The most famous Blemmy of all - The Dolph Lundgrenophagus, both terrifying and strangely alluring

The Blemmys, or Blemmyae, were a genuine historical Nubian tribe, who may gradually have become demonised and fictionalised. Successive writers metaphorically removed their heads and shifted their faces to their chests, until they became fantastic headless humanoids, most often seen in medieval bestiaries and fantasies.

Blemmyae brought to the global stage

Blemmyae found resurgent fame in early English colonialism. Sir Walter Raleigh flounced back to civilisation from his travels among the uncouth and savage Amazonian residents describing them to his peers as having “their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts”.

We would assume that anyone hearing those reports must have questioned their veracity, as they would have been familiar with these traditionally fictitious and quasi-human forms. Today’s equivalent would be astronauts returning from Mars reporting a series of uber-mensch wearing tight shiny clothing with red capes and their underpants on the outside. Why not throw in the facts that they carry a mortal fear of green crystal and they all go around sporting heavily greased quiffs? We simply would not believe it.

A Blemmy featured in The Nuremburg Chronicle

Nonetheless, William Shakespeare lapped up this stuff, and cogged it in Othello, and thereby muddied the mythological waters:
“And of the Canniabals that each other eat,
The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads
Do grow beneath their shoulders.”

Unsurprisingly, Shakepeare’s writing confused many at the time, and since. The mythic cannibalistic race, the Anthropophagi have consistently been confused with, and as a result interchangeable with Blemmyae; ie they have eaten people and had their heads submerged into their chests.

At least there is some consensus – Shakespeare is indeed inexact and confusing, and not just for students.

The Anthropophagi were earlier referred to by Herodotus and he did so in an equally interchangeable manner with the Blemmyae. The former were reported to be cannibals who wore their victims’ scalps bound to their chests. This may have been the genesis for the idea of beings with heads on their chests.

Approximately 500 years later in 75CE, Pliny cleared the air in his Naturalis Historiae, if inventing mythical beasts can be said to be clearing up anything, “It is said that the Blemmyae have no heads and that their mouth and eyes are put in their chests.”

So Walter Raleigh’s claims of headless humanoids, to be fair to him, did not come from nowhere. There was a certain traceable lineage of Blemmyae appearing in literature, particularly travellers’ tales and natural histories.

Most recently Umberto Eco had a fantastic image of a Blemmy in his book, Baudolino, “Then Baudolino offered him a large piece of cheese. The blemmy put it to his mouth, which suddenly became the same size as the cheese, which vanished into that hole.”

Bibliography
Baudolino
Naturalis Historiae by Pliny
Blemmyes – the factual, historical, bona fide tribe
Blemmyes – the factual, historical, bona fide mythical creatures
Baudolino, Umberto Eco, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2002
Anthropophagi
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville fantstic tales of a fictional traveller
The City of Z, David Grann, Simon & Schuster, 2009

Original content created by: The Inquisition

The defendant - James S Jameson

The Horrible Jameson Affair, refers to the allegations that the fast living colonialist-for-hire and heir to a whiskey distilling empire, James S Jameson, procured a girl solely to watch her being eaten. The accusations were made in 1890, two years after the alleged incident.

The Main Protagonists

• James S Jameson was an heir to Jameson Irish Whiskey. His account of his time in the Rear Column was published posthumously by his wife and brother in an attempt to combat charges of disobedience, disloyalty, forgetfulness of promises, desertion, cruelty, cowardice, and even murder leveled against him by Sir Henry Morton Stanley.
• Assad Farran was a Syrian translator, who accompanied Jameson on his journey with Tippu Tip. It was Farran who made the contentious and inflammatory deposition against Jameson.

Catholic Church in Lokandu, photo taken approx 40 years after the affair. Courtesy of Yale University. Divinity School. Day Missions Library 1935 map of Congo and central Africa.

Supporting Cast

• Barttelot was an officer colleague of Jameson’s, left in command of Rear Column at Yambuya in the modern day Democratic Republic of the Congo. Barttelot would eventually be shot as he attempted to strike a woman, at the same time as Jameson died of fever elsewhere.
• Tippu Tip (variously spelled Tippoo Tip, Tippu Tib etc) was a notorious, blind slave trader, plantation owner and governor, who worked for a succession of sultans of Zanzibar. He rose to prominence through his ruthlessness and would eventually become very wealthy and powerful. By all accounts he was a man to be feared.
• Emin Pasha was a true nineteenth century gentleman; virtually the paradigm of a Jules Verne character. A German doctor and naturalist he was appointed Governor of Equatoria, but had become besieged after the fall of Sudan.
• Sir Henry Morton Stanley (of Dr livingstone fame), was in the employment of King Leopold of Belgium to install a Belgian colony, Congo’s Free State. Stanley was one of the leaders of the expedition to “rescue” Emin Pasha.

Typical nineteenth century African trading post

Where were they?

One of the few details of the episode that would be uncontested was the start of the affair. Jameson found himself with Tippu Tip and his translator Assad Farran at Ribakiba (or Ribaruba or Riba Riba, depending on the source; placenames were a flexible phoneticisation of the vernacular) Now known as Lokandu, it is a township in the Democratic Republic of Congo and sits at the virtual centre of Africa. At the time Ribakiba was a trading stop on the Lualaba River, a headstream of the Congo. The town was a major stop in slave and ivory trade routes, a lawless frontier town. The men were there looking for porters, of which they would eventually get 400.

Why were they there?

The men were part of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition. The expedition’s stated aim was to relieve the besieged Emin Pasha. It was really an expansionist foray, masterminded by Belgian royalty and employing cooperative europeans in an exploratory journey to the heart of “darkest africa”. King Leopold was suffering regal anxiety, and had decided he needed vast swathes of sub-Saharan real estate to allow him compete with other European monarchs. The men were to evaluate the lands.

Jameson and Barttelot had been left in command of the expedition’s Rear Column, something they failed to do in spectacular fashion. When Sir Henry Morton Stanley returned to review their joint command, he found only 60 of the 271 men still fit to serve. The camp’s conditions were described in all their depressing detail by Farran in his later affidavit.

Barttelot and Jameson claimed they were hampered in their duties by the lack of Belgian steamers on the Congo. They said their station was remote and isolated. King Leopold had promised steamers for the expedition which had not materialised, and the expedition were forced to use boats that could be dismantled and carried.

The expedition left Zanzibar for the heart of Africa on 25 february 1886.

Assad Farran’s Affidavit – The Accusation

Farran set the scene by describing cruelty and severity at Yambuya camp. He described the camp as having split into factions, in an indictment of the laissez-faire attitude adopted by the camp’s commanders.

Farran recounted how, at Ribakiba, Jameson had said to him that he was curious about the practice of cannibalism, which he believed was common among the natives. Apparently he was correct, it was relatively common. Jameson wanted to see it being performed and decided to buy a slave for the purpose. He paid six handkerchiefs for 10 year old girl. This detail would later stand out as essentially correct and uncontested.

Along with a group of men he brought her to the cannibals’ hut. Through the interpreter the men were told, “This is a present from a white man, who wishes to see her eaten”.

The girl was tied to a tree, and had her belly gouged twice with a knife. She looked around for assistance from the hostile group surrounding her. The girl remained silent as blood gushed from her abdomen. She was resigned to her fate. When dead from the blood loss, she was cut into pieces by the men who had sharpened their knives nearby.

Farran told how Jameson drew and sketched throughout the entire ordeal. Jameson, he said, later rendered these sketches in 6 delicate watercolours – the girl being led away, the stabbing and gushing blood, the dissection, and the final butchery. Jameson displayed his works to the chiefs for their approval.

1930s-era map of the Belgian Congo with the area in question highlighted. Click image to view larger.

Jameson’s Response – The Defence

A letter from Jameson appeared in the New York Times on November 15, 1890. His defence was made posthumously through his wife’s correspondence with the newspaper, and consisted of a letter Jameson had written to Sir William McMackinnon. The letter had been composed, as Jameson was dying, at Stanley Falls, August 3, 1888. Strangely, it deals with minor details and accusations which would only come to light two years later in Farran’s affidavit, which lends some credibility to the accusations.

Jameson described how he was brought to the local chief’s house where a cannibalistic ceremony was already in progress. Jameson was told by Tippu that he would witness cannibalism. Jameson replied in the negative, said it was impossible and he did not wish to believe it might happen. Tippu, he said, pushed the point and asked for 6 handkerchiefs so that he might prove him wrong. At this point Jameson concedes he did provide the handkerchiefs. This would lead anyone to wonder why he had such items, or why he went to lengths to procure and provide the payment that would secure a girl’s death, a death he claims he was averse to. At any rate all tellings of the story corroborate that a girl’s life was worth a mere 6 handkerchiefs.

Jameson said it all happened too quick to sketch, had he wanted to, which he goes on to re-state he didn’t do because he was shocked. The lady doth protest too much, methinks.

Jameson then went on to accuse Assad of fraud in camel dealings, in a thinly veiled and feeble attempt at character assassination.

The Probable Truth

The Kingdom of Luba was, along with being a mercenary slave-trading kingdom, a cultured place. This Katatora by an unknown artist is elegantly carved, using striking clear and stylised forms. It is 11.5 cm tall. Source: Wassing, Rene S., and Hans Hinz. African Art: Its Background and Traditions. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. p206.

Both sides had much to gain and lose. On balance of probability, there may have been some truth in the accusations, particularly in the light of Stanley’s portrayal of Jameson’s disdainful character.

Congo of the time was a dangerous and unstable place. The Luba Kingdom arose in the sixteenth century to eventually fall victim to European expansionism in the late nineteenth century. This was “Darkest Africa” a continent of myth, legend and heroism full of danger both animal and human, a land that might swallow up the unprepared. It was seen as a dangerous land, beyond the reach of law. Sadly, these tales appear to have more than a grain of truth, but much of this barbarism and intrigue was of european origin, or at least in support of colonial aims. Jameson certainly seems to have acted in this cavalier manner, according to many witnesses.

Assad was later ordered by Sir Francis de Winton to sign a declaration that the story was untrue. De Winton was the administrator General of the Belgian Congo and secretary of the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, a man who had much to lose if it was believed that men were supporting cannibalism under his watch.

Any story was possibly true.

Bibliography
Metafro Infosys is a now deprecated Belgian catalogue of data sets and data sources related to Central Africa
Metafro Infosys has moved all its content to the Royal Museum for Central Africa
Bruce Herald, Volume XXII, Issue 2232, 20 January 1891, Page 1
The Emin Pasha Relief Expedition, 1886-1890, Iain R. Smith, Oxford University Press, 2002
Wikipedia’s entry for the Emin Pasha Relief Expedition
The Horrible Jameson Affair – Assad Farran tells his story of cannibalism, The New York Times, November 14, 1890
Jameson’s Story – A letter in which he explains the cannibal incident, The New York Times, November 15, 1890
Wikipedia’s biography of Tippu Tip/a>
Sir Francis de Winton’s obituary

Original content created by: The Inquisition