Once Called Home

A collection of 181 posts

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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.

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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.

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

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

Once Called Home

How Sable Park Got Its Name

Vic Jenkinson welcoming the first kudu released into Sable Park How Sable Park Got its Name Que Que’s African population was growing very fast at Mbizo Township with secondary industries in Que Que arising from RISCO’s steelworks nearby.   UDI and world sanctions gave the local economy a boost.

Once Called Home

Receptive to New Ideas

Mrs. Hobane standing beside Mayor Vic Jenkinson as he talks about the creation of adjoining Sable Park with a presentation of trees and wildlife. They are flanked by Mom on the L and Mrs. Helen Jenkinson on the R seated. African Women assembled at Echo Park for the annual Provincial

Once Called Home

Campfires Burning...

Loreto Guides cooking breakfast at Echo Park 1959 Campfires Burning… Girl Guiding had rituals associated with it, beginning with a left-handed handshake, the hand closest to the heart. Campfires Burning… As with all camps, the Loreto/Jairos Jiri Camp which included the deaf and blind  began each day before breakfast

Once Called Home

Say Cheese!

Sister Assumpta and Mom flank Guides from Loreto Mission and students from Jairos Jiri Center including the Deaf and Blind at their first camp at Echo Park. African Guider Florence Chileshe from Amaveni Township and Coloured Guider Rosina Rensberg from Selukwe and four senior African Guides saw to the smooth

Once Called Home

Going Where No One Else Will Go

Dedicated German Swiss Catholic Nuns established a School for the Deaf at Loreto Mission 60 miles from Que Que Going Where No One Else Will Go Catholic Missions can be found in the most isolated of places, where no one else will go.  German Swiss nuns established a school at

Once Called Home

Thank You God

Mrs. Thetis Katsouris and Self Help African Women showing off one of their blankets presented to the Jairos Jiri Association in Gwelo.  Girls include:  Gertrude Mundenda, Vongai Mbadzo, Isabel Chileshe, Noreen Phirie, Rosemanry Makleka. Margaret Phiri, Jane Sunga. Thank You God Mrs. Katsouris was not successful in teaching the finer

Once Called Home

The Inspired Goatherd

Jairos Jiri’s compassion for the disabled was extraordinary: a hope to the afflicted and an inspiration to the community at large.   (photo The Rhodesia Herald, Oct 28, 1968) The Inspired Goatherd Born in 1921, Jairos Jiri was a Matebele from the Rozwi people, known for their craftsmanship, perhaps the

Once Called Home

Self Help

Far L Mrs. Dewe, Mom, Far R Mrs. Katsouris at Amaveni Township 1969 with the Self Help Girls including Gertrude Mundenda, Vongai Mbadzo, Noreen Phirie, Jane Sunga, Isabel Chileshe, Margaret Phiri, and Rosemary Makleka. Self Help Too young to enter nursing school in Johannesburg, my mother was forced into a

Once Called Home

The Manure Factor

Roses, as well as everything else, grew profusely in our garden in 1967.  Mom filled a white bougainvillea bell with rose petal confetti for my wedding.  The bell was constructed by Mr. Nimo.  He made many of the props for the pantos at the machine shop at the Globe and

Once Called Home

The Blood Transfusion Service

Stanley House on 4th Street, was designed to house Dad’s private practice and a dental office downstairs with flats above which were lated converted to a day theatre as services expanded to five partners to serve Que Que’s  growing population. It’s still standing today.  Photo taken 2010,