"The deeper we look into nature, the more we recognize that it is full of life, and the more profoundly we know that all life is a secret and that we are united with all life that is in nature. Man can no longer live his life for himself alone. We must realize that all life is valuable. From this knowledge comes our spiritual relationship to the Universe.”
Dr. Albert Schweitzer
Earliest Memories
My earliest memories are of riding a horse drawn milk wagon down to infant school along with my nanny, Jesse, whose boyfriend, Joseph, was the deliveryman. We’d meet up with the wagon around the corner from home, as Mum would surely have disapproved if she’d had even an inkling of Jesse’s secret liaisons. We’d hear the horse clip clopping down the hill long before we could see the wagon. Jesse would hoist me up into Joseph’s arms who’d sit me between his legs and let me pretend I was driving the wagon. It was a grand way to go to school and I’m sure my life long love of horses stemmed from these early days.
Apartheid
It was not to last long however as apartheid was now the official policy in South Africa and my father, not wanting to raise his family in this environment, decided to leave Johannesburg and head north where the politics, while still segregated, were far more liberal. I don’t really recall our departure but I do have vague memories of sitting in the back of a moving truck with my legs over the tailgate as the driver tried bravely to negotiate the never ending potholes and corrugations on the dirt “highway” that led us eventually to the town of Ndola in Northern Rhodesia, just a few miles south of the border with the Belgium Congo.
The Pink House and Ndola Primary School
Here we set up home in what we affectionately dubbed “the Pink House” – a small plantation style home with a l
ong verandah, tin roof, and a back yard that opened onto the open bush veld. In spite of this exotic locale, my parents, as was the fashion with most colonials, determined to fashion our lives as much as possible after their mother countries of England and Scotland. My elder brother and sister were sent off to boarding school in Southern Rhodesia, while I attended Ndola infant school from which I subsequently graduated to Ndola Primary School. My earliest school reports all had one thing in common – Alistair is a bright boy with great potential, but he needs to talk less and pay more attention.