America's African heritage; 17 And 18

The National Association of educational broadcasters breakdowns Americas African heritage recorded in Africa by Skip Westfall program 17 and his adventure with the elephant. There is get Westfall. Our program is being recorded today in the African village of MVC Lou in the central part of the bosun Campbell. I have come out here today with a group of workers from the Methodist mission in Wimbledon young men. They've come here to conduct a baby clinic and to hold a series of church services. The African male nurse in charge of the dispensary here Michelle when they is a graduate of the Methodist nurses training school in Wembley in Yemen he's a very personable young man of twenty five years of age who is obviously in love with his work and knowing that he was to have special guests today he notified the people of the village and we have been told that they are planning a special reception for us at the conclusion of the

baby clinic and the church service. All of the homes in this village are the typical facts types made of sticks and mud in front of each heart is a palm frond decorated with red candles and yellow star flowers. As a gesture of welcome for the visitors It reminds me in a way of the 4th of July at a small country town back home when the flag is displayed in front of all the homes up and down the street. This village of grass huts however has a much different appearance from a country town in America. We had lunch this noon with our friend Wendy and his attractive wife and four children in their simple mud hut. When he told us over the lunch of chicken rice and palm oil of how he was saved from death by a mission array 25 years ago. In those days if the mother

died during childbirth it was the custom among the people of the Bata Tiva drive to bury the baby alive with the mother. They felt that to do this would be an act of kindness to the baby. For without a mother to care for it the child would die from starvation within a few days. The African pastor in this village couldn't bear to see this happen. On the day the mother was buried he snatched the child from the arms of its father at the graveside and fled with it to the mission. And when when young there the missionaries cared for the baby and when the child became a man he decided out of gratitude for what had been done to him to give his life to the service of the mission today as a Christian nurse he is ministering to the people of this village. The experience of the baby Wendy is similar in many ways to the story of the baby Moses who was found in the bushes and saved by pharaohs daughter. Now I have the people of the village are assembled for the welcoming ceremony and when

rises and begins to speak I'm going to give you four and you know I mean we are very happy to see you here because you have to win different. Yes you knew from the olden days the white people didn't come here among us very often. Who should talk you know I'm not so sure if you continue to have to commute came and we used to be very much afraid of you if we thought that you would eat it should come in you go and thank you for my beans. Now we see the fruits of love coming from you. You just you need a few make you menu in the olden days. Many people died of many different diseases because there were no helpers for them. Maybe I'm bipolar tucumán you mean there was no wonder carried on to where help could be found. The work of a car let me meet a few my one vote of all all. Many women died in childbirth because there were no return to be for them to go to

the wars practically wiped out the past relations. You do have to work you know I think if you live you will what you do when young the dead bodies cover the ground like the body of the van I'm sure you would do and what we didn't know that a person was a thing of great value. Who do you want to be a factor. We didn't know that women could do anything of value and now we have good maternity is for our babies to be my house we are suffering so much because we don't talk around them. Many athletes because for the grace of God is coming like we see a blessing should we look in the end. We're giving you this fear as a souvenir of your visit here longer where you would to assure it will heal up and we will never forget you even though you

go away. May God keep you. I was so deeply moved by this gesture of friendliness that I had some difficulty in speaking so I didn't make a recording of my response to the speech in which I thanked the people for the beautiful spear remarking that it was the nicest gift I had ever received in all of my four trips in Africa. I wish this were a television program so that I could show the spirit to you. Now darkness has fallen over the Billings and Mr. Mrs. Law and I have retired to our little grass hut where we are to spend the night. This will be my first experience spending the night in an African village. We won't sleep on the dirt floor as we have brought cots and mosquito netting with us but it will be getting pretty close to nature just the same at this moment we're standing outside of our hut and by the light of the gas lamp we're about to do a recording of two boys whistling. Many of the boys in the

village are able to carry on a conversation by means of a whistle using the same code which is used by the drummer when he plays his talking drum. This is what the boys are saying. The first boy says with his whistle which by the way is made only with his hands cupped together. Come out here to the forest and help me gather these sticks signals the second one with his whistle. I don't want to gather sticks. I want to play. Then the first boy answers I'm getting hungry and I need some help. And then the other answers. All right I will come. You wouldn't think that the low soft whistle you just listened to can be heard on a quiet evening a distance of at least a mile. Well the time has come to get to bed so we have to conclude this part of the recording. We'll take up our story again

after we return to the mission tomorrow. I think I hear those boys whistling in my dream tonight. Now we're back at the Methodist mission in limbo and you know I'm I have to admit that I'm quite stiff from sleeping on that hard got but it was an experience I wouldn't have missed for a good deal. It was pouring rain when we left the village this morning. We got stuck in the mud on a steep hill and would never have made it back to the mission if Burley hadn't been prepared with tired chains. Now we're back at the window and you have a mission then wait here for us is a man we've been looking forward to see Dr William Devane from the Methodist Hospital in Maine who was most kind of you to come over to when when you have done for this interview doctor you know how long you've been working as a medical missionary in the Congo. 29 years. Well I suppose there are many more doctors in the Congo.

And I worry when you came here twenty nine years ago in our section about the same number. Is that right. Have you any idea how many people there are in each doctor's area. I would estimate it out about 25 to 40000 people per doctor and and how hard the doctors are the station apart from about a hundred miles. While I have certainly integrated indicates a great need for more doctors that are very much so. That means in my hand that many patients must come great distances to receive treatment. Yes there have been many patients who have been brought up who have come in several hundred miles at least and in the old days. And yet in some primitive areas this is being done by the hammock but increasingly with modern day motor transportation is being used back in the state of difficult for us to realize that there are places in the world were these people my travels have great distances to

receive medical attention walking four hundred. Why carry patients to them. Well no doubt Dr. Hill if you could tell many interesting stories of experiences you had here in the Congo and would you share one of them with us. I would gladly do so and the plan is right here with us and would be glad to answer any questions. What was his experience he was going by an elephant and if you like we will ask him some of the details. Yes I would like to talk to him. His name is called for. That must have been frightening experience to suddenly find yourself being tossed high in the air by an angry mob of them. Why did the elephant attack you. You know put on the law you come upon a dock and enjoyable. Due to ground which I know you don't buy from did I decline we don't I mean

current day when dealing with time the elephant's baby was not far away and she was afraid he was going to attack the baby so she got him first. Were you on the ground when the elephant attacked you or can do we actually look at it like Auckland in your room and I made him mine to put up with him. No I had climbed into a tree but I was trembling so hard that I couldn't get beyond the elephant region the elephant got me and it was then that the elephant ran her tusks through the body. Yes she ran her tusk completely through his body from just to the right of the spinal column and pierced both chest and abdomen and came out between some of the lower ribs on the right side and this all happened while he was in the tree. What what happened then. The elephant then got him with her trunk pulled him off of her. Dusk threw him into the air and he came back down on her desk and

ran it through his forearm. Then she threw him again into the air and he landed in the tree and stayed there until she had gone and he remained conscious all this time. Yes he was conscious all the time and even heard when the baby elephant cried and attracted the mother back to its out and was able to walk along in that condition. Scarcely. And he felt that God warned him not to try to walk or he would lose his blood. So he crawled for perhaps several hundred yards until he could get to a pathway he would later seen and then he received treatment at the hospital. Yes he was carried both by an animal nett at first to a point where an automobile could pick him up and then we brought him to the hospital. What was the treatment he received there. He was brought in in deep shock. We gave him some good Tennessee blood plasma donated by some Christian volunteers. Glucose infusion antibiotics tetanus and a toxin hypnotic

what have you. To clean up the loan after the shock had subsided. And after several months of treatment he left the hospital well. One final question. How what did the people of your village say when you returned home alive and well as you do to them a little love in the womb. Mare never got to dunk you would evacuate would you know what you meant if you got some good games. When I meet with Daquan they says that when he got to his village he told the people that truly God was in this thing it is he that raised me up when I was at the hospital and the people were amazed and so impressed. But they soon began to want a church of their own and they now have one. I think this is one of the most unusual stories I've heard now in my travels around Africa. I'm very happy to have the opportunity to talk to you and I

hope you will have no more adventures with elephants. And I'm grateful to you too Dr. Hill that for coming over to Lemuel Yama to share this story with us. May you have many more fruitful years in your ministry to the people of the Congo. This has been Program 17 of Americas African heritage. These programs feature recordings made by world traveler skip Westfall on a recent trip to Africa. The series is made possible by a grant in aid to radio station WOIO Iowa State College from the Educational Television and Radio Center production is under the direction of Norman be Clary and this is Reg speaking for the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the end EBD Radio Network. The National Association of educational broadcasters brazened America's African

heritage recorded in Africa by Skip West 12. Programme 18 digging for diamonds in back Wango. Here is good Westfall our broadcast today is one I've been looking forward to for many weeks. The back wonder industrial diamond mines in the Belgian Congo are host for this interesting tour of the mining area is fern and then Winesburg a Belgian geologist now employed in the research department of the mining company at Bank One that Mr Van whines very Suppose we begin with a brief discussion of some of the ways in which industrial diamonds are used. Well right. Diamond two are used to too many motives for using their limbs for instance on immune systems and many of the farms and precision dance on them. When would we be correct in saying that every automobile which runs on the highways of America and every airplane which files the skies has something of

Africa in it. R Yes definitely there are diamonds on show involved in obtaining the gasoline and the oil to run the automobiles and the airplane. Yes drilling tools for boring oil wells are made of diamonds and Diamond dew is a very important too for getting gasoline used to rules and plates. What are some of the other uses of industrial diamonds. While tiny wires of filaments inside the libels for instance drawn through Diamond dies. Same is true of radio and television too. And also needles for High Fidelity recording are made of moment when the diamond plays an important part in our entertainment as well as in helping to provide some of the sensual means of everyday life. Yes that's true. I remember Mr. Van Weinberger just a few days before leaving

home on this trip to Africa. My dentist showed me one of his diamond drill. Yes dentists use them but also so do doctors and surgeons using for instance diamond soles and additions use them to grow and eyeglasses. Isn't that amazing to realize how almost every phase of our daily lives is affected by diamonds from Africa. And by the way what percentage of the world's supply of industrial diamonds come from Africa. Well 60 per cent of the world's supply comes from right here at the back where in the mines 60 percent. Yes that's true and they're from 95 percent of the world the world will do well this continent then supplies practically all of the world's industrial damage. Yes writing will tell the Africa there will be practically knowing this through environment. One further question Mr Van Rensburg. Prior to my departure from the state

there was considerable publicity in the newspapers concerning an artificial St. Moritz which has recently been developed. How will this discovery affect diamond mining here at Bank One that well Mr. West for I don't think it will affect it into prisons to Closed of manufacturing. Still greet to probably be a long time before Brazil will take the place of industry in the moment. In those three minutes Mr. Mann Winesburg gave us a very comprehensive picture of the importance of Africa's diamonds in the life of every American. We could spend the entire 15 minutes discussing Still other uses of industrial diamonds and then not even have begun to cover the subject. However our chief purpose in coming here to back when they used to visit the mines and to tell something of the story about how these precious stones are mine going to be necessary for us to do a bit of hopping about from one area to another. And we hope you'll be

able to follow it. I am carrying out a landing on the rim of a huge crater located about five miles from back one of the miners a half mile long and over 100 feet deep. The operation here at black market consists of surface mining or pit mining and this is the largest of nine big hopes are across this huge gaping hole to the opposite side we can see it where the crane has been removed to a depth of about 60 feet in some areas than they found within a foot or so here it was necessary to dig down through the overboard. Cops are called for 60 feet into the reddish brown bluegill gravel which contains the names below that we see a large area of deep green rock kind as all kimberlite and is also rich in time. And all of the nine mines there are 15 bulldozers at work 15 units Greg Lyons.

Well Caterpillar graders and 65 20 ton trucks on the. Route. Almost all of this equipment is manufactured in America. Most of this machinery such as the Crips is worn out in 15000 hours or more a. Year. So it must be constantly replaced. Many thousands of factory workers in American have a part in helping to manufacture this machinery. At another pit about a mile from here is a monster of a machine the largest I've ever seen. It's a bucket excavator 90 feet high operated on a huge caterpillar treads. It elevates the Lluvia gravel from the bottom of a pit 30 feet deep and deposits it on a belt almost two miles long which whisks the dirt away to the sorting room. That machine was manufactured in Germany and cost eight hundred thousand dollars. Now let's get into the next mean step in Diamond production from these nine pits huge trucks hauling gravel to the first separation center where it is worst and run through several disintegrators

incentives. Then it is trucked to the picking or sorting room. We had previously visited the picking room so won't make a recording at that point and fact we're not allowed to. When we started for the picking room I guy had informed me that pictures could not be taken under any circumstances but that I would be permitted to make a tape recording. When we arrived there however we were told that the tape recorder must be left outside. Well to go into a detail description of all of the steps which are taken in the sorting room would require much more time than we have at our disposal. Briefly this is what happens. First the gravel is run over vibrating saves to remove some of the fine particles which have no value. Then it is worst in revolving tanks. The heavy stone such as a diamond sink to the bottom of the lighter gravel remains on top. This is called the sink and float process. Following that the gravel is run through a large electric dryers then over a cylindrical electro magnet which removes the particles containing iron. Such is you know midnight and magnetite the

diamonds are not magnetic and passed on through to the grease tables. These so-called grease tables are vibrating tables covered with a special kind of grease from South America the diamonds stick to the grease while other minerals pass over it. Some of the diamonds however are encased in a kind of sandstone like a knot within the shell. They do not cling to the grease so these stones must be run through crushers or milling machinery to remove the shell. Once while walking through the plant a piece of dirt dropped down my neck. I suppose that night after taking my bath I should have made sure that diamond didn't warse down the drain. Well the final process is the picking room where 15 skilled African workers hand picked the gravel which contains diamonds that somehow have slipped through the previous operation to prevent any smuggling. Each man is employed in approximately three month periods but no one knows the exact day when he will be removed from the

line before he leaves the picking room he's required to take a shower under careful supervision and is then returned to the tribe from which he has come. It's rather interesting to observe the colors of the diamonds here in the sorting room there where almost every color blue green bright yellow at the back when the mines there are few Jim diamonds all but 1 percent are industrial dives after the diamonds have all been started. They're packed in small boxes about the size of a three pound box of candy and wrapped in blue paper shipments of the diamonds in the small blue boxes are made only twice a month and with the greatest secrecy. Only one person in the entire company knows the exact time when the stone will be shipped. The final chapter in this diamond story will probably be the most interesting involves a visit to the prospecting area where men are engaged in the fascinating job of hunting for names. We will be speaking to you next from a miner's camp in the prospecting area about 50

miles from back when that. Yes. Thanks. Thanks thanks. Thanks. Now one of the county where I am with all sides Bill Clinton 50 said a small stream you no doubt can hear the voices of the left. They sift the gravel in the river for. Us. Thanks. Thank. You. We have to travel over some very rough the way roads to reach this place. Finally we came to the end of the road. Then we had to proceed on foot following a winding path through the brush and over several small screens to get to what is called the washing place. The sun is perfectly hot. As I stand under the shade of this tent the weather's prickling down my face. But the heat doesn't seem to bother you. Come to Leeds prospectors

and live as they toil cheerfully at their job. Every now and then you hear some of them singing a bit of it and when they start shaking a big favor they do a chance to help keep the gang working in unison. In a minute we'll be able to pick up the sound of their chant. This is certainly one of the most interesting experience of the my entire trip through the Congo as I look about and watch these men sweating and toiling designed to strain. I almost feel as if I had been transported back to the days of the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska. You have a feeling that here you are right down to the real beginning of dynamite. Here there are no growing gray lions and roaring bulldozers just the piling man with their picks and shovels and sifting lot. Thank you thank. You. Thank you.

Out in the stream standing up to their knees in the water a group of men are shoveling out the sand on the bank of the stream is a series of six shifting boxes each attached to the end of a long plank. This apparatus has something of the appearance of a teeter totter at the opposite end of the plank stands a man ready to start jiggling it when the gravel is poured into the sifting box. Now the men have dumped the gravel into the boxes. Each man has a flat piece of tin about the size of the dinner plate which he strikes on the crossbar to help keep the rhythm of the chant. Now one of the men at the far end of the plank gives the signal to begin the operation. Yeah. Wonderful.

Let's get right into it Ill take you to right then and get right on with life. This has been Program 18 of America's African heritage. These programs which are recordings made by world traveler skip west wall on a recent trip to Africa. This year it is made possible by a grand in aid to radio station WOIO Iowa State College from the educational television and radio centered production is under the direction of

Norman be queried. This is Reggae it is speaking for the National Association of educational broadcasters. This is the end E.B. Radio Network.