O1B1F2E. BARKLY-WES/UMTATA ‘54-55

MOMENTS IN OUR LIFE-1 2026-02-12

O1B1F2E. BARKLY-WES/UMTATA ‘54-55

The year 1954 was a challenging period for me. My father was appointed to a temporary relief post in Barkly-Wes for nine months, which meant that our family’s living arrangements were disrupted. My parents stayed in a boarding house, while my brother, Louis (then probably in Sub A), and I were placed in the school hostel where we shared a room.

HOSTEL LIFE AND CONFLICT

The hostel environment was often harsh. There were children from the local orphanage who, due to their difficult circumstances, developed a tough nature. I remember that one day my pen went missing and I later saw it with one of the orphanage boys. When I asked him about it, he confronted me so defiantly that I realized it would end in a fight. Since I was not an aggressive person, I left the matter at that.

However, there were also moments of compassion. One day, while we were playing behind the hostel, the hostel father’s little daughter ended up in a patch of thorns. She was trapped and crying helplessly. Despite being barefoot, I shuffled through the thorns step by step to reach her. After picking her up and pulling the thorns out of her little feet, I carefully retraced my steps back to safety.

Mealtimes were marked by the regular serving of meatballs. One of the boys often told with graphic gestures how the kitchen staff supposedly rolled the meatballs under their armpits. This led to the more sensitive boys summarily giving their portions to the narrator—exactly what he had in mind.

VISIT TO KIMBERLEY

During the week my father was away inspecting schools in the area. My mother spent her time in the boarding house reading. However, we spent weekends together as a family, and one of the highlights was a visit to Kimberley.

My father took us to the Big Hole and the historic mining village, where the original cottages from the 1871 diamond rush had been preserved. It was impressive to learn that it was the largest open pit mine in the world. The history of the De Beers group (founded in 1888 by Cecil Rhodes and Alfred Beit) and Anglo American (founded in 1926 by Ernest Oppenheimer), which at the time controlled 88% of all rough diamonds worldwide, made a big impression on me.

UMTATA: ADVENTURE AND DISCOVERY

At the beginning of 1955 we moved to Umtata, then the main seat of the Eastern Cape Xhosa area (later declared the Transkei in 1963). Umtata had good English and Afrikaans schools, and Dad got a temporary inspector's post there for 6 months. He had to visit schools in remote towns such as Mount Fletcher, Flagstaff and Lusikisiki. The winter rains made the dirt roads so treacherous that vehicles had to use snow chains, which made a distinctive "krrrr" sound on the town's tar roads.

PLAYING CLAY AND CAMARADERIE

In Umtata we lived in a private hotel, which was very pleasant for us as children. I was in Standard 5 and had a good friend, Johan Bosman. His parents lived in a large double-storey house on a smallholding, where a riverbed with walls of yellow clay wound through the property.

It was the ideal terrain for playing clay darts (kleilat speel). We would often each roll up a ball of clay, pick a nice, long, limp poplar stick, and then split into two groups. Each would take up a position on opposite banks of the river. You knead a piece of clay and press it around the thin end of your poplar stick. Then with a whiplash you shoot the clay bullet at the "enemy" across the river. The bullet travels with that characteristic "woer-woer" sound. It's very rare that you hit your target. And that's just as well, because such a clay bullet would easily put out an eye, but that's the last thing a child at that age is thinking about.

This was illustrated by an incident where we threw darts at a flagpole. We stood on either side of the flagpole and then threw it with all our might at the pole. Then something happened that we had not thought of - the dart hit Johan in his shin and went so deep that it remained stuck. Johan did not even cry. He just pulled the dart out and we went home where his mother cleaned the wound.

CULTURE AND SPIRITUAL GROWTH

The local cinema was a source of great entertainment. I specifically remember the film “Rose Marie” (1954), shot in CinemaScope. It showed the touching love story of the relationship between a Mounty (mounted Canadian policeman) and a beautiful Indian girl, with a tragic ending. The story and the beauty of the Canadian nature touched me so much that I went to see it twice.

My class teacher in Umtata was a young, compassionate woman who had a great influence on me. She was very religious and held religious services for us every morning. During Pentecost at the end of May, she told us about its meaning and said that she and her husband go to every meeting.

This caused me to go to our church on my own one evening. When it was time for prayers, I got up after a few prayers and prayed too. I don't know where I got the courage, but I think it had something to do with my teacher. I think I loved her very much. I can't remember what I said at all, but I can still clearly remember my experience, like I was climbing a steep mountain, and the blissful feeling when I reached the top.

The next day my teacher told the class that I could pray beautifully and then asked me to pray in front of the class. The boldness of the previous night, however, was gone here among my friends. I was so overcome with shame that I couldn't get a word out.