Livingstone and Bulawayo

I thought I would share some pics of the Africa I know and have places I have visited on this great continent. (click any pic for slide show)

I was born in Livingstone in 1958. The town named after the David Livingstone that discovered the Victoria Waterfalls. Click links for thumbnails.

Livingstone & Falls from the Zambian side aka Eastern Cataract

More Vic Falls

We left shortly after independence in 1965 and the break up of the Federation of Central Africa which included the now Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana. This was known back then as Northern and Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland respectively.

Livingstone has not changed much in 50 years as it is not really a prosperous region and now mostly focussed on tourism. There is a town either side of the falls in two different countries but back in my day we could cross over with a simple border post which was no more than a boom either side of the bridge.

Getting there by car these days is a bitch as the roads are neglected and with the new 18 wheelers, these roads were never designed for that type of load. Back then the railways did the heavy hauling but that too has all but come to a grinding halt.

The native folk have not really added to the old white built infrastructure and one wonders if politics were different how the lands would be in this era. To put it bluntly, they are rural and not as touristy as the white settlers were. Much of the independence was followed by a mass exflux of whites south as the various countries got their independence. The world press of blacks being oppressed in these lands was BS. They were far better off under white rule than they are now. History speaks for itself. Most of the racist paradigms were an inherited concept from the Brits and their class distinctions where the black folk were paid slave and manual labourers. The region imported semi skilled folk from China and the then Indian continent.

In my days in Livingstone, it was not uncommon to still see them living in typical tribal villages. Our coexistence was peaceful but then we became the battlefields for the US/USSR/China cold war. The end goal was the exploitation of mineral wealth which is very abundant. A self autonomous government was just not in the big game plan. The serfs were not allowed to rebel against Queen and the Brit empire.

Rhodesia declared unilateral independence in 1966 and that is when our war started more or less.

Because the blacks were housed in dedicated townships with strict laws against cohabitation in the white areas, this was a good political ploy to incite the masses to rebel against the settlers. Bear in mind most of us by now were 2nd or third generation born in the lands.

All the countries eventually went black and as such the empire had puppet governments in place. The white fat cat was replaced by a fat black cat and nothing much changed for the masses. they in fact experienced a declining lifestyle as the new leaders like Kaunda and Mugabe really did not have a fucking clue how to run a country (except into the ground) There was no natural evolution of transfer of knowledge and at the time of these upheavals, we were getting to work out our differences, blacks were being educated in separate schools but to the same standard and we all sat the exact same exams. The black schools were no worse than the white ones as far as infrastructure went, but obviously the white schools were better having better teachers and many of them ex pats from the UK.

By the time I was 10-12+, there was no shame of mixing with races in sports and leisure but when it was over, we had to return to our designated race areas or residence. I am sure things would have worked our equitably had we been allowed autonomy.

Sanctions was the trick they tried but was a front. The Japs and Germans quickly filled the void the US and UK left and to this day, we see little US or UK cars here. So some of your US woes as far as your sucky financial situation is partly to do with what transpired in the 60's to 70's and it is only biting you in the ass recently.

Sanctions do not work and is merely a power play that backfires.

A mass exodus in the late 70's and 80's of whites left Zimbabwe with a huge brain drain and development stopped. The lands could be raped with still cheap labour as the development to become useful members to society had been halted in its tracks.

Liberated Africa is not really liberated. We have over 3M black Zimbabweans living in SA now and proving my point, they are better workers both intellectually and skills wise than many of the locals. I met a black engineer in Ghana about 12 years ago that was working for a SA based mining company and if I closed my eyes, I could have been talking to a white Zimbabwean as we had the exact same accent. We were from the same town I grew up in.

Anyway enough politics and BTW for any black Americans reading this, I am not racist.

That sets the background for the next set of pics of Rhodesia.

One of the great achievements of the mid 20th century was Kariba dam (pics)

This tamed the mighty Zambezi river and provided electricity for both Northern and Southern Rhodesia with smaller coal fired power stations. Sadly this too has gone downhill as far as maintenance goes and had to import power from SA till it was stopped for lack of payment. Zimbabwe airlines is grounded and many of their planes impounded for not paying airport fees.

Kariba dam is one of the largest man made lakes in the world (See map) and there was an Operation Noah that was dedicated to rescuing animals as the dam filled up. This was a huge undertaking taking 5 years and rescuing over 6000 animals. This was anything from elephants to snakes. Many perished. There is probably a National Geographic film on this somewhere. If you can find it it is worth a watch.

Bulawayo is the town where I did all my schooling, training and growing up. I was posted to may different towns (we called it going on section) as a trainee and as such got to see quite a bit of the country. I was on the national railways.

Bulawayo street scenes, Bulawayo buildings, Matopos National Park

This pic is dated 1968 and I was 10 when this was taken. The very wide streets was supposed to be legend that a full teamed ox wagon was able to make U turn in them (so they say) The town had the nick name Skies and due to the crystal clear blue skies we had almost every day.

The architecture was very much like what you see in London and built with stone in many cases.

This is also from 1968 and the statue of Cecil John Rhodes (founder and was allegedly also gay) and everywhere his statue was erected, he always faced north (dunno why) This has been removed by the liberators as if that will erase history

This is the Matopos national park and one of the more well known mother and child rock outcrops known as balancing rocks (the YEC folk have no answers how this all happened as this is a result of eons of wind erosion)

This is the best known dam in the park, Maleme dam and is not very big as far as dams go. It served no purpose other than recreation (excluding boating and skiing).

The dam wall is a simple weir but it had magic. Bikers used to ride out on Sundays, folk went and camped out there weekends and fished or simply relaxed, and if you read the comments of ex-Bulawayoens on the link here, you will understand what this puddle meant to us. This dam had crocs in it and finding leopard spoor and droppings in the morning at your camp site was not uncommon. For most of us, this was the real garden of Eden.

This was a common site back then, strip roads. These probably have devolved into dirt roads by now.

Suburbia in Bulawayo around Sept/Oct

 Jacaranda trees Flamboyant trees

City Hall 1968

This was our Centennial fountain. This was where we gathered on New Years eve and went swimming in it, kissing each other a happy new year. How we ever got up to the top pissed was a miracle. The council were kind enough to turn the fountain on at the stroke of midnight.

After that (when the war was not so bad) we then trekked out to watch the sun rise at the burial site of Cecil John Rhodes. (below) 81 was my last sun rise and there were about 1500 folk there almost like a mini Woodstock.

This was living life to the fullest and it did not matter where you lived, what car you drove, what clothes you wore, what church you belonged to (or didn't) etc. We all saw each other as friends and equals.

If you are into steam trains look here

North halt and was about 3 miles from my home.

Bulawayo once boasted the longest station in the world, close to a mile long. With sanctions, these steam trains got a lease on life as we had loads of coal. Bulawayo was also the headquarters for the national railways. That too has all but come to a stand still.

More to come...