1961: By Ladybird round Africa

Just for the record...

Ralf, this could have been an interesting aviation journey through Africa.

As someone who was born in Kenya, the son of a British serving officer, I cannot help but take exception to your constant biased references to whatever crime you consider Britain is guilty of committing.

History and politics are never simplistic.
To dabble with such recent political history is surely folly.

Expressing your personal views on capitalism, liberalism, education or even conservation via an out-of-print childrens Ladybird book simply adds to the insult.

We are all free to have our own personal views and political opinions.

But this is neither the place nor context in which to express them.


Ralf Roggeveen said:
Almost everywhere they go (and that includes you, USA) was once a British colony. A strong message of both text (by David Scott Daniel) and pictures (by Jack Matthew) is that all these places have a rosy, successful capitalist future because of what the kindly colonialists have done for them.
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What exactly are you implying?
Is the issue with Britain, capitalism...what?

Ralf Roggeveen said:
And of course the Sudanese are OK because 'They were raised and trained by the British.' Daddy will give us a bit more of the neoliberal history lesson on the next page
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Daddy or Big Brother?

Ralf Roggeveen said:
John observed that 'It's just the same as a school at home,' and this remains true of much of the educational system in 21st Century Africa. Not only do the pupils often look very like retro British schoolchildren in their smart uniforms, but African schools usually retain the discipline, respect for teachers and old-fashioned values that we think have been lost in the West! (Whether or not it's a good thing to grow up in the 1950s is a debatable point.
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Just thinking...could it possibly be because they admired/admire one of the finest educational institutions in the world?

What's wrong with a smart uniform?

Growing up in the 1950's...is that debateable?

Ralf Roggeveen said:
It is named after President Daniel Arap Moi who succeeded Jomo Kenyatta as Head of State in 1978. In the 1950s the Kikuyu people of Kenya, many of whom were well-educated and aware of the shortcomings of colonialism, began the so-called Mau Mau Uprising against the British. This was supposed to involve pagan witchcraft and sinister blood oaths which frightened the rest of the black population. Some white farmers, including women and children, were killed. The British reacted with extreme savagery, interring and torturing thousands of young Kikuyu men and flooding the country with 20,000 troops. Postwar Britain could not afford such a policy, either in monetary or moral terms, so they sensibly released the Kikuyu leader Kenyatta from jail and allowed him to lead Kenya to independence in 1963. Both sides eventually behaved with wise tolerance and understanding, but the brutality of the British reaction to Mau Mau is only just beginning to be revealed and right now, 60 years later, there is a court case in London where some very old Kenyans are seeking compensation - and an apology - for the terrible way they were treated.


For some reason the Ladybird book doesn't mention any of that..
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Yes, many of the Kikuyu were well educated!
(Can't for the life of me imagine who provided that education)...

Fact: There was nothing "supposed" regarding the sinister swearing-in 'oath' rituals performed by the Mau Mau.

To the unfortunate victims it was horrifyingly real.

It wasn't the "rest of the black population", it was to people of their own race.
The many other tribes refused to participate.

"Some white farmers, including women and children, were killed"
Thirty eight!

But you omitted to mention over 2,000 innocent Kikuyu, Masai, Luo, Meru men, women and babies brutally murdered by the Mau Mau.
(Note the disproportion!)

Numerically more Kikuyu trbesmen fought alongside British forces than belonged to the Mau Mau.
Furthermore, the British had to forcibly placate the Masai people, who were all for taking the Mau Mau matter into their hands and declaring all out war on them.

If you are in search of the 'noble savage' in the Mau Mau, you barking up the wrong tree.

The British did not react "extremely savagely". and to claim so is a disgraceful injustice to the many British men serving in the British armed forces during that crisis.

It is a sad fact of war that some men will commit treacherous crimes against humanity.

The culprits deserve to be brought to justice and it is to Britain's credit that this will be served.
But true justice must be served on all sides and sadly we hear of no demands for the prosecution of former Mau Mau responsible for more than 2,000 deaths.

The Mau Mau were ruthless terrorists with little concern for human life and values, democracy or independence.

Should a children's book on Africa have made reference to terrorism?


Ralf Roggeveen said:
One reason the Ladybird book doesn't ever mention Tanga may be that it was the scene of a humiliating British defeat. Tanganyika had been a German colony since the 1880s, and with the outbreak of war in 1914 the British decided to grab it quickly using 8,000 troops sent over from India commanded by a Major-General Aitken. They made a very badly-organised landing here, opposed by just a few hundred German colonial troops under the brilliant Colonel Paul von Lettow-Vorbeck. one famous feature of the battle (described quite accurately in William Boyd's novel An Ice-Cream War) was the Indian soldiers disturbing a hive of killer bees who joined in and helped the German Askaris drive them, panic-stricken, back to the beach! Although the British did eventually gain a foothold, it wasn't until the Germans had inflicted massive casualties, captured a lot of useful supplies and generally taught a nasty lesson. Aitken was sacked, and Lettow-Vorbeck went on to lead enormously-superior British armies a merry dance all over East Africa for the rest of the First World War. He, by now promoted Major-General, was quite rightly granted a Victory parade when he got back to Berlin!
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Do you honestly believe that the author of a children's book on Africa deliberately avoided mention of Tanga?
This is absurdity in the extreme.


Ralf Roggeveen said:
Before we land on Zanzibar there is some catching up to do with the Ladybird book. As well as the boat race on Lake Victoria and the school in Uganda, there were at least two more pages, + their illustrations, for Kenya.

Here you have the classic vague justification for colonialism: the original inhabitants weren't exploiting their land properly, so they deserved to lose it to people who knew how to make money from it! This is illustrated by perhaps the most remarkable picture in the whole little book:

The artist has essentially painted typical English countryside, familiar to the early '60s British children for whom the book was produced. This has led to the imported sheep having to be unrealistically squeezed into a cornfield. It is pretty obvious who's Lord of All he Surveys. But, as the text most patronisingly mentioned, 'the farm workers were Africans, who were very clever with the machinery.' (OK as long as it's a Massey Fergusson tractor rather than a Kalashnikov rifle).

Of course the whites acquired all that rich, fertile land through the simple expedient of superior weapons technology. Before anyone could ask any awkward questions about the political and military history of East Africa you turn the page and writer and artist quickly turn to animals - which can be exploited by man without rationalising the destruction of their way of life!


As mentioned before, there is some progress with 'Reserves' where 'animals are protected and live their lives safe from the guns and traps of man.' There's also another picture where he's crammed everything in:

Someone cared about the animals before it was too late. Unfortunately, of course, colonialists had a similar attitude towards 'native' humans, putting the most dangerous of them into reserves too. This had already happened to 'Indians' on the American continent, both north and south. Soon the Ladybird folk will get to South Africa where a rearguard action of the denial of civil rights and basic liberties to the majority population was still in full swing half a century ago...
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Unbelievable!
The artist "essentially painted typical English countryside" because Sir: essentially that's precisely how the Rift Valley highlands appear.

Your comparison of the 'native' humans (I do presume you refer to the Kikuyu) with American Indians is inappropriate - the (Bantu) Kikuyu themselves invaded the area 200 years previously from West Africa, wiping out all indigenous tribes as they progressed.


That you perceive the "colonials" as destroyers and enemies of nature displays total ignorance of the many hard working farmers/settlers from Britain, USA, Germany, Austria, Canada, France, Switzerland etc who were simply guilty of occupying one of the world's last wild frontiers.
 
Nigel, your comments were begging to be made, and for myself, thank you for making them

David
 
Hi Nigel & David,

All fair and valid points. The problem with the Ladybird book - lovely though much of it is (for example, the dhow illustration) - is that it's a too late justification for imperialism. Africa is full of cuddly animals discovered (and shot) by clever, well-organised white people. Don't tell the children about the original inhabitants and their feelings (or history for thousands of years before Europeans got there). Unfortunately it's exactly because the Great Rift Valley does look a bit like Sussex that colonialism is 'justified', i.e. taking the rich land away from its ancient inhabitants at the point of a gun and exploiting it. You will note though that I have given Ladybird credit for essentially pointing out that Harold Macmillan's often-quoted 'Wind of Change' was just then blowing through Africa, and that Britain was, quite rightly and wisely, trying to leave Africa to the Africans. In the case of East Africa this was done with some success, creating fairly happy countries like Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi. Bad things happened elsewhere. Worst of all, as mentioned above, the problem of settlers who don't agree with what the 'Mother-country' Government plans to do about handing independence to the majority - and take the law into their own hands.

Interestingly, when the Ladybird children go to India they do stay with Indian families who get to speak and show cultural and economic aspects of their country. We will visit one African (Zulu) family in this story, but only in a rather touristy fashion. Immediate postwar US policy was always to oppose the old European imperial powers and support 'liberation struggles', sometimes with unfortunate results that opened doors to Soviet neo-imperialists... (You may get my lectures on the Suez Crisis one day... Can't say you haven't been warned!)

Certainly you cannot change history, but do have to look at it all the time in a questioning way and ask what you're not being told? I have a great admiration for many of the Victorian pioneers in Africa, including men like Gordon and Livingstone who are often dismissed as 'imperialists' by sloppy writers (usually journalists who know NOTHING about history). The Ladybird book is of its time and, as you say, was aimed at children; but there is no doubt that it was trying to justify a lot of wrongs. And of course you are right that the Communist alternative that was then being offered in Africa, Asia and South America was EVEN WORSE: the dogma and police state came along just after the 'liberating' SAMs and Kalashnikovs.

I imagine that everyone will agree that people should be masters of their own destiny and not be robbed or exploited by anybody from afar. Manuel Quezon put it humourously, but rather well, when he said 'We would rather be badly ruled over by our own people, than well-ruled by foreigners'.

Thank you for criticism and argument - please continue to make it throughout; the great thing about the Interweb-thingy is that it can occur as a text appears. What a boring world it would be if everyone just agreed.

Putting aside the red flag, I don my aviation anorak (which is a bit hot for Africa), and we'll board EA507 from Dar to Blantyre, Nyasaland:



Tom will confirm that this is the East African Canadair C-4 Argonaut...



...interesting aircraft.

 
This was a DC-4 with the Pratt & Whitney radials removed and replaced by four Rolls-Royce Merlin liquid-cooled engines. Trans Canada Airlines and the Royal Canadian Air Force were the originators of this interesting (1949) idea, but BOAC an important early customer using them for transcontinental flights in the '50s. Going back into the interior of Africa in this will take us about two and a half hours.



A quick look at HTDA in daylight before we go:



Some nice '60s General Aviation AI there:



We left at 12.55 and Hunting Clan had to wait a little:



A good view of Dar-es-Salaam, a city that was largely developed as the main harbour and capital of German Tanganyika colony:



And there's the airport:

 
Not sure how good my PC setup was for flying the C-4 at maximum efficiency. It took 20 minutes to climb to 26000 feet.



With the RR 626 V-12 engines you are watching the tachometer for RPM, Boost (Manifold Pressure) in PSI, and keeping an eye on engine temperature. Cruising it made around 185 kias, which seemed reasonable.

The Rufiji River:



Way below overheard this Beaver talking to ATC:



He was flying from Chileka (FWCL), where we're going, to Nairobi (HKJK). Nyasaland/Malawi is an interesting country on Lake Nyasa/Lake Malawi. It essentially runs right down the western side of the lake, and a little to the mountainous south of it, where you will find Blantyre, our target, though the modern capital is Lilongwe. The clue's in the name Blantyre, the country is based on 19th Century Scottish Presbyterian missions, including the work of the famous Dr David Livingstone.

Very flat till we get back inland to the Great Rift Valley and the lakes.



That must be the Rivuma River on the border between Tanganyika and Mozambique:



When Nyasaland became independent as Malawi in 1964 it was run for a long time by a strange but effective leader, Dr Hastings Banda. He had been educated by the missionaries (partly in Scotland itself) and maintained many of their strict and thrifty values. You may recall that Madonna recently tried to start a girls' school in Malawi (which failed). But Dr Banda already has traditional British-style schools there, at least for boys.



There's the Rivuma from the Argonaut, and here's Lake Nyasa coming into view on the other side:



(By the way, Nigel, when I mentioned that such African schools have 'smart uniforms' I made no value judgments; it was simply stated as a fact.) We briefly had Beira Control over the top northwestern corner of Mozambique.

 
The C-4 Argonaut or DC-4M North Star depending on which side of the pond you're on. One of my favorite propliners. I don't think I have that paint though...
 
One fine operator of the time that used them was Aden Airways:



They bought three in 1960, all of which had been built for parent company BOAC in 1949. Unfortunately all three suffered bad salt corrosion (owners of classic cars in wet countries may know how depressing & expensive that can be) and were withdrawn from Red Sea service by '64. Coming in to land at its Aden/Khormaksar hub with Ian's brilliant local scenery:



I'd be interested to know what altitudes and speeds Willy and other North Star/Argonaut fliers have managed to get out of them. As they got older operators seem to have treated the engines more gently, applying less boost than before.

Back with East African, heading out over Lake Nyasa:



How we went round the lake:



Not been here before (only Lilongwe in Mali with Dr Banda's VC-10), so it was good to spot some AI coming out of Chileka:



Quite hilly round here...

 
That AI coming down in front of us had come from FAPB, Pietersburg International, aka Polokwane north of Pretoria, where we will be going, in South Africa. For now we land at FWCL Chileka Airport, Blantyre:



Willy will confirm, full flaps bringing the Canadair down. Tragically this is an African airport that hasn't (yet) been given the Cal Classic treatment, so it's only default FS9 buildings:



Nobody seems to be about to bring any steps for the passengers to get out!



Hmm, there's that snazzy Cessna (sinking in the heat) which I suspect might belong to the mysterious girl in orange...



...but there's no sign of her - or anyone at this time of day.



It's quite possible that she's something to do with Daddy's never-revealed 'business' in all these de-colonizing African countries. Either he's an MI5 agent working for the British government in some secret capacity and she's his contact; OR he's an arms dealer selling guns to the liberation struggle and she's from the ANC! After all...



...the *innocent* Ladybird book would be the perfect cover!
 
The first eight pages of text of the 1961 Ladybird book have covered just four colonies: Uganda, Kenya, Zanzibar and Tanganyika, i.e. British East Africa. We are now travelling in to the landlocked Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland which, as mentioned, the Colonial Office created in 1953. Rhodesia was divided into 'Northern' and 'Southern' parts which are now Zambia and Zimbabwe respectively. Forming the Federation was part of an attempt by London to facilitate the smooth transfer of power to black majorities in this enormous area when each country was given independence. The attempt did not go well in the case of Southern Rhodesia. Whereas Malawi and Zambia both became independent with relatively little violence in 1964, Southern Rhodesia, now just 'Rhodesia', held onto colonial status till '67 when the settler minority declared their UDI (Unilateral Declaration of Independence) against Great Britain and were expelled from the Commonwealth. With help from the powerful neighbouring white supremacist state, South Africa, they managed to retain minority rule until 1980.

We will take EC119 from Chileka to the capital of Southern Rhodesia, Salisbury, about two and a half hours in a Dakota.



FWCL to FVHA (i.e. Harare International) is one of those glitches in FS9 which comes out like this if you use the computer to find an IFR route:



That's via Maputo in Mozambique which we don't want. Better to go the old-fashioned way by ADF:



You can tune in to Tete (in Mozambique on the Zambezi), then pick up the signal from Salisbury after crossing the mighty River. It still required more than 2300 lbs of fuel, so a lot of runway taking off.



Just had to wait for him landing at Chileka:



We left at 15.30 in the afternoon, so should arrive just after 6 in the evening.
 
It seemed to be happiest cruising at around 9000 feet. There's the Zambezi ahead, sighted soon after reaching cruise altitude:



We cross the great river:



The tributary that meets the Zambezi here is the Luenha:



Here's the map:



Soon managed to pick up the Rhodesian ADF signal, 330khz...and dusk falls:



Unbelievably ATC called themselves 'Salisbury' the first time I heard them, but it changed to 'Harare (Tower)' within the same sentence - ! Some of the '60s airports have been deliberately changed to their old names, but I never touched this one and visually it remains default scenery too.



It was only when I got safely down that I realised the port engine had stopped running!
 
We still had plenty of fuel, but as you may have guessed I'd accidentally drained one of the tanks. If it had happened on a longer flight, would have noticed and sorted things out after a panicky moment or two. A more realistic model might have given more warning by coughing and spluttering clouds of black exhaust as that engine ran dry!



Another default airport - didn't really see ANY buildings - but the AI is good.



Go and park up at the end. This neat little Central African Viscount was just leaving for Lusaka (where we'll be going later):



Parked Viscount of theirs' with the correct passenger exit facility (i.e: stairs):



Hunting Clan DC-6 with the big cargo doors, though they've only been letting people out of this one:



Air Safaris DC-4 sinking...



Don't worry: Tom, Harry and the Cal Classic boys will clear up height of all this AI when they put the buildings into these airports they haven't yet done! This is from Trek, a South African line we'll soon no doubt be seeing a lot more of:



Well, we made it to Salisbury. A quick trip north to take a look at Northern Rhodesia/Zambia next, and no more pesky default airports, you'll be pleased to know.

 
Time to go up to Lusaka, capital of Northern Rhodesia, today's :zambia: Zambia:



I don't know where the aeroplane on the map thinks it's starting from, but we're going to the old FLLC, Lusaka City, not the modern FLLS, Lusaka International. The big landmark is Lake Kariba which was man-made on the Zambezi by building the Kariba Dam - Daddy will explain all in due course in the dreaded Ladybird book.

We will travel in this beauty:



Another skin for the Manfred Jahn DC-3, this one by Andre Reimers. The Hunting Clan airline was formed by a merger of the old Clan and Hunting shipping lines.



It's about 2 hours, 20 minutes and you'll need over 2015 lbs of fuel. I've been finding the Flight Planner DC-3 fuel estimates err on the side of caution, and there's always been plenty left when we reach these African destinations.



Interesting AI DC-4 spotted almost immediately: Wenela, an airline I've never seen in fs9 before and never even heard of! Another little job for Wikipedia.

Think this was FVLP, Charles Prince, a nearby airport we overflew quite soon after takeoff:



And a South African Suidwest DC-6 going from Hosea Kutako International, Namibia (probably not its name in the early '60s when South Africa still ran the neighbouring, ex-German colony, huge country) to Harare - I mean Salisbury:

 
Thanks Tom! You just beat me to it, exactly what I found when Googling Wenela Air Services earlier today. In many ways Cal Classics are keeping the memory of this remarkable, single purpose airline alive. Great to discover them as AI like that too. :salute:
 
Fairly flat country, though most of Zambia is still 4,000 feet above sea level. We stayed as low as the Controllers would permit at 8,000.



Think I spotted a mosque down there, though the further inland you get, the more likely Central Africa is to be Christian (thanks to the missionaries), or still pagan.

Ah, there's Lake Kariba up ahead:



Although you can upgrade Victoria Falls (which we will see in due course), there is a bit of a lack of African scenery enhancements for fs9. I was hoping at least to see the default effort at the Dam, but ATC sent us off to the east of it. The town of Kariba is in Southern Rhodesia/Zimbabwe on the border with Zambia, as defined by great river.

Approaching the lake:



And how we flew round it...



...and back over the Zambezi:



You may have noticed that Wenela was a South African airline devoted to getting miners to where the work was available. In South Africa itself many of the mines contain those useful commodities gold and diamonds, but up here we are entering the Copper Belt. Again, Daddy will explain a good deal of this after we get to Lusaka.
 
So with the river as the border we get Lusaka Control soon after crossing it. Can just make out the landing lights ahead:



Coming in over the city:



And it was a nice straightforward approach:



Looks like another deserted early '60s airport!



We can go and park in a good spot near the small building that serves as a terminal. Do we know anybody here?



A very British-style hangar/workshop on the other side:



Lovely contemporary elephant advertising and elephantine cars to delight our eyes:



A bit disappointing not to see the Kariba Dam or Victoria Falls (yet), but there are good illustrations of both coming up in the book.



Wonder if you can get an iced coffee in the terminal? That'd go down well in this heat...
 
The next 2 pages of text and illustrations from the book:



That seems to shatter my delusion that Livingstone tended to choose the local language name to stick on the map, but Victoria Falls is much easier to remember than Mosi-oa-Tuna, and I have previously pointed out that if a geographical feature is in one or more countries, non-local names tend to stick (whatever the people nearby actually call it). Anyway, Livingstone's reputation has survived intact, whereas all the other great Victorians have been exposed as giants with feet of clay. The fact that the town named after him still bears his name shows that Livingstone's love of Africa and the African people isn't forgotten there either.



This is the closest you'll ever get in five books of their adventures to seeing Daddy, Alison and John. A wise decision on the part of artist Jack Matthew.



I am afraid that unlike in the cases of David Livingstone, Sir Richard Burton and General Gordon, I have never had any time for Cecil Rhodes. Nigel was right earlier on when he observed that vicious, well-organised Bantu armies were coming down from the northeast, just as ditto whites arrived from the southwest and that both of these displaced the original inhabitants of Southern Africa before clashing with each other. The Zulus under their military genius King Shaka (early 19th Century), were particularly effective and ruthless. The Ndebele (or Matabele) were a breakaway people from them, equally violent, who conquered what is now Zimbabwe shortly before Cecil Rhodes arrived. The time of Kings like Shaka and Dingane is known as Mfecane, literally 'the Crushing', they didn't conquer great empires by sitting down and discussing things politely. What the European invaders gained, however, during the 19th Century, was a technological/weaponry edge that could never be beaten.

Daddy also explained about the Copperbelt which has helped to keep Zambia relatively successful and prosperous before, during and after independence. The charming Chinese are now very interested in that part of the world, and personally I would rather they get their raw materials from the ground there than by purchasing copper piping stolen from an empty house down the road from where I live...

Anyway, there's a fine picture of the Kariba Dam. Anybody want to create it in fs9 Addon Scenery?

 
So we got to see Nature's Smoke-that-Thunders and Man's controlled, power-giving version of the same. Incidentally, the Ripon Falls (on the Nile at the top of Lake Victoria) no longer exist due to damming, but Victoria Falls, three times bigger than Niagara, will no doubt still be there when humanity is a long-forgotten blip in Creation.

In Central African's July 1961 timetable you could take Flight CE679 direct to Livingstone every Monday:



We bascially just fly down the Zambezi Escarpment, parallel to the river and Lake Kariba.



It kept on refusing to allow IFR, but we somehow managed it in the end. Very strange. We depart FLLC just before 7.00 in the morning:



In yer face, Orange Girl! Leaving Lusaka:



I think the river that was briefly to starboard might be the Kafue, rather than Zambezi which will of course be on our port side throughout the flight:



There's Lake Kariba:

 


CAA Viscount that was typical AI of the time round there:



Was trying to work out exactly where those Victoria Falls were, but unfortunately we didn't spot them this time :frown:



Too far north of the river when we flew by them. Will make a special slight detour on the next flight so we don't miss 'em. The lightless airport is also a bit difficult to find...



I have brought Comet Is in here back in the early '50s.



And we're down...

 
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