Part 88
I have briefly mentioned the Kingdom of Lesotho in an earlier blog. Let me start with the story of my first, rather bizarre trip in the 1960s to the beautiful mountainous enclave, completely surrounded by South Africa. It is, in fact, the only independent state in the world that is entirely 3,281 feet above sea level and higher in most places….
A guy I had met briefly in a coffee bar told me he was off to Lesotho the following week. I had never been there at that stage and was interested to hear more about this somewhat mysterious mountain kingdom, about 300 miles from Johannesburg. As we chatted, the guy – let’s call him Simon – suggested that I come with him on his trip. I asked him whether he was going for business or pleasure.
He replied, “A bit of both. It’s a ruggedly beautiful country and I love exploring it, but I do have some business to do which won’t take me long.” The offer was irresistible, and I read up on Lesotho in preparation for the trip.
The history of Southern Africa in the 1800s was one of turbulence and conquest. The chief of a minor clan had been fighting off the larger tribe of the Lifaqane, an offshoot of the fearsome Zulu nation under their warrior King Shaka. The chief, Moshoeshoe, realized that the occupation of the high ground would give his people an advantage over invading forces. He therefore led his people high into the mountains, named the region Basutoland after his Sotho tribal origins and proclaimed himself king in 1822.
In 1838, the Trek Boers (farmers of Dutch descent) left the clutches of the British occupation of the Cape Colony and reached the western edges of Basutoland. With the typical arrogance of white colonizers, they claimed the rights to the lowlands of King Moshoeshoe’s new kingdom. The Boers were later suppressed by the British forces in the area. The governor of the Cape Colony, Sir George Thomas Napier, then annexed the Boers’ land and ended up also fighting off Moshoeshoe’s warriors who still wanted to reclaim the land. King Moshoeshoe appealed to England’s Queen Victoria, who then named Basutoland a British protectorate, completely separate from South Africa. This effectively ended the traditional rule of the king and began the British colonial era – until the country’s Independence in 1966 as the Kingdom of Lesotho.
The following week, I set off with Simon heading for Maseru, the capital of Lesotho. I was delighted to discover that he had no interest in driving. I have always suffered from motion sickness but am fine when actually driving a vehicle – in this case an ancient. Volkswagen Kombi which was very lightweight and ran on a 1300 cc engine. Those vehicles didn’t travel well over speeds of 50 mph; a strong wind threatened to blow them off the roads. Nevertheless, they were remarkably tough, which was just as well. The roads in Lesotho were mostly unpaved, winding and treacherous.
Our Kombi manfully struggled up the increasingly steep hills as we approached the capital, Maseru, with mountains rising up above us on both sides. The capital was a small town with a couple of imposing-looking government buildings. Along the way, we had already seen a number of Basuto horsemen riding on mountain paths wearing their traditional distinctive conical straw hats. They are generally superb horsemen, as the horse is still the main mode of transport in the mountains and valleys of the kingdom.
Simon bought us hamburgers and chips as well as a six-pack of beer. We drove a short distance out of the town on the road to Letseng (site of the world’s highest diamond mine) and found a spot where we could pull off the road. With a ring of mountains and a dam a few hundred yards away, the soft pink light of the setting sun provided a wonderful backdrop for a peaceful night in the tiny kingdom.
After finishing our meal and a couple of beers, sitting on collapsible camping chairs next to the Kombi, Simon suggested that we turn in early and make a start at sunrise. I had brought along my own sleeping bag and started to unroll it when Simon said that I wouldn’t need it. He had supplied a mattress, duvet and pillows for us to share.
Only then did I realize with horror that Simon was expecting me to sleep with him, in the carnal sense! I have never been homophobic but I’m certainly not gay. Dreading the outcome, I politely replied that I would prefer to remain in my own sleeping bag. He looked at me for a long time before replying. At that point, I had visions of being kicked out of the vehicle and having to walk a couple of miles in the pitch-dark back to the capital, where I would have to find a very cheap room for the night and somehow find my own way back to Johannesburg.
Simon was clearly disappointed, but after a seemingly interminable time he forced a smile and said, “Sorry, I misjudged you. Please make yourself comfortable wherever you like.” I breathed again and organized my sleeping bag with my head at the same end as Simon’s feet, just in case he was the persevering type. He wasn’t and I had a good, sound sleep.
In the morning, the issue never came up again, Simon explained that he wanted to visit a village way up into the mountains close to the main Lesotho diamond mines. Only later did I learn that the kingdom possessed a rich source of diamonds. As recently as 2014, the country exported 240,000 carats of diamonds onto the world markets with a value of about US$300 million.
Only about 12% of the land in Lesotho is arable, so only a small part of the economy is based on agriculture and livestock. Apart from mining, Lesotho is the largest exporter in sub-Saharan Africa of garments to the United States. Their quality colorful clothing is very popular with sections of the American public. Another source of income for the country is the inflow of income from the thousands of Lesotho mine workers working on the gold mines in South Africa.
Perhaps their most spectacular export is water. Lesotho is the source of two great rivers, the Orange which travels about 200 miles to the west coast of South Africa and the Tugela which flows east to reach the sea at the port of Durban. The Highlands Water Project pumps water from the kingdom as far away as water-starved Johannesburg and parts of the Free State. The country also boasts of the Maletsunyane falls, the sixth-highest waterfall in the world. Water is abundant in Lesotho and a partial solution to the much drier South Africa.
Returning to my saga with Simon. When we visited the remote village, he disappeared into a hut with a tough-looking African man in his forties. He emerged later, looking very satisfied. As we drove away, he finally revealed his “business.” He had just bought some illegal diamonds from the villager; we were now going to have to get through the border post without being caught.
Once again, my trip had taken an alarming turn. I was angry with him and said that I would never have come with him had I known that he was smuggling diamonds. He laughed and said that he wouldn’t get caught and he had a way of ensuring that “they” would never find them. I asked how he could be so sure. He pulled out a small bag and poured some stones into my hands. As I looked at them, he laughed again and told me I was looking at fake diamonds.
He explained that if they wanted to search him, he would allow them to find the fake stones. They would know they were fake, would probably tell him he was an idiot to have paid for fakes, and would let him go. Meanwhile, the real stones were well hidden in a secret compartment of the Kombi. Once they found the fakes, they would never think to look for real stones.
In the event, we spent another two days travelling around and admiring the spectacular scenery. Simon seemed increasingly nervous. I finally realized that he was scared about crossing the border. He then admitted that he couldn’t do it, so we travelled all the way back to the village. Simon went back to the man and managed to sell the diamonds back for about fifty percent of what he’d paid for them.
As we drove back towards Maseru and the border, a huge storm hit us. The Kombi frequently threatened to become airborne as the huge winds and driving rain hit the vehicle. The headlights were poor; I could hardly see the road. We made it back somehow. I returned to my flat in Jo’burg exhausted, wondering just how bizarre a trip to the countryside could get!
How does this relate to ExoTech? It doesn’t, thank goodness. In contrast, I can look forward to enjoying the paradigm shift of ExoTech taking computing to a new level – rather than remember a trip to a beautiful country with a scary vehicle and its rather strange owner!
An ExoTech Ltd shareholder, Chris is currently authoring two of the four books to be published the day ExoBrain launches and has helped to create ExoBrain’s introductory video to the Confidential Technical Briefing. Chris has spent his working life in the film and television industry, starting with BBC Television in London, then ATV in Birmingham becoming, at the time, the youngest Studio Manager in Britain.
Later, in South Africa, he wrote and directed film and TV commercials, having four South African entries at the Cannes Advertising Festival. After a number of years of writing and directing or producing documentaries (eight international awards) and corporate videos, he concentrated on writing feature film screenplays (five screened) and television series (seven screened). He has a novel, ”Pursuit of Treachery,” with a literary agent and is currently obtaining finance for an action adventure feature film he has written and is co-producing. He is a published poet and has given many readings.