Remembering Africa

Sharon´s mother, Liddy, has been remembering her time in Africa in the mid-1950s around the time of Sharon´s birth.

“The Mau Mau were very much in evidence. My husband, Eric, had to join the Home Guard and one of his duties was to sweep the railway line from Nairobi to Voi. Actually, the danger there was more from wild animals than the Mau Mau, but, of course, sabotage was possible.

“One particular night when he was about to go on duty I felt particularly apprehensive and said I couldn´t stay alone. My friend who usually came to keep me company, complete with revolver and Great Dane, for some reason hadn´t been able to come. So I ended up going with him and staying in the back seat of the car. The two station askaris (guards) paraded up and down from midnight to 6am and never knew I was there, but I heard some very interesting conversation.

“Another time, while working in the Savings Bank, I remarked about a rough looking Kikuyu who had been coming in every week. ´Oh, yes,´ the boss told me ´That´s Jomo Kenyatta´s driver. He´s allowed to come into town from the prison each week and, whilst his boss is at a meeting, he comes to see how his two shillings, which the British government is paying him for being a prisoner, is getting on.´

“We had a memorable trip to the National Park. We had been often but had never managed to see the lions. For some reason they never seemed to be where the Rangers said they were. However, this particular time we were lucky and joined another half a dozen cars with passengers like us, enjoying the spectacle. One by one as it grew dusk the cars left but when we tried to leave we were stuck, well and truly. By the time the Rangers found us – there was a ticket to go into the park and handed in when one exited – it was dark and the mosquitoes had done their worst.

“The weekend we decided to go to Kilimanjaro, Nairobi had a torrential storm and our early morning start was delayed by the millions of wings from the flying ants which had to be cleared from our step before we could leave. They were everywhere and when the front door was opened they just fell inside. The poor things had battered themselves to death round the security light.

“The storm seemed to follow us to Tanganyika and the thunder and rain rattled round the mountain. Water gushed everywhere including the dining room of the hotel at the foot of Kili. It was quite a frightening experience as the water rushed down the dried-up river bed and flowed over into the hotel grounds. The plans my girl friend and I had made regarding dressing for dinner were ruined. We dressed but getting from the chalets to the dining room was disastrous. Still, I do remember bringing back to Nairobi a stalk of bananas and we had banana everything for weeks.

“When my mother came out for a holiday we took off down to Mombassa and had a wonderful time. We lived in a black chalet among palm trees which were home to lots of monkeys. Usually monkeys are inquisitive but these were not. We were very impressed. We were concerned when the baby monkey which had become a little friendlier than the rest fell from the tree and died. The mother came down to collect it, sat inspecting it for a while, then took it back aloft where she nursed it for two to three days before discarding it.”

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©Phillip Bruce 2009.