Africa Journal - South Africa => London => Home

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Tuesday, October 17 - Wednesday, October 18, 1995

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London Afterword

We break up the long flight home with two days in London. On the flight I sleep some, Sigrid does not. We visit galleries in the neighborhood of the Ritz Hotel, shop for books on Africa, and have an excellent Thai meal at the Blue Elephant in Chelsea.

On Wednesday, we attend Africa, The Art of Continent, a wide ranging exhibition at the Royal Academy of Arts. In the exhibition we find one of the eight carved soapstone birds found at Great Zimbabwe. It’s provenance is in the show catalog: "1889, removed from the Eastern Enclosure of the Hill Ruin, Great Zimbabwe; sold by W. Posselt to Cecil John Rhodes."

Looking at the bird in the exhibit we come full circle and are transported back to the beginning of our trip, touring Great Zimbabwe. There, our guide, Prospah showed us replicas of the birds and taking us to the empty pedestals where the birds were found. Sigrid remembers Prospah lamenting that fact that most of the birds had been taken from the country, and his hopes that they will eventually be returned. "Not bloody likely." I think.

We may see this bird again, when the exhibition moves to the Guggenhiem in New York next year. Prospah will probably never see it.

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NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is a back-post / cross-post from my first on-line journal/blogging effort - a journal of our Southern Africa Tour in 1995. Originally posted to an abandoned domain (NetSnake.com), the term "blog" had not yet entered the parlance. I am migrating the original posts to this blog. Links to the original journal Date Index or Africa Tour Home Page will likely eventually disappear. The images from the original post were graphics and screen caps from video which I am leaving in it's low-rez glory for historical integrity. My intent is to also add some of Sigrid's higher quality scanned photos to these blog back-posts.  The difference in images should be obvious.

Africa Journal - Great Zimbabwe Ruins

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Wednesday, September 18, 1995

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The Great Zimbabwe Ruins

Up at 5:00 AM for a day of touring the Great Zimbabwe ruins. The itinerary says Linda Law will meet us at 6:00, but she’s MIA. We leave more messages at the front desk to try and contact her and at 6:15 we take a cab to the airport for the flight to Masvingo. We are beginning to wonder if the itinerary will ever coincide with the trip we are taking.

Rooster
Air Zimbabwe flight 602 to Masvingo is a 5 passenger, twin engine, Beechcraft Baron 55. It is piloted by Annie Collins, also known as "Rooster". I don’t know why and I will not speculate. I am her co-pilot on this flight, but I am not paid for my services.
 

Prospah
Prospah, our guide from the United Touring Company, meets us at the Masvingo airport as the itinerary finally intersects with reality. Our luck continues to improve as two other couples scheduled for the tour are no-shows, so we now have a private guided tour. We climbed the ancient trail to the top and return by the (easier) modern trail.

The ruins are extraordinary. Prospah immeasurably enhances our enjoyment of the experience. His knowledge and love of this place shines through everything he says. We are able to get a glimpse of the ruins as seen through his eyes and the experience of his life.

On the way back down, we encounter two red headed lizards fighting a battle for territory. We are fascinated and watch for about ten minutes as the fight moves from one rock to the next. One lizard has developed a technique of taking the high ground, then knocking the other lizard to the ground with a snap of its tail. Prospah says that he could sit and watch them for hours. I remind him that during the tour he said that for the people who built Great Zimbabwe, every event in nature had meaning. I asked if they would find meaning in watching the lizards fight. He said "Certainly, yes, but the old ways are being forgotten. For the Shona of my generation, the meaning is lost. In my generation, when we saw a lizard, we would kill it."

 

We eat lunch at the Great Zimbabwe Hotel. I have sadza nyama, a maize dumpling with meat and vegetable stew that is a staple in the area. After lunch we video monkeys and pheasants on the property.

Prospah then takes us to see 2000 year old cave paintings, and a beautiful chapel built by Italian POWs in WWII. Finally back to the airport, where Rooster swoops in to pick us up for the flight to Harare.

A great day. All is forgiven Andrea.   

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NOTE FROM THE FUTURE: This is a back-post / cross-post from my first on-line journal/blogging effort - a journal of our Southern Africa Tour in 1995. Originally posted to an abandoned domain (NetSnake.com), the term "blog" had not yet entered the parlance. I am migrating the original posts to this blog. Links to the original journal Date Index or Africa Tour Home Page will likely eventually disappear. The images from the original post were graphics and screen caps from video which I am leaving in it's low-rez glory for historical integrity. My intent is to also add some of Sigrid's higher quality scanned photos to these blog back-posts.  The difference in images should be obvious.