The man from Tobruk

During our conversations, Linda showed me a picture of her father, called Davids, in his unifrom as a member of the Cape Corps, a regiment manned by men of mixed race, officereed by white men, which was created in 1915 to fight in German East Africa, Tanzania, in WW1. Davids waas at Tobruk with the South Africans in WW2 but don't look for them in any accounts of that seige, they were lumped in with all the other South Africans. Of course after Apartheid was introduced, he was forbidden from marching in the Remembrance Day parade. Nevertheless, he put on his best suit, pinned on his medals and went to salute the parade. His family asked him why he bothered and he answered - no one is going to stop me honouring the comrades who fought and died with me.

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Grape robbers in court

The two boys who stole the grapes in Pniel, were called to appear before a magistrate. If found guilty, they would have a criminal record; a disaster for a boy of mixed race in early 20th century South Africa. It was summer time, hot and dry and one of the locals, having bought a car, offered to take the old chap who was the accuser to court. If you think it is odd that a man of mixed race should own a car, it is because you don't know the people in Pniel. But to our tale! Despite the case being only scheduled for the afternoon, the old chap was picked up early, so that he would not be late, even if there was trouble with the horseless carriage. As it grew hotter the driver stopped to refresh himself at a hostelry and the old chap, freed from the oversight of the predicant, took his mornings. As the heat grew, the car stopped more often, so that, by the time it reached the court it was lunch time and time for a decent lunch and something to wash it down, then forty winks. The court convened at 2pm but, as the witness for the prosecution was sound asleep in the car, the case was dismissed and the boys set free. That's the kind of village Pniel turned out to be. It could have been Cairndhu or anywhere else in Scotland.

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Grapes of Wrath

While we had tea, Linda told me of village life at Pniel. It's first Lutheran predicant was greatly opposed to Alcohol and made a habit of touring the village in the evening to catch any drinking. If he did, he took a sjambok to the miscreant. In general, that acted as an effective cure and preventative but two old chaps took their drink at lunchtime, slept it off in the afternoon and were bright an breezy by the time the inspection was underway. The old chaps had a vine on a structure beside the house and on the front hung a great bunch of grapes and this became more and more of a temptation for two ladds coming home from school in the heat of the afternoon. Thinking the old chaps were asleep, the lads cut down the grapes and were making off with them when one of the old chaps, who hadn't gone for his usual nap that day caught them and reported it to the police. That meant the boys would have a police record and find it difficult to get work but the village rallied round.

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