Ex Africa semper aliquid novi.

Ex Africa semper aliquid novi. This is a first, I have never used Latin when writing about horses; when writing about rats I became convinced I could write a paragraph where I used the same word nine times in a row. Rattus rattus rattus is Latin name for the Black rat, the bearer of the plague and the fifth most endangered mammal in Britain, (and for some reason, there doesn't seem to be any funding for protecting it). Anyway, if you end a sentence with Rattus rattus rattus and start the next with Rattus rattus rattus, it should be possible to insert a clause starting Rattus rattus rattus and get all nine lined up in a row with only punctuation in the way. By any standards a truly pointless activity, but it gives a clue to the sort of brain which, while trawling for odd information on the origin of the Forward Seat, discovered a plausibly African origin for Natural Horsemanship.

So the quote, Ex Africa semper aliquid novi, attributed to almost everyone Roman, and even to Aristotle, but not, due to the fact that it is in Latin, to Oscar Wilde or Sir Winston Churchill, to whom most quotes are attributed, means "Out of Africa, always something new". To some this was apparently a sneer, since nothing coming out of Africa is reliable. Regrettably true as the whole human race came out of Africa, but we will ignore such snobbery and cynicism and look at the evidence.

I was reading a 1966 Dorian Williams children's pony anthology, the Vanguard Book of Ponies and Riding, sad, I know, but a mine of information, looked at with 21st century 20/20 hindsight. Dorian Willams, for my younger readers, is a British Horse Society Hall Of Fame Laureate, the original BBC equestrian commentator, son of the founders of British Dressage and the Pony Club, in other words, a man who knows one end of a horse from the other etc. I came across this stunning passage titled the Psychology of the Horse, a short piece written by Dorian Williams and originally published in 1964 as "Learning to Ride".

"The reaction of the horse to the tempo and personality of the rider was very vividly demonstrated to me some years ago in Johannesburg. I was going to the races one day, and as I drove through the city I saw to my amazement some of the horses that were going to run in the races being ridden through the streets- through all the busy, noisy traffic- by their grooms, who were native boys. The horses were thoroughbreds, bred on exactly the same lines as our own racehorses, and yet whereas our horses would have been all over the place, demanding the most skilled handling, these were just jogging disinterestedly along on a loose rein! Now those African boys are very lazy and lethargic by temperament. It would never occur to them to hurry or to get excited, and they just drift along, their complete lack of understanding communicating itself to their horses."

The tragedy of racism isn't just the offence caused by Williams' descriptions of Africans. It is the way prejudice blinded him to the world around him. He wrote this in 1964, and he wasn't unusually prejudiced for his age, but Dorian Willams, as a sports commentator, must have noticed the incredible performances of Wilma Rudolph in the 1960 Rome Olympics. As the first American woman to win three Golds, as the first Polio victim to do so, as an incredible sprinter winning the 100m, the 200m and 400m relay, he would probably have noticed her, even if the fact that she was black hadn't registered. Lazy and lethargic by temperament, I don't think so.

Dorian Williams is able to observe, and describe for us, brilliant horsemanship, but is too blinded by prejudice to know what he has seen. Thousands of children read, and trusted, his books on horsemanship, and could have learned Natural Horsemanship from these masters over 40 years ago. These African stable lads, by his own admission, outclass everyone at Newmarket. He says "whereas our horses would have been all over the place, demanding the most skilled handling, these were just jogging disinterestedly along on a loose rein!" But rather than look for skill, or ability, he chooses to denigrate the Africans.

He's not much better about women who lack a suitably "horsey" background. In the next paragraph he states,

"I once had a horse that had in fact been a confirmed runaway and was so highly strung that even out exercising it would become so excited that I could hardly manage it. Fortunately I had a girl working for me who, though she had never been taught properly to ride, and had no experience at all before coming to me, yet was blessed with a wonderfully calm and sympathetic temperament. As a result she could ride the horse without any difficulty at all. With her, that horse never became excited, even when hunting fit and getting more than 16 lbs of oats each day. Thanks to her nature and temperament she was able to catch with little difficulty horses and ponies that were a real problem to the others."

This girl had come to him with no experience at all, he admits he never taught her properly and she can do things with horses he can't do. And he can't see what she has, what those African Horsemen have, and interestingly what my other computer has.

Ubuntu.

It is a Zulu word, it is the name of a version of Linux software, but above all, it is an intensely African concept. I have taken a definition of Ubuntu from an article on marketing in Africa. If western trained marketing experts feel it is important to understand the concept of ubuntu, this must be a pervasive, important and effective philosophy. It is more than a philosophy, it is a behaviour pattern, but one that horses would find sympathetic. It is not the mad selfish grab of Western Capitalism, it isn't top down Communism, it is people as a community, a group where all have an identity in that group, understanding and accepting that status. It is what Natural Horsemanship teaches us to see in our horses, but in Africa it is a philosophy to be lived. Here is the marketing man's take on ubuntu.

The power of the community and Word of Mouth:

Visitors to Lagos, Kigali, Addis Ababa or most other African cities will have noticed the sheer impossibility of finding your own way around. Maps of these cities are generally not available or way out of date, but they would not be of much help anyway as streets and locations are not generally marked. Shopping in Africa is also worlds away from the West – most shopping takes place in open markets seething with crowds of people going about their business with enthusiasm and passion. Few items are priced and the actual act of buying involves a spirited debate with the store owner about the virtues of the product in question and the price to be paid for it. In a city such as London, the traveller arrives and can buy a comprehensive map from an automated machine at the airport. A trip to the shops is a quick, convenient low maintenance affair. But the real difference between these two types of city is one of social interaction. Western civilisation is designed to reduce face to face interaction with others to an absolute minimum – in London it is possible, even commonplace, to commute across the city on public transport, buy a load of groceries and get a take away meal on the way home without ever speaking to another human being.

Such a disconnect from the rest of humanity is anathema to African culture. Day to day life in African countries is an exceptionally social experience – everything from meals to shopping to working and commuting is characterised by ongoing conversation and interaction that is very exhausting for the Western traveller. Street signs and maps are unnecessary – everyone knows where things are and if they don’t they can just ask, so where’s the problem?

When you grow up in townships or rural areas, as is the case in other African countries you are taught the values of the community, which are highly respected and treasured. This point is embodied in the concept of Ubuntu. South African manager Reuel Khoza describes Ubuntu as the philosophy of “I am because you are, you are because we are.” It is a concept, he says, “which brings to the forefront images of supportiveness, cooperation, and solidarity, that is, communalism”. (World Business Academy 1997)

How unlike the home life of our own dear queen.

I don't know how the lady working for Dorian Williams acquired her skills, certainly not from the accepted "horsemen" of the day. Dorian Willams, for whom she was working, had never taught her properly to ride. Were the Africans taught, maybe one of them was a natural "natural horseman" and taught the others, but I suspect it was the concept of Ubuntu which made it easy for them to relate to horses, and to work with them, rather than impose the domination that Dorian Williams and traditional horsemanship expects. We have a brief glimpse of a skill, yet I can find no other records of this incredible skill. Like the nameless girl in his stable who outclassed the professionals, they come from the wrong class and the wrong race to be horsemen, or for their abilities to be recorded and respected.

I will be looking further at the concepts of Ubuntu and successful horsemanship and for those who feel I am as snobbish and racist as Dorian Williams with my assertion that it wasn't an African stable lad who came up with the idea, wait for the next section of this blog where I show how much of our accepted Western Horsemanship is stolen from African horsemanship and the concept of Ubuntu.

Dorian Williams was himself involved in burying the true history of the Forward Seat but that is the next story.

Let us just remember these two passages:

"I once had a horse that had in fact been a confirmed runaway and was so highly strung that even out exercising it would become so excited that I could hardly manage it. Fortunately I had a girl working for me who, though she had never been taught properly to ride, and had no experience at all before coming to me, yet was blessed with a wonderfully calm and sympathetic temperament. As a result she could ride the horse without any difficulty at all. With her, that horse never became excited, even when hunting fit and getting more than 16 lbs of oats each day. Thanks to her nature and temperament she was able to catch with little difficulty horses and ponies that were a real problem to the others."

I was going to the races one day, and as I drove through the city I saw to my amazement some of the horses that were going to run in the races being ridden through the streets- through all the busy, noisy traffic- by their grooms, who were native boys. The horses were thoroughbreds, bred on exactly the same lines as our own racehorses, and yet whereas our horses would have been all over the place, demanding the most skilled handling, these were just jogging disinterestedly along on a loose rein!

Incredible skill, it deserves to acknowledged at last.