Going back into the Past - Part 1

From Great North Road

By Trevor Snyman.

I was 13 years old when I left Northern Rhodesia in 1963 with my parents, two brothers and a sister. We left for South Africa, and settled in Pinetown where I have been ever since.

We had spent 8 years living in Kitwe, Chingola (both briefly) but mainly in Bancroft, the little last outpost before the Congo Border. I had completed my primary schooling in Bancroft, and began high school at Chingola High School.

My family, with the exception of my youngest brother, now live in the UK.

In June of this year I had to make second business trip to Lusaka in as many years,and was excited when the trip extended to a visit to a customer in Kitwe and to the Chambishi mine outside Chingola.

I chose to drive so that I could see the country for the first time in 44 years. The trip was astounding, it will be the subject of a later article. The roads are pretty good, largely un-pot-holed, and safe because the people still have old-fashioned manners on the roads, and also because of the many police road-blocks that one encounters on the trip.

The latter part of the trip became a pilgrimage for me back to the places where I lived and went to school.

The pictures below show a snippet of the first part of the pilgrimage.

Road to Kitwe

Chingola High School 2007

Chingola High School 2007

Chingola High School 2007

The GNR took me through Kitwe, then to Chambishi, then to Chingola High School. Walking into the school grounds was surreal, like being in a time warp. Apart from the government blue and white paint, the school has not changed from what I remember. I met the deputy head (a lady) who was flabbergasted that I had been to her school 44 years previously. She called her staff together, and pupils who were still at school (it was after 14h30). Many photos were taken, and the pupils were very interested in what I had to tell them about South Africa and my life since I left the school. They insisted on posing with me for a picture. In fact everyone, including the gardener and his children, insisted on being in the photograph.

The school is well attended, the pupils spoke English well and seemed to be well educated.The Deputy Head was charming and helpful. It is, however, a third world school. It does not yet have the use of a computer, and relies on the old-fashioned methods called books for teaching. I now have started a project to help this school move into the computer age, and will find a way to donate a PC to it for the use of the staff and pupils.

I hope that the pictures above stir some memories in those of you who knew the school.