Molly Blackburn: Uncover the legacy of anti-apartheid activist

Among the joys of travel are the places you visit and the sights you see. Just as memorable are the people you meet.

I first encountered Simon Blackburn, co-owner of Three Tree Hill Lodge near Bergville in the UKhahlamba district of KwaZulu-Natal with his wife Cheryl, a decade ago while doing a story on the province’s outstanding battlefield raconteurs.

Simon is a master of telling the story of the 1900 battle of Spioenkop where Boer commandos inflicted a heavy defeat on a larger British force.

For those that don’t know, three future world leaders were present at Spioenkop: Louis Botha, Winston Churchill and Mahatma Gandhi, who was a stretcher-bearer for the British.

I’ve revisited the lodge several times and watched with appreciation how it has grown and flourished.

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A Library dedicated to Molly Blackburn’s memory

The most recent development is a library dedicated to the memory of Simon’s late mother, anti-apartheid activist and civil rights campaigner Molly Blackburn.

“The idea of a library was probably 20 years in our subconscious and started when Cheryl and I, as just-married safari guides working in Botswana, used a significant portion of our salaries to buy books.

We ended up with quite a collection, most of which was placed in storage.

“At the back of our minds was the creation of a cosy space that was a combination of library and lounge where you could read and – if you wanted – smoke a cigar and drink a glass of port in front of a fire.”

In the 20 years since the couple started Three Tree Hills Lodge, says Simon, “all of us siblings have been collecting information on our mum and the legacy she built”.

Molly Blackburn, a prominent member of the Progressive Federal Party (a fore-runner of the Democratic Alliance) and the Black Sash, was killed in a car crash in the Eastern Cape in 1985. She was 55 years old.

“In my mind, the sacrifices by a lot of the struggle activists in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s has largely been overlooked, which is a shame because a wonderful opportunity of nation-building is being lost.

“One needs to remind the people of South Africa that it wasn’t only black people who fought apartheid and died in the process. It upsets me that the government doesn’t do more to acknowledge the fact.

“Our dedication of this library to the memory of Molly Black burn is, in a sense, a protest against this.

“Yes, white people occupied a position of privilege. However, when you take a stand from a position of privilege, you perhaps do so at greater risk than when you have little or none… especially when you have a family.”

A diverse collection of books and pictures

The Blackburns, says Simon “were hounded into being excommunicated from our own social circles because of the brave stand our mother took to end apartheid”.

The political and personal statement made by the library is profound but not overwhelming: the books are an amalgam of popular fiction, Africana, biographies, coffee-table wildlife pictorials and historical recollection.

While the pictures depicting the life and times of Molly Blackburn take pride of place, they are confined to one corner, overlooking the spiral staircase that leads to an extremely well-stocked wine cellar.

The rest are depictions of the Anglo-Boer history of the province, among them many cartoons that graced the pages of some of the great European newspapers that covered the conflict at the time.

It’s a wonderful place to while away a few hours when the midday sun makes it too hot for even mad dogs and Englishmen to sally forth.

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