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Bogumft Witalis "Goosh" Andrzejewski Emeritus Professor ofCushitic Languages and Literatures School ofOriental and African Studies, University ofLondon (1 February 1922-2 December 1994) John WilliamJohnson Indiana University B. W. "Goosh" Andrzejewski, the leading Western academic authority on Somali language and literature, died in a hospital in HemelHempstead on 2 December 1994, of complications resulting from myasthenia gravis (a severe muscle disease) and cancer. Goosh spent over half his life, some 46 years, studying the culture of the Somali and Oromo peoples of the Horn of Africa, and his publications number more than 100 articles, six book-length monographs, and an anthology of his own poetry composed in his native Polish. He was fluent in Somali, Polish, and English, and he had reading and speaking abilities in Orominya, French, Italian, German, and Russian. He was a witty raconteur, a devout Roman Catholic, a devoted husband, a sympathetic friend, and a patient teacher and counselor to countless students and acquaintances of many nationalities. He was a living example of Chaucer's epithet to his clerk, "And gladly would he learn, and gladly teach." Goosh Andrzejewski was born in Poznan, Poland, on 1 February 1922. His father had a prosperous business in skins and furs, and his mother came from an eastern Polish family which, until the early 19th century, had been landowners; but they lost their property during the Polish insurrections against the Russian tsars. His maternal grandfather was a photographer, and his maternal grandmother became a widow quite early in her marriage, and earned a living for her family as a pianist . She was a wonderful narrator and reciter of poetry, had a vivid and profound influence on her young grandson, and was responsible©Northeast African Studies (ISSN 0740-9133) Vol. 2, No. 1 (New Series) 1995, pp. 7-30 8 John William Johnson for much of his upbringing. Goosh's mother became ill when he was only seven years old, and she died in 1939 when he was 17. Goosh's paternal grandparents came from western Poland, which had been part of the German Empire, and his grandfather was a smalllivestock merchant. His paternal heritage was one of resistance, as both his grandparents and his father, like all the Poles in that region, fiercely resisted the Prussian government's policy of suppressing the Polish language. Poles were beaten at school for speaking their native language, especially when they refused to pray in German at assembly time. These family traditions go a long way in explaining Goosh's strong sympathies with the Somali people who also suffered under foreign colonial domination. Goosh began school in Poznan, but transferred to Zakopane in the Tatra Mountains because of a lung ailment. When World War II broke out in Poland on 1 September 1939, Goosh was in Warsaw, where he stayed during the siege which lasted almost a month. The Polish garrison were forced to surrender when food and ammunition ran out, and there was a widespread cholera epidemic caused by lack of pure water. What followed was an awesome adventure for an 18-year-old. In order to avoid being shipped to Germany for forced labor, Goosh determined to escape from Poland through Slovakia to Hungary, which at that time was still neutral. At his third attempt he succeeded, and was able to deliver a message he had been carrying for the Polish underground to a contact in Hungary. He was asked to take a reply back to Poland, but by that time, he had decided to try to get to the nearest fighting front, which was Palestine. Left to his own devices, without money or papers, he had the original idea of smuggling himself into an internment camp for Poles on the shores of Lake Balaton, one of the largest lakes in Europe. It was not long, however, before Hungary became friendly with Nazi Germany and Goosh judged it was time to move on. With a friend, he planned an amazing journey across the lake, which was frozen over in the exceptionally cold winter of 1940. The two set out at night during a snow storm with only a bottle of vodka, a kilo of sugar, and a luminous compass given to...

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