Former Estcourt resident publishes her memoirs

Jeanette Higgs who with her husband Jack and family of six children lived in Estcourt for many years has published a delightful account of the years she spent in the former Tanganyika (now Tanzania) as a geologists’ wife. “Pole Pole Bwana” is erudite, amusing and very descriptive as Jeanette recalls that as a young pregnant wife she accompanied her recently qualified husband to East Africa as he joined the Williamson Diamond Group in a hunt for diamonds. They moved from camp to camp and their first homes were two tents and at each camp a makeshift extension for living and cooking quarters.
A field geologist lives in the bush and has to adapt to the environment. Jeanette proved to be the perfect geologist’s wife. She grew up on a farm in the Lowlands area of Estcourt, and as a farmer’s daughter, she applied and adapted many of her skills acquired during her childhood to running her rudimentary home.
From baking bread in an improvised oven, this was a hole in the ground, to cooking on a variety of stoves that improved, as they became more experienced camp dwellers. Her two eldest sons were born during these years, and she had to learn about childcare but in primitive circumstances, far from clinics and medical facilities.
She nevertheless, in addition to motherhood, pursued her hobbies of knitting and sewing, using a hand model Singer sewing machine and fashioned garments for the family and friends that they made in the area. She describes many of the colourful characters that they encountered during the last years of colonial rule.
They included missionaries, fellow geologists and reprobates who had abandoned civilised society. Jeanette also recalls the many trips they took and the variety of accommodation; from very comfortable to questionable that they encountered.
One of her most vivid accounts is being on board a boat on Lake Tanganyika during a severe storm. After their return to South Africa, Jack continued as a geologist in the North-West province and Lesotho, which was then Basutoland, before they settled in Estcourt, where in addition to farming Jack became the Physical Science teacher and rugby coach at Estcourt High School.
The family is well remembered in Estcourt, Jack was a pioneer in the local polo-crosse events and today three of their granddaughters play the game for South Africa and another granddaughter teaches at St Gregory. Later Jack returned to geology in Gauteng, and Jeanette ran a smallholding and sold milk, ran a playgroup for pre-schoolers and later a plant nursery. All these activities are also packed with stories and anecdotes, which would make further interesting reading.
They retired to Richmond in 1996. Jeanette now pursues her hobbies of writing, painting and gardening. They have 19 grandchildren and one great grandson. Her book, which she has illustrated with her own amusing drawings and documentary photographs, is available at selected outlets or by contacting Jeanette Higgs on 071 162 7998.