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Once Called Home

An Independent Rhodesian

Ian Smith An Independent Rhodesian   Abraham Menashe served on the council in Bulawayo for twelve years.  He was mayor when Prime Minister Ian Smith made his disastrous unilateral declaration of independence (known as UDI) in November 1965.  When Abe’s two year mayoral office was ending, one of Bulawayo’s

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"Don't Let Me Die Before the G & P"

The Globe and Phoenix Club, 2010.  The exterior essentially unchanged fifty five years on. “Don’t Let Me Die Before the G & P” Jan van Riebeeck, the first governor at the Cape of Good Hope established the first brewery at the Castle in 1658.  Castle Breweries sprung up in

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Tennis Everyone

The Globe and Phoenix Club, 2010.  The exterior essentially unchanged fifty five years on. Tennis for Everyone The Globe and Phoenix Mine had three club tennis courts, one of which closed temporarily in 1945, reportedly because of a shortage of balls due to the war! Tennis for Everyone But once

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Fixing a Handicap

Dr. Ward, Dr. Hirsch and Dr. Adlington outside Que Que Hospital cirra 1948 Fixing a Handicap My Dad never wanted to be a doctor.  He wanted to be an atomic physicist.  The 1930’s was the golden age of atomic physics.  He had never mastered Shakespeare but he seized Benjamin

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Clinching the Deal

May 1946.  My brother Brian got well as soon as Dad took the job at the G & P Mine and we moved to the big house and garden at #1 Silver Oaks Road. Brian watering the larkspurs and lupines along the path to the garden gate opposite the G

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A Pictured Memory

An accident on Main Street Que Que, Rhodesia, 1972 A Pictured Memory The extraordinary reach of the web, the devotion to truth of a true artist and the tenacity of memory combined to give me a lovely surprise. Providentially, on my one hundredth blog, the charm of this picture has

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A Duck on the First Googly

My brother, David,  playing backyard cricket. A Duck on the First Googly Basil Prior joined the Globe and Phoenix Mine in 1945 to work underground. At 2 pm everyday, Ethne, his wife, would send the garden boy over to the shaft-head to leave a  change of clothes and her bicycle.

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Two Ducks in a Row

Chris Duckworth, Que Que’s Springbok Cricketer in action. Two Ducks in a Row Que Que born Chris Duckworth became Rhodesia’s second Springbok Cricketer.  He played in two Tests against the 1956-57 English cricket team as a batsman. Both Tests were won by South Africa. In the thirty three

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A Good Sport

Springbok Chris Duckworth gets a Smile and a Handshake from the Queen A Good Sport  The British introduced cricket to India in 1721, where it slowly but steadily gained universal popularity, in contrast to southern Africa, where it remained the preserve of English-speaking South Africans for well over a century.

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A War Time Wedding

Basil Prior and and Ethne Laurie on their  Wedding Day, April 1 1945 A War Time Wedding Long distance courting was tiring. Basil Prior, of the Globe and Phoenix Mine, asked  Ethne Laurie, of the Cam and Motor Mine, for her hand in marriage. A War Time Wedding The wedding

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Riding the Caboose to Court

Ethne Laurie and Basil Prior  Riding the Caboose to Court When Basil Prior was discharged from the Transvaal Horse Artillery in 1945 he got a job as a mining contractor underground on the Globe and Phoenix Mine. He lodged at the mine single quarters. Like many returning ex-servicemen he had

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School Cadets

Que Que High School Cadets. Foreground facing band Sergeant Major Colin Pittaway. Band Leader Green.  First row L to R: Cecil Monks, Barry Kruger and Barry Erasmus. School Cadets School cadets was compulsory for older boys.  They paraded on Wednesday afternoons on the field between the Gwelo and Gokwe roads.

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I Walk Beside You

Rhodesian Garratt forging full steam ahead I Walk Beside You In Que Que’s early days before the turn of the twentieth century, travel was by donkey cart, which took three days to cover the forty miles from Que Que to the nearest town, Gwelo.  With the advent of rail

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The Little Town That Could

Umniati River in flood with the new bridge under construction The Little Town That Could  The Beira and Mashonaland Railway Company completed the rail link south between Salisbury and the Globe and Phoenix Station, later called Que Que, in 1901. The link to Bulawayo was completed a year later. Now

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Hitching a Ride

On the road with Mr. Hector de Jager of Que Que.  Hitching a Ride A teenage boy borrowed his dad’s car only for a very special occasion for a very special girl he was ‘hitched to’.  Otherwise he used his bicycle or walked around town. Distances were great between

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Fisherman's Paradise

Que Que Angling Society 1937 Fisherman’s Paradise Mr. George Venturas sold furniture, Jackson electric stoves and Electrolux and cold-spot refrigerators from his shop diagonally opposite the Menashe’s first store with the house in the back on First Avenue. He was the agent for Phillips, Pye, and Zenith radios.

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Chutzpah

Sarina Menashe’s Pineapple Sponge Cake Chutzpah In the beginning, the Menashe family lived humbly in the back of the first store they acquired up the corner from First Street on First Avenue in Que Que.  Still, Mrs. Sarina Menashe prided herself in producing delicious Sephardic meals for the family

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Abraham and Ishmael

Que Que’s Mosque. Abraham  and Ishmael Ishmael was the first son of  Mr. Bahadur.  Mr. Bahadur wanted his sixteen year old son to be a success.  He pleaded with Mr. Menashe to take Ishmael on at his Haberdashery store and teach him the business.  Abraham and Ishmael In the

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The Fabric of Private Education

Sebakwe Poort The Fabric of Private Education Mr. Aaron Menashe arrived in Southern Rhodesia 1919 from the island of Rhodes.  By 1938 he owned A. Menashe Corner in Que Que, which consisted of four shops.  The Fabric of Private Education In the Haberdashery they sold Lister wools from Yorkshire as

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Just in Time

The main shaft of  the Globe & Phoenix Mine, Que Que. The richest gold mine in Southern Rhodesia Just In Time Aaron Menashe’s father, Abraham, was a hardened trader on the island of Rhodes in the Aegean Sea.  Every day, at the break of dawn, he would set out

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A Warship for Que Que?

HMS Bulawayo A Warship for Que Que? It was, in the words of Thomas Pakenham, “perhaps the central paradox of British imperialism, that the British taxpayer was too absentminded to pay for the expansion of the empire. Hence the governments of the day (Tory or Liberal) left it to a

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Charm?

Que Que’s new Civic Centre at the head of Main Street, designed by Vic Jenkinson, one of John Austen’s grandsons Charm? After the WWII it took someone with the long view,  coordinated planning and a bold financial plan for Que Que to reach its potential and garner the

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The Cinderella Town

The original Que Que village board offices in 1934 withQue’s First Mayor,  John Austen (born Johan Osterlund) presiding flanked by  his wife, Mayoress Lily Prudence (nee Nolan) and  John MacIntosh the Town Clerk The Cinderella Town With White occupation of Rhodesia in the 1890’s and the subjugation of

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Thinking Independently

Helen Jenkinson and her two daughters, Leslie and Gail, sitting astride an eighteen foot crocodile shot at the Umniati/Sanyati junction. Thinking Independently   After Sir Edgar Whitehead’s moderate government lost the general election he called in 1962, confidence in the country began to wane.  Vic Jenkinson, was a young

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Taking Charge of a Charge

Vic Jenkinson Fending Off a Wildebeest Charge. Taking Charge of a Charge Vic Jenkinson loved the bush.  He would walk for miles teaching his daughters, Leslie and Gail, how to collect snares, look for ant-bear holes and teach them which mushrooms to pick after the rains came. Taking Charge of