The Flying Dutchman legend was born in South Africa. 

Fear of Dutch sea captains, Cape of Good Hope deadly currents and weather,  seamen superstitions help to spread the fear of the flying Dutchman.

Before Spongebob Squarepants met the Flying Dutchman, in South Africa in 1689 on the Cape of Good Hope the legend of the Flying Dutchman began. 

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that is said to be cursed to sail the seas forever without ever being able to make port.  

The sea is its own kingdom full of supernatural beings, The Flying Dutchman legend was told and retold in South Africa and supernatural appearances are never explained away.

The Flying Dutchman

In Dutch, a West Germanic language, Der Fliegende Hollander translates to The Flying Dutchman. In the 1600’s, the Netherlands, England, Portugal, and Spain were four colonial superpowers vying for the riches of African trade routes, spices, slaves, gold and minerals. The Dutch from the Netherlands were especially known for their fighting tempermente. 

The competition between sea captains to make money from Africa’s trade routes, spices, slaves, and gold was intense. 

Beginning in the late 15th century until the 17th century, around 1595 to 1830, the Dutch shipped an estimated 500 million enslaved Africans from The Dutch Slave Coast, Slavenkust the present-day African country of Ghana.

The spices we take for granted today as we scroll though the grocery store were once scarce and extremely valuable.

The Dutch control over the clove, pepper and nutmeg spice trade though The Dutch East India Company broke the stranglehold on the spice trade. 

English, Portuguese and Spanish spice traders were terrified of the Dutch sea captains. 

For example, in 1601 a fleet of five Dutch ships drove away a fleet of thirty Portuguese ships from a long established Portuguese trading route. 

The South African Dutch Sea Captain The Flying Dutchman Legend Begins.

Superstitions are powerful among people who sail the seven seas. The sea is its own kingdom full of supernatural beings. The Portuguese called the African Cape of Good Hope the Cape of Torment. 

Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Dias was the first to successfully reach the southernmost tip of Africa in 1488 and named it the Cape of Good Hope.

Many ships attempted to sail the trading route but failed and died in the attempt. Meeting place of two violent currents, savage winds, warring storms, dramatic rock formations, and ships disappearing without a trace have made the Cape of Good Hope one of the world's largest ship graveyards to the present day.

In May 1822, there were 18 ships destroyed by storms or lost without a trace and attributed to the legendary Flying Dutchman. 

Coupled with the fear of Dutch sea captains, the treacherous weather conditions of the Cape of Good Hope and the superstitious nature of seamen, The Flying Dutchman legend persists. 

As legend has it the Dutch thought themselves superior to all seaman and instead of waiting for an infamous Cape of Good Hope storm to pass, a Dutch sea captain made a statement in a tavern putting his sailing skills above any storm mother nature and God would throw at him stating ”I will be successful in this trip despite what God brings to me, I will land this trip in the name of God or the devil, whichever one gets me there!” 

The Flying Dutchman

The captain therefore set sail into the Cape of Good Hope but his ship was never seen again. His ship is said to be the ghost ship The Flying Dutchman doomed to sail the seas forever never to make port because he defied God. 

The Flying Dutchman is a reminder to all seafarers that they must respect nature. Everything on the ocean is small and you do not place yourself above God as the Flying Dutchman did in 1689, you should always fear and respect the sea. Any seafarer who sets eyes on the Flying Dutchman ship is an ominous omen of their pending death. 

Royal Navy officer Captain Frederick Marryat is quoted as saying “Seamen, since the beginning of time, have been a race unto themselves, having their own mode of life, customs and beliefs. 

They believe in lucky and unlucky days, signs, clouds, birds, and breezes... Above all they believe in an Evil Spirit of the sea, who delights to bring harm to mariners, send adverse winds and waves, and drag them down into the depths of the ocean. 

This Spirit, they say, can change a gentle breeze to a terrific gale in an instant. He can cause vessels to sink that have no leak. He can set strange lights ahead and thus lure a crew to dangerous reefs.”

Cape of Good Hope South Africa

 Flying Dutchman Can't Catch Me Game

Popular Flying Dutchman game that requires no supplies and only imagination. It's suitable for elementary-age kids.

Objective: Be the last player standing without getting caught by the Flying Dutchman.

Instructions:

Designate one player as the Flying Dutchman.

All other players will scatter and spread out in the designated play area.

The Flying Dutchman's goal is to tag or catch the other players.

Once a player is caught by the Flying Dutchman, they join forces and become crew members of the Flying Dutchman.

The Flying Dutchman and the crew members should hold hands to form a line or chain.

The Flying Dutchman and the crew members can only move by hopping or taking small steps.

The Flying Dutchman and the crew members work together to catch the remaining players.

The players who have yet to be caught must try to avoid getting tagged by the Flying Dutchman and the crew members.

Players can move freely and use their imagination to dodge, hide, or outrun the Flying Dutchman and the crew members.

The game continues until all players have been caught by the Flying Dutchman and become crew members or until only one player hasn't been caught.

The last remaining player who hasn't been caught becomes the Flying Dutchman for the next round.

The Flying Dutchman is a legend in the Arts, Sports and Games.

The 1833 MS. Found in a bottle, a short story by Edgar Allan Poe printed in the Baltimore Saturday Visiter is a story about the flying dutchman legend and the supernatural horrors at sea. 

The first written account of the Flying Dutchman legend in novel form was penned in 1838 in The New Monthly Magazine under the title of The Phantom Ship by the English Captain Frederick Marryat. 

The most famous account of the Netherlands Flying Dutchman is the 1843 opera Der Fliegende Holländer, The Flying Dutchman. This famous opera is still being performed today and is credited for introducing The Flying Dutchman to mainstream audiences and keeping the supernatural story alive. 

The Flying Dutchman is a reoccurring ghostly character on the tv show SpongeBob SquarePants who is named after the ghost ship of the same name. The Flying Dutchman first appeared in the episode Scaredy Pants from Season 1.

Because of his athletic ability and speed, Shortstop, Right Fielder and First Baseman German baseball player Johannes Peter Honus Wagner was nicknamed The Flying Dutchman.  

Playing mostly for the Pittsburgh Pirates throughout his baseball career, in 1936, the Baseball Hall of Fame inducted him as one of the first five members.

The Flying Dutchman is a legendary ghost ship that is said to be cursed to sail the seas forever without ever being able to make port.  

The legend of the Flying Dutchman has been around for centuries and is believed to have originated in the 17th century in South Africa.

The Flying Dutchman has been reported by many sailors over the years, who claim to have seen the ship sailing in the distance. 

Some sailors believe that seeing the Flying Dutchman is a bad omen, as it is said to bring bad luck and misfortune. 

One of the most famous sightings of the Flying Dutchman was by Prince George of Wales (later King George V) in 1881, when he was serving as a midshipman in the British Navy.

In modern times, the name "Flying Dutchman" has been used for a variety of things, including a roller coaster at various amusement parks and a type of pizza.

The legend of the Flying Dutchman continues to capture the imaginations of people all over the world, and it remains one of the most enduring and mysterious ghost stories of all time.

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Lovedale Missionary School Legacy of Education and Social Change.

African journalism heavyweight Dr. Walter Rubusana was a Lovedale Missionary School superstar who paved the way for Nelson Mandela's political career. 

Steven Biko, one of South Africa's most significant political activists was a student at the Lovedale Missionary School along with Nelson Mandela. 

Tiyo Soga was South Africa’s first indigenous Black African to be ordained and work for the Presbyterian Church in 1857, he also attended Lovedale Missionary School.

In 1824 Scottish Presbyterian missionaries John Bennie and John Ross of the Glasgow Missionary Society founded the city of Lovedale South Africa and later in 1841 the Lovedale Missionary School. 

Lovedale Missionary School later changed names to Lovedale College, then Lovedale Public FET College in 2002. 

In 1835 British Kaffraria governed by Lieutenant General Sir Benjamin D'Urban restricted the Xhosa tribe to specifically designated areas. 

The new territory was named from British Kaffraria to the Province of Queen Adelaide however the land acquisition was never cleared with the British Colonial Office in London.

In December 1836 the land acquisition restricting the Xhosa tribe was nullified. In 1840, the Lovedale Mission school started building on land donated by Mgolombane Sandile Xhosa King of the Ngqika and Rharhabe tribes. 

Most Black schools were run by missionaries with some state aid in South Africa. Many of the educated black South Africans could only attend mission schools per the 1953 the Bantu Education Act policy of apartheid.

But before the Bantu act Mission schools were intergraded, with blacks, whites and coloreds studying in the same classrooms using religious instructions to spread Christianity and attract new converts. 

Lovedale Mission School Journal of Gifted Land Gifted South Africans in the fields of Journalism, Activism, and Ministry.

Lovedale Mission School of Journalism.

Lovedale Mission Press was established as a small printing press at Tyumie Mission in 1823 but the press was destroyed during the Frontier War of 1834-1835 and a second press was established in 1839, which was in turn destroyed during the War of the Axe 1846-1847. The current Lovedale Mission Press dates from 1861 to present.

Among the earliest works produced were hymn books, school reading books and other Christian literature. Reverend Dr. James Stewart became one of its most influential missionaries teaching journalism at the Christian school and theological seminary that enrolled native black and colored Africans. 

The monthly South African newspaper Isigidimi SamaXosa or The Kaffir Express founded by Scottish missionary and physician the Reverend Dr. James Stewart in Lovedale, South Africa by the Lovedale Missionary Institution Press in 1870 introduced printing and book-binding enrolling black and colored South Africans to learn the trade.

An English Kaffir Journal written in English and the Xhosa language was a very popular series. In 1888 the Kaffir Express changed its name the to Christian Express and in 1922 changed its name again to the South African Outlook Periodical published in Mowbray, a Southern suburb of Cape Town, South Africa and Lovedale, Eastern Cape South Africa.

The newspaper was very important because two early black African journalism Titians Walter Rubusana, Elijah Makiwane and John Tengo Jabavu were Stewart's protégés who started out working as translators of the bible, writers of indigenous language religious literature and printing assistants. 

Mpilo Walter Benson Rubusana was a co-founder of the Xhosa language newspaper publication, Izwi Labantu and South African Native National Congress which later became the African National Congress.was the first Black politician elected to office in colonial South Africa.

South African writers Archibald Campbell Mzolisa Jordan, Herbert Isaac Ernest Dhlomo, and female South African writer Victoria Swartbooi were also famous graduates of Lovedale Mission school.

Lovedale College Activists.

Steve Biko was one of South Africa's most significant political activists and a leading founder of South Africa's Black Consciousness Movement and was a student at Lovedale Missionary School. His death in police detention in 1977 led to his being hailed as a martyr of the anti-Apartheid struggle.

The brutal circumstances of Biko's death caused a worldwide outcry and he became a martyr and symbol of black resistance to the oppressive Apartheid regime. As a result, the South African government banned a number of individuals (including Donald Woods) and organizations, especially those Black Consciousness groups closely associated with Biko.

The United Nations Security Council responded by finally imposing an arms embargo against South Africa. Biko's family sued the state for damages in 1979 and settled out of court for R65,000, then equivalent to $25,000.

"The basic tenet of black consciousness is that the black man must reject all value systems that seek to make him a foreigner in the country of his birth and reduce his basic human dignity." -Steve Biko

South African activist and politician Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki served as the second president of post-apartheid in South Africa for nine years from 1999 to 2008. His middle name Mvuyelwa is Xhosa and means he for whom the people sing. 

Mbeki’s father also studied at Lovedale College, he was a leading figure in African National Congress activities in the Eastern Cape of South Africa. Mbeki began his education at Lovedale College in 1955 but when his schooling at Lovedale was interrupted by a strike in 1959, he completed his studies at home.

"Both the family circumstances of my upbringing and the fact of apartheid oppression which impacted in us as young people made it inevitable that like others of my generation, I would have to be involved not in politics, but in the liberation struggle." - Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki

In November 1870, Stewart wrote an editorial for the Kaffir Express: “Our aim is to scatter ideas in the moral wastes and desert places of human ignorance and to aid general missionary work in South Africa.”

Lovedale Mission School Black Ordained Ministers.

Tiyo Soga was a writer for the Lovedale newspaper, Indaba, he was also South Africa’s first Black minister to be ordained and work for the Presbyterian Church in 1857. Elijah Makiwane was the second ordained Black minister to work for the Presbyterian Church.

Classically trained at the Lovedale Missionary School along with his trips to Scotland, Soga was the first black South African to translate the Bible and the classic Christian parable written by John Bunyan in 1678, Pilgrim's Progress into the South African Xhosa language. 

Soga’s translation of the bible and Pilgrim's Progress to Xhosa helped to transform black Africans as they discovered Jesus Christ and entered into a right relationship with God. His translations were influential in spreading the Presbyterian Church message throughout South Africa.

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The Lingua franca and official language of an African country does not reflect the language used by a people. Often most people in Africa do not read, write, speak, or have fluent listening comprehension skills in the Lingua franca or official language of a country.

Vendor selling Hershey's ViVi peanut snack in Ghana. 

Africa is made up of 54 multilingual countries but the Lingua Franca language of business, trade and education in Africa’s ten largest countries are French and English, not native African languages. In every African country many people are multilingual, fluent in a native language and dialect spoken at home and used in local trade at markets or small local businesses. Many people can understand a language but not speak it.

More often than not the official language of an African country does not refer to the language used by a people. For example, French is the official language in Senegal but the majority of the population speaks the African languages of Wolof, Pular, Jola, Mandinka, Serer, and Soninke.

Lingua franca (pronounced ling-wa fran-ka) is a language that is adopted or made official by a country as a common language between speakers who speak different languages. English is the international lingua franca language of the internet, business, aviation, and education.

Two billion people across the globe speak English as either a first or second language. English is the International language. English became the lingua franca due to the expansion of the British empire. English is the largest language by number of speakers. 

English is spoken by communities on every continent and on islands in all the major oceans. It is a co-official language of the United Nations, the European Union and many other world and regional international organizations. English is the lingua franca language of the internet, business, aviation, science, technology and education.

In every African country many people are multilingual, fluent in a native language and dialect spoken at home and used in local trade at markets or small local businesses. Why is French a lingua franca in Africa? Françafrique describes deeply rooted French influence and characterizes the colonial link between France and its former colonies in Africa.

French was the language of colonizers who ruled former French colonies throughout the continent of Africa. France officially maintained colonies in Africa from the 17th century majorly increasing its colonization in Africa during the 1885 Scramble for Africa campaign.

French is the official language in 19 African countries. The former French colonial territories in Africa are the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Central African Republic, Togo, Mauritania, Cameroon, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad, Djibouti, Burkina Faso, Benin, Madagascar and Niger.

Lingua franca and official languages of Africa’s 10 largest countries.

Algeria

Arabic (official), Berber (official), French (lingua franca)

Democratic Republic of the Congo

French (official), Lingala African language is the lingua franca of trade language.

Sudan

Arabic (official), English (official), Arabic (lingua franca)

Libya

Arabic (official) Arabic, Italian, English (lingua franca)

Chad

French (official), Arabic (official) Arabic (lingua franca)

Niger

French (official) Hausa, English, Djerma, French (lingua franca)

Angola

Portuguese (official) 

Portuguese and four African languages are the lingua franca of local trade language, they are Umbundu, Kikongo, Kimbundu, Chokwe (lingua franca)

Mali

French (official)

Bambara, French, Fula, Songhai (lingua franca)

South Africa

isiZulu, isiXhosa, Afrikaans, Sepedi, Setswana, English, Sesotho, Xitsonga, siSwati, Tshivenda, and isiNdebele all are official languages.

English (lingua franca)

Ethiopia  

Amharic African language is the lingua franca and official national language of Ethiopia.

Oromo African language is the official working language in the State of Oromiya Ethiopia. Somali official working language of the State of Sumale.

Tigrigna is the official working language of the State of Tigray.

Sidamo, Wolaytta, Gurage, Afar official working languages of the State of Afar. 

Trading beads at a local market in Senegal speaking the Wolof language

Did you know?

Language is a part of culture; nearly half of the 7,000 languages spoken in the world are expected to vanish in the next 100 years. In Africa, over 2,000 languages are spoken on the continent and hundreds are endangered or critically endangered.

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West African Calf Head Stew

Calf head meat is tender when slow cooked.

Calf head meat is tender and delicious in a rich homemade beef broth simmered with Egusi seeds, fresh herbs, spices, and root vegetables.

Why Cooking the Whole Animal Matters

For many people, the idea of cooking with a calf’s head can seem unusual. In modern supermarkets, most meats are cut, cleaned, and neatly wrapped long before reaching the kitchen. Eyes, bones, and skin are rarely seen — and so we forget how much of the animal once went into a single meal.

Across much of Africa and the world, however, cooking with the whole animal is a tradition of respect and resourcefulness. Nothing is wasted. Every part — from head to tail — is used to create rich broths, tender stews, and nourishing dishes that honor the life taken to provide food.

This recipe is a reflection of that wisdom. Preparing calf head meat slowly and carefully is not only a culinary practice — it’s an act of gratitude, connection, and heritage.

Calf head meat refers to the meat that comes from the head of a young cow. It is a cut of meat typically found in specialty markets or butchers in the United States. The meat from the calf's head is typically tough and chewy, so it is often slow-cooked or braised to make it tender.

Common Ways to Prepare Calf Head Meat

Head cheese: A cold cut made from the meat, skin, and other parts of the calf's head. The meat is cooked, molded into a loaf or terrine, and served cold.

Tacos de cabeza: A Mexican dish made from slow-cooked calf head meat seasoned with spices like cumin and chili powder, then served in corn tortillas with cilantro, onion, and lime.

Boiled calf head: In many African cultures, the calf's head is boiled and served with rice, bread, or fufu.

While calf head meat is not common in most Western diets, it is considered a delicacy in many African cuisines. Its tender, gelatinous texture makes it perfect for stews, soups, and hearty meals shared among family.

Another common ingredient in West African cooking is Egusi seeds — the dried, ground seeds of melon or squash plants. Combined with slow-cooked meat and root vegetables, Egusi creates a thick, flavorful sauce that defines many beloved dishes across West Africa.

Calf head meat is tender when slow cooked.

West African Calf Head Stew Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 pounds calf’s head meat
• 2 cups white mushrooms
• 2 large potatoes
• 1 medium yam, peeled and diced
• 1 large onion, diced
• 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 1 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1 lemon rind, grated
• 3 tablespoons butter
• ½ teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 1 tablespoon Egusi paste
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Water to cover

Directions

In a large pot, add the calf head meat and cook on medium-high with three gallons of fresh water, vinegar, and sea salt for 3 hours, replacing the water as needed. Strain broth from the meat. In another pot, add 2 cups of the strained broth, 4 cups of water, the remaining ingredients, and the cooked meat. Simmer 30 minutes or until the yams are fork-tender. Serve with fufu or rice. Learn how to make fufu here.

Did You Know?

Cooking with every part of an animal is a sustainable and respectful tradition practiced across Africa. It reduces waste, preserves flavor, and carries forward generations of food wisdom.

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African food tells the story of respect — from the farmer’s field to the family table.

A continental shelf of a coastal State includes the seabed and subsoil of the land underlying the seawaters surrounding the coast to a drop-off point called the shelf break. From the break, the shelf descends toward the deep ocean floor in what is called the continental slope that descends to the abyssal plain.

The comparatively easy to get to continental shelf is the most used and best understood part of the ocean floor. Continental shelves are an oasis in the ocean for plants and animals due to the abundance of sunlight, shallow waters, and nutrient packed soil deposits from rivers and lakes.

The continental shelf extends beyond a States territorial sea, 12 nautical miles, throughout the continuity of the landmass to the outer edge of the continental margin. If the continental margin is very long, coastal countries can claim only 200 nautical miles from the territorial sea.

Africa has 36 recognized coastal countries. A coastal State has sovereign rights and exclusive jurisdiction over its continental shelf for the purpose of exploring it and exploiting its natural resources. Even though they are underwater, continental shelves are part of the continent. The actual boundary of a continent is not its coastline, but the edge of the continental shelf.

Africa's waters have abundant wildlife and oil resources on the continental shelf areas on the Atlantic Ocean, Red Sea, Indian Ocean, and Mediterranean Sea. Africa's continental shelves are broad, gently sloping plains covered by relatively shallow water. Water depth over the continental shelves is usually between 100–200 meters or 330–660 feet.

West African nations have some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. People have depended on the continental shelf for thousands of years to provide fish, and seafood such as crabs, shrimps, prawns, and crayfish; mollusks, including clams, and oysters, in Africa and, more recently, the continental shelf has been an important region for oil.

The continental shelf makes up less than 10 percent of the total area of the oceans. Yet over a billion people, most of whom are poor, depend on fish as a source of animal protein. Fish is the cheapest source of animal protein.

Africa has 36 recognized coastal countries, here is the list below.

1. Madagascar
2. Somalia
3. South Africa
4. Mozambique
5. Egypt
6. Eritrea
7. Morocco
8. Libya
9. Angola
10. Namibia
11. Tanzania
12. Tunisia
13. Algeria
14. Cabo Verde
15. Gabon
16. Nigeria
17. Sudan
18. Mauritania
19. Liberia
20. Ghana
21. Kenya
22. Senegal
23. Cote d'Ivoire
24. Seychelles
25. Cameroon
26. Sierra Leone
27. Guinea-Bissau
28. Guinea
29. Djibouti
30. Equatorial Guinea
31. Sao Tome and Principe
32. Mauritius
33. Republic of the Congo
34. Benin
35. The Gambia
36. Togo

Did you know?

Africa is surrounded by water. The Territorial sea is in control of a coastal state that extends 12 miles beyond its land territory and internal waters to an adjacent global conveyor belt and claims extends to the air space over the territorial sea.

List of Known Victims Killed by the Insatiable African Tsavo Man-Eating Lions and How They Died. 

Tent Lieutenant Ungan Singh was clasped by the throat and dragged off to be eaten by the lion.

Intelligent African man-eating lions stopped at nothing and stalked human prey with the precision of a military operation. Tsavo devil lions killed and ate upwards of 135 railroad workers from March - December, 1898. These clever African man-eating lions stalked, terrorized and killed Indian and African railroad workers for nine months in British East Africa. 

From March - December 1898, in an eight mile radius, the lions stopped at nothing and in fact stalked human prey with the precision of a military operation. The railway workers believed the lions were not animals, but devils in lions' shape and lived a charmed life.

The first written account of African man-eating lions was written in The Field newspaper in the year 1899 written by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, an engineer hired to construct the Kenyan Ugandan railroad. Workers were dragged from their tents which were surrounded by thick thorn fences, dragged off scaffolding, dragged from trees and eaten alive by two intelligent man-eating lions.

Despite having armed guards, the police and snipers from the military sitting in trees all night long in the pitch dark to track the whereabouts of the man-eating lions, the attacks did not stop. The lions always seemed capable of avoiding the snipers, while successfully stalking and killing numerous victims.

The Insatiable African Tsavo Man-Eating Lions

Known Victims Killed by the Tsavo Man-Eating Lions as Witnessed by Civil Engineer Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson.

1. After the railway crew settled in for the night, a lion suddenly put its head in at the opening of the tent door and snatched Lieutenant Ungan Singh who happened to be nearest the opening, he was clasped by the throat and dragged off to be eaten.

2. On the same night as Singh’s death, a half mile away at the Railhead Camp, another worker sleeping in his tent was kidnapped and killed by the man-eating lions.

3. Two unknown railroad workers carried off from the Railhead Camp.

4. Two known men from the Engomani Camp, one of whom was killed and eaten, and the other so badly mauled that he died within a few days.

5. Unknown worker found in the river bed mauled and half eaten.

6. Unknown railway station worker was carried off screaming into the night, nothing was found except his skull with two large puncture wounds.

7. Two wounded and one person killed in the lion attack. The unknown Asian hospital patient was seized and dragged off by the lion through the thorn fence that surrounded the hospital tent.

8. Around a large campfire surrounded by railroad workers and hospital staff, the lion stuck his head in the tent and seized the hospital water carrier by the foot and pulled him out. Within the sight of dozens of witnesses the lion then tore into his throat and gave a few vicious shakes, seized him in his mouth and dragged him away.

9. Even after warning cries of “Beware, brothers, the devil is coming”, two unknown workers were dragged off by a lion through a thick thorn fence in two different camps and were gobbled-up by two lions within thirty yards of the tent where they had been taken.

10. Captain Haslem assisted in trying to track the lion that kidnapped and killed lieutenant Ungan Singh, part of his skin was licked off and his flesh eaten..

11. Two unknown Swahili porters, one killed immediately and the other was found alive stuck in the thorn bush fence through which the lion had apparently been unable to drag him, he died soon after.

12. Unknown railroad worker was taken and eaten close to the Permanent Way Inspector's iron hut, the legs, one arm and half the body had been eaten by the time he was found. After this the railway work stopped; and for the next three weeks lion-proof huts were built for the workers who remained.

13. Abdullah, a police sergeant in the army of the European colony and deputy to Mr. Whitehead, the District Officer was seen by many people being dragged off by the lion, shots were fired but this did not stop the lion from getting away with his prey.

The lions were two man-eating male lions responsible for around 18 - 135 deaths of railroad construction workers in British East Africa from March - December 1898, the exact number is unknown. The first lion was killed on December 9, 1898, the second one on December 27, 1898 by a group of armed railroad workers assisting Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson John Henry Patterson who was tired of living in the constant fear of death and danger and took matters into their own hands to set up traps to kill the man-eating lions.

First lion killed on December 9, 1898

Poison and fire did not kill the lions but Carbine and Martini single shot lead bullets in the chest and head finished the lions for good. The taxidermied bodies of the Tsavo man-eating lions are on display at the Field Museum in the Rice Gallery Located on Chicago’s Lake Michigan in the USA.

The 26th President of the United States of America, President Theodore Roosevelt had a few words to say about the man eating lions after a lengthy conversation with the British professional hunter Frederick Courteney Selous. Roosevelt said "I think that the incident of the Uganda man-eating lions, described in those two articles you sent me, is the most remarkable account of which we have any record."

Prime Minister Robert Gascoyne-Cecil Marquis of Salisbury who in apologizing for the delay in the construction of the Uganda Railway said, "The whole of the works were put to a stop be- cause a pair of man-eating lions appeared in the locality and conceived a most unfortunate taste for our workmen. At last the laborer's entirely declined to carry on unless they were guarded by iron entrenchments. Of course it is difficult to work a railway under these conditions and until we found an enthusiastic sports- man to get rid of these lions our enterprise was seriously hindered."

It is said the names of the man eating lions were Ghost and Darkness but in his book The Man-Eaters of Tsavo, and Other East African Adventures, Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson only refers to them as the devils.

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