Zarafa: A Giraffe’s True Story, from Deep in Africa to the Heart of Paris, by Michael Allin (1998)
This is the delightful story of how, in 1826, a baby giraffe was captured in the Sudan and transported to Paris as a gift from Muhammad Ali, Ottoman viceroy to Egypt, to Charles X, King of France. In the process, the reader is treated to a brief glimpse of the world as exploration in Egypt was opening up, compliments of Napoleon.
Napoleon exposed Egypt to Europe. For centuries, the artifacts of ancient Egypt had been buried to the world. After Napoleon’s army landed in Egypt, Europeans began looting its tombs for profit. Europe was intrigued. Muhammad Ali, a brutal ruler to his own people, wanted to forge a link to Europe, so arranged to have a baby giraffe captured and transported to France as a gift to the post-Revolution King of France.
Allin explained how it was possible to trap the young giraffe, probably no more that 2 months old at its capture, and have it sent down the Nile River, across the Mediterranean, and finally the long walk from Marseille to Paris. The young giraffe had not yet been weaned, it could be separated from its mother, while it was still tame. Because it hadn’t been weaned, several cows travelled with it to provide it with 25 gallons of milk per day. Details of the trip from its initial capture until it reached Cairo are sketchy, however, detailed records existed on the trip from Cairo to Paris. Two and a half years after its capture, it entered Paris, where it lived for the next 19 years.
Modern Europeans had never seen such an exotic animal before, so during its trek through France, hordes of people flocked to see the creature. The reader learns that the ancient Romans had imported exotic animals for gladiator fights, but that had long been forgotten.
This is a fun book that describes not only a bit about the lives of giraffes, but also a slice of political life in France at the beginning of the 1800s.
Read: May 23, 2020
4 Stars
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