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The book
"BUSH FOR THE
BUSHMAN"
The question is
are we going to let the Kalahari People Die?
About
The Author of "Bush for the Bushman"
The author, John
Perrott, graduated from UC Berkeley in engineering, a fourth
generation Californian, from gold rush pioneer stock. He was born on a
cattle ranch near Eureka, northern California, where his great aunt
Laura Perrott Mahan was a early leader in the conservation movement as
a founder of Save The Redwoods, in the 1920's. His aunt Vera Perrott
Vietor created the philanthropic Humbolt Area Foundation in the
1970's. The author published "Bush For The Bushmen" in 1992,
and created Save The Kalahari San in 1993.
After his military
career as a Navy flyer, his 35 year engineering construction career
took him around the globe, to many remote and exotic places. His only
'In USA' assignment was on the Alaska pipeline in the mid-70's. During
his seventeen years in Africa, he went 'bush' whenever possible,
mixing with the natives and wildlife. He learned Swahili in East
Africa in order to live and communicate with the indigenous people in
the outback without guide or translator. Perrott says "I've lived
in San Francisco but I left my heart in Africa". Additionally he
has traveled from Tibet to Timbuktu, Mongolia to Machu Picchu,
Kilimamjaro to the Coral Sea and more, as an adventure traveler,
photographer and diver.
On his rare visit with
the Kalahari Bushmen, Perrott and his travel companions led by Dr.
Jack Wheeler, were profoundly touched by the small group of nomadic
hunter gathers with whom they spent time. Like those who enchanted
moviegoers in "THE GODS MUST BE CRAZY", the Bushmen were
dressed in skins and were managing to still survive in the Kalahari
thirstland, hunting with poisoned arrows and gathering what sparse
food they could find, living 'stone age' simple. The group were
dismayed to find the onslaught of civilization (especially cattle) is
rapidly dispossessing them of their last God given bush and wild
animals, and now their very extinction is imminent.
John Perrott has worked
in the rugged wilds of Iran Jaya with the head hunters who killed
young Rockefeller in the late 1960's. He ramrodded the building of an
oil pipeline across the rugged Andes in Colombia, despite
anti-government guerrillas and torrential rains. He brings this same 'can
do' spirit that built billion dollar projects, to saving the Kalahari
ecosystem and the San. He is a 'hard-nosed-construction
stiff'-cum-Sans 'pragmatic-bleeding heart'! His visits with a small
family clan in the Kalahari was like a 'time machine voyage' back to
before the agricultural revolution "to visit our oldest living
relatives, to see OURSELVES, discover our roots". He appeals to
humanity to save a people whose peace, calm and attunement with nature
we 'civilized' people can only envy.
Semi-retired now and
living in Texas, Perrott is devoting time and efforts to the cause of
the Bushmen. He finances these activities by responding to calls to
put out the Kuwait oil fires or plan pipelines in Papau New Guinea,
Sumatra or the Algerian Sahara, or a recent 10 month stint in
Mozambique projecting a 900 square mile game reserve (Approved by the
Mozambique government in October of 1996). If Perrott had his way,
he'd open the sanctuary to a few Bushmen to live and roam free with
'their' endangered wildlife, as in the past. What better game guards
than 'their' real owners?
You can contact John Perrott the author of "BUSH FOR THE BUSHMAN", by any of the following
means:
By email at: bushman@savethesan.com
John Perrott
Save The San
29310 Seabiscuit Drive
Fair Oaks Ranch, TX 78015
(PH) (830) 755-4829
(FAX) (830) 755-2227
Thank you for any support you can lend to the Bushmen.
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