The Plains Brood Alone
(Dr. Dibble's Home Web Site)
This book takes you on a tour of Tanzania
such as no travel agency could ever construct. The reader sees the
people and their culture in their actual surroundings. Dr. Dibble is
the guide and his aim is to introduce you -- personally -- to many of the
people of Tanzania. By means of the microcosm of the Kiomboi Lutheran
Hospital you can see all the people and situations that make Tanzania a
place totally different from any other in the world.
The title of this book comes from a long narrative poem found in the opening pages. In the early stanzas the author is talking about the return of the rains and the consequent return of grass and the animals that feed on it. The pertinent stanza goes like this:
I've wondered what manner of power
could resurrect life from
the sod
And I've come to the final conclusion
that somehow there must be
a God
How else could all this have meaning,
why else should the
plains brood alone,
How else could the rivers run rampant
and cause mountain to
shudder and moan?
Tanzania is many things to many people. The vast expanses of grasslands in the Serengeti Plains. The University at Dar es Salaam. The mission hospital at Kiomboi. The big towns of Arusha and Moshi. The farmer on his three acres of sandy soil. All these scenes are Tanzania, and at any given moment, in any give place, one can say, "This is Tanzania."
As a doctor in Tanzania, Dr. Dibble learned to see the land and the people in two ways: as adventure material and as people in need of medical help. The stories in this book reflect this two-fold view, filled with humor, pathos and love ... yet assessed with open-hearted warmth and understanding.
So sensitive, so insightful is The Plains Brood Alone that it can almost be used as a case study in sociology or anthropology -- but there are no stuffy words here, just an engrossing, beautiful reading experience that will carry the reader to a far-off land of vicarious enjoyment.
Following the introduction and the poem, each chapter tells a short story, each based on actual people and actual incidents, and sometimes fleshed out (excogitated) by the story-telling ability of the author. There is a boy whose face was torn open by a hyena, a young girl in a primitive tribe being taken as a second wife by an older man, a lion-man from the bush, a man blind for many years with mature cataracts, a kidnapped girl rescued by her betrothed, a pastor who was born and raised only a few miles from the church he now served, a teacher being forced to accept the new nationalism, a park warden who knew that the Americans were rich because they were God-fearing people, a white hunter and black tracker in the Serengeti, and many more. All the main characters are Africans, though white missionaries and government people enter some of the stories.
Although this book was written some years ago, there is a universality about the people in all these stories that makes them timeless. Hyenas are still a danger in the bush. Old men with cataracts still walk around blind for years before having surgery (or dying first), nationalism is still a factor in most African countries, some people still believe there are men who can change their shape into a lion any time they want, and so on.
An autographed paperback copy is available from the author for $15 plus $2 S & H:
W 4290 Jene Road
dibble@discover-net.net
Eau Claire, WI 54701
I would be happy to correspond by e-mail but I cannot take a credit card. Payment should be by check or money order.
Copies of the book may be available at: