Thoughts on Central Africa by Cyril Rogers

This article was printing in the April issue of our Newsletter. Cyril Rogers is now on the panel of organists together with David Yates at St. Johns Church, Horninglow, Burton on Trent. Cyril is also acting choirmaster.

“Regarding my time in Africa I went to Zambia in 1959 to work for a firm of accountants. In 1969 we moved to Zimbabwe because of health problems with one of our daughters. For most of my time there I worked for a building and civil engineering contracting company. Two of our contracts might ring a bell with Phithi and Kuda, namely the Parirenyatwa Hospital, Harare and Heroes Acre. We returned to UK in 2003”

1.    Much has changed in the three Central African nations of Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe since they were part of a political federation 50 years ago. However many things, common to all three, have not changed. It may be interesting to think of a few.

2.     The sun goes down quickly by 7pm in summer and 6pm in winter. As it goes down many people enjoy a drink, usually referred to as a ' sundowner'. There is an annual rainy period and there can be great suffering in years of drought. Just immediately before the rains begin people can smell their imminent arrival and often dance in the rain as it starts to fall on them.

3.    Many people can speak two languages - their tribal tongue and English. Often you will hear two people of different tribes conversing in English. This is particularly so in Zambia where there are many tribes and it is so much easier to understand each other in English.Sometimes there can be a little over-use of the English idiom i.e. A senior cattle herdsman lost one of his cows and explained "I searched for 3 days and eventually came across the poor cow ~ looking like a lost sheep".

4.    In some places the practice of polygamy still survives. I recall one man who often looked worried and occasionally arrived at work looking as though he had been in a fight. On one occasion he admitted that he had had a row with his 3 wives who together beat him up. A universal practice is the 'lobola,' the bride-price payable to the bride's father. In earlier days this could be settled by means of cattle. These days it is more mercenary and the bride's value is often based on her educational attainments in 'O' levels, 'A' Levels and university degrees, etc.

5.    African country borders, on maps, sometimes bear no relationship to the areas inhabited by the bordering tribes. Often, in colonial times, maps were drawn with straight lines  between the countries. These resulted in some tribes being split between 2 bordering countries. Of course the tribes-people would ignore such borders.

6.    Occasionally roads between countries will be straight but will ignore a meandering border. The road from Zambia to Malawi did this with the result that it ran for a few miles through Mozambique.  Somebody established a Portuguese Pub there and it was not uncommon to drive 50 miles to reach it, just to drink Portuguese wine. If you wanted a meal as well, you needed to wait a couple of hours while they killed and cooked a chicken. On the same road the Roman Catholics built a seminary, one half in Malawi and the other half in Zambia. It was possible to drive straight through - always a headache for the border control officers.

7.    A lovely custom of African weddings is to bring a highly decorated wedding cake into the church. The priest would bless it and distribute pieces to the guests during the service. A lady who makes these cakes explained to me that it took the place of the old tribal custom whereby the bride to be had first to cook a meal for her intended husband in order to prove her cooking abilities. Another delightful wedding custom involves 4 or 5 ushers in smart colourful suits and gloves to match, who carry out a drum-accompanied dance, followed by the bridesmaids down the aisle, ahead of the bride.

8.    There are a large variety of insects in these countries and many are edible. Flying ants in particular are a delicacy. At one time there was a cookery book on sale in Malawi which devoted a whole section to the cooking of insects. This should not shock people any more than the fact that French people like to eat frogs' legs!

9.    Just as there are different tribal languages there are also different tribal customs. But many of these begin to be forgotten as more people are born in cities and towns and lose touch with their ancestors' tribal areas.

The photographs used are ones taken by Cyril during his time in Africa.

(1) Air Malawi Dakota (1964)  (2) Chipata Airport, Zambia (1964)  

(3) Great Zimbabwe (1970)  (4) Typical Ox-wagon (1964)  (5) Village in Zimbabwe  

(6) Joyce Rogers  holding twins she had delivered  (7) Joyce with young hospital patients