“MOSQUITO BOOTS”

Greymouth Evening Star, 10 July 1937, Page 8

“MOSQUITO BOOTS”

• LIFE IN WEST AFRICA Do you know' anything about the life of a white w’oman on the Gold Coast, Silver Coast, Ivory Coast, and the low’-lying land of Nigeria bordering the sea? Il is a strange life, filled with hardship as w'ell as w'ith adventure. The boots of the white woman there, writes John Grover in the “Sydney Morning Herald,” are mosquito boots —she rarely wears shoes. They are long, thin goatskin boots reaching just below' the knee, and tnese are her constant guard against the mosquito, tsetse fly, snakes, scorpions and other poisonous insects and reptiles which infest these dreaded coasts. .

Her dresses are always white, long, loose-fitting garments with sleeves from shonider to wrist, for the African sun plays havoc with a white skin. Hc-i' head is crowned by a large white topee with a thin gauze. In addition, the lady carries a white sunshade. In these Empire outposts on tin West African coast, the business of life is mostly “barter” trading with the Native chiefs. Egret feathers, ivory, mahogany, white sapphires, desert rubies, cocoa and palm oil kernels change hands for cheap cotton pi into from Manchester, beads, knives, tobpcco, cheap watches and clocks, ami a. hundred and one' other things from the factories oi England and America. But the favourite “barter" of all is a bottle of angostura bitters. Tho white woman plays a big part in. a trader's life, her job being to supervise his household. ’Phis task is a far bigger one than it at first seems. Poultry and meat are obtained easily, but are unpalatable, for this food must be consumed within an hour or two of killing to be safe for use. With the exception of meat and bread, all food is either tinned or bottled. The amenities of life, so cherished by white women in other parts of the world, are lacking. In most instances electric light, the ice-box and telephone are luxuries only dreamed of. A woman’s day “on the coast” seems to be spent mostly in “chasing” her black servants into doing things the way she needs them done. It is the inexplicable spell of Africa which keeps these women going, and helps them to face the daily problem of life in a savage country. Nightfall really casts a spell upon those coasts. A bungalow on the edge of a mahogany forest which grows right down to the sea; the light of an African moon; and the weird calls of nightbirds and insects seem adequate consolation. They probably constitute the reasons why, having expressed a determination never to return “to the coast,” the women always go back again after leave in England. It. is the spirit of the jungle which calls, and they always answer.