Colonial Adventure and Other Stories
Graphic Novella and Short Stories in Rhythmic Prose
Revised for Second Printing
H. Ann Ackroyd
~~~
Colonial Adventure and Other Stories
(Graphic Novella and Short Stories in Rhythmic Prose)
Second printing (revised), Ebooks and Audio
Copyright 2014 by H. Ann Ackroyd.
Black and white drawings by H. Ann Ackroyd
Published by
Transom Press
32 Donly Drive North
Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4Z8
Library and Archives Canada
Canadian ISBN Service System (CISS)
ISBNs: Softcover 978-0-9880392-1-6
Ebooks 978-0-9880392-2-3
Audio 978-0-9880392-3-0
ISBN 978-0-9880392-1-6 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-0-9880392-2-3 (html).--
ISBN 978-0-9880392-3-0 (audio)
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication (CIP)
Ackroyd, H. Ann (Helen Ann), 1939-
Colonial Adventure and Other Stories
Graphic Novella and Short Stories in rhythmic prose Revised second printing
PS8601.C58C65 2014 C813'.6 C2014-900647-0 C2014-900648-9 C2014-900649-7
First printing 2011:
Library of Congress Control Number
2011904226 ISBN Hardcover 978-1-4568-8138-2
Softcover 978-1-4568-8137-5
Ebook 978-1-4568-8139-9
Also by H. Ann Ackroyd: Across the Rift
To order additional copies contact either
www.annackroyd.com
www.transompress.com
ann@annackroyd.com
portrowan@gmail.com
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Contents
Maps of Colonial Adventure
Glossary for Colonial Adventure
Colonial Adventure
Haitian Girl
Truncated
Persian Rug
The Veil
Simba Kubwa Speaks
Maps for Colonial Adventure
Southern Rhodesia’s location in Africa
Southern Rhodesia
Salisbury to the north
Gomboli to the south-east
Glossary for Colonial Adventure
Bateleur — Eagle
Biltong — Dried game meat, jerkin
Bobbejaan — Baboon
Gwaai — Tobacco, also name for area
Inkos — Title of respect (male)
Inkosikas — Title of respect (female)
Iwe — Man
Kopjie — Pile of granite rocks
Macheke — Name of a river
Mealies — Corn
Mutti — Medicine
Picannin — African child
Peterhouse — Senior. boarding school
Ruzawi — Junior Boarding school
Salisbury — Capital of S. Rhodesia
Sadza — Corn meal porridge, staple
Sjambok — Whip
Shona — Bantu tribal group
Skellum — Bug, useless person
Skoff — Food
Terrs — Terrorists
Umfazi — African woman
Voetsack, — Go away (offensive)
Cecil Rhodes and Africa, Cartoon from Punch, 18
Colonial Adventure
Prologue
In the year 1936
two young sophisticates
Margaret and Blair peeled
themselves away from London’s social scene
headed for Thomas Cook
where a man in morning suit
recognized their kind immediately.
He had seen it all before
that sense of entitlement, that need for space
“So it’s Africa,” he said without preliminary.
“East coast or west coast?”
As fiends on the dance floor
they packed first a gramophone
then, because standards must be
upheld other essentials
crystal glass, embroidered jacket, and chenille gown
along with tropical gear
long-threaded Egyptian cotton and
capacious pockets.
Port of Southhampton, England
At Sea
At the docks in Southampton
amidst shouting, waving,
streamer and bunting
sailors hauled in the hawsers
retrieved the gangplank.
Whistles blew, foghorn sounded
the mighty liner, pilot now aboard
drifted from the dock
red ensign aflutter, into the Solent. Britain
was off again to colonize the globe. On
board, at the railing
Margaret and Blair stood glass in hand
drinking toasts to family and friends
on the docks below.
He kept an elegant arm draped over her shoulders
as tugs steered the vessel downstream
past warehouse and upturned face
on this first leg of a life-defining adventure.
Table Mountain
Cold bright air pinching their cheeks
two lone figures sat on deck wrapped in
blankets. The tang of salt, sea and fish
filled their nostrils while gulls screeched
overhead and wind ripped at the ensign.
Passing the Isle of Wight they
sailed on into open waters
leaving Britain behind.
“It’ll be warmer in Africa” said Blair
as they folded their blankets and stored the chairs.
“Not too hot either,” replied Margaret
for they had chosen wisely
buying land in Mashonaland, Southern
Rhodesia within the tropics
yet on the high veld and therefore mild.
On the Bay of Biscay
they withstood storm and high sea. Off
Madeira they watched children dive for
silver in crystalline waters.
Consummate ballroom dancers
they partied through the nights
to the rhythms of samba, fox-trot and
rumba always to an audience, always to
applause for they were a handsome pair
he with the looks of a matinee idol
she green-eyed with black-hair.
Then came the time to toast Table
Mountain with Scotch, they were tired of
champagne tired of luxury, extravagance,
frivolity wanted to get on with the job.
African Village
Buffalo
Roan Antelope
The Train
took them on a trek, first north-west to Mafeking
Kimberly on to left: diamonds
Witwatersrand on the right: gold.
Here the vultures had already met, already feasted.
Margaret and
Blair continued on the tracks along
the eastern edge of the Kalahari
to Francistown and into Southern Rhodesia.
The pace was leisurely with many stops
for passengers to ramble, for hunters to feed them.
From windows and platforms behind each carriage
the couple saw wildebeest, giraffe, buffalo and zebra
either grazing or, more exciting to Margaret
stretching in full gallop across the savannah.
“I long to ride with them!” she said
green eyes flashing.
Blair could only stare
wondering at the wild untamed spirit of this person
with the slender neck, pixie face and jet black hair.
In spite of their impatience
the long journey offered countless occasion
to interrogate fellow passengers.
Tell us about the Shona
their language, habits, housing, food...
We need livestock, labour...Where? How? What?
So much we need to know!
Meikles Hotel, Salisbury