Product Description

From 1955 to 2002, Dr Sylvia Sikes travelled on and around Lake Chad - that strange, immense lake in the southern Saharan Desert. This book presents an easy-to-read record of her travels, adventures and observations during this time, and illuminates the plight of the indigenous people whose way of life is being affected by climate change and modern development in Africa. Dr Sykes witnessed the lake at its peak, when it covered approximately 22,000 to 25,000 square kilometres, and was alive with fish and other wildlife. During this period, floating papyrus and reed grass and fossilized dune islands characterized the lake, and a unique lake tribe - the Yedina - with their rare bulbous-horned cattle and papyrus canoes, made it their home. These canoes provided one of the modes of travel by which Dr Sykes explored the lake, along with a sloop-rigged yacht - the "Jolly Hippo" - which she brought from England and trailed by road across Nigeria for an eight-month exploration. Continuing her travels in 1974, after the climactic "crash" of the previous year, Dr Sykes arranged a a small launch to tour the remaining areas of the lake - severely diminished by a searing drought that would continue to affect West Africa for several years. Since then, Lake Chad has remained in a dessicated state and its conservation has become a matter of serious international concern: it is unlikely that it will ever again be full with sweet, fresh water. In the closing chapters of the book, the author describes its present condition and prospects for recovery. A completely revised and updated edition of "Lake Chad", published in 1972 by the same author, this title captures the former mystery and beauty of the lake and compares this with its subsequent decline. Two additional chapters, covering the period 1973 to 2002, are accompanied by satellite images and photographs taken at Lake Chad in January 2002.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1020638 in Books
• Published on: 2003-02-04
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 388 pages

About the Author
Dr Sylvia K.Sikes, M.A., Ph.D., F.R.G.S is a zoologist, traveller, and lecturer; born and reared in Kenya and educated at Sidcot School, Avon, and at Cambridge and London universities. She is the author of numerous scientific papers as well as popular articles about African wildlife. She has travelled and worked in several African countries as well as in Canada, the U.S.A., Argentina and Europe.

Her scientific research in Africa 1963-1967 for the Nuffield Institute of Comparative Medicine consisted of a study of cardiovascular disease in free-living wild animals. This became focused on the African elephant which suffers from similar heart and artery diseases to those found in humans. It resulted in her definitive book The African Elephant (Published by Weidenfeld and Nicholson in 1972). Subsequently she worked with the Canadian Wildlife Service in Alberta on wildlife and watersheds, and later (again in Africa) on manatees, elephants and pangolins.

She worked in Nigeria first (1954)as a Lecturer in Zoology at the College in Zaria which duly up-graded to University status, and later as a government Wildlife Officer in the Forestry Department of the then Benue-Plateau State from 1970 - 1977; she then farmed in retirement in England until 1999. She made several visits to Lake Chad, including her very significant 8-month exploration of the lake by yacht and canoe, in 1970-1969.

Excerpted from Lake Chad Versus the Sahara Desert: A Great African Lake in Crisis by Sir Vivian Fuchs, Sylvia K. Sikes. Copyright © 2003. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
The path passed into the papyrus to a damp place under a tree and there I saw some of the famous papyrus canoes (called) kadai lying in the shallows...Each kadai had a blunt stern and a gracefully curved prow which is held in place by a rope stay, tied back into the hull...As we sat down in our respective canoes (they) gradually subsided somewhat so that the water seeped in and we were sitting in about 4 inches of water..'

We followed the elephants over the grassland for about 1.5 km, and then entered boggy papyrus. Here we were able to approach to within about 50 m of the herd, obtaining a good view, and hearing distinctly the slap, slap of their ears against their sides, and their pop-pop-popping stomach rumbles...Then we got into a new position to watch them at the water's edge. The breeze now carried our scent towards them and they were uneasy, one of them walking about irritably as if hunting for us...

...so I asked about the Buduma', had members of the tribe introduced to me as 'Budumas'...and was told about them...but it was not until I began to hold tape-recorded interviews...that I ran into difficulties over this word....Then one day a member of the tribe turned up who could speak a little English. I went over all the same ground again....trying not to appear bored... Suddenly in a tumble of words, he said 'But Buduma no be our own name for tribe - .is kanuri name for tribe...we be strong mans: we be called by true name Yedina.. As we went on together that afternoon i found it was as if a key had been turned in a lock...he began to talk freely explaining their hatred of the word 'Buduma' as used by the kanuri...(as) this was with a sneer, an attempt to belittle the Yedina.