Jim Wilson

              193?
JIM WILSON
He crossed the dark continent on a gas bicycle and learned, in a region never before visited by an American, that—


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AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE!


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It's sparkling—and different—the story of this astonishing young Don Quixote who makes blow-out patches from antelope hide, conquers black men with a banjo, and brings to America a new vision of WORLD FRIENDLINESS.

MOVIES, SLIDES, AFRICAN EXHIBIT



YES, AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE-AND THEY BEHAVE LIKE HUMAN BEINGS!


Girls Will be Girls the World Over

First to Cross North Central Africa
Here is a young fellow who went to Africa with a twinkle in his eye and a liking for mankind—and came home to become, in the short space of a year, one of the busiest lecturers in America.  It wasn't because of his exploit, although that alone would have made him famous, but because people think he is the sort of a chap really worth getting acquainted with.

Jim Wilson and his companion were the first white men ever to cross Africa from coast to coast between Lake Tchad and the Sahara.  Without guides, porters, or interpreters, they battered their way through jungles, deserts, and savannahs for five long months, traversing a 1200-mile stretch of territory never before visited by an American.


Fuzzy's Family Car Will Make Ten Miles on a Gallon of Sandburs





Kanem Women Would Rather Spin Yarns Than Play Bridge

The Epic of Mankind
But AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE is not just an adventure story, nor is it solely a plea for inter-racial understanding and world friendship.  It is the story of all humanity, gripping and universal.

When Mr. Wilson talks, you picture YOURSELF, and YOUR children, and YOUR friends, struggling along in jungle and desert under the age-long burden of the black man's destiny; you realize that you, like the African savage, are an actor in the valiant epic of the Sons of Men, whose lot it is, be they white or black, to be born of suffering women, work a little, play a little, laugh a little, forge ahead a little, and die.


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Left—Sheik Atayeb Greets His American Guests With Biblical Courtesy

Right—Hotel de Fresh Air—Extreme Heat, No Water, Free Garage



The Cockroaches Did It!
There wasn't any blaring of trumpets nor beatinn of drums when Jim Wilson and Francis Flood set out to cross Africa.  No expedition, no press agent, no auspices—just two lean, somewhat hungry-looking young men, who for reasons best known to themselves, had started out to sail around Africa on an American freighter.

But the boat had cockroaches and they kept getting in the soup!

So Jim and his pal threw their duffle bags ashore at Lagos, Nigeria, and decided to take a short cut straight across the continent to the Red Sea—a short cut which, as they later found out, was three and a half months longer than the longest way around.  But the motorcycles had something to do with that.  They might have made it in less time by camel—but they didn't know that then.



Three Wheeling Through Africa
It sounds incredible!—battling your way through the heart of Dark Continent, through the least known, least explored part of Africa, over caravan trails never before touched by a wheeled vehicle—and doing it on motorcycles!  3800 miles—with only 900 miles of road.  Garages were 2400 miles apart; gasoline had to be transported 45 days into the desert by camel and cost $4.00 a gallon.

It was a case of living by one's wits or not living at all.

They broke a sidecar frame 1200 miles from the nearest repair shop—and fixed it with a forge made from a petrol tin and a pair of motorcycle handle bars.  Flood lost a fiber bearing from his magneto breaker box; Wilson moulded a new one out of his pal's partial plate—and Flood ran in on the rim to the nearest dentist—1500 miles away.  They lost the trial and ran out of water—but saved themselves by tracking a jackall to a stinking little water hole.



Savages are Civilized
Armed with no other weapons than a genial disposition and a friendly smile, these two young men traveled alone for months in the territory of tribes alleged to be savage and hostile—and found that courtesy was returned for courtesy and friendliness for friendliness.

Far in the interior of the Dark Continent they found natives who were experts in weaving, leather tooling, basketry, and metal work—natives who had had a written language for almost 900 years—natives with a rich and fascinating literature of proverbs, epics, legends and tales.



TWO FASCINATING ILLUSTRATED LECTURES

AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE—(Lagos, Nigeria, to Zinder, French Niger)
BACK OF TCHAD—(Zinder to the Red Sea)


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The Yoruba Version of Strained Carrots and Hot Cooked Cereal

A Story With An Idea
Easy, after such an exploit, to have said I did this, and I did that—and called it a lecture.  But Jim brought home an Idea as as well as a Story: When one thoroughly understands how a queer person got that way, he isn't queer any longer; he's usually a pretty good scout!  World peace and friendliness through the cultural understanding of peoples and the backgrounds from which they carve their civilizations, their personalities, and their peculiarities.

One Sees Why This Young Man Has Become Famous


A Moslem Pilgrim En Route for Mecca and Salvation




Just Like Ginger Ale!
Simple and graphic in his language, and effervescing with spontaneous wit, Jim Wilson is one of the most delightful personalities on the lecture platform.  He is just like ginger ale!  Roughneck—and aristocrat.  Humorist—and serious student.  Hard-bitten buckaroo—and sensitive humanitarian.  The Architect forgot the rules when he buitl Jim—that's why he is so interesting.

Few people are better qualified as an interpreter of folks.  He has a splendid background of anthropology, philosophy, and literature, and a deep human sympathy.  He has been rancher, musician, college instructor, and journalist.  In addition to his experiences in Africa, he has traveled widely in Europe, Asia, and America.  In 1922 he shipped to Alaska as deck hand on a coastwise steamer and floated 500 miles down the Yukon in a 12-foot homemade rowboat.  In 1928 he walked across south Burma and half way across Siam, then sailed down the Mee Nam River on a bamboo raft.


Not Endive—Hair!


Left—A Hausa Shoe Factory in Zinder

Right—Readin, 'Writin', 'Rithmetic in the Mohammedan Manner


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MOVIES SLIDES AFRICAN EXHIBIT

3800 Miles Across Africa—Stark, Terrible, Friendly Africa


Magnificently illustrating the connection between a people's environment and their cultural achievements is Mr. Wilson's exhibit—
a Dahomey king's ceremonial robe, a rug from an Arab patriarch's tent, a Tuareg chief's blanket, a leather cushion, tanned, dyed, and beautifully embroidered by a Hausa-man, a Yoruba talking drum which Jim dickered right out of a native band, a great, hand-hammered brass tray from Nupai-land.


You'll find a new Africa in Jim's big, black trunk.



Slides, Movies?—Yes
Sixty colored slides and two fascinating reels of 35 mm., non-inflammable film for each lecture—and Mr. Wilson carries his own projector and a dissolving stereoptican.


Yoruba Women Are Very Headstrong




African savages at work and play—bushwhacking on a steel pony—crossing the Kaduna River in a giant mahogany war canoe—reception of the two white men by a Yoruba king—dancing girls—snake charmers—weavers—metal workers—Jim and his banjo in action at a Gwari pow-wow—and you'll see in a twinkling why this jolly peeled man won the hearts of his black friends.

Here is an illustrated lecture which is also a work of art.  From beginning to end things happen with precision and speed.

A two-minute introduction—lights out—a rapid-fire sequence of beautifully colored slides, artistically dissolving from one to the next—six lively minutes of movies—then Jim, himself, in front of the spotlight re-enacting some breath-taking experlence or dramatizing one of his African poems—more slides—more movies—the exhibit—and, at the end—

—a dramatic, gripping appeal for world peace and friendliness through cultural understanding.  Surely this is one lecture you will never forget.


Knighthood Is Still In Flower In the Sudan



Hausa-Land Trees Bear Thorns Instead of Leaves





THEY SAY —
You won your audience at the Executives' Club last Friday—the comments were all favorable.  You are doing a splendid piece of work by promoting a better understanding and emphasizing those qualities in people which endear them to each other.

—Executives' Club of Chicago.


In behalf of the Forum I want to thank you for recommending Jim Wilson to us.  He gave a most impressive and entertaining lecture; as one of our members expressed it, He was just corking!—
Bridgeport (Conn.) Sunday Evening Forum.

I have been chairman of the program committee for four years, and I can truthfully say that in all that time we have never had a program with which our members were more pleased.  The fact that we want you to come back is further evidence that you went over one hundred per cent.  There is no doubt that you will be in great demand upon your return to Buffalo.

—Kiwanis Club, Buffalo, N. Y.

It was a delight to have you here in your fascinating lecture, AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE.  The manner of your approach in the direction of promoting World Friendship is both unusual and effective.

—Colgate University, Hamilton, N. Y.

Midland College and the City of Fremont recommend unreservedly Jim Wilson's lecture, AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE.  His pictures, message, and presentation establish him as a speaker of extraordinary merit.

—Midland College, Fremont, Nebr.

I wish to advise you how much our members and their guests enjoyed your lecture, AFRICANS ARE PEOPLE.  If you ever want someone to testify as to your ability to please an audience of men, don't hesitate to call on us.

—Chicago Engineers Club.


As a speaker, Mr. Wilson has a fluent, virile vocabulary, an excellent voice, a direct, straightforward appeal, and a constant flow of humor.  It is our opinion that if lecturers as a class had more of all these assets they would be able to put their thoughts across with more effect.  And this brings up the intellectual value of Mr. Wilson's talk.  All through it ran a deep belief in the brotherhood of man, the innate goodness and rightness of human being, and therefore, a strong optimism, all of which made a vital appeal to his hearers.—
Freeport (Ill.) Daily Journal.

Our club liked your lecture immensely.  The humorous sallies were a delight to everyone.  We shall be most happy to further your work in any way possible, for we were tremendously interested in your pictures, in your happy manner on the platform, and in the success of one who is giving his best to his work.

—Arche Club, Chicago.

Although all our speakers were of state and national prominence, Mr. Wilson was considered by all odds the keynote speaker of the entire convention.  Engaged purely as an entertainment feature, he gave us more to think about than anyone else on the program.

—Biennial Convention, Iowa Federation of Women's Clubs.

Mr. Wilson has a very keen mind that is remarkably unbiased by tradition or by the conclusions of others.  He may be depended upon, not only to entertain, but to inspire and instruct as well.

—First Congregational Church, Ames, Ia.



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