Zambia World Wide

After the loss of my father

My mother had to find work and apply for a housing loan. In the forties no bonds were approved until you appeared before a panel of four adjudicators. Being the forties it was virtually unheard of a woman being the breadwinner and being among the first woman to apply for a loan possibly attributed to the grueling interview. After the interview she was asked to leave the room so that they could discuss the application before reaching a decision. Once outside she just burst out in tears. One of the adjudicators on his way to the toilet (P.K to N/Rhod meaning Picanine Kaia and later Pres Kaunda) on seeing the state she was in walked up to her and informed her that she had just won his vote. With Mom at work my sisters and myself were responsible for most of the housework chores.

The norm in my schooldays.

• We could go out and play and our parents would only become concerned if we were late for meals.
• We would ride a stray horse by just inserting a rope or belt in its mouth.
• Many a Blue Gum tree had a slide attached to it, which kept us rather active.

The games we played are far too many to mention in detail. Two games are band today and to be honest I have never heard or known their English names. The first is “Kennetjie”. It was played with two sticks. I have heard of boys losing an eye with this game but personally I have never witnessed something of that nature. The other game was “Bok Bok”. The danger of this game was when the one team started jumping on the backs of their opposition. After a rowing regatta at Luansha we had to take one of the participants of this game to hospital with a dislocated knee. Back injuries were more common. Then there was a time for marbles, a time for spinning tops and a time for kite flying. During these times we mostly would gather on a wide-open space, which was once a golf course. Here there was great competition not only to see who had the best kite but also the biggest and who could fly his kite the highest. The best of this past time is that it was often shared with your father.

Other fond memories of this open field were when the circus put up their tent here. To announce their arrival they would parade through the streets with their band in the lead followed by the elephants and other animals. The clowns etc were on the back of open trucks. To me the Boswell –Wilkie circus was of course the best. Then there was the Fun Fair. In the center of the Merry-Go-Round we could climb to the top where there was platform on which you could run to push the Merry-Go-Round. The operator would blow a whistle to signal the start and finish. After thirty minutes you were given a coupon, which entitled you to make use of all their entertainment free of charge for a certain amount of times.

At a certain time of the year we would pick a flower we knew as an Afrikaner or Sandpypie. This flower was mainly picked for its fragrance. With all the housing development in the area this flower has become very rare. When we picked them we were instructed not to damage the bulb. A couple of these flowers were enough to fill the whole house with a fantastic fragrance for days. Believe it or not you invariably smelt the flower before seeing it. They came in blue and pink. They were of the Gladiolus variety.

Almost every boy owned a catapult. The lucky ones had a pellet gun. The catapult possibly accounted for most of the broken windows and of course hidings.