Rotary Club’s past president recalls his memories of Africa

Aug 14 2008 by Margaret Shaw, Hamilton Advertiser

HAMILTON Rotary enjoyed a talk from past president Alister Baird at their latest meeting. The theme for Alister’s talk was ‘Memories of Africa’.

He started by referring to his trip to South Africa as observer to the country’s first democratic elections in 1994.

Having been briefed in Johannesburg, Alister was sent to East London in the Eastern Cape, previously Cape Province. Cape Province had contained two significant homelands that were important in the elections because they were the homelands of the Xhosa and where Mandela, Mbeki, Biko and Coughlan were born.

Alister described election day and the significance felt by the black people of the townships, most of whom had never voted. Celebrations started in the early hours of the morning, with queues miles long.

Other highlights Alister enjoyed were sharing with the crowds the magnetism of Nelson Mandela at rallies, meeting Thebo Mbeki at a dinner party, and interviewing De Klerk.

Ghana painted a different picture. While there was a lot to enjoy in this resource-rich country, the concerns Alister had always felt about exploitation of African countries were realised. The example he used was a gold mine up country where mountains had been moved to mine the precious metal with no thought of reinstatement. Waste products were disposed of without regard to their polluting effects on the landscape and soil.

Sierra Leone in 1992 was an emotional trip. Alister’s late father had been in the navy during the war and was part of an MTB flotilla based in Freetown. The flotilla’s role was to attack U-boats waiting for Allies convoys rounding the Cape. Most of the base at King Tom Barracks remains, including some of the guns and remnants of the pier, mess and sports field.

Hidden among the rundown elements of the old barracks was the orderly graveyard containing thousands of gravestones of men killed in action or by disease. The simple granite memorials recorded only the name of the serviceman, his ship and the date of death.

In 1994, Alister revisited Malawi for the country’s elections. Malawi is poor and has to deal with the terrible problem of AIDs, yet it’s a lovely country with considerable Scottish connections.

One of the gems is the Blantyre Mission. Alister always found it a joy on Sundays to attend St Michael’s All Angel Church, a unique building designed by the minister and built by missionaries and local labour.