Youth 1912–1939

Consecutive places of residence of Tibor Sekelj in Europe, in youth (1912–1939) and after return from South-America (1954–1988)

Sekelj's father served as a veterinarian in the Austro-Hungarian Army and as a result the family moved around extensively. Several months after Tibor's birth the family moved to Cenei (now in Romania), where Tibor lived until he was ten years old. While Hungarian was his "mother tongue", the commonly spoken language was German. Sekelj had at least two sisters and a brother, Antonije, who later collaborated with him on several books. In 1922, the family settled in Kikinda, part of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia (now in Serbia), where Tibor learned Serbo-Croatian. He also studied French and soon was teaching it to his fellow students. Sekelj went on to learn a new language every four years. In 1926 his family moved to Nikšić (now in Montenegro), where he took up gym, mountaineering and where he walked the entire length of Montenegro. In 1929 he entered the University of Zagreb (in Croatia) and in 1933 was one of the three youngest students to have graduated from the school of law. During that time Tibor also studied painting, sculpture, Esperanto, filmmaking and journalism. But the practice of law bored him, and he turned his attention to writing. He began working as a journalist in Zagreb. In 1937 he started to work in Zagreb as a film screenwriter. In 1982, in Leuven, Belgium, at the World Youth Esperanto Conference, he discussed his Sephardic Jewish ancestry with Neil Blonstein.

World traveler

Starting in 1939, Sekelj was a tireless globetrotter, and while he always returned to Serbia in between his many journeys, his need to explore new horizons melded with an insatiable curiosity about people. His travels and expeditions yielded books that have been translated into over twenty languages.

Trips goals of Tibor Sekelj in the world

•   Trips goals
•   Themes of books
•   Homeland
•   European countries

South America 1939–1954

In 1939 he left Zagreb for Argentina to write an article on Croat exiles for a Zagreb newspaper Hrvatski Dnevnik. Sekelj was on the ship Teresa^[4] on what might have been that ship's last voyage due to the start of World War II. In 1939 the other ships that normally traveled to South America from Rijeka-Fiume were being used by Italy due to the war in Africa. Setting sail from Rijeka (then Fiume in Italy), he headed for Buenos Aires, with stops in Naples, Genoa (Italy) Santos (Brazil), and Montevideo (Uruguay). Tibor reached Buenos Aires on August 19, 1939. A pacifist by nature, Sekelj had anticipated the outbreak of war and so chose to be far from the fighting. This difficult decision was due not to a lack of personal courage—Sekelj was known to display almost foolhardy bravery throughout his life—but because this Jewish Hungarian/world citizen was simply unwilling to hew to any ideology tied to military purposes.

Within two years ^[5] he had honed his knowledge of Spanish and got work as a journalist, publishing a monthly magazine dedicated to travel and exploration. Sekelj remained in Argentina for the next 15 years, writing and exploring South America.

Subsequent world trips based from Europe 1954–1988

In 1954 Sekelj returned to his home in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. He was given a warm welcome by the local government and its people, as much for his humanitarian message as for his fascinating travelogues. Along with his countless newspaper articles, his books were translated into Serbian, Slovenian, Hungarian, Albanian and Esperanto. He continued to travel and write of his experiences.

Geographer

Traveling certainly helped make him a geographer, but he also was forced to become a true cartographer during his travels. In that regard he researched and designed charts of several previously uncharted parts of South America, especially in Bolivia and Brazil. As a result, a river was named after him: Rio Tibor. He published word maps in Esperanto and edited a professional review «Geografia Revuo» between 1956 and 1964. In 1950 he became a member of Guatemala society about history and geography and, because of his merits in this area, in 1946 the Royal Geographical Society of United Kingdom accepted him as an FRGS.

Journalist

He learned about journalism during his student years in Zagreb, where he became a correspondent for Croatian newspapers : one from them, Hrvatski Dnevnik, sent him as his correspondent to Argentina, to do a report on Yugoslav emigrants, which is how he became a traveller. After two years ^[5] he learned Spanish enough to self-publish, Buenos Aires, in Spanish, monthly organ « Rutas » (Ways) a magazine dedicated to geography, journeys, tourism, explorations, etc.^[15]

Working as a journalist for an Argentinian newspaper, he decided to join a planned expedition to Aconcagua, the highest mountain of Americas (more than 7000 m according to contemporary ratings).^[6] For the most part he was able to support himself through writing, contributing to many newspapers, mainly in South America and Yugoslavia. In Yugoslavia he contributed to many small newspapers, so that the younger generation learned about Esperanto through his articles in young people's periodicals. In his 60s he became a television journalist, filming a series of TV-reports for the Belgrade Television about the Caravan of Friendship (travel through Africa) for the Zagreb Television about exploring unknown tribes in Australia and New Guinea and for the Novi Sad Television about Bolivia, Ecuador and Peru. He was also a brilliant journalist for Esperanto. Except contribution to many Esperanto-newspapers and organs he was chief editor during 8 years for the Geografia Revuo, E-Gazeto (initially IOE-Gazeto) of 1966–1972 (monthly organ – entirely appeared 65 editions) and VELO during six years (1983–1988 – Vojvodina Esperanto-newspaper).

"Geografia Revuo" appeared between 1956 until 1964,^[16] each one volume yearly, except in 1959–1960 neither in 1962. The title-pages of exclusively all six volumes are of Sekelj, only in the 4th issue he left the place of the editorial to Aafke Haverman ("Aviadile tra Afriko") and laid his "Kun la Ajnoj de Hokajdo" in the central booklet. Looked at as entirety, "Geografia Revuo" is virtually personal periodical of Sekelj with some appendices of friends.^[17]

He lived chiefly on his work as a journalist (writing articles and stories for many various newspapers and organs) and filmmaker. There were 740 translations of his articles in newspapers and organs.^[18] We can say definitely that he was writing for many dozens of newspapers and magazines, mainly in Yugoslavia but also in Hungary, and various countries in South America—not to mention the periodicals in Esperanto. Of the 7500 speeches he gave, the majority centered around his journeys, although he spoke prolifically on many other topics as well.

He traveled through 90 countries and his books appeared in as many countries and a great many languages.^[19]

Filmmaker

Tibor's first job after getting his Degree in Zagreb was with a film company, Merkurfilm. The company sent him to learn film production in Prague, where he studied under a famous Czech director Otakar Vávra where for 6 months Tibor studied film direction.

Once Sekelj returned to Yugoslavia in the 1960s, he began getting TV coverage as a journalist. And because his forays into unknown areas required more than just pictures—they required film—Tibor accepted the challenge. He began using his knowledge as a filmmaker, not only directing himself but also using sound and light, camera work and more on his trips to New Guinea and Australia. For Zagreb television he filmed a series of films about those regions and their natives that became a 10-hour-long travel film series seen across Yugoslavia. Amazingly, he did everything on those films alone. In the later part of the 1970s he made films about Colombia and Ecuador where he used a professional team of filmmakers from Novi Sad Television, which promoted his travel films.

He himself was the subject of many interviews, chiefly within former Yugoslav televisions. A large majority of that material has been preserved. One example is an in-depth, two-hour interview with TV journalist Hetrich.^[20]

Mountaineer

In Argentina he learned about mountaineering with barely enough time to prepare before taking part in an expedition to Aconcagua. Still he was able to survive the climb up that treacherous mountain. Later on, he climbed a number of very dangerous mountains, and on all the continents, between the mountains of Nepal, Mexico and Mount Kilimanjaro in Africa, and Mount Kosciuszko in Australia. His detailed description of the ascent on Aconcagua in a book in Spanish became a sort of textbook for mountaineering in Mexico, and other countries across South America.

Ethnologist

During his travels he became a collector of native masks, hats and musical instruments, along with spoken native poetry. Concerning the latter he published the book Elpafu la sagon, that appeared in Serbocroatian and Esperanto. He donated his tangible collection of masks, instruments and hats to Ethnographic museum in Zagreb and to Municipal museum of Subotica, where most of them were later given to the museum of Senta (Serbia).^[21]

Adventurer

Although his goal was never to impress others, the most attractive aspect of Tibor Sekelj's life in the eyes of the public—especially to the non-esperantist—was unarguably his adventurer side. Perhaps it was his ceaseless search to locate the essence of human spirit that led him to remote parts of the earth. Across a span of over forty years he studied, and engaged with, tribes from the rain forests of Brazil and New Guinea, always learning and annotating the customs, lifestyles and philosophies of then unknown peoples in Asia and Africa. Many times he befriended people otherwise hostile to the white man, and often risking his life in the process. He writes eruditely about this in his book in Esperanto "Mondo de travivaĵoj" (The world of experiences ), 1981.

Political militant

Among Sekelj's many skills was an ability to create an instant sense of ease between himself and politicians and men in power. Score of heads of state welcomed him into their circle, and in turn he gave them useful advice based on his travels through their territories. During his life he met with various heads of State : From Juan Perón (Argentinian president) he received in 1946 an award, the Golden Condor, along with an offer of Argentinian citizenship due to his bravery on Aconcagua. He met with, and became a friend of, Jawaharlal Nehru (Indian prime minister) and his daughter Indira Gandhi (future Indian prime minister), and with Radhakrishnan (future Indian president). Bolivia president Enrique Hertzog sent him to do research in uncharted regions of Bolivia in 1948, and in 1949 asked him to manage Bolivian territory for European refugees after World War II, offering 100.000 hectares for him to do that. Tibor asked for 4 million, but was told it would take half year for the Bolivian parliament to ratify that. He chose not to wait and left before ratification could take place. Also he met with King Mahendra of Nepal, who thanked Tibor Sekelj for creating the first people's university there, where he taught Esperanto.

The peak of his political activity was in 1985 when he took over the UEA in order to prepare the second resolution of UNESCO on Esperanto. He met with numerous heads of state, ministers and diplomats during his four participations in UNESCO-talks throughout 1984 and 1985. He finally succeeded in convincing the Yugoslavian government to offer that resolution to the Assembly of UNESCO in Sofia, while getting other Esperantists to work on the governments of China, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, San Marino and Costa Rica in order to back the resolution. Over the next months he visited the embassies of seven of those countries, finally succeeding in convincing them that they should work with their governments and accept the resolution. In Sofia he negotiated between the delegations of numerous countries to vote on the resolution, which in the end was accepted.

To all of this we can also add the few months he spent living with the Indian philosopher and political activist Vinoba Bhave, not to mention many, many heads of smaller regions and cities and states across the world.

Polyglot

Sekelj learned 25 languages and countless dialects, of which he retained nine at the end of his life: Hungarian, Serbian, German, Esperanto, Italian, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese. Of these he wrote extensively in Spanish, Esperanto and the Serbo-Croatian, He was an interpreter on his travels and as part of his work for PIF^[22] during acceptances, arrangements etc.

I learned around 25 of languages. Many of them I forgot, because I stopped using them. I still can use some 9 languages, and although that's not enough to get by in the entire world, I can communicate with almost anyone despite that.

— Interview with Stipan Milodanoviĉ^[23]

Esperantist

After becoming an Esperantist in Zagreb in 1930, Sekelj remained committed to the ideals of the international language throughout his life. His contributions to the language are immense: Sekelj founded ten Esperanto-Associations in South America and Asia and Esperanto-societies in 50 of cities across the world.^[24][25]

For over twenty years Sekelj was a committee member of UEA and he was single-handedly responsible for the second resolution where UNESCO positively addressed Esperanto in 1985. One-third of his books were originally written in Esperanto. He wrote a great many lucid and cogent articles for various Esperanto-newspapers and magazines, and he drafted Geografia Revuo, E-Gazeto and Velo. But his intense activity in the name of Esperanto related to his foundation and guide of International Institute for Officialization of Esperanto (IOE)^[10] that launched the motto « better practice than 100-hours sermon » like this requiring more open activity of Esperantists. In that sense he especially engaged in diverse travel, organizing bus caravans that traveled across the world, having its greatest impact at the start of the International Puppet Theatre Festival (PIF) in Zagreb and later at the foundation for Internacia Kultura Servo (International Cultural Service). PIF still exists, currently after 44 years and still distributes an annual prize "Tibor Sekelj" for the most humanitarian message. His very intensive activity in the name of IOE had a strong effect on the classical neutral Esperanto-movement in the practical application, on the one hand in terms of culture and tourism and on the other to a more elastic conception of impartiality that followed TEJO.

His motto for success: "Three things are essential for success: precisely define your goal, move steadily toward it, and persist until you have reached it."

World view

Wherever he was, in his lectures and activities he conveyed to his audience his simple philosophy of life: man as an individual is the most precious thing in his own environment, regardless of descent or education. (This is most clearly expressed in his work "Kumeŭaŭa".) Man as a cultural capital is the product of all humanity, because in our daily lives we interact with products invented by diverse people; he illustrated this with a dining table, explaining that each piece of tableware was invented by a different people, each of the foods that had been developed and planted by different people, and now ten cultures are involved in setting a table. Therefore, every man was a respectable person, and what we have today is the result of efforts of all nations, and therefore belongs to all.

Artist

Aside from being an adept writer, Sekelj studied painting and sculptor while still a student in Zagreb. When he first landed in Argentina, he survived doing portraits and later he often illustrated his own books.

Descriptions of travels

• Tempestad sobre el Aconcagua, novel about his expedition in the Argentinian massif of the Aconcagua, originally written in Spanish, Buenos Aires: Ediciones Peuser, 1944, 274 pages.
  • Oluja na Aconcagui i godinu dana kasnije, Serbo-Croatian translation by Ivo Večeřina, Zagreb 1955, 183 pages.
  • Burka na Aconcagui, Czech-Slovakian translation by Eduard V. Tvarožek, Martin: Osveta, 1958, 149 pages.
  • Tempesto super Akonkagvo, translation in Esperanto by Enio Hugo Garrote, Belgrade: Serbio Esperanto-Ligo, 1959, 227 pages.
• Por tierras de Indios, about the experiences of the author under the Indians in Brazil, originally written in Spanish, 1946.
  • Durch Brasiliens Urwälder zu wilden Indianerstämmen, German translation by Rodolfo Simon, Zürich: Orell Füssli, 1950, 210 pages.
  • Pralesmi Brazílie, tchec translation by Matilda V. Husárová, Martin: Osveta, 1956, 161 pages.
  • V dezeli Indijancev po brazilskih rekah gozdovih, Slovenian translation by Peter Kovacic, Maribor: Zalozba obzorja Maribor, 1966, 252 pages.
  • Tra lando de indianoj, translation in Esperanto by Ernesto Sonnenfeld, Malmö: Eldona Societo Esperanto, 1970, 186 pages.
• Excursión a los indios del Araguaia (Brasil), about the Indians Karajá and Javaé in Brazil, in Spanish, 1948.
• Nepalo malfermas la pordon, originally written in Esperanto, La Laguna: Régulo, 1959, 212 pages.
  • Nepla otvara vrata, Serbian translation by Antonije Sekelj, Belgrad 1959, 212 pages.
  • Window on Nepal, English translation by Marjorie Boulton, London: Robert Hale, 1959, 190 pages.
  • Nepal odpira vrata, Slovenian translation by Boris Grabnar, Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1960, 212 pages.
• Ĝambo rafiki. La karavano de amikeco tra Afriko, originally written in Esperanto, Pise: Edistudio, 1991, 173 pages, ISBN 88-7036-041-5.
  • Djambo rafiki. Pot karavane prijateljstva po Afriki, Slovenian translation by Tita Skerlj-Sojar, Ljubljana: Mladinska knjiga, 1965, 184 pages.
• Ridu per Esperanto, Zagreb 1973, 55 pages.
• Premiitaj kaj aliaj noveloj, seven short novels, originally written in Esperanto, Zagreb: Internacia Kultura Servo, 1974, 52 pages.
• Kumeŭaŭa, la filo de la ĝangalo, children's book about the life of Indians in Brazil, originally written in Esperanto.
  • 1st edition Antwerp 1979.
  • 2nd edition Rotterdam: UEA, 1994, 94 pages.
  • Kumeuaua djungels son, Swedish translation by Leif Nordenstorm, Boden 1987, 68 pages.
  • Kumevava, az őserdő fia, Hungarian translation by István Ertl, Budapest, 1988.
  • Kumevava, syn ĝunhliv, Ukrainian translation by Nadija Hordijenko Andrianova, Kiev, Veselka, 1989.
  • Kumevava, sin prašume, Serbian translation, 2003.
  • Kumewawa – Iben il-Ġungla, Maltese translation by Karmel Mallia, Rabat, 2010
• Mondo de travivaĵoj, autobiography and adventures throughout five continents. Pise: Edistudio, 1-a eldono 1981, 2-a eldono 1990, 284 pages, ISBN 88-7036-012-1.
• Neĝhomo, story about the life during an ascension Vienna: Pro Esperanto 1988, 20 pages.
• Kolektanto de ĉielarkoj, novels and poems, originally written in Esperanto, Pise: Edistudio, 1992, 117 pages, ISBN 88-7036-052-0.
• Temuĝino, la filo de la stepo, novel for the young, translated from Serbian by Tereza Kapista, Belgrade 1993, 68 pages, ISBN 86-901073-4-7.

Books about Esperanto

• La importancia del idioma internacional en la educacion para un mundo mejor, Mexico: Meksika Esperanto-Federacio, 1953, 13 pages.
• The international language Esperanto, common language for Africa, common language for the world, translated from Esperanto to English by John Christopher Wells, Rotterdam: UEA, 1962, 11 pages.
• Le problème linguistique au sein du mouvement des pays non alignés et la possibilité de le resoudre, Rotterdam: UEA, 1981, 16 pages (= Esperanto-dokumentoj 10).
  • La lingva problemo de la Movado de Nealiancitaj Landoj – kaj gia ebla solvo, Rotterdam: UEA, 1981, 12 pages (= Esperanto-dokumentoj 13).

Manuals of Esperanto

• La trovita feliĉo, novel for children, Buenos Aires: Progreso, 1945.
• with Antonije Sekelj: Kurso de Esperanto, laŭ aŭdvida struktura metodo, 1960, 48 pages.
• with Antonije Sekelj: Dopisni tečaj Esperanta, Belgrad: Serba Esperanto-Ligo, 1960, 63 pages.

Works of ethnography

During his travels in South America, Africa, Asia and Oceania he collected important ethnographic information which he gave to the Ethnographic Museum of Zagreb.

His principal ethnographic work is:

• Elpafu la sagon, el la buŝa poezio de la mondo (Pull out the arrow, about oral poetry of the world ), Roterdamo: UEA, 1983, 187 paĝoj, ISBN 92-9017-025-5 (= Serio Oriento-Okcidento 18),

where he presents translations of recordings he made during his travels.

Dictionary

Tibor Sekelj collaborated on a dictionary in 20 languages about museology, Dictionarium Museologicum, appearing in 1986. — ISBN 963-571-174-3