Rhodesian Enfields with cammo

[John R.]

Mangwanani mdala.

I still have a few Olive Green towels that I was issued at KGVI in April 1974 that have a big RNG in a diamond stencilled on them.
If you knew the QM you could get stable belts from all the old disbanded Federal Regt's and Corps for a chibuli/chibuku(beer) or three and then swap the stable belts to the SAP for maningi useful items(like that nice SAP camo kit that blended in with the Rhodesian terrain much better than did the dark green and earth brown camo we had on issue.I still have two SAP combat jackets and floppy hats.Still have a non-issue floppy hat that I had made at Chiltern Hat in Byo out of some RA issue camo denim that I scaled at KG VI.Even that SA"Nutria" reddish brown kit was spot on colourwise due to that reddish earth that i'Afrika is made out of.)

I still miss "poaching" steenbokkies and duiker at dusk with my muffled(French MAB "silencer") Beretta .22 so we would have nyama with our sadza and tea.My sweet wife is always making maningi noises about WHY do I still go hunting every autumn and in PARTICULAR WHY did I buy 160 acres of land to hunt on(in peace).

Hunting muntu was a lot more interesting you must admit.It would be nice NOT to have varicose veins on both ankles from wearing "stick boots" and puttees(Fox Gurkha Grey of course) hose tops and shorts with Sam Blacke(vs Sam Browne) with silver fittings and hard stars on parade at Llewellyn Bks too.I once weighed myself in full bundu order and then stripped off and weighed myself again starkers.EIGHTY SIX POUNDS OF KIT...madness !!
Bundook,M1911A1 pistol,radio,batteries,roller meal,sugar,salt,tea,tobasco sauce,ammo,mags,6 grens(962's x 4 and 2 x 970's)socks,gotchies,maps,2 water bottles,binos,whacking great Brit prismatic compass,panga,"L"head flashlight/torch and g*d knows what else.I kept one pair of denims and my combat jacket rolled up on top of my kidney pouches to either wear or use as a pillow and was lucky enough to have two US Army issue poncho liners and a CDN Army sweater for cold weather.People here have NO IDEA just how cold the high veldt can get in say July and August.Shiver city at times.

I used to carry boiled sweets for the piccanins too and it was amazing how much int you could get from the nannies after you gave the little ones a few sweets.All those 300 pounders we used to see(more lobolo for the bigger umfaazis) now weigh under 100 pounds and the fat little piccanins all look like Ethiopian famine victims after 30 years of Bob&Co.How to ruin a country that fed itself and most of Southern Africa in very short order...Ain't UHURU grand?One man,one vote,ONCE for one fat cat who decides dat bein de Prezidunt fo life bein a good thing so he be stayin on fo a bit.Usually until he gets what the Russians euphemistically called "his nine grammes" behind the ear.

Enough of this reminiscing here.Time to go fishing.

(By the by my friends,I am a BORN CANADIAN and did NOT join the Rhodesian Army by choice.It was sort of like the warden offering you a choice between AC or DC after they strapped you into the chair.The insulated chair with all the attached cables...)
My company sent me off to i'Afrika to sort out a problem with a raise borer and shortly thereafter I received the"call to the colours" by"crossed letter".At that point I had no clue what a crossed letter was either.I very quickly found out along with acquiring a pretty good working knowledge of chi Shona and Ndebele.Next was Afrikaans.I already spoke German and Russian (which was de rigeur in the Canadian Intelligence Corps if you were a 2nd Lt(Reserves).18 months fighting the good fight in i'Afrika; all for NOWT as they are wont to say on"Mud Island" (aka the UK.)Tot siens boeties.

[Amatikulu]

I thought I'd post my attempt at a translation of John R's post as he used a lot of words that would only be familiar to those who grew up in Southern Africa. Even then, we used different words in South Africa (where I came from) to those used in Rhodesia where John came from, but the similarity of our shared history I hope wil allow me to give a reasonable translation for those who are wondering what on earth he was saying

mangwanani mdala - basically is a respectful greeting losely saying good day (old) people.

maningi - means many

Byo - abbreviaton for Bulawayo the capital of Matabeleland

KG VI - King George VI

RA - Rhodesian Army

Stenbokkies - the Steenbok, a small species of deer found in Africa

Duiker - another small species of deer common throughout Southen Africa

nyama - meat

sadza - called pap in South Africa its cooked pulverized maize(corn) meal used as a staple diet by the people of Southern Africa

muntu - a black african word meaning people, in this case terrorists

bundu - the bush country

bundook - an indian word meaning service rifle

panga - machete (bloody big knife)

veldt - dutch term for the fields/pastures used to describe the countryside and preceded by high or low to indicate the elevation

piccanins - small black children

int - intelligence

nannies - a colloquial term for black mothers ( that were often nannies to white families)

lobolo - african term for the dowry a man must pay to take a wife

umfazi - married african woman

Bob&Co - Robert Mugabe(President of Zimbabwe) and his cronies

Uhuru - Swahili word meaning freedom - the title of a book about the independence struggle in Kenya written by Robert Ruark