Flight of the Diamond Smugglers

by Unknown

  10 One recent survey found: Cited by the Bureau of International Labor Affairs in “South Africa: Prevalence and Sectoral Distribution of Child Labor,” 2016.

  10 a harvest that can exceed 176 million carats: Statistics throughout the book are taken from Yury Spektorov, Olya Linde, Bart Cornelissen, and Rostislav Khomenko, “The Global Diamond Report 2013: Journey Through the Value Chain,” Bain and Company, August 27, 2013, as well as similar reports from other years, and the World Diamond Council’s “Diamond Industry Fact Sheet” for 2011, as well as similar reports from other years.

  14 “important vestige of . . .”: Dr. Jeff Birdsley, “Internal Anatomy,” in Ornithology, edited by Frank B. Gill (London: W. H. Freeman, 2006). Birdsley was a professor of ornithology at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign. His office was in a building called the Shelford Vivarium, a climate-controlled greenhouse once fronted by two duck and turtle ponds (now drained). Birdsley’s Ornithology 461 course featured subunits such as “Eggs and Nests,” “Bird Song,” and “Feathers.” Though he is something of an expert on pigeons, his real passions are for the evolution of prey capture behaviors in the tyrant flycatcher family, and the field collection of fruit flies.

  Chapter 2: ISAAC NEWTON & CO.

  17 according to University of Virginia physicist Michael Fowler: Michael Fowler, “Newton’s Life,” in Isaac Newton (Charlottesville: University of Virginia, Physics Department, 2015, http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/lectures/newton.html). My favorite published lecture of Fowler’s—however, mostly inscrutable to me—remains “Time Dilation from a Lightclock,” a title I plan on stealing for a poem.

  17 Newton was captivated by pigeons: Much of the information in this paragraph, and elsewhere in this chapter, was derived from William Stukeley, Memoirs of Sir Isaac Newton’s Life (presented to the Royal Society by Mr. A. W. White, 1752).

  18 “the first autonomous volatile machine of antiquity”: Kotsanas Museum of Ancient Greek Technology, “The Flight Machines of the Ancient Greeks,” kotsanas.com.

  18 Soon, he became so obsessed with bones: As cited in Alejandro Jenkins, “Isaac Newton’s Sinister Heraldry,” Escuela de Fìsica, Universidad de Costa Rica, 11501–2060, San Josè, Costa Rica, August 1, 2014. Available at: arxiv.org/pdf/1310.7494.pdf.

  20 She wants to calm her 600 heartbeats: I found these numbers, as they pertain to a pigeon’s anatomy and biological function, in a number of sources, including Eugene P. Odum, “Variations in the Heart Rate of Birds: A Study in Physiological Ecology,” Ecological Monographs 11, no. 3 (July 1941): 299–326; Bob Doneley, Avian Medicine and Surgery in Practice: Companion and Aviary Birds, 2nd ed. (Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016); and “Pigeon Facts” at himalayanpigeon.com). I used these numbers as the bases from which to spin out and scratch at the implications (however ephemeral) lurking within these numbers, and in the pigeon’s capacity for such rigors. The subsequent math (though mine, and I am no mathematician) is accurate.

  21 “inherited spatiotemporal vector-navigation program”: P. Berthold, “Spatiotemporal Programmes and the Genetics of Orientation,” in Orientation in Birds, edited by P. Berthold (Basel: Birkhaüser, 1991).

  21 In 2005, in order to agitate: H. G. Wallraff, “Ratios Among Atmospheric Trace Gases Together with Winds Imply Exploitable Information for Bird Navigation: A Model Elucidating Experimental Results,” Biogeosciences 10, no. 11 (2013): 6929.

  22 All of these mangled, overloaded, electrocuted birds: W. T. Keeton, “Effects of Magnets on Pigeon Homing,” in Animal Orientation and Navigation, edited by S. R. Galler et al. (Washington, DC: NASA, 1972).

  22 They chalked up the pigeon’s ability . . . even principles of Newtonian alchemy: Rupert Sheldrake, Seven Experiments That Could Change the World (New York: Riverhead, 1994).

  23 “This philosophy . . . the world”: Estefania Wenger, Isaac Newton: A Biography (London: Alpha Editions, 2017).

  24 “Pigeons normally keep their bodies”: “Pigeons in Space,” video by Bioastronautics Research: Aerospace Medical Division HQ 6570th Aerospace Medical Research Laboratories, posted February 4, 2011, at YouTube.com.

  BARTHOLOMEW VARIATION #1

  29 The bird refuses—given: Martha Romeskie and Dean Yager, “Psychophysical Studies of Pigeon Color Vision—I. Photopic Spectral Sensitivity,” Vision Research 16, no. 5 (1976): 501–05.

  29 Though mineworkers have to pass: This information was relayed to me (from very different perspectives) by both Msizi and Johann MacDonald.

  30 1,300 kilometers away: “Minister Ngoako Ramatlhodi: Mineral Resources Dept. Budget Vote 2015/16,” May 7, 2015, https://www.gov.za/speeches/minister-ngoako-abel-ramatlhodi-occasion-budget-vote-29-7-may-2015-0000.

  30 “the malign ingenuity of the poor . . .”: From a clipped article tacked to the wall of the Kleinzee Museum. The top of the article (headline included) had been cut off. The clipping was grouped with a few others from the Cape Argus, a Cape Town–based newspaper first published in 1857. The Argus (as it’s colloquially known) was founded by Saul Solomon, a liberal Jewish politician who advocated for a multiracial democracy, religious equality, and women’s rights in South Africa. His pro-imperialist cofounders soon abandoned the paper due to Solomon’s liberal views.

  CHAPTER 3: BEYOND THE PITS OF ALEXANDER BAY

  32 “The tape attaching the diamonds . . . a fearless smuggler’s teasing”: Dean E. Murphy, “Pigeons Take Rap for Stolen African Diamonds,” Los Angeles Times, April 19, 1998. I confirmed and clarified this story, and a subsequent similar instance, when on site.

  33 When a pigeon explodes: Andrew D. Blechman, Pigeons (New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2006).

  35 The long-closed tourist lodge: Gleaned from personal observation and Bobby Jordan, “They Call Us the Poor Millionaires,” Cape Argus, October 7, 2013.

  37 a sting using police-trained homing pigeons: Estelle Ellis, “Undercover Operation Busts Diamond Racket,” Cape Argus. Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  38 Rumor has it also: Estelle Randall, “State Diamond Mine Slap-Bang in Middle of Smuggling Scam.” Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  38 “If you get too close to the truth”: Ranjeni Munusamy, “Secret Agents Bust Diamond Dealers.” Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum. The sentiments expressed in this article are confirmed by various others, including, for instance, “Murders Focus Attention on Organized Crime in South African Diamond Industry,” Voice of America News, October 30, 2009, voanews.com.

  CHAPTER 4: PORT NOLLOTH AND THE HALFWAY DESERT

  40 “Bloom hunters” will descend: Northern Cape Tourism Authority, “Namakwa and West Coast Flower Route,” map and brochure, 2015. The brochure is a great, if adjective-heavy, read. Adjectives applied to various flower species include stunning, charming, delightful, proud, showy, star-like, and (my favorite) pensive.

  41 “Where the Water Took the Old Man Away”: a rough English translation of the Khoi name Aukotowa.

  42 “We don’t want to be part of a legacy of ghost towns” . . . until the ship dies: Nelendhre Moodley, “De Beers Sets Up Key Marine-Mining Hub in Impoverished Port Nolloth,” Mining Weekly, April 26, 2007. I confirmed and clarified this when on site.

  44 In the mythologies: Hukam Chand Patyal, “Pigeon in the Vedic Mythology and Ritual,” Annals of the Bhandarkar Oriental Research Institute 71, no. 1/4 (1990): 310–17; Radhika Ravi Rajan, “The Biggest Curses in Hindu Mythology,” Speaking Tree, April 25, 2013, available at speakingtree.in; “Native American Dove and Pigeon Mythology,” Native Languages of the Americas, native-languages.org. 2015; and Debra Kelly, “10 Truly Crazy Birds from World Mythology.” Listverse: History, February 22, 2014, listverse.com.

  44 they are body-hoppers: Edward Dwight Walker, Reincarnation: A Study of Forgotten Truth (New York: John W. Lovell, 1888); and News Elliott Wood, ed., Star of the Magi: An Exponent of Occult Science, Art, and Philosophy (Chicago: N. E. Wood, 1899). I found the latter in the library of the University of Illinois; when I accessed it in
2016, I saw that it had previously been checked out on November 11, 1974, the same date that saw the mass flooding of the U.S. Virgin Islands, eliciting extreme mosquito breeding and a subsequent mosquito “plague,” as well as the birth of Leonardo DiCaprio (who, in 2009, bought an island off Belize on which he plans to open a “sea-cooled eco-resort that’s nearly mosquito-free”).

  45 The average mosquito weighs: “Mosquitoes,” Animals/Reference, National Geographic, nationalgeographic.com; and Thomas Gaffigan and James Pecor, “Collecting, Rearing, Mounting, and Shipping Mosquitoes,” Walter Reed Biosystematics Unit (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1997).

  47 These trees—the date palms: Much of the information in this section comes from Ashley T. Brenner, The Dutch Have Made Slaves of Them All . . . And They Are Called Free (Saarbrücken: Lambert Academic Publishing, 2009).

  48 This:the desperate passing on of any sweetness: Mohamed Al-Farsi and Chang Yong Lee, “Nutritional and Functional Properties of Dates: A Review,” Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition 48, no. 10 (December 2008): 877–87.

  48 to increase their levels of serotonin: Claire Sissons, “How to Boost Serotonin and Improve Mood,” Medical News Today, July 10, 2018; Philip J. Cowen and Michael Browning, “What Has Serotonin to Do with Depression?,” World Psychiatry 14, no. 2 (June 2015): 158–60; Simon N. Young, “How to Increase Serotonin in the Human Brain Without Drugs,” Journal of Psychiatry and Neuroscience 32, no. 6 (November 2007): 394–99.

  49 psychologists say that the literal carrying of weight: Meng Zhang and Xiuping Li, “From Physical Weight to Psychological Significance: The Contribution of Semantic Activations,” Journal of Consumer Research 38, no. 6 (April 1, 2012): 1063–75.

  49 alive via flood irrigation: P. J. Leibenberg and A. Zaid, “Date Palm Irrigation,” Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Corporate Document Repository, 2002, fao.org.

  50 The divers believe that such practices: Melanie Gosling, “Divers Who Risk Their Lives for ‘Women’s Vanity.’ ” Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  50 it’s the moral imperative of the divers: Ben Trovato, “It Should Be Legal to Pursue Diamonds as Long as You Never Do it in a Speedo.” Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  52 “Sabotaging boats in this community”: Peter De Ionno, “Sea Treasure Splits Town.” Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  52 “Don’t look at me . . . gravel under our feet”: De Ionno, “Sea Treasure Splits Town.”

  52 “a once vibrant” . . . consortium of smugglers: Melanie Gosling, “Call to Break Up West Coast Marine Diamond Monopoly,” Cape Argus. Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  55 one sheepish local informer: Sivuyile Mangxamba, “Smuggling, the Pulse of Port Nolloth,” Sunday Argus, June 23, 2002.

  57 He does not tell me: But this article did tell me: Estelle Ellis, “Undercover Operation Busts Diamond Racket,” Cape Argus. Clipped article, Port Nolloth Museum.

  57 “Port Nolloth looked like an opium smoker’s den”: Chris Marais, “The Diamond Men of Port Nolloth,” Scope, October 4, 1985.

  58 the chefs were able to purchase: Information gleaned from a badly creased food-ordering form dated October 17, 1960, found in the Kleinzee Museum, the disclaimer at the bottom of which reads: “All prices have been increased due to a substantial loss in the Butchery.”

  58 the tailings heaps . . . the stables: Much of the information in this paragraph was gleaned from captioned photographs in the Port Nolloth Museum, the Kleinzee Museum, and the Big Hole Museum (part of the Kimberley Mine Museum), and in Kokkie Duminy and Dr. R. J. L. Sabatini, Fifty Years on the Diamond Fields: 1870–1920 (Kimberley: Africana Library Trust, 2013).

  59 “If I have to die”: Alex Duval Smith, “Refugees Defy Crocodiles to Cross Border,” Observer Zimbabwe, July 6, 2008.

  60 At about the same time: David Fleminger, Richtersveld: Cultural and Botanical Landscape: Including Namaqualand (Johannesburg: Southbound, 2008).

  CHAPTER 5: RIDING WITH THE FACELESS

  64 a pair of marked terns: I confirmed this story with the hosts at the Kleinzee Museum, which had a small display about it, including the (quoting the museum’s placard) “rings retrieved from two terns found . . . They are marked Museum Zoology Helsinki Finland.”

  67 Illicit pigeon shoots: Some of this information was gleaned from Simon J. Bronner, “Contesting Tradition: The Deep Play and Protest of Pigeon Shoots,” Journal of American Folklore 118, no. 470 (Autumn 2005): 409–52.

  69 I’m desperate to stylize this whole scene: Information on Canaletto comes from the wonderful essay “Capricci” in Thomas Mira y Lopez, The Book of Resting Places: A Personal History of Where We Lay the Dead (Berkeley, CA: Counterpoint Press, 2017).

  69 what Marie Curie might have called its seemingly “spontaneous luminosity”: Lauren Redniss, Radioactive (New York: Dey Street Books, 2015). It stands to mention that Canaletto’s coveted Prussian blue once served to assuage the nightmares of so many, once it was discovered that capsules of the stuff, when taken orally, alleviated the symptoms of certain types of radioactive contamination. In fact, following the nuclear disaster at Chernobyl, various countries began spraying their grasslands with a solution of Prussian blue in order to keep grazing animals alive. In this way, to the planes and pigeons passing overhead, the earth itself resembled a dreamscape, an odd patchwork of Canaletto skies stitched together against further calamity.

  70 In ancient Egypt, pigeon excrement: Andrew D. Blechman, Pigeons (New York: Grove/Atlantic, 2006).

  72 As the Tokoloshe is said: Nhlanhla Mkhize (University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg), “Mind, Gender, and Culture: A Critical Evaluation of the Phenomenon of Tokoloshe ‘Sightings’ Among Prepubescent Girls in Kwazulu-Natal,” paper presented to the 2nd Annual Qualitative Methods Conference: “The Body Politic,” Johannesburg, South Africa, September 3–4, 1996. In this fascinating article, Mkhize also discusses the ways in which the “ ‘sightings’ of this creature are accompanied by fainting spells, deterioration from previous level of (scholastic) performance, fearfulness, and other psychosomatic type symptoms . . . The process of ideological becoming (or identity, moral development) therefore entails claiming responsibility for one’s feelings, emotions, and acts. The Tokoloshe narrative, therefore, could be seen as an intense struggle against authoritative discourse . . . The Tokoloshe narrative is clearly authoritative. He instructs the children ‘not to tell anyone’ that they have seen him (Thou shall not!). He makes several threats, and those who disobey him are punished (slapped on the face). He also offers rewards (money, apples) to those who obey him. Thus, his is a voice of authority with the powers to reward or punish.” As Louisa had numerous times discussed with me the role of the Tokoloshe in her life, and as I had therefore done quite a bit of reading up on the myth before this “ride with the faceless,” such thoughts (of the Tokoloshe narrative and subsequent analysis thereof) were going through my head in real time, there in the back of that Land Rover.

  CHAPTER 6: DRIVING TO KLEINZEE AMID SHIPWRECKS AND SNAKES

  75 Deep below the surface: Lourens Myburgh, “Re: Baie Danke,” September 2, 2004, email correspondence, Kleinzee Museum. I’m not sure what elicited this email response (to someone named Jackie), but Myburgh writes, in part (and, yes, in all caps), “THIS FOSSIL REPRESENTS CLAY CONTAINING FOSSIL PLANT MATERIAL. IT WAS FOUND IN AN ABANDONED MEANDER OF THE BUFFELS RIVER, CLOSE TO KLEINZEE . . . THIS SAMPLE IS +/- 17 MILLION YEARS OLD AND DATES BACK TO THE MIOCENE AGE. THE WEATHER WAS QUITE WARM DURING THIS PERIOD WITH HIGH RAINFALL. THE BUFFELS RIVER PROBABLY FLOWED THE WHOLE YEAR ROUND . . . DIAMONDS WERE CARRIED DOWN THE RIVERS TOWARDS THE SEA DURING THIS PERIOD.” In trying to find out who this Lourens Myburgh is, I came up dry. I found a Lourens Myburgh who died in 1986 and who was nicknamed “Daan.” I found a Lourens Myburgh who has too many pictures of boats and airplanes on his Facebook page, and who shares a disproportionate number of links titled “Food Coma.” I found a Lourens Myburgh who is a world archer
y “champion,” though I wonder as to the nature of this definition, as statistics show that he has lost as many matches as he’s won. And, finally, I found a Lourens Myburgh whose last Twitter contribution (as of this writing) is a retweet asking, “How much fried chicken does one municipality need?”

  75 “very cautious, very wary”: From my early email correspondence with “Adele Wickens,” dated April 24, 2015.

  77 I thumbed through my book: Details of this story were gleaned from G. W. Mullins and C. L. Hause, Cherokee: A Collection of American Indian Legends, Stories, and Fables (Colorado: Light of the Moon Publishing, 2016); and “Uktena and the Ulunsuti,” exhibit: plaque and article, Kimberley Mine Museum.

  80 In 1985, the 1,400-ton: Keith Grieve, “All 26 Crew of the Diamond Dredger Poseidon Cape Were Hoisted to Safety,” Cape Argus, July 30, 1985; and Dick Usher, “Diamond Rig Runs Aground,” Cape Argus, July 28, 1985.

  80 The sign once necklaced: I found this sign—understandably a little worse for wear—prominently displayed in the Kleinzee Museum.

  80 Thirty kilometers south: “Rare find donated to Kleinzee Museum.” Clipped article, Kleinzee Museum. There are, in fact, so many clipped articles pertaining to shipwrecks in the Kleinzee Museum that they could be said to have their own wing. Next to this one, for instance, was “Shipwreck at Port Nolloth,” Cape Argus, February 9, 1886. (On February 8, 1886, a Port Nolloth correspondent reported the loss of the Veronica, “a sad catastrophe,” which took place on the same night of “heavy gales and rough seas” that also saw the wreck of the Taunton, the wreck of the Maxima, the wreck of the Esempio, and the wreck of the Marquis of Worcester. Bowsprits were carried away into the sea, and “a chopping battle commenced between the bows of one and the sterns of the other, which ended up in the eventual slipping and sinking,” and no birds were reported circling overhead. “Great sympathy is expressed here,” said the unidentified correspondent, “for Captain Kite [of the Veronica], who is well known as an industrious man, and one who studies the interests of his owners. He is a very heavy loser . . .” In the absence of any auctioneer, the Veronica was sold as-is, underwater, for four British pounds.