Escape from Southern Rhodesia before Zimbabwe
A Londoner in 1950s South Africa
Published on 22. October 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
294 pages
978-1-83975-785-3 (ISBN)
Description
A student place at Cape Town University was an opportunity to escape from my lonely laboratory technician post and army service in Southern Rhodesia.
A two-thousand-mile circuitous hitchhike route through South Africa including a veterinary caravan across Bechuanaland, now Botswana, bought me to Cape Town.
Unlikely student accommodation was in an attractive Edwardian hotel among largely non university guests. The walk to the university lectures in Geography, Geology and Botany involved a steep climb. This was up the lower slopes of Devils Peak, a three-thousand-foot mountain.
Besides academic work I joined the university mountaineering club. Excursions were shared with ladies from the hotel and university. While bartending, where the Indian Ocean met the South Atlantic Ocean, I met a holidaying Rhodesian policeman. He told me about the misdemeanours of my American boss who suddenly left as head of the Rhodesian agricultural research station. Plying the detective with brandy I got the whole story.
With my savings running out I got a laboratory technician post with the Anglo-American Corporation in Johannesburg. Work involved the chemical and physical analysis of the components of explosives. Dynamite was used for blasting rocks in the gold mines. At weekends I was exploring in and around Joburg with an engineer colleague. We would make up a foursome with two young ladies and enjoy boating and barbecues in the city's glorious parks. Additionally, I gyrated between two girlfriends, daughters of senior colleagues at my place of work. My work was inducted by a plain Jane who used sexual innuendoes to gain my attention. "Jane" distracted me so that I made a calculation error, this resulted in interrogation by the chief chemist.
After several months at the dynamite factory I was granted a three-week holiday. I hitchhiked alone to Nyasaland, now Malawi. I arrived in the middle of a revolution and was chased by police for being out during a curfew .This was on a date with two girls and my lift driver.
In Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, another lift took me to a safari lodge in the Luangwa Game Reserve. Here we walked among the wild animals protected by two black rangers with powerful rifles. A visit to the Victoria Falls followed, wreathed by rainbows.
After a year I decided to return to Britain. I aimed to gain a degree at London University while fully employed. I met a Jewish tailor from London at a youth hostelling club in Joburg. We decided to hitchhike to London across Africa and Europe.
A two-thousand-mile circuitous hitchhike route through South Africa including a veterinary caravan across Bechuanaland, now Botswana, bought me to Cape Town.
Unlikely student accommodation was in an attractive Edwardian hotel among largely non university guests. The walk to the university lectures in Geography, Geology and Botany involved a steep climb. This was up the lower slopes of Devils Peak, a three-thousand-foot mountain.
Besides academic work I joined the university mountaineering club. Excursions were shared with ladies from the hotel and university. While bartending, where the Indian Ocean met the South Atlantic Ocean, I met a holidaying Rhodesian policeman. He told me about the misdemeanours of my American boss who suddenly left as head of the Rhodesian agricultural research station. Plying the detective with brandy I got the whole story.
With my savings running out I got a laboratory technician post with the Anglo-American Corporation in Johannesburg. Work involved the chemical and physical analysis of the components of explosives. Dynamite was used for blasting rocks in the gold mines. At weekends I was exploring in and around Joburg with an engineer colleague. We would make up a foursome with two young ladies and enjoy boating and barbecues in the city's glorious parks. Additionally, I gyrated between two girlfriends, daughters of senior colleagues at my place of work. My work was inducted by a plain Jane who used sexual innuendoes to gain my attention. "Jane" distracted me so that I made a calculation error, this resulted in interrogation by the chief chemist.
After several months at the dynamite factory I was granted a three-week holiday. I hitchhiked alone to Nyasaland, now Malawi. I arrived in the middle of a revolution and was chased by police for being out during a curfew .This was on a date with two girls and my lift driver.
In Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia, another lift took me to a safari lodge in the Luangwa Game Reserve. Here we walked among the wild animals protected by two black rangers with powerful rifles. A visit to the Victoria Falls followed, wreathed by rainbows.
After a year I decided to return to Britain. I aimed to gain a degree at London University while fully employed. I met a Jewish tailor from London at a youth hostelling club in Joburg. We decided to hitchhike to London across Africa and Europe.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Claygate
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 216 mm
Width: 140 mm
Thickness: 17 mm
Weight
377 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-83975-785-3 (9781839757853)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
I was born in Central London. My family moved to a West London Suburb just before the Second World War. We moved to the countryside to avoid the blitz. At the end of hostilities, we returned home where I attended a small Private School. I was taught English language and Literature by Vernon Scannell, a famous British author and poet.
At sixteen I worked as a laboratory technician in a London chemical company. A post in a laboratory in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, followed. Motor cycling to the capital three hundred miles away enabled me to get a girlfriend.
The loneliness of my Lowveld situation together with pursuit by the Rhodesian army encouraged me to obtain a student place at Cape Town University. Short of money a laboratory post followed in a dynamite factory in Johannesburg. The sexual overtures of my female inductor distracted me, resulting in a visit to the chief chemist.
I returned to my London parental home by hitchhiking across Africa and Europe in 1960 with a Jewish tailor. I failed my British medical for compulsory military service. A London post in Overseas Surveys enabled me to write about overpopulation in Africa. This helped me to win an interview at Cambridge University.
I finally got a degree from London University while working in the laboratories there, followed by two more degrees and teaching certificates. As a result, I taught and lectured. I later became a local government ecologist.
At sixteen I worked as a laboratory technician in a London chemical company. A post in a laboratory in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, followed. Motor cycling to the capital three hundred miles away enabled me to get a girlfriend.
The loneliness of my Lowveld situation together with pursuit by the Rhodesian army encouraged me to obtain a student place at Cape Town University. Short of money a laboratory post followed in a dynamite factory in Johannesburg. The sexual overtures of my female inductor distracted me, resulting in a visit to the chief chemist.
I returned to my London parental home by hitchhiking across Africa and Europe in 1960 with a Jewish tailor. I failed my British medical for compulsory military service. A London post in Overseas Surveys enabled me to write about overpopulation in Africa. This helped me to win an interview at Cambridge University.
I finally got a degree from London University while working in the laboratories there, followed by two more degrees and teaching certificates. As a result, I taught and lectured. I later became a local government ecologist.
Content
Introduction ix
An apology to the modern reader xiii
List of Illustrations xv
1950's South Africa.
Cape Town University & Johannesburg.
1 Rhodesia to Johannesburg 1
2 Joburg to the Indian Ocean 11
3 Garden Route 32
4 Settling into Cape Town 49
5 University registration and police interrogation 68
6 A Freshman embarks on his studies 85
7 Climbing Table Mountain and Sputnik Rag 102
8 Winding down at Cape Town 120
9 Dynamite in Johannesburg 138
10 A Grilling from the Chief Chemist 160
Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia Trek,
July / August, 1959
11 Nyasaland, Land of the lake,
(Including Introduction) 177
12 Northern Rhodesia Paradise 194
13 Darkest Africa Realised 207
14 Incredible Waters 223
15 Counting the days in Joburg 238
Acknowledgements 259
Illustration Credits and Anonymity 260
Glossary 261
About the Author 269
An apology to the modern reader xiii
List of Illustrations xv
1950's South Africa.
Cape Town University & Johannesburg.
1 Rhodesia to Johannesburg 1
2 Joburg to the Indian Ocean 11
3 Garden Route 32
4 Settling into Cape Town 49
5 University registration and police interrogation 68
6 A Freshman embarks on his studies 85
7 Climbing Table Mountain and Sputnik Rag 102
8 Winding down at Cape Town 120
9 Dynamite in Johannesburg 138
10 A Grilling from the Chief Chemist 160
Nyasaland and Northern Rhodesia Trek,
July / August, 1959
11 Nyasaland, Land of the lake,
(Including Introduction) 177
12 Northern Rhodesia Paradise 194
13 Darkest Africa Realised 207
14 Incredible Waters 223
15 Counting the days in Joburg 238
Acknowledgements 259
Illustration Credits and Anonymity 260
Glossary 261
About the Author 269