Lusaka Infants' School, June Kashita's book 'This was my Africa'

I was going to do a piece about June Kashita's book 'This was my Africa: Living with changes' (published in 2018), but as I read it on a Kindle I wasn't making notes as I went along.  Then I started making notes on another app, and lost them...

There was much of interest in it relating to early post-independence history, and many familiar names, as well as some nice old photos (which you can see quite well on a kindle, in colour, and enlarge quickly to zoom in on details, an unexpected bonus).  Of particular interest for this blog was the number of names relating to schools, since June was a teacher.  I thank June for reminding me of the name of my Grade 1 or perhaps Grade 2 teacher, Mrs Barbara Cook, at Lusaka Infants' School.

There is insight also for the outsider into the workings of the Convent School, and more names there too that I will try to add here some time.

 There's a memorable story about a visit to NEDCOZ (National Educational Distribution Company of Zambia) for teaching supplies. On one such trip they were buying blocks of paint packaged in sets of 6, but which were priced in tens, so they bought 10 packets to keep the arithmetic simple. However, rather than doing the maths of 10 x 6 = 6 x 10, the cashier insisted on unpacking all the packs of 6 and arranging them in piles of 10. Classic.

Anyway, without all the names in the book to hand, I am just going to dump some images in here that I've been thinking about for a while, particularly since we haven't gone long since the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, and I knew I had this sketch in my Grade 1 or 2 NEDCOZ exercise book.  Plus there are a few names and other mentions here that seemed worth pulling out while I am talking about my early school days. I do not know who all of these people are, but maybe they do.

I guess I was in 1 Blue, judging by the sticker on this book.
And can I just point out that I got two 'stars' - see the clover stamps? Thank you very much. My artwork hasn't changed much since then.  Sometimes we would get these rubber stamps on a nominated part of our body as well, usually the hand, but I have to say they didn't show up too well on darker skin.

It's funny how you can go from looking at snails on Monday to men walking on the moon on Tuesday.  It certainly helps to date things though: 21 July, 1969.

On Friday 29th May, 1970, I recorded that On Wednesday we had a fashion show at school, and that a group of boys called the Rising Stars (anyone remember them?) had played some music. Tickets were 20 ngwee for children and the school PTA made over K200 from the event.


On Friday 5th June 1970 I wrote "We must not fight in the playground. We must play nicely and not spoil other children's games. Last night I saw Tamsin and Mark and Yvonne and Susan and Jaish on televiosion. They were making dragons."  This must have been on a children's TV show. I remember characters called Dizzy Lizzy (a dancing cow) and another cow, I think. Perhaps the show was sponsored by the Zambian Dairy Board? I was on it too at some point, and danced with those cows.

I am sure that Mark is Mark Appleford, as I do remember him. Son of Dean Patrick Appleford, they lived at the Cathedral deanery while we were in Victory Road.

I also recorded us going off on a sponsored 10km walk in 1970, but I should do a separate post for that.

I'll end with a couple of photos from a Lusaka Infants' School evening event, under spotlights, imagine! I have no idea what we were doing, but I do remember walking around in circles on the stage, and that our 'costumes' were pieces of card stapled around us at the last minute. I think I was a solider? Who knows.

 I don't even know if I'm visible in these photos, but if you recognise yourself, I'll be interested to hear from you!

Lusaka Infants' later became Jacaranda Primary School.