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Colonial Adventure : Graphic Novella and Short Stories in Rhythmic Prose

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by H.Ann Ackroyd




  Colonial Adventure and Other Stories

  Graphic Novella and Short Stories in Rhythmic Prose

  Revised for Second Printing

  H. Ann Ackroyd

  ~~~

  Colonial Adventure and Other Stories

  (Graphic Novella and Short Stories in Rhythmic Prose)

  Second printing (revised), Ebooks and Audio

  Copyright 2014 by H. Ann Ackroyd.

  Black and white drawings by H. Ann Ackroyd

  Published by

  Transom Press

  32 Donly Drive North

  Simcoe, ON, N3Y 4Z8

  Library and Archives Canada

  Canadian ISBN Service System (CISS)

  ISBNs: Softcover 978-0-9880392-1-6

  Ebooks 978-0-9880392-2-3

  Audio 978-0-9880392-3-0

  ISBN 978-0-9880392-1-6 (pbk.).--ISBN 978-0-9880392-2-3 (html).--

  ISBN 978-0-9880392-3-0 (audio)

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication (CIP)

  Ackroyd, H. Ann (Helen Ann), 1939-

  Colonial Adventure and Other Stories

  Graphic Novella and Short Stories in rhythmic prose Revised second printing

  PS8601.C58C65 2014 C813'.6 C2014-900647-0 C2014-900648-9 C2014-900649-7

  First printing 2011:

  Library of Congress Control Number

  2011904226 ISBN Hardcover 978-1-4568-8138-2

  Softcover 978-1-4568-8137-5

  Ebook 978-1-4568-8139-9

  Also by H. Ann Ackroyd: Across the Rift

  To order additional copies contact either

  www.annackroyd.com

  www.transompress.com

  ann@annackroyd.com

  portrowan@gmail.com

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner, except in the case of reviews.

  Thanks for Picking up A Copy of Colonial Adventure

  And To Say Thank You to You, I’m giving You Free Sample Chapters of My Second Book

  Across The Rift

  To Grab your Copy of the Sample Chapters,

  Visit

  https://www.annackroyd.com/freebie2

  Contents

  Maps of Colonial Adventure

  Glossary for Colonial Adventure

  Colonial Adventure

  Haitian Girl

  Truncated

  Persian Rug

  The Veil

  Simba Kubwa Speaks

  Maps for Colonial Adventure

  Southern Rhodesia’s location in Africa

  Southern Rhodesia

  Salisbury to the north

  Gomboli to the south-east

  Glossary for Colonial Adventure

  Bateleur — Eagle

  Biltong — Dried game meat, jerkin

  Bobbejaan — Baboon

  Gwaai — Tobacco, also name for area

  Inkos — Title of respect (male)

  Inkosikas — Title of respect (female)

  Iwe — Man

  Kopjie — Pile of granite rocks

  Macheke — Name of a river

  Mealies — Corn

  Mutti — Medicine

  Picannin — African child

  Peterhouse — Senior. boarding school

  Ruzawi — Junior Boarding school

  Salisbury — Capital of S. Rhodesia

  Sadza — Corn meal porridge, staple

  Sjambok — Whip

  Shona — Bantu tribal group

  Skellum — Bug, useless person

  Skoff — Food

  Terrs — Terrorists

  Umfazi — African woman

  Voetsack, — Go away (offensive)

  Cecil Rhodes and Africa, Cartoon from Punch, 18

  Colonial Adventure

  Prologue

  In the year 1936

  two young sophisticates

  Margaret and Blair peeled

  themselves away from London’s social scene

  headed for Thomas Cook

  where a man in morning suit

  recognized their kind immediately.

  He had seen it all before

  that sense of entitlement, that need for space

  “So it’s Africa,” he said without preliminary.

  “East coast or west coast?”

  As fiends on the dance floor

  they packed first a gramophone

  then, because standards must be

  upheld other essentials

  crystal glass, embroidered jacket, and chenille gown

  along with tropical gear

  long-threaded Egyptian cotton and

  capacious pockets.

  Port of Southhampton, England

  At Sea

  At the docks in Southampton

  amidst shouting, waving,

  streamer and bunting

  sailors hauled in the hawsers

  retrieved the gangplank.

  Whistles blew, foghorn sounded

  the mighty liner, pilot now aboard

  drifted from the dock

  red ensign aflutter, into the Solent. Britain

  was off again to colonize the globe. On

  board, at the railing

  Margaret and Blair stood glass in hand

  drinking toasts to family and friends

  on the docks below.

  He kept an elegant arm draped over her shoulders

  as tugs steered the vessel downstream

  past warehouse and upturned face

  on this first leg of a life-defining adventure.

  Table Mountain

  Cold bright air pinching their cheeks

  two lone figures sat on deck wrapped in

  blankets. The tang of salt, sea and fish

  filled their nostrils while gulls screeched

  overhead and wind ripped at the ensign.

  Passing the Isle of Wight they

  sailed on into open waters

  leaving Britain behind.

  “It’ll be warmer in Africa” said Blair

  as they folded their blankets and stored the chairs.

  “Not too hot either,” replied Margaret

  for they had chosen wisely

  buying land in Mashonaland, Southern

  Rhodesia within the tropics

  yet on the high veld and therefore mild.

  On the Bay of Biscay

  they withstood storm and high sea. Off

  Madeira they watched children dive for

  silver in crystalline waters.

  Consummate ballroom dancers

  they partied through the nights

  to the rhythms of samba, fox-trot and

  rumba always to an audience, always to

  applause for they were a handsome pair

  he with the looks of a matinee idol

  she green-eyed with black-hair.

  Then came the time to toast Table

  Mountain with Scotch, they were tired of

  champagne tired of luxury, extravagance,

  frivolity wanted to get on with the job.

  African Village

  Buffalo

  Roan Antelope

  The Train

  took them on a trek, first north-west to Mafeking

  Kimberly on to left: diamonds

  Witwatersrand on the right: gold.

  Here the vultures had already met, already feasted.

  Margaret and
Blair continued on the tracks along

  the eastern edge of the Kalahari

  to Francistown and into Southern Rhodesia.

  The pace was leisurely with many stops

  for passengers to ramble, for hunters to feed them.

  From windows and platforms behind each carriage

  the couple saw wildebeest, giraffe, buffalo and zebra

  either grazing or, more exciting to Margaret

  stretching in full gallop across the savannah.

  “I long to ride with them!” she said

  green eyes flashing.

  Blair could only stare

  wondering at the wild untamed spirit of this person

  with the slender neck, pixie face and jet black hair.

  In spite of their impatience

  the long journey offered countless occasion

  to interrogate fellow passengers.

  Tell us about the Shona

  their language, habits, housing, food...

  We need livestock, labour...Where? How? What?

  So much we need to know!

  Meikles Hotel, Salisbury

 

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