More Testy Tsetse Flies

From Great North Road

In the early fifties Central African Airways flew one flight a week between Kasama and I believe Ndola. They flew Vikings, a British made twin prop aircraft very similar to the Dakota (DC 3) which was also used by CAA.

The arrival of the mid-week flight was a social occasion, as many of the good folks from Kasama headed out to the gravel landing strip to welcome the flight, which included the indeed very odd head government official. Air travel was not for the mere mortals, whose only public transportation to the South was on one of Thatcher Hobsons buses. There was a control tower and a delapidated old building that served as the terminal.

The assembled masses would gather at the front of the terminal, making sure that they did not go past the row of large white washed stones, that indicated the divide between the sun burnt lawn and the apron area where the aircraft would park.

As the aircraft's sputtering engines started to stop, the tsetse control official would run out with his portable sprayer in hand, enter the back of the aircraft and close the door. A few minutes later, what must have seemed a lifetime to the passengers, who had by this time been sprayed with the chemical of the day, they would stumble over to the terminal building, fighting for a breath of fresh air as they hacked, coughed and wheezed.

Welcome to Kasama and thank you for flying CAA.

Contributed by Ken Miller.

July 11, 2001