Scottish Connexion from the Republic

From Great North Road

By: Jean Dickson

Just like the African explorer, David Livingstone we are from Scottish descendants. My parents emigrated initially to South Africa in 1952 from Alexandria, Scotland, and in 1955 ventured up the Great North Road to Northern Rhodesia where my brother, Gordon, and I were born.

Gordon was born at Luanshya and when he was almost 2 years old we moved to Ndola, where I was born. My Dad worked for the local Municipality and my Mom at the Receiver of Revenue.

Life in Northern Rhodesia was excellent. We had a wonderful childhood there and often reminisce about our great adventures and the unusual lifestyle that we enjoyed. We both attended Kansenji Primary School in Millar Road, Ndola. Life was hectic because we were both heavily involved in sports activities, namely soccer, netball, swimming, athletics, and judo. Gordon went on to become the House Captain of the "Impala" (green) house, the other houses we had were "Sable" (red), "Eland" (blue) and "Kudu" (yellow) -- but Impala was obviously always the best!

Life at Kansenji Primary was wonderful, as was life generally in Northern Rhodesia. Weekend home life consisted of having "braais" and lazing about the swimming pool with Mom and Dad, but on alternate weekends going to the school pool to fulfill parents obligation of being "on duty" to allow those people who were not blessed with a pool at home the opportunity of using the facilities. (We lived in Westmorland Crescent, Kansenji and later moved to Kenmare Avenue, Kansenji.)

Family nights on Friday's were spent at the local M.O.T.H. club (the Three Arms Shellhole), where families got together and socialized and established firm friendships. The kids happily played outside while parents enjoyed the pub environment. Playing Red Rover, Hide and Seek and Kick the Can were the evening highlights.

Come October we experienced "suicide month" when it got as hot as hell!! Then down came the much awaited rains to moisten the dry, cracked earth. But it was a great climate, even for us fair-skinned Scots. Sun, sun and more sun.

Unfortunately we left in 1968 and returned to Bonnie Scotland, and the kids there could not believe the tales we had to tell -- all seemed too unreal. So we are both very grateful to parents who exposed us to that magnificent way of life, even if it was for only a short while -- we will always have the memories to cherish forever.

Our parents had now tasted Africa and had to come back for the bite -- we returned to South Africa in July 1973, settling in Pietermaritzburg. Neither of us having ventured back to Zambia, but we did come close in 1990 when we stood on Kariba Dam wall and looked over the Zambezi. One day I would love to go back and see how things are there now. Gordon is the Manager of PG Glass in Port Shepstone and I work at the Development Bank of Southern Africa in Midrand. If there are any old friends out there who remember us, please get in touch, we would love to hear from you.

Thanks for a great column, I was so exhilarated to see that others share the same enthusiasm about the country of our birth.