Diamonds in the Desert. The story of August Stauch and his time, by Olga Levinson

Diamonds in the Desert. The story of August Stauch and his time, by Olga Levinson. Kuiseb-Verlag. 2nd edition. Windhoek, Namibia 2009. ISBN 9789991640853 / ISBN 978-99916-40-85-3

Images taken from Diamonds in the Desert. The story of August Stauch and his time, by Olga Levinson.

Diamonds in the Desert. The story of August Stauch and his time by Olga Levinson: August Stauch, Prof. Robert Scheibe and a few labourers set off for that area, well-equipped with mules, wagons and water.

Olga Levinson  

They made two vain attempts to cross a formidable sand-dune barrier. The monstrous difficulties, combined with a shortage of water, caused the workers to protest and object to continuing the expedition. They were finally persuaded to make one more effort and this time they succeeded. Utterly exhausted they reached a valley in the Pomona area which Stauch named Idatal, Ida’s Valley, in honour of his wife. They set up camp hoping that their tents would provide some protection against the blistering sand storms and cold, wet, all-enveloping fog. After a rest they sent the mules and wagons back to Kolmanskop. Prof. Robert Scheibe immediately started exploring the desert for diamonds, while Stauch went off to plot their exact position on the coast. He returned in the late afternoon without having found anything of interest and encountered a Herero labourer, Jakob, who had gone in search of driftwood for the camp fire. He was clutching an armful of wood. Stauch said to him jokingly, “Jakob, don’t look for wood. Look for diamonds.” Jakob promptly dropped the wood and knelt on the desert sand. He was barely on his knees when he exclaimed excitedly: “Mister! Ai je titatita. Ai je titatita!” August Stauch saw in amazement that Jakob’s hands were full of diamonds. Not knowing where to put them, Jakob began stuffing them into his mouth to gather more handfuls. Stauch dismounted and knelt beside Jakob. He called out to Prof. Prof. Robert Scheibe who ran up to them and gasped in astonishment at the incredible picture. August Stauch and Jakob were busy picking up diamonds that lay in such profusion in the sand that Prof. Robert Scheibe later described them as lying “like plums under a plum tree”. Prof. Robert Scheibe kept on crying, “Ein Märchen! Ein Märchen!” (A fairy-tale! A fairytale!) over and over. So this valley came to be known as Märchental (Fairy-tale Valley) - which indeed it was. Then night fell like a curtain dropping at the dramatic climax to a play. The men were reluctantly forced to depart from the fabulous treasures. After dinner they sat chatting, much too excited to sleep, and waited for the customary sand storm and the sea mist to envelop them. It was Silvesternacht, a New Year’s eve they were to remember all their lives. Nature itself seemed to be bewitched. There was no storm and no fog. A strange, unearthly spell fell over the enchanted valley. The moon rose like a genie. The two men could not resist the temptation to return to the mystic valley, half expecting that it might all have been a fantasy, a desert mirage. But there the diamonds lay, glittering in the pale moonlight like a scene from the Arabian Nights. It was a vision such as has never been seen before or since. This valley proved to have the richest deposit of diamonds ever known. At first it was not even necessary to use any mining methods. The diamonds were simply picked up by hand. In the first twenty months one million carats of diamonds were mined. Pomona was later described as a place “as thickly studded with lustrous gems as the showcases of a jeweller’s window”. August Stauch and Prof. Robert Scheibe pegged some ten claims in the best areas. One, called the Hexenkessel (witches’ cauldron), was also exceptionally rich in diamonds, while another valley was named after Prof. Robert Scheibe, Scheibe-Tal. But it was at Idatal that the largest diamonds were found, stones of up to 43 and 52 carats. […]

This is an excerpt from Diamonds in the Desert. The story of August Stauch and his time, by Olga Levinson.

Title: Diamonds in the Desert
Subtitle: The story of August Stauch and his time
Author: Olga Levinson
Publisher: Kuiseb-Verlag
2nd edition. Windhoek, Namibia 2009
ISBN 9789991640853 / ISBN 978-99916-40-85-3
Original softcover, 16 x 24 cm, 216 pages, numerous bw-photos