June 10, 1997

Kingdom of Swaziland

Folks,

Swaziland is landlocked country of a similar flavor to Lesotho, with small roads, a blanket speed limit of 80Km/hr, which is completely ignored. There are two big towns, Manzini and the capital Mbabane, both of which are much nicer than Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. The road between them is now being upgraded, but was listed in the Guiness book of records as the most accident-prone anywhere. It has the Royal residences, all the big hotels, the (tiny, but good) Mlilwane game reserve, and the Why Not disco and strip bar. The traffic .. well, allowable blood alchohol levels are twice anywhere else, and the road is two, sometimes three lane, and where else do you need to go in Swaziland ?

June 10, 1997

Zululand - South Africa

Folks,

Finally got out of Eshowe - a very nice place, and a rousing sendoff with the third (now official) shebeen trip. We decided that it took only three minutes this time to go from closed shop to a rocking party. This time we took the president of Rotary, who I am sure was very glad nobody was taking pictures as he danced …

Up the Natal coast, to Amazulu lodge, another backpackers lodge near St Lucia, a wetlands conservation area on the coast. The golf club bar had someone there to take me to the Dungeon - a vast underground disco - mainly, but not exclusively, white. An extraordinary find in such a remote part of Natal - with no expense spared, and live music, though it was all cover songs from the seventies - the staple diet of White South African Music.

May 29, 1997

Schools, zululand

Folks,

Yesterday I went to a ’turning of the sod’ for a new High school here in Eshowe, which will be paid for by a number of Spanish NGOs (non-government organisation) and managed by the Eshowe Christian Action group. The ceremony was at a nearby primary school, and included some good zulu dancing by the kids.

Today there was an opening of the first skills centre / technical college in zululand, which cost R2.5M for the first stage, funded by AngloAmerican, a huge mining conglomerate, and a number of smaller donors, like the British Consulate in Durban, and Rotary International from Eshowe and Germany.

May 28, 1997

Msge from Zululand. (fwd)

From: George Campbell

Tks fr yr msge from Zululand. Things have been humming here. The place is like an armed Camp with trucks full of soldiers carrying sub-machine guns. It would appear that when Mandela came here 2 weeks ago for the Funeral of Van Der Byl who was gunned down, he went to one of our townships to do a ‘walk-around’ and subsequently 2 bombs were found next to the road he travelled on. He all but said that the murder was instigated by Nkabinde. We here are soon to have another election - not us as we live outside the town - and the widow of the murdered man is standing in his place for the ANC(!) who were probably responsible. Mandela is desperately trying to cool things off here and was to have ridden through the town on Saturday but Nkabinde’s lads threatened a ‘dead town’. Mandela took the hint and advised accordingly by his minions went instead to Ixopo which you know, where he addressed a rally. Richmond would appear to be the only town in the world which is ‘off limits’ to Mandela!

May 25, 1997

Zululand - South Africa

Folks,

Zululand is the political stronghold of the Inkatha Freedom Party, and Buthelezi, its leader. He is related to the King of Zululand, who owns/administers most of the land, and who is a direct descendent of Shaka Zulu, the (quite recent) founder of the Zulu nation.

Zululand is a place of rolling hills, with traditional Zulu Kraals dotted all over it. Ulundi is the capital, but is a small place. I am staying in Eshowe, the oldest city here, but Eshowe is smaller than Richards bay, a large seaport that ships more tonnage than Durban, primarily coal, timber (wattle and Gum) and sugar (which is grown everywhere). There is also a large, new, aluminium smelting plant there.

May 20, 1997

Zululand - Kwazulu/Natal

Folks,

I left Richmond, not a moment too soon, it appears, as there has been some political trouble there. Briefly, a member of the ANC-controlled town council, Mr Nkabinde, who were voted in at the last election, was alleged to be a police informer. The ANC expelled him - without, I think, a trial, or with reference to ANC membership rules. Mr Nkabinde resigned, and 9 fellow members of the council resigned in sympathy. Of the two council members left, one was gunned down outside his home the following week, for obvious reasons ..

May 10, 1997

Drakensburgs, Natal

Folks,

I headed east from Ladysmith to Winterton, in the Drakensburgs, a Mountain range that runs along the eastern border of Lesotho up into Orange Free State.

Pretty much all of South Africas water comes from this range. On the Western side, it flows into Lesotho and then into rivers like the Orange in Western SA. On the Eastern side, it comes into Natal as the source of the eastern rivers.

May 6, 1997

South Africa - Music

Folks,

When I went to Rustlers festival near Ficksburg three weeks ago, much of the music was rave - what they listen to, apparently, in Jo’burg. It was interesting, and best summed up by a newspaper article appended to this message.

At Rustlers, and also at Splashy Fen, last weekend, was also a lot of South African Folk music. Splashy Fen, in particular, had some most excellent examples of the genre. Ladysmith Black Mambazo was playing live at Splashy Fen, which made my day. Little new music from them though, but it was great to see them sing (and dance) in Zulu for the large Zulu audience there. There was also a Camaroon group, and many small bands from Durban and Cape town, truly superb.

May 5, 1997

Grahamstown, Umtata, Natal.

Folks,

I stopped by the home of Rhodes University - a quaint, very British town in the Eastern cape, originally founded by settlers who were bought in as a ‘buffer’ between warring factions at that time.

The University is in the town, and has a beautiful campus. I had been corresponding with a couple of people who were the original founders of Internet in South Africa. I saw the lab, and the FreeBSD machine that originally had a Fidonet connection, and then a 9600 Baud dialup connection to the States. They now have their connection through a commercial provider in Johannesburg, and it is a 128K connection for all South Africas Universities. That translates to a connection about two orders of magnitude slower than a comparable US university.

May 5, 1997

Transkei - Port St Johns

Folks,

I spent the last week in the Transkei, the largest of the old black homelands. It is ‘back to africa’ from the luxuries of RSA, with most of the people living in round mud huts with thatched roofs.

I spent a night with a Sangoma - one of the Xhosa herbalists, who study for a long time to gain the knowledge passed down through Sangomas before them.

Our student Sangoma is a white guy who has lived in the Transkei for about three years, and has a good command of the language..