Editor – I should like to use this Heritage Month to share my heritage with your readers.
My heritage includes an early upbringing at a trading store in Zululand, where I was given my Zulu nickname, then boarding schools in Pietermaritzburg and Durban.
Born in Kitwe in 1940 (during WW2) to a father who was born in Empangeni in 1912 (just before WW1), my grandfather having been born in Durban as the ‘Anglo-Zulu War’ began in 1879, with a great grandfather who came from England as a youth during the ‘Great Trek’ (1838), my heritage includes some momentous moments in the history of this country.
Both having joined the Natal Mounted Police a little while before the ‘Second Boer War’, my grandfather (a noted Zulu linguist) was posted to Nongoma / Ulundi while his older brother spent the war besieged in Ladysmith.
Since 1971, I have played rugby for the Ladysmith Wanderers, cricket for Ladysmith Municipality, bowls at Klipbank Bowling Club, and golf at Ladysmith Country Club.
I joined the Ladysmith Repertory Society and played the lead in a farce called ‘Wild Goose Chase’ in 1982 which, unfortunately, was the society’s swan song.
It was such great fun while it lasted!
Having experienced all the above, I found that membership of Ladysmith Historical Society has been the most fascinating and most rewarding experience of my life.
In my humble opinion, the Siege of Ladysmith is the most important component of this town’s heritage.
The Siege Museum is a permanent reminder of that fact, together with all the adjacent battlefields, monuments and cemeteries, which attract so many local and overseas tourists who greatly increase income to our local economy!
The Ladysmith Historical Society has existed since 1966, so it will be 50 years old next year.
Twenty one years after the elections of 1994, certain people now in leadership of the country are still blaming their “white compatriots” for their inability to escape poverty and illiteracy, hence the mistaken notion that the Ladysmith Historical Society is elitist and racist.
I ask my fellow countrymen to please dump those silly notions and bring your personal stories to share with us, whoever you are. This town has become my home and has given me so much love and hospitality from friends whom I have had the privilege of knowing since 1971.
My thanks to all of you fellow Mnambitians.
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