Merryman grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and after attending college, he joined the Peace Corps. In the Peace Corps, he managed an agricultural project for people who lost livestock during a drought. He helped oversee an irrigation project for the village. In Africa, the Nebraska boy had a chance to put his farming skills to work and a chance to learn to speak Swahili. Also living in an area of such poverty, Merryman said certain experiences in Africa shaped his entire outlook on life. "The Peace Corps was the magic carpet that took me out of the wheat fields into African culture," Merryman said, adding that graduate schools looked favorably upon his field experience. "I entered graduate school, and I was accepted without one course in anthropology."
Kenya RPCV Jim Merryman is leading his sixth trip to South Africa as an anthropology professor at Wilkes University
Authentic Africa
By Caleb Sheaffer, The Sunday Voice
07/08/2008
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Jim Merryman is joined by one of the natives of a tribe he had a chance to meet in Africa.
Jim Merryman is joined by one of the natives of a tribe he had a chance to meet in Africa.
WILKES-BARRE - Wilkes University professor Jim Merryman's office reflects a story of his younger days spent in Africa.
A zebra hide hangs on the wall behind his desk. Stacks of books about Africa and the world sit on his shelves. On a filing cabinet rests a mask African boys wear during certain coming of age rituals.
A picture on the wall opposite Merryman's desk has a young man - Merryman - talking with another young man in Kenya.
In the picture, Merryman was 23-years-old and in the Peace Corps. Looking at the picture now, he wishes he wasn't wearing a hat in it. He jokes that underneath his hat, there was hair.
This summer Merryman, turning 63 in July, is leading his sixth trip to South Africa. He has been an anthropology professor at Wilkes University since 1989, when he and his wife Nancy decided to leave their field work in Africa for a more laidback existence in the United States.
The past 19 years have been a part of his life that Merryman jokingly calls "Phase II," which included a teaching career and a daughter Juliann Merryman, 17, entering her senior year at Wyoming Seminary.
Merryman, of Bear Creek Village, is looking forward to his travels this summer, when he will go to Tanzania and Zanzibar, from July 26 to Aug. 8. The trip will include a tour of wildlife parks in Tanzania and of the pristine beaches in Zanzibar. Merryman and his fellow travelers will see places where tourists rarely get a chance to go.
"We'll be visiting villages, farmers and people who haven't had a lot of contact," Merryman said. "The tourists will be seeing authentic Africa."
During his 12 years in Africa, Merryman spent eight years in Kenya, four in Somalia and a summer in Tanzania. Merryman always looks forward to traveling back to the different countries to observe how the areas progressed.
Merryman grew up on a farm in Nebraska, and after attending college, he joined the Peace Corps. In the Peace Corps, he managed an agricultural project for people who lost livestock during a drought. He helped oversee an irrigation project for the village.
In Africa, the Nebraska boy had a chance to put his farming skills to work and a chance to learn to speak Swahili. Also living in an area of such poverty, Merryman said certain experiences in Africa shaped his entire outlook on life.
"The Peace Corps was the magic carpet that took me out of the wheat fields into African culture," Merryman said, adding that graduate schools looked favorably upon his field experience. "I entered graduate school, and I was accepted without one course in anthropology."
Merryman completed his doctorate in anthropology at Northwestern University, and so did his wife, Nancy Merryman, originally from Mountain Top.
After he and his wife were married, they did work in the field in Somalia. Their Somalian friends wanted to host a traditional wedding reception for them. This included dressing up the newly named Mr. and Mrs. Merryman in elaborate Somalian wedding attire and a goat roast. He has the picture of that celebration in his office at Wilkes University as well.
"It was quite an affair," Merryman said with a smile.
When he and his wife were looking for teaching jobs, they just happened to find two in Northeastern Pennsylvania - Merryman with Wilkes and Nancy Merryman at Keystone College.
A mix of people usually travel with Merryman during his trips abroad. He designs the excursions so Wilkes University students can get credit, but he also invites the general public to join in if there is room on the trip.
As somebody who has been to Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, Merryman says the value of traveling abroad cannot be underestimated.
"Not enough students study abroad, and being a global society, this is very important," Merryman said.
In his classes, Merryman gives his students an understanding of the world outside the Wyoming Valley and the United States.
Each year, he teaches a spring course on international relations, and he takes his students to a model United Nations conference in New York City. The country his students represented this year was the Dominican Republic. Before the 15 Wilkes students went to the model U.N. conference, the students visited the Dominican Republic - and Merryman said most were shocked at the level of poverty that exists in the Latin American country.
The Merrymans have been taking their daughter, Juliann to different countries since she was 11. He said that she exemplifies the benefits of traveling to different countries. Juliann Merryman is spending this summer at the Governor's School in Pittsburgh, where she is studying international relations.
One traveler on prior trips with Merryman is Dr. Brian Redmond, a professor of geology at Wilkes University. During one trip to Tanzania and Kenya, Redmond took his wife Lois, and his children, Maggie, Abigail, Peter, and Arthur. Aside from viewing the wildlife and landscapes, Redmond said his favorite part of the trip was when Peter and Arthur joined a soccer game with African children.
"People have strange ideas of what foreign countries are like," Redmond said. "And as it turns out, it wasn't all that much different. People are people."
Presently, Merryman is moving on to another phase of his career - memoir writing. He is enrolled in the MFA creative writing program at Wilkes University, which inspired him to write a non-fiction book about his experiences in Africa. He even has a title picked out for the unfinished memoir: "Dark Safari."
"I just like studying the incredible range and variation of human behavior. There is something like 5,000 languages still spoken today," Merryman said, in awe. "I find cultural diversity in itself fascinating. I find these cultures - there is a lot they can teach us."
csheaffer@citizensvoice.com, 570-821-2083
