Category: Stories

It was awesome to be there and hear lions roaring at night in the middle of such a large city. I spent many a Sunday there while I was at boarding school and especially enjoyed the wonderful lunches served by a manservant in white uniform and gloves. From time to time he would attend with a silver tray and brush to remove crumbs from the table. This was a new experience for me!

It was not long after I had left school, (and was beginning to feel rather ‘adult’) that I was staying in the house alone, since my uncle and aunt were away on holiday. The Allied invasion of Italy at the end of 1943 was receiving much attention from the media and formed the main topic of conversation for most people. Continue reading “The Rising Ghost”

The object was to go into the matter of disputed grazing areas along a common boundary between the people of Mohales Hoek and Mafeteng. I think some people from Maseru District were also involved. This dispute had been going on for a long time. Several years previously at Qhobeng there had been a large pitso and gathering of all concerned including representatives from the Paramount Chief to resolve the difficulty. Continue reading “A Rookie on Trek in Basutoland 1954”

My mother told me I won a prize dressed as a kewpie doll at a baby show or Fancy Dress Party held in the Mbabane Court House in 1925. Thank goodness, I do not recall the great event! However, twenty-one years later I sat in the same courthouse dressed in black legal gown and white neckpiece carrying out the duties of Registrar of the High Court of Swaziland.

This entailed making documents available to the Honourable Judge and Assessors; swearing in witnesses; handing in trial exhibits as required and taking life seriously. (Actually, I was a Clerk grade 111 Acting Assistant Registrar and Master of the High Court, and responsible to a senior civil servant who was the true Registrar and Master) I shall return to this later.

Continue reading “The old Mbabane Courthouse”

It had been a very long tiring day bouncing about in a Land rover in the Lesotho Mountains, up and down steep bridle path tracks where there were no roads. We had held meetings with Basotho farmers in remote areas to introduce dipping and dosing methods to control external and internal parasites in sheep and Angora goats.

At about nine o’clock that night we reached base at a Livestock Improvement Centre but we were so tired we merely put down our camp mattresses and rolled up in our blankets to sleep. This was about three years after Lesotho had gained its Independence in 1966 Continue reading “I Slept Carelessly – A Shepherd’s Tale”

Note : These comments are made from casual observations whilst working in three mountain areas of Lesotho some thirty to forty years ago. They are not the result of scientific study. During recent years much development has taken place in terms of building and improving roads, bus services, the establishment of water supplies and schools Continue reading “Basotho Women –Mothers to the Nation”