A. W. Dinesen in Algeria

I had a grandfather in Africa.

Karen Blixen could have written these words, for A. W. Dinesen spent a year of his young life in Algeria.� He served as a volunteer in the French army, as it tried to occupy and control that portion of North Africa.

When Dinesen came home, he had become a huge admirer of the enemy, the Algierian rebel leader Emir Abd El-Kader, while his opinions about the French, who he had fought beside, were distinctly the contrary:

". . . overall, where the French have imposed themselves in Africa, the trees have disappeared, the springs and wells have dried up, the inhabitants have fled and nothing but a desert remains. The French know how to conquer a territory, but not how to maintain it."

The Unlikely Pen

You can read the above quotation in the little monograph about Abd El-Kader, which Dinesen authored after coming home, and which now has been brought out by the publisher Vandkunsten in an attractive edition as part of the Carsten Niebuhr Library.

Preparation of the essay "has been subject to unfortunate interruptions," writes Blixen's paternal grandfather, and he surrenders his writing "to gentle assessment, in full admission of my unlikely pen."

He could not have known that afterwards there would be much better known pens in the family.

The whole story revealed

He also could not have known that a few years later his hero Abd-el-Kader would surrender himself to the French, and that he would end up spending nearly 30 years as an Islamist-humanist sufi-wiseman based in Damascus.

The Emir's life is even more colorful and astonishing than the narrative in Dinesen's little ovation to

"one of the few chosen, who from an otherwise unnoticed position, by means of strong personal qualities and favorable circumstances, has been called to lead his countrymen toward a new and forceful objective, nationhood, which reflects an acknowledgment of general responsibility for the interests of the common folk."

But the book's introduction and photo gallery by editors Rasmus Alenius Boserup and Francois Pouillon sets the story straight about both Abd El Kader and the soldier Dinesen.

Western admiration for the barbarians

It is a fascinating encounter between a Danish adventurer and the colonialism of his time, in which he plays an active role (he shares in a certain way its idealism), criticizing sharply the French approach, and at the same time expounding his own romantic and western admiration for

"the barbarians"---that is, the land of the Berbers, their roots and their customs, "remarkable for their eternal quality, existing for hundreds of years":

"The restless search for material blessings, in which, it goes without saying, only a very few in society can take part, is foreign to them. In their modest life they are satisfied with their existence and live in the present. Their necessities are very few, and approximately the same for the rich as for the poor.

"A wife, the shade of a tree, and cool spring water comprise their most treasured joys. The craft of battle is their greatest pleasure, a beautiful weapon and horse all their wealth. They have created a higher civilization and a superior social framework, because no one has to pay for freedom and an independent life.

"They give the impression of knowing that there are different advantages and needs in both ways of life, and have chosen the latter."

General overview

There are quite a few relatively long-winded geographical and military maps in the book, so don't count on slipping comfortably into it like a sheik gliding onto a camel's back.

But there is a lot of good stuff to take from the work, for example, when Dinesen stumbles into the subject of "Homesickness"--

"This mental illness takes its toll most often in the context of physical fever, and is therefore deadly."

And with our current adventures in Afghanistan, Iraq and other "warm lands" in mind, it is instructive to read certain general observations that Karen Blixen's grandfather allowed himself:

"When an Arab takes the field, he requires extremely few necessities, and the result is a striking contrast to the overloaded, so-called light cavalry of the Europeans.

"His entire kit is made up of a bundle for his horse weighing a few pounds, plus a few loaves of unleavened bread, which he carries in a sack resembling a common grocery bag, tied to his saddle pommel."

Actually, Dinesen's little essay could be a useful sort of handbook nowadays for soldiers who are sent to Berber lands and their surroundings.

Grandpa from Africa gets the last word:

"From what I've written, you will realize that the Arab army in Africa can be summed up as a lightweight, irregular, bold and untiring, mounted militia, which is by nature proud, and rejoices in a life at war, and is therefore dangerous to European intrusion, which, in its gross arrogance, dares to penetrate the African landscape--whose provisions and climate are just as unfavorable for the attackers, as they are favorable for the defenders."

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Trans. Linda Donelson