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Show MILLARD COUNTY CHRONICLE i Delta, Utah, Thurs., March 6, 1952 Elder Holman 'Tells Readers Of Sout fi Africa people because of the war. There are quite a few Indians and Malay people in the Union. They were brought here originally to work as slaves. The Colored people are a mixture between European sjid native. Through the years they have dev-eloped into a race of their own and are called the Cape Colored. The Native people are a most interesting people. Many times I have gone into their Kraals (pro-nounced "crawls") and talked with them and watched their way of simple living. I thought it might be of interest to you if 1 told you something of their customs. There are many different tribes of natives and each tribe has their own language and their customs produce form the packet, nature has something better to show. Along the Garden Route are the Congo Caves, described as the fin-est stalactite caverns in the world. They were discovered in 1780 by a farmer who followed a wounded buck. They have even today not been fully explored. Now I am labouring in Salisbury, the capital of Southern. Rhodesia. People know little about South Af-rica, but they know less about Rhodesia. I wish I could tell you about some of the interesting things in Rhodesia but space will not permit. An article won't be complete, however, without telling you of one of the wonders of the world which Rhodesians are very proud Editor's Note: The following art-icle via airmail was received at the Chronicle office Monday, com-ing via airnial from Elder Eugene R. Holman. This is in response to a request of ours some time ago that Eugene write us something of interest about South Africa, where he is filling an LDS mission. Eu-gene wrote Feb. 16, from Salisbury, South Rhodesia. Among other news he said "The Elders have been teacning square dancing here m Salisbury. It has really gone over with a bang, and has made a lot of people realize the Mormons are in town. The first dance we had there were 400 people there, the second there were 600. The Hall was much too small for the first dance and half of the people dan-ced outside. I wore a blister on my thumb playing the piano as that was all the music we had and I really had to pound. We were invited to a private party at the Governor's home. He is the highest official in Rhodesia and is a direct representative of the Queen of England. We presented him with a Book of Mormon and had a very enjoyable time at his home. vary with each tribe. One doesn't need to be here long before one realizes that the native is a serv ant of the white person. They work for little, they cook, do house work, do the gardening, do' about everything the white people do not want to do. The majority of the natives are an uneducated and dirty people. They haven't had the opportunities for education and de-velopment that the white people Kraals which means a number of have. Most of them still live in huts together, under the rule of the head of the family, who is of course subject to the chief. Their huts are made of mud, grass and poles. "The native had a' simple system of order and tradition but it was destroyed by the 'impact of. The Zambesi River makes its mile-lon- g plunge into a gorge more than 300 feet deep - - - one of the greatest sights in nature, the Victoria Falls. When you see the Victoria Falls today you see them as Dr. Living-stone first saw them on Nov. 16, 1855. With the exception of the great rail and road cantilever bridge which links Southern and Northern Rhodesia, nothing has been added to or taken away from Nature. The heauty of the Falls is that which led Livingstone to ex-claim: "Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight." The greatest height of the Falls is 355 feet. The average height is 304 feet. The approximate total like Cape Town and Durban seated upon the sea, the one upon the Atlantic, the other upon the Indian Ocean, the great modern cities like Johannesburg, as well as character istically South African cities, such as Pretoria and Bloemfontein. It is said "all roads lead to Johannesburg." Johannesburg, the biggest city in South Africa, very often referred to as the "Golden City" has a population of 728,000. (324,000 Europeans and 404,000 non Europeans.) It has grown during the last sixty years into a thriving city of skyscrapers and owes its prosperity to its gold mines, which are the most extensive in the world. Eleven thousand feet below Mother Earth, the deepest of the gold mines, the native and the white men work together to make South Africa rich. In 1867 the first diamond was found. A country hitherto ol far-mers was instantly invaded by company promoters, financiers, ad-venturers and gen-try from every nation under the sun. And in that way South Africa stepped into the modern world. If the diamond market wasn't controlled diamonds would sell in the dime stores. Diamonds are much cheaper here than in Ameri-ca and most of the Elders look into the future and take one home with them. South Africa was once a coun-try where wild animals ran free. Now the animals run in huge game preserves which are protected for them. The most famous is Kruger National Park. Here can be found elephant,, giraffe, all the animals that once roamed this land. People are instructed before they go into the park not to get out of their cars except at the little rest, huts which are scattered every few miles along the 200 miles long and 40 mile wide park. In the park motor cars are held up while a pride of lions sniff the running board. There is also the great game preserve of Hluhluwe, where a length of the Zambesi River is 1,725 miles The Victoria Falls are situated 750 miles from its source. The Zambesi continues its flow into Portuguese East Africa into the Indian Ocean, 975 miles "from the Falls. The maximum flow over the Falls (reached in April to May) is 12 million cubic feet (75 million gallons) per minute. Much has been written about the Falls, many have tried to put their attractions into words, but they were best summed up by a Lieutenant Alfred Bethell, who saw them in 1886. "The unigueness - - to coin a word - - of the Falls, combined with their stupendous magnificance, renders it impossible for any words to do them justice. To understand and realize, one must see." An age-ol- d riddle of Rhodesia is the Great Zimbabwe ruins. Near-ly three-quarte- of a century of speculation and limited investiga-tion has failed to reveal who built them, in what deep recess of time, and for what purpose. Known vag-uely to the early Arabian and Por-tuguese explorers of Eastern Af-rica, they are a fascinating relic of Rhodesia's hidden past. The word "Zimbabwe" means "houses of stone" and was a name generally applied by the early Portuguese writers to the principal headquarters of important chiefs. Great Zimbabwe is but one of many ruined stone buildings in Southern Rhodesia, but it is by far the most imposing of them all. Zimbabwe was discovered by the hunter, Adam Renders, in 1868, and three years alter, Carl Mauch, the Dear People of Delta: Very often Africa is referred to as the Dark Continent. Many peo-ple think of South Africa as a land of wild animals, a land where only black people live, or a land of jungle. Little do many people real-ize that South Africa is a beautiful land where black people and white people live together. I remember just a little more than a year ago when the ship neared South Africa. We had been on the waters for two weeks and were looking forward to seeing land. The morning we docked we got up very early so we could see the coast line of Africa. There be-fore us was beautiful Table Moun-tain. A mountain 3600 feet high and a mile long. It is called Table Mountain from its shape. The bay beneath is called Table Bay, while dense white clouds that often hang about its summit dur-ing the summer months have be-come locally known as the "table-cloth." The day we docked at Cape Town I began to think some of the stories I had 'heard about only black people in Africa were cor-rect. Everywhere you looked on the docks were natives. I had nev-er seen so many black people in my life. In the Union of South Africa there are 2,336,000 Europ-eans and 8,923,000 (Natives, Colored, Indian). The South African mission in area is the largest mission in the church. It takes in three countries. The Union of South Africa and Northern and Southern Rhodesias. Each of these countries have their own government. Northern and Southern Rhodesia have only been opened to missionary work a little more than a year. Since I have been in the South African mission, I have been transferred four times and travelled about 5,000 miles. It is nothing for a missionary to be transferred 2,000 miles from his last place of labour. It is hard to be born in South Africa. One can be born an Afrik-aner, or an English-speakin- g South African, or a Indian, or a colored man or a Native. The Dutch people first settled in South Africa and they are known as the Afrikaans. They speak Af-rikaans which is a language much like Dutch. There are more Afrik-aans speaking people in South Af-rica than English speaking people. Many years aog the Boer war was fought in South Africa. A war between the Afrikaans and the English. There is still much con-flict and hatred between the two of the white civilization. The white people have not given them an-other civilization to take the place of their simple order and tradi-tion. Therefore the natives produce criminals and prostitutes and drun-kards, not because it is their na-ture to do so, but because their system of order and tradition has been destroyed." The native pro-blem in South Africa is a very dif-ficult problem and one who has not been here and lived here for a long time would have a difficult time trying to correct it. I won't be able to tell you the customs of .each tribe because there are so many. All over the Union and the Rhodesias these tri-bes are scattered. They are a Happy-Go-Luck- y people. The Gcaleka tribe cares little for the Eurfipean and stick to their old customs. They rub clay into their skins, treat their hair with fat and draw out its natural curls into long mops of rat tails. With their red blankets and skins they are well nam-ed the "Red People". In some Xosa tribes they have rites of initiation - - a special cere-mony which every boy and girl must undergo to mark their com-ing of age. The boys, in particular, have a rigorous, period of prepar-ation. During this time they dance the Abakweta dances, dressed in a fantastic costume of lala palm leaves, with their faces masked and their bodies bespattered with white stripes and spots. It is the Zulu woman who, as a rule, has the more interesting per-sonality. She is the hard worker of the family - - the tiller of the fields, the maker of pots and mats, the one who designs and sews bead patterns, the cook, the fetcher and carrier, and the real center of the community. From her tall red head dress to beaded ankles, she is i creature of poise and charm. The Ndebele women, with their decorative armlets, necklets and anklets, are the joy of photograph-ers, while their huts, beautifully plastered with colored murals and their neat little forecourts, are as typically African in conception as anything here. There are many others - - the Fingos, the Tswana, the Pondo. Each has his own unmistakable characteristics. But all have to-gether dignity, a high sense of tra-dition, and a joyousness in living. From the Kraal of the native, from people who believe in witch-craft, live in huts which they build from mud, and plough their land with hand hoes, to beautiful cities motorist may find his path fiercely challenged by the wild rhinoceros. South Africa is a large country, blessed with a perfect climate. Beautiful flowers are grown in ev-ery city, all year around. Pretoria, the capital of the Union of South Africa, has been known for its gardens and flowers since the very early days. The city has always had a love and appreciation for nature which is substantiated by its wealth of parks, picturesque gar dens and open spaces covering a total areaa of approximately 4,000 acres, the delicate hues of dainty blossoms of flowering shrubs and trees against a background of Bou-gainville and Wistaria, mingling with the unbleached greenery of hedge roses and the rich, fresh colors of annuals scattered about spacious lawns. In Spring Jacaranda time is brought to Pretoria, which prides itself on some 40,000 Jacaranda trees to cover an avenue of 250 miles. In October, when these trees are in 'bloom, it constitutes a glorious picture - - a German Explorer, described them to the world. Since then they have been examined by many investig-ators. The earliest interpretation of the ruins was that they were remotely ancient, and they have been as-cribed by various authors to the Sabaeans, the Phoenicians, and oth er civilizations of antiquity. They have been dated as far back at 3,000 years and identified with the ancient Ophir from which King Solomon obtained his gold. These theories, to which the appearance and condition of the ruins lend tacit support, first met with gen-eral acceptance, though no direct evidence was forthcoming to sup-port any one of them. It is estimated that at least 1,000 ounces of gold ornaments were found in and taken from the ruins. It is significant that no human remains have ver been recovered at Zimbabwe although it is obvi-ous that many people must have died there. One probable explan-ation So at trrnn ite soil is unfav- - magnificent study in a pageant of soft hues varying from a pale mauve in the early morning to a deep purple as twilight falls which blend with graduations of blue of the sky above. ' From the cultivated gardens of Pretoria we go to the works of Mother Nature. Here in the Garden Route some trees are a 1,000 years old and grow to 120 feet. Others, the gigantic yellow-woo- d trees, are hundreds of feet high and almost 2,000 years old. Here are the stink-woo- d trees, inappropriately named and most popular wood used for furniture in South Africa. This beau tifully grained wood is now in very short supply and very expensive. This stinkwood forest is the home of the largest elephants in the world. They are the descend-ants of a famous herd once three hundred strong, now reduced to ab-out a dozen. They are very rarely seen, except by the occasional woodsman. There are few places in Africa where flowers flourish as they do in The Garden Route. The disas and watsonias are to be found in their hundreds, including twenty-fiv- e varieties of orchids . The heaths, the lilies, "the ferns and some 2,000 varieties of flowers and flowering shrubs are to be found. This is one of those areas, where, for every flower the seedsman can auuii Hi., e orable to the preservation of bones. Whether the ruins are remotely ancient or mediaeval, they are of absorbing interest. They mark the former habitations of a large pop-ulation which must have occupied them for hundreds of years. From the abundance of worked gold in various forms and fragments of crucibles used for smelting it, it is evident that Zimbabwe was intim-ately connected with the ancient gold-minin- g industry and was pro-bably a collection-cente- r for gold and other merchandise whence it was taken to Sofala, the great port of East Africa in mediaeval times, 230 miles distnt. This is the rainy season in Rhod-esia and we have had 20 inches of rain fall for the month of January. . I'm enjoying every day of my missionary labours, I'm enjoying the beauty of the country but I'm looking forward to the day I see the top of those mountains and the people I've grown to love. "Home is still best When all is said, Its sheltering works, the Mountains o'erhead, But home means more Than this to me, It's Peace, Love, Rest, Security, Oh let me never more depart, For home Is where I keep ( Present address of Pvt. Edwin J. Johnson, who enlisted recently in the air force, is Squadron 3717, Flight 201, Lackland Air Force Base, San Antonio Texas. He is a son of Mr. and Mrs. Francis John-son of Gandy. Mrs. Bertha Belliston, of Milford, visited in Delta during the past week, and on Feb. 23 was guest of honor at a birthday party at the home of her mother, Mrs. Sus-an Sampson. Fourteen guests were present, including Mrs. Rodney Shields and Mrs. Effie Justesen, from Sugarville. A birthday cake decorated with 40 candles was cut and served by Mrs. Belliston. Fidelity Club Is Entertained Fidelity club members and hus-bands and guests were entertain-ed at dinner and Rook Saturday night at the home of Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Gardner. Dinner was served to Mr. and Mrs. W. J. Starley, Mr. and Mrs. Eldon Sorenson, Dr. and Mrs. M. E. Bird, Mr. and Mrs. Tharol Lar-son, Mr. and Mrs. A. O. Gardner, Mr. and Mrs. Glen Seegmiller, Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Black, Mrs. Norma Hannifin, Mrs. Clara Killpack, Fen-to- n Gardner, and guests, Miss Mar-g- Gardner and Mr. and Mrs. Ted Dalton. At Rook table prizes were award ed to Mr. Dalton, Mrs. Hannifin, Mr. Sorenson, Mr. Black and Mrs. Killpack. Hostesses for the party were Mrs. Gardner, Mrs. Hannifin, Mrs. Lar-son and Mrs. Seegmiller. I i The Idaho Mu- - V C tudt Benefit As- - X"' sociation leads in ow cost life N L insurance for trie individual or JoHim r ., r- - CONGRATULATIONS Merle Norman Users You have the purest and the finest cosmetics to be had any-where at any price. You have the pomplimentary services of COSMETIC SPECIALISTS My Heart." UNKNOWN Yours Truly Elder Eugene R. Holman fOtM BUY A "Cil Hrt oa standard models trlnd wlta lydraullc lilt PETERSON - FORD SALES DELTA, UTAH 6fif J10UP. John A. 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