05-JUL-A-9
LEO MURRAY REPORTS FROM MY FORMER STOMPING GROUNDS
OF SWAZILAND, SOUTHERN AFRICA
From: Glenn Geelhoed
To: Leo Murray
Date: 7/18/2005 9:47:39 AM
Subject: Re: Kingdom of Swaziland ‑ the Smallest
Country in the Southern Hemisphere
Dear Leo:
I loved it! The photo collage especially brought back
many Swazi memories.
As a veteran of a dozen Swazi travels, I recognized
each of the venues‑‑such as Mkhaya (did you know it means
"wilderness" in Su‑Swati?) and even thought I could recognize
some of the peoples (at least their genes!) in your pics. Did you get a thermal bath in the hotsprings
near Reilly's Rock? I agree that there
are some hidden gems out there. I did
some exploring in the "Petit Labombo" Mountains that constitute the border
with Mozambique, but it is essential to have a good local guide, since the
mountains along the border are still heavily mined despite UN attempts at
clearing them. There are more mines
still in place in that long‑contested invasion route than there are
inhabitants in both countries together.
The Nguni
family of languages from the days of
conquest by Shaka Zulu is a heritage that is a link to the
anthropology. I knew the "Old
King" (on the currency) whose son was royalty under regency who said he
would give up the old rights of primogenitor etc, but the Reed Dance is too
colorful to pass up! He now has the
requisite tribe of wives also after first declining these "perks." The royal family name is D'lamini, which
means "Eater at Mid‑Day."
You had to be well off to afford three meals which is how the royals got
to be huge back then ( a democratic right now!) and by no coincidence, everyone
in high government office shares the same surname.
As an Africanist, I appreciated your references to
returning "home"‑‑and my story is remarkably similar,
since my first trip in was also to Nigeria in a prolonged stay in a medical
mission in Takum and Mkar in the Benue River state just as the Biafiran Civil
War was waning there in January‑‑April of 1968 as a senior medical
student. I have kept on going back, to
Southern, Central, Eastern Africa and have most recently been active in the
HOrn of Africa, having most recently returnded form the Sudan where the White
Nile begins its course through the Sudh>
You and I met in the Highlnads of Ethiopia now two years back in Gondor,
to which I have been making plans for a return trip. It is a very habit‑forming continent,
for all the reasons you had mentioned and illustrated.
I enjoyed this vestigial (even if crumbling) relic of
noblesse oblige when the brash young king welcomed the reigning British monarch
QE II by saying that the two equal kingdoms saluted each other in egalitarian
harmony. There is only one other monarch
in Africa still standing, and that is the US's oldest ally Morocco.
When I left Swaziland after my last stay there and
work in the "hub" Manzini in Raleigh Fitkin Memorial hospital
(another series of stories about each of my tenures there can follow), I flew
to The Gambia‑‑and thereby went from one to the other of the
smallest of African nations (if you exclude the "city‑state" of
Djibouti on the Red Sea where I will be going next into neighboring Eritrea
above the Somaliland I had worked in last year)‑‑both Swaziland and
The Gambia as ex‑Colonies of the BRITISH crown and Anglophone had just
crossed a million inhabitants during my stays n each.
Your photos and comments brought back memories‑‑some
of which are recorded and can be sent to you upon request in the story of my
trans‑Africa shuttling almost two decades ago. We will compare notes in a photo swap!
I leave now for Azerbaijan, the furthest Eastern
Europe corner of the Caucasus, and then back through London and Frankfurt to
Asmara Eritrea (attached)
Thanks for my "return tour" to Swaziland!
GWG
>>> Leo Murray <hkmurray@hkstar.com>
7/15/2005 11:39 PM >>>