
Home of a native working on Afrikanier farm
The Bushman’s grave, South West Africa
The swing at the Oasis
Window in the Oasis home
Blue lace agate, South West Africa
Dark metabasite rock with sledgehammer, Namaqualand
Tombstone tribute to a fishing boat that went down with all hands, off the South Arican west coast near Dog Rock Bay
Metabasite Rock Namaqualand missing piece I took for sample
George in Cape Town
A Namaqualand quiver tree
A weaver bird nest on the shore of the Orange River
George at Fish River Canyon
George swimming in Fish River Canyon
The gemsbok the morning after it died at a watering hole
Gemsbok, South West Africa
Sand dunes, South West Africa
George and Patrick digging for diamonds, Forbidden Area
Keetmanshoop ghost town, South West Africa
George clowning around on former stage in Keetmanshoop ghost town, South
West Africa
Keetmanshoop ghost town, South West Africa, Manager’s former home
George at old swimming pool, Keetmanshoop ghost town
George bathes with elephant in Okavango Swamps, Botswana
Native children play in in crocodile-laden Okavango Delta
George bathing in the Okavango swamps, Botswana
Convoy in Rhodesia, our Land Rover just passed (left as we were too slow) by rear guard of convoy
Author at Victoria Falls, Rhodesia
Exfoliation Domes, Namaqualand, same kind of rock Backside Bluff was formed from
Namaqualand showing exfoliation domes
Recent shipwreck (1974) off coast of South Africa
Xhosa hilltop home, Transkei
Xhosa hut in the Transkei, South Africa
George receives Ph.D. from the University of Natal, South Africa