The Principal of the University of Natal during much of the 1960s, Professor Owen Horwood, and I had a less than cordial relationship and we had several run-ins. (For background, Horwood later joined the National Party (apartheid) Government as the Minister of Finance. He was married to Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith's sister. Quite a …
Category: Memories
Black mischief
It is July 1961, I am one the delegates from the University of Natal (Durban) travelling by train to my first NUSAS Congress, at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape. Apartheid is in its heyday. Efforts to keep black and white apart seemed to have intensified The train stops at a station, many people get …
Ixopo: more brief memories
Rock and Roll Sherry After I turned 18, a couple of friends and I used to play snooker at the Plough Hotel (it and the Offsaddle Inn were the two hotels in town). We also had a drink or three. The cheapest drink available was a sweet Rock and Roll Sherry. It cost one shilling a …
Ixopo: some brief memories
The rolling hills Alan Paton put it better than I can. At the start of his book Cry the Beloved Country: "There is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills. These hills are grass-covered and rolling, and they are lovely beyond any singing of it." Mushrooming in spring Especially during the first …
Thoughts and Memories - Peter Mansfield 