Archived: Today In History

Abraham Lincoln, elected president, 1860 (Nov 6th), stuck his Ostrich head in the ground concerning slavery.

Pearls for the 1st Woman elected to US Congress, 1916. (Nov 7th)

Koekemakranka -- an APHRODISIAC, and a phallic symbol, for the Assassination attempt on Hitler, 1939. (Nov 8th)

Wonder what freedom is? The Berlin Wall, most infamous symbol of the Cold War, began on this day, 1961. (Nov 9th)

Brandewyn needed by the bucket-load; 1674, Nederland cedes New-Netherland (New York) to the British. (Nov 10th)

Finest emeralds in the world, Sandawana (discovered in Rhodesia), to remind us of its 1965 independence. (Nov 11th)

Did you know Russia, like S.A., has lots of diamonds? Trotsky was expelled, & Stalin became ruler on this day, 1927. (Nov 12th)

Mrs Groesbeek has her last supper, before being hanged in S.A. for murdering her husband, 1970. (Nov 13th)

Queen Victoria gives a go-ahead to Rhodes for his Charter, 1889. (Nov 14th)

Sculpturist, L. Sitole was born 1931. (Nov 15th)

An unbeatable spicey introduction: the first S.E.Asians arrive in Natal, 1860. (Nov 16th)

A leopard fur for S.African president, Ramaphosa, who was born on this day in 1952. (Nov 17th)

An L-Venci painting for renown S.A. painter, Betty Cilliers, born this day in 1914 (Nov 18th)

1994, Springboks win the world-cup, rugby (Nov 19th)

The finest rare orchid from S.A. for one of the greatest, Nadine Gordimer, writer born 1923. (Nov 20th)

Last of S.A. troops withdrawn from Namibia, 1989. (Nov 21st)

Switzerland signs to assist with RDP, 1994. (Nov 22nd)

N stuk biltong vir P.Botha -- he grants reprieve for Sharpville Six, 1988. (Nov 23rd)

Bloodshed after Egypt Air, sadly insane, nutter hijacking, 1985. (Nov 24th)

Indigenous white tulips for a famous SA poet -- Sheila Cussons passes away, 2004. (Nov 25th)

A toast to the achievement -- 1st corner-stone of Union Buildings laid 1910. (Nov 26th)

A modern pastel with which to remember J.T.Baines, SA writer and painter who was born on the Nov 27th (1820)

A baobab flower for the first woman to be executed in S.Africa, 1904. (Nov 28th)

Buchanan-Fuller, founding member of the womens council, S.A., and tertiary educational icon, to remind us that the University of Pretoria was est., 1929. (Nov 29)

Fine cuban cigar for D.F.Malan who retired, 1954. (Nov 30)

Overlooking Robben Island, established as World Heritage Site, 1999. (Dec 1)

Abolition of Slavery, international day to commemorate, 1949. (Dec 2)

N lekker brandewyn to celebrate: the first heart transplant performed by S.African C.Barnard, 1967. (Dec 3)

A wild lilac orchid to remember M DeKlerk, found murdered 2001. (Dec 4)

Geelhout, a beautiful symbol of South African success for Nelson Mandela who passed away 2013 (Dec 5th)

South African golfer, Nick Price beats Tiger Woods, Sun City, 1998 (Dec 6th)

A welcoming bouquet of Kukumakranka flowers for Emily Hobhouse, who traveled to S.Africa 1900 (Dec 7th)

The flag of today for Portuguese explorer Bartholomew Dias, who anchors at Walvis Bay 1497 (Dec 8th)

A pastel portrait to remember painter, Thomas W. Bowler, born in the Cape 1812 (Dec 9th)

A Stink-Wood for the stink created within all societies, following BBC anouncing the arrival of AIDS, 1981 (Dec 10th)

Some spectacles for tired eyes: Notable author, Olive Schreiner dies, 1920 (Dec 11th)

Kenya granted independence 1963 (Dec 12th)

Bones-to-Pick and Bury, for the Anglo-Boer Oorlog, Transvaal War of Independence begins 1880 (Dec 13th)

Ballsy PM Louis Botha bravely resigns over conflict with Hertzog 1912 (Dec 14th)

A modern digital pic for old artist Ruben Xulu who passes away 1985 (Dec 15th)

A plate of worms for the neighbors who stoned Aids Activist to death, 1998 (Dec 16th)

Worlds First Flight, 1903 (Dec 17th)

A maroela vinegar for Buthelezi: things sour as he boycotts 1st CODESA meeting, 1991 (Dec 18th)

Lekker koekemakranka brandewyn packed in biodegradable fibres for Andries H. Potgieter -- born 1792 (Dec 19th)

Warthog, Warts and All, for Kitchener who suggests concentration camps, Anglo-Boer War 1900 (Dec 20th)

A communion cup carved from indigenous tree wood for Robert Moffat - a famous missionary in Kuruman, South Africa, born 1795 (Dec 21st)

A trout for the Dusi River -- The Dusi canoe marathon begins, 1959 (Dec 22nd)

A 20th Century Pastel for famous South African artist, At Botha, born 1949 (Dec 23rd)

A White Stallion for Explorer Vasco da Gama, who dies 1524 (Dec 24th)

Koekemakranka for the Khoikhoi Bondelswarts resistance who surrender to Germans, 1906 (Dec 25th)

Timeless Tambotie for Piet Retief, who has his estate belongings auctioned off on this date (1938, Dec 26th)

Kruger Rands for South Africa, when deciding to abandon The Gold Standard (1932, Dec 27th)

Tanzanian Flag for the Nine ANC members banned in a district of Tanzania (1989, Dec 28th)

New South African flag for Winnie Mandela, served a Banning Order (1981, Dec 29th)

koeksusters: 'N lekker soet-ding vir Adam Kok, sadly killed in an accident (1875, Dec 30th)

The best alternative to oil-based plastic bags -- leather bags, for ESSO oil, who left SA on this date (1986, Dec 31st)

G and T's -- g&t kukumakranka -- for sundowners with the 1st Police Women enlisted in the SANDF (1972 Jan 1st)

New England Clam Chowder Soup fit for a Royal: the Corner Stones laid for Castle of Good Hope, on the sea, Kasteel de Goede Hoop (1666, 2nd Jan)

A Wild African Orchid from Mozambique, for an unearthly, otherworldly African writer: JR Tolkien born in Bloemfontein, South Africa (1892, 3rd Jan)

rooi wit en blou is die Engelse gebrou maar groen daarby maak die Boere bly
As much as what a newly liberated African country thinks their fight was novel, it wasn't...
Union of South Africa flag, hoisted over Prince Edward Island, making the Boere happy (1948, Jan 4th)

A golden sunset for the South African cricket team, the Proteas. SA Cricket makes history by winning test-series in Australia (2009, 5th Jan)

A Wild camelia for the Rosenberg vessel, a Netherlands Dutch Ship. Rosenberg leaves for the South African Cape with first South African Huguenots (1688, 6th Jan)

A Panga Panga tree species for the penga Industrial Commercial Workers Union founded, by Kadalie (1919, 7th Jan)

Table Mountain as seen from Blouberg, for the Battle of Blaauwberg which was on this date (1806 Jan 8th)

Egypts Aswan dam construction begins (1960, 9th Jan)

A Paradise flycatcher for the Prince Imperial of France, who leaves for paradise after being killed in the Anglo-Zulu war (1879, 10th Jan)

Bulb Capital of the World, Nieuwoudtville, for Gideon Nieuwoudt who applies for amnesty on this date (1999, Jan 11th)

A British Sport Council delegation begins a probe of South African sport for racism (1980, 12th Jan)

A beautiful vetplant species flower, Adenium, for Tryna du Toit, novelist of Die Taal, is born in De Aar Karoo (1910, 13th Jan)

The timelessness of a 1000 year old tree for the fleetingness of human life; Actor Hendrik Andries Hanekom dies (1952, 14th Jan)

A slow tracking shot of the ISS, international space station, for British astronomer, Sir J. Herschel who arrives in Cape Town (1834, Jan 15th)

Durban is named after D'Urban, a city known for the albizia tree. Sir B. D'Urban becomes governor of the Cape of Good Hope (1834, 16th Jan)

Our closest celestial ball of fire, sun-rising up over Mozambique, Archipelago, to remind us that the Johannesburg Union Observatory opened 1903 (17th Jan)

Exploring unknown East African coastline, Mozambican seaboard is peppered with swamps; exploring as Jan van Riebeeck might have done -- first governor of the Cape Colony dies 1677 (Jan 18th)

A motherless juvenile black goose, spur-winged, for M. M. Burton, president of the former Black Sash (born 1940, 19th Jan)

Yellow Billed Stork launches an attack on the waters; William -the- Kid, notorious pirate, supposedly seen on the Cape Town coast (1697, 20th Jan)

White Faced Whistling ducks from Mozambican swamplands, for the 400 whistling-gumboot miners who die in the worst mining accident, Johannesberg (1960, 21st Jan)

An intense garden-for-the-blind, with koekemakranka smelling of soetkoekies: Josephine Wood, founder of Library for the Blind, SA, born in Grahams Town (1874, Jan 22nd)

British 8th Army [regiment] marches into Tripoli, WW2 (1943, 23rd Jan)

Bauhinia tree flower, orchid like, as a corsage for Emily Hobhouse who reports on findings concerning concentration camps in the 2nd Anglo-Boer war (1901, Jan 24th)

A flag to remind us that the mass meeting in Durban endorsed the Smuts and Ghandi agreement (1914, Jan 25th)

Recent history, W.Cape High Court suspends pebble bed modular reactor at Koeberg (2005, Jan 26th)

A man of the times and on fire: a Rhodesian Flame Lily for Robert Mugabe who returns to Rhodesia after a 5-year exile (Jan 27th, 1980)

A flower in flames (Flame Lily) to remind us of the 5 Power Stations that went up in flames -- tensions rose in WW2 (28th Jan, 1942)

A mother-of-pearl butterfly from Durban forests to remind us that the Durban College of Education was founded in 1957 (Jan 29th)

1st Nobel Laureate from SA, Theiler, is born in Pretoria on this date (1899, 30th Jan)

Cardoso's murderers convicted in Mozambique (2003, Jan 31st)

Federation of Nyasaland & Rhodesia is dismantled (1963, 1st Feb)

De Klerk announces 1st Democratic Elections (1994, 2nd Feb)

Bartolomeu Dias lands on what is now known as Mossel Bay and would have seen this shell on the beach on this date (Feb 3rd, 1488)

A stealth flier to remind us of the first flight from London to South Africa, made on this date (4th Feb, 1920)
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A bleeding heart vine for Mandela's last big speech, 1999 (Feb 5th)

SA National Library, a microfilm archive of note, to remember Robert S. Taylor, Bishop of Grahamstown, elected to Archbishop of Cape Town and metro province (1964, Feb 6th)

A modern 'surfboard' for S.African, Grant Baker who wins the Mavericks Surf (2006, Feb 7th)

A king's construction for the Zulu King Cetshwayo, who dies (8th Feb, 1884)

A wild star-jasmine for The Star paper that condemns the forced removals of people from Sophiatown (9th Feb, 1955)

No-cow-cart here, to remind us that Robert Koch announced a rinderpest vaccine for bovines (1897, Feb 10th)

A white-and-black sable antelope for Athol Fugard and Zakes Mokae who are in Cape Town for a play, The Colour Bar (1962, 11th Feb)

Well-known sculpturist Tavhana is born (1930 Feb 12th)

Atomic bomb tested in Algeria, by the French (1960, Feb 13th)

A black butterfly (Natalica, Precis) for King Zwelethini, who threatens to create his own Zulu State (1994, Feb 14th)

Father Claerhout, SA Artist, is born on this date (15th Feb, 1919)

Wild African potato, Hypoxis, to remind us that the UDF disowned Winnie Mandela (16th Feb, 1989)

Morning glory, for the Anglican Church which joins churches-against-the-state (1977, Feb 17th)

Fireworks flower, to celebrate the Xhosa film that wins a Golden Bear award (2005, 18th Feb)

Troops from Italy raise Addis Ababa (Feb 19th, 1937)

Juicy, thick sausages for the Springbok Rugby team -- they receive a Presidential Award (Feb 20th, 1970)

A hidden castle from Bunga forest to remind us that the Batavian flag was hung over the Cape Castle, to signify the British handing the Cape to Netherlands (Feb 21tst, 1803)

A vessel afloat at Kwalala Marine reserve, to remind us that the Waratah Steam Ship went missing; a report is released (1911, 22nd Feb)

A bouquet of Sabie-Stars for Helen Suzman. She rebukes the Immorality Act (1962, 23rd Feb)

A murder-of-crows to recall the 1st signs of protest over Afrikaans in Sowetan schools (1976, Feb 24th)

An assembly of Damselflies to remind us of the start-date: Women's National Coalition Conferenece (1994, 25th Feb)

Mans-Best-Friend marking a grounded Mozambican Dhow, to remind us of the Birkenhead which ran aground with over 600 passengers (Feb 26th, 1852)

Commonly known as Christmas Stars (because koekemakranka flower at Christmas), reminding us that Bethlehem in the Free State was founded on this date (Feb 27th, 1864)

Adam Tas is arrested and placed behind bars (Feb 28th, 1706)

A Golden oriole for Charlize Theron who wins a golden Oscar for Monster (29th Feb, 2004)

Our brightest light, to remind us of the Lighthouse in Cape Agulhas which begins operation (1849, March 1st)

The songful Black African Sunbird for Ladysmith Black Mambazo: they win a Grammy on this date (1987, March 2nd)

A luxury coach still in operation for Sir Alfred Milner, Cape Governor, who opens Graaff-Reinet-Middelburg railway line (1898, March 3rd)

Engineering marvels of nature to remember the Taal Monument designer architect: G. Moerdijk is born (4th March, 1890)

Competing voices of Kingfishers: British and South African governments make a noise over the Simonstown Agreement (5th March, 1960)

A badass black frog, to recall Tsotsi winning an academy award (6th March, 2006)

The big picture of Southern Africa, reminds us that British Kaffraria was made a self-governing province (7th March, 1860)

Silverware from silver-coins to remind us that Maritime H.Q's opened at Silvermine (8th March, 1973)

French Foreign Legion is founded (9th March, 1831)

Some well-deserved biltong for Fanie de Villiers: his Last Test ever ends in success (10th March, 1998)

Ebony and Ivory in harmony to remind us: Segregation in theatres was abolished, S.Africa (11th March, 1978)

A Mozambican a la Portuguese Dhow to remind us that Bartholomew Dias constructed the first stone cross on South Africas coast (12th March, 1488)

De Beers Consolidated Mines founded (13th March, 1888)

South African power-station Koeberg, not far from Cape Town, became operational (14th March, 1984)

S.Africa leaves the Commonwealth (15th March, 1961)

Blood Lilies, for the blood that flowed: Da Silveira, first missionary in Southern Africa was murdered (16th March, 1561)

First 1820 British settlers arrive in South Africa (17th March, 1820)

Congo president, Ngouabi dies (18th March, 1977)

A pair of love-doves no more: Winnie and Nelson Mandela divorce (19th March, 1996)

A black-and-white Ant Lion Fly to remind us of the 1st Mountain Zebra born at the Zebra National Park (20th March, 1953)

Namibian independence on this day (21st March, 1990)

A hole in the sky recalls South Africa signing in Vienna, the convention for the protection of the ozone layer (22nd March, 1985)

A Burchells Coucal: Shares a name with the renown botanist-explorer William Burchell who dies (23rd March, 1863)

A contemporary poetry book to remind us when Olive Schreiner was born (24th March, 1855)

Did you know, that for more than half-a-century after the Ashante Nederlands-UK war, by 1860 America was STILL not onboard with UKs slavery-act, passed on this date (25th March, 1807). IF UK could not get America right, maybe France could? The old evil-twins strategy? If anybody knows why Britain was awoken half-a-century earlier than the USA, please let us know via email. Kindly do not forward us your zombified google, facebook, windows, bing, yahoo, aol or whatsapp search results (the All-American bulldust search).

Hunting prohibited in KNP (26th March 1898)

A Book to remember the Pass-book laws that ended (27th March, 1960)
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1st Slavers arrive in C.T. (28th March, 1658)

BA prohibits smoking (29th March, 1998)

Mandela and Buthelezi negotiate ( 30th March, 1990)

Cricketer H.M Amla is born (31st March, 1983)

A coach to recall Cape Town, first tram began (1st April 1863)

The Herero defeat German forces (2nd April 1904)

Gen. Cronje and wife, captured and shipped to an island (3rd April 1900)

Namaqua flowers, for the siege of Okiep in Namaqualand (4th April 1902)

HMS Cornwall and Dorsetshire sink (5th April 1942)

Archeological site Zimbabwe ruins for Robert Broom, archeologist dies today (6th April 1951)

Cecil John Rhodes buried in Matopos (7th April 1902)

Red, red wine: Ek sit nou hier met n klassieke hangover, J.M. Meintjes Dagboek (8 April 1947)

Vanaand is daar weer n party, maar ek het genog gehad, J.M. Meintjes Dagboek (9 April 1947)

Die Burger, The usual political choosers will have strong opposition (10 April 2000)

Visit the African Bulb Flower Reserve at 101 De Waal St Kamieskroon, as today is day 101 in the year (11 April)

A water pan to recall: Transvaalse Dagbestuur besluit dat Brakpan ... Kandidaat moes stel (12 April 1948)

Naked Rhino on the run to remind us that The Beeld said, Pik is a politically naked runner (13 April 1999)

European starling to recall that The Argus questions what makes PW suddenly acceptable in Europe (14 April 1984)

Pick-shaped head of a hoopoo to remind us the Hoofstad paper said, Moenie op Pik pik nie (15 April 1977)

Die Transvaaler, Yesterday we met the NP candidate (16 April 1970)

The Cape Times, Helena keeps track of the foreign affairs of Pik Botha (17 April 1991)

A House-Sparrow to remind us that the Pretoria News said, Pik Botha to act as president from home (18 April 1991)

Poison-Rope plant to recall that the Hoofstad paper said, Die weste verwag ons selfmoord (19 April 1977)

Overlooking Robben island to recall the Mandela defence speech: I'm prepared to die for non-racial democracy (20 April 1964)

Die Burger, PWBotha emphasizes the role of the NP in the upcoming new South Africa (21 April 1994)
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Rand Daily Mail, MNR turns screws on embattled Mozambique (22 April 19-)

The spiniest backboned cricket: Die Burger, Helena Botha se rugmurg ernstig vernou (23 April 19- )

Not Hertzog tarts, but still a related sweet tradition to remind us of the famous name on this date: Die Transvaaler, Hertzog verwoes (24 April 19-)

Beeld, Oom Pik se mening net mosterd na die maal (25 April 19-)

Blood red blood lily for the Pretoria News, which says: SA rolls out the red carpet [Piks Biography] (26 April 19-)

Pretoria News, Pik says there is no guarantee with the concensus (27 April 19-)

Pretoria News: More Blum Bombshells (on the 28 April 19-)
Back to Top

End - of - Thread

7s Tournament Dec 3/2024 S.Africa Won ...	-	AFCON 2023-2/2024 Bafana:  6 DR Congo:  5	ODI Womens 2/2024 SA Proteas:  127/24.3 Australia:  238/31	connectteam.co.za psihockey.co.za	Dimension Data Pro-Am 15-18/2/2024 Hennie Du Plessis  3rd Place	Davis Cup Group II 2/2024 South Africa 3 Vietnam 2
		AFCON 3/2/24SA Bafana 2 Cape Verde 1		U21s Women 12/23   SA Winners		Davis Cup 2024   4-Man Team anounced for Feb/24
Rugby Women's 7s SA 0 Brazil 7		A.C.Nations 30/1/24SA 2 Morocco 0	U19s SA 273/3 - 27ovs Scotland 269/9 - 50ovs		Bahamas Great Classic 24/Jan SA: Aldrich Potgieter  Winner
World Cup: 28th Oct '23 Allblacks:  11 Springbokke:  12	World Cup: 6th Aug '23 S.Africa:  47 Uganda:  49	A.C. of Nations 24/1/24 S.Africa:  0 Tunisia:  0	8th Dec '23 Bangladesh Womens:  94/6 20-ov S.Africa Womens:  95/2 15.2-ov	Olympic Qualifiers: 10th Nov '23 S.Africa:  2 Egypt:  1	WW Tech Championship Position:  S.Africa:  1st	IC Rod Laver Junior Position:   S.Africa:  5th
... ...  ...	'23 World Cup: Pool Match S.Africa:  Won Uganda:  -	Tournament 6th Aug '23 Banyana:  0 Netherlands:  2	ICC: 10th Nov '23 Afghanistan:  244/50 S.Africa:  247/47.3	FIH Indoor Hockey: 9 Feb '23 S.Africa:  6 New Zealand:  3	DP World Tour 17 Dec '23 S. African Louis Oosthuizen  Wins Tour	...

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25th March 2024
 Keeping Score

The expression, adage, or saying, "keeping score" is commonly understood as denoting "someone or something that tracks who's done better than whom". Literally, though, the word "score" means a lot of things: the soccer score, the netball score, the score a diamond leaves on glass, or the musical score. Particularly, the musical score uit my boonste rakke. Literally, this means "the score from my top-most shelf". Idiomatically, in Afrikaans, this means something slightly different. "Uit die boonste rakke", figuratively translated, means "the best". The scores many musicians treat as treasures, in other words, are from the highest of shelves.
When visiting Kamieskroon recently, I stumbled on a classical musician from South Africa's past, who had this shelf of manuscripts (which he called 'scores'). It became obvious that the scores kept in the highest shelf weren't necessarily the greatest of manuscripts. But, when opened, each had an important echo of times gone by; each had an inscription -- not a Facebook post or a Whatsapp chit-chat, but a tangeable memory of someone putting pen-to-paper. In this way, the boonste rakke was obviously not only the highest shelf, but a shelf kept for the most special memories. In a double-volume of JS Bach, there was an inscription from 1950 by David Samworth (one of UK's wealthiest). So soon after WW2, here was a young billionaire-in-the-making making music with Johann Sebastian Bach? What a portrait.


Or this one, the preludes and fugues by Shostakovitch inscribed by Petrov? Who was Petrov?

Or these inserts and inscriptions, of what was obviously a library book, with the last and only out-take being "Petronel Malan". Who was Petronel Malan? And Hilda, who was Hilda in 1923, making music so soon after 1917 and WW1?



There aren't many top-class classical or professional performers left in South Africa. Most had the sense to leave bongo-bongo*1 drum's dispensation and its appropriated stipend from Kuns en Kultuur to its own devices. Keeping score unfortunately takes on a whole new sinister meaning; between what was and what is. And these most treasured books from the top-most shelf, die boonste rakke, are, like many other scores just like them, lost to history. There must be many gifted literary or musical South African icons, now, that wonder if the scripts from their boonste rakke sport inscriptions or epitaphs. And if the latter, what's been buried are the memories of a once thriving, sophisticated culture.
Around the 2000s, R.K.Belcher wrote of "South African decay", and poetically sealed this idea through, "Ringe in 'n Geelhout Boom". But two decades ago, South Africa still had lights with which to read inscriptions and epitaphs by night. That geelhout's looking a lot more like a stinkhout, today; though, it can be said, not only because of Eskom.

If you enjoy verse, here is a picture-link to a book of South African verse, partly sponsored by the Distell Foundation and available on publisher.co.za:

1* A comedic reference to Catherine Tate's hilariously limited translating abilities. Disambiguation: author of this column does not think ethnomusicology is a waste of time -- only that, in and of itself, it cannot fill the big shoes worn by centuries of music pedagogy.

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Earth Watch: Fauna

"Hiding in Plain Sight"








Above, a collection of finely disguised semi-desert creatures, specifically camouflagued for dry desert plants: first, butterfly blending in on "sea-coral", Sarcocornia. Actually feeding on the nectar of the minute flowers. Then, the infamously ugly Koring Kriek (corn cricket) and a shrub cricket blending in with every twig of a Hermannia bush. Below those two, probably an endemic grasshopper species, looking very much like the dead-trees and granite gravel that surround the region, and two endemic praymantis that blend in with a dry desert shrub and a somewhat green heliochrysum. Even the dragonflies seem stick-like, none of the shimmering reds or blues, in this terrain. Last, a worm pretending to be a dead leaf of the witkaree tree. Seen in Namaqualand, 2/2024.

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25th February 2024
 
A New Soutpansberg Conservancy

Travel to
1) Sustainable Green Destinations
2) Travel in a group to have a Low Carbon Footprint
3) There'll be no need to pilfer priceless Copyright images from the web
Four generations of De Jagers have stories to tell about crossing South Africa's Soutpansberg. Ek, my pa, sy pa, en my oupa grootjie. Oupa grootjie se pa, 5th-generation, my 'grootjie-grootjie', probably never saw Zoutpansberg as he lived in Bechuanaland with his three sons until lightning struck one of them dead. True!

Oupa grootjie De Jager crossed the pass in 1945 with his Lincoln Zephyr on a dirt track that was too narrow for two motorcars to pass -- and, there were no mountain-side tunnels. Him and his French Huguenot wife (nee Nel) crossed the pass and left a funny story to recollect. She was so nervous in this rainy forest-pass, with the cliff-hanger edges that barely kept the wheels on track, that she pleaded with her husband to turn around and go back. He went slower. When he did, she asked, "what are you doing now?" He replied, "I'm going to turn around like you asked". And she answered, 'is jy mal... we can't turn around on here!' Oupa and ouma grootjie travelled over the Southpansberg a lot. It took hours to make that trek then, so padkos was essential. The story goes that my oupa grootjie never missed the opportunity to walk down to the river, trapped between the edifaces, and collect fresh, peppery nasturtium leaves to go with his bread and butter. Their grandson, some years later, tells me that he remembers walking over the pass in mists so thick that he couldn't see his hands in front of him. Throw that sort of visibility in with a one-car sized dirt track and a precipitous rainy mountainside, and it's easy to appreciate the family's jokes about passing the Soutpansberg pass. The last of the De Jagers -- the fifth generation, me -- remembers how a strip-road turned into full tar and a magical set of tunnels appeared, through which one should never pass without headlights on, hooting, and hollering out of a car's window, with misty wind blowing in one's face.

The name 'Soutpansberg' comes from the salt pan in the northwest part of the region. In the last few years, the importance of this region has come to the fore. This mountain range is surrounded by the flatlands of the lowveld; comparable to the way in which the geographic phenomenon of Table Mountain has forced itself out of the coastline earth and is home to innumerable unique species, Soutpansberg, likewise, is an unexpected geographical interruption within the vast grassy savannahs of northern South Africa. The biggest picture of South Africa suggests it shouldn't be that much of a surprise. See below, can you see how the Eastern cape topology extends its garden-touch all the way through to the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe?
However, on the ground and by motorvehicle, it can seem like many hours of plains between Pretoria and Musina, with only a moment of inexplicable greenery -- the Soutpansberg. It will not surprise botanists, for one, that Yellow-wood species (Podocarpus) are not only found along the Garden Route, but also found this far north in South Africa -- if only restricted entirely to these large, cloudy and misty mountains. Another two species, if not endemic, that grow as beautifully here as they do in The Garden Route, are Clivia Nobilis and Crinum Moorei.

Photographed at Lalapanzi-Hotel, a green destination only a few minutes drive from the Soutpansberg pass, receiver of best value Afristay 2018, and which runs on a substantial amount of sustainable green energy.
If garden-style botany is not of interest, many other forms of life might attract one: 237 wild tree species (not including an enormous amount of other flora and orchids), more than ten scorpion species, almost twenty amphibians, over sixty different reptiles, like below:
Also, about sixty mammal species, over two-hundred bird species, and about sixty butterfly species. All of which can be seen in the recently established conservancy, comprising 90,000 hectares -- roughly half the size of the entire Soutpansberg region. A stone's throw from a well-deserved stay at an award winning, well-priced, green destination:

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Earth Watch: Fauna

Mother-of-Pearl, Oyster Shell butterfly -- the illusive Salamis Parhassus, with adamantine wings. Sighting this jungle butterfly is like catching sight of the Mercedes Benz, holographic series in our concrete jungles.

Salamis parhassus inhabits the undergrowth and forests of Durban, the Eastern Highlands of Zimbabwe, and the cross-over area of this biome, west-central and southern Mozambique. In daylight, it flies so quickly through the undergrowth, catching a glimpse of it is nearly impossible. Butterfly catchers have often got themselves into a thorny thicket attempting to race it down for a species sample.


Its wings, generally white, shimmer and reflect all the colours depending upon light.

This exquisite butterfly species was not captured for this video and these photographs. It was resting at night on the inside of a mosquito-proof chalet at Ndzou Forest Elephant Retreat, Mozambique, below:

-- where motorists are warned of roaming jungle elephants.

It flew out of an open door the following morning. If you are a butterfly expert, this Ndzou Camp destination is highly recommended for researchers and photographers. Vumba, Zimbabwe, is comparable for butterfly abundance. Sighting, 17/1/2024.

Bottergat Spider -- seen 15/Jan/2024, Vilanculo Mozambique.

Gasteracanthina spider, horned spider. Seen Jan/2024, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe.


Above photograph, possibly a long-jawed species -- Tetragnathidae -- of spider pretending to be a stick in the V-shape of a dead branch. Above video, this spider is only visible when the wind blows. Looking carefully for the legs is the only give-away of its presence. Seen Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Hairy caterpillar blending in on a msasa tree -- seen 10/1/2024, Vilanculo Mozambique.
Eurema, possibly Eronia, butterfly species, looks a bit like Salamis, but lacks all diamond-like adamantine shimmer. Seen at Ndzou Jungle Elephant retreat, Mozambique.

Samango Monkey, with its redish rear, seen at the Jungle Elephant Retreat, Ndzou, Mozambique. sighted 16/1/2024.

This white-faced monkey was also sighted 100km's west, at the Leopard Rock Hotel, Vumba, Zumbabwe.


Another resident monkey species in the Eastern Highlands region, Zimbabwe, is the vervet -- here photographed sitting on the railings of the Umtali Club, Mutare Zimbabwe. seen 2024.


Above, sighted on Jan 30, '24, Zimbabwe Border post -- modelled after the Ruins of Zimbabwe mixed with a bit of Harrison Ford's Raiders of the Lost Ark, Temples of Doom, etc -- a baby monitor lizard, only a foot-long.

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25th January 2024
 A Taste of Mozambique



That Mozambique was a Portuguese colony is no secret; nor that the local inhabitants, once a populated force, proudly claim having rounded the Portuguese up and shipped them off like "cattle on a ship". Then several decades of internal war and struggles followed -- so much political infighting, in fact, that you'd be pressed to find the latest political election results, anywhere. Even important tourist-hotspot localities, like Vilanculo in Mozambique, have nothing on them relayed, even on our most read news-sources -- such as the BBC/news/world.php. Possibly of little-enough consequence, internationally, to the dire challege of having to deal with an economy that bottomed out -- having shipped all the bovines back home? While one might see a bank, or two, like this one below, you'll see economic disparity -- also below -- like goats and pineapples in front of the same 1st-world-looking bank.



One will also see total transport failures. Google Maps has such roads listed as main-highways, because, presumably, the info that gets AI'd-out of the great intel community tells them so. But the reality is that dust and mud is what's become of main highways and motorways today. And this, unfortunately, in spite of some tar roads having been passable not that many years ago.


Thankfully, there is at least one tourist-friendly stop along the EN1 route, which seems like an oasis and a daydream between the time spent trying to navigate Mozambique's failed highways.

Added to this murky transport business, one will find that while there is apparently absolutely nothing amiss for four people to sit helmetless on the back of a motorcycle, a little open-air police or army roadblock will demand more than half-a-year's salary to excuse a tourist driver's document that has expired; a demand without signatures or identifiable stamps of real authority. "Genius" isn't the only being to "know itself". Some Mozambicans do too.


The dire economic situation has left not a scrap to be shared between the remaining white-backeds, lapet-faceds, and hoodeds. Fresh, meaty tourists, while they may be brave enough to travel by land across the countryside and across Mozambique's land-borders, they will inevitably also have to endure somebody having 'a go' at them as part of the course to alleviate the economic pains of some everyday man, somewhere -- sometimes in everyday garb, but mostly dressed in uniform.
The locating of fossil fuel has helped with this situation, and so too has Mozambique's hard-wood trade. Many of the finest furniture and building timbers are sourced from here.
If one travels for days through natural Mozambique jungle,


one will see concession signs:

And what it means in terms of logging:
**bright centre reds, teak **light and red, mahogany **pheasant colours, Panga Panga
Not to mention that for countries where wheels simply came off a long time ago, the corona shutdowns now make it seem a lot more like a total derailment. Some proprieters say, "we're fully booked" in Vilanculo's archipelago resorts, though head-counts over the festive season have suggested it's wishful thinking and more like 30% capacity post-covid. Even the archipelago's international airport, courtesy of China, sadly looks worse for wear.


Continued in Column 2 --->

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Earth Watch: Fauna

Three different dragonflies and one damselfly at one rain-water pond, seen Odzi, near Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.



Above, a dragonfly, a giant-sized Ant Lion Fly and a smaller species of ant-lion fly (with clubbed shaped antennae) appear as if from nowhere, within 24hrs of a birdbath being filled with water -- Kamiesberge, Feb 2024.

For further reading about what humankind stands to lose, concerning Zygoptera, follow this link to the iucn.org

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25th December 2023
 Biggest Backfire Ever

Nou 'n lekker-local mens sal dink ons praat miskien oor BBE (biggest backfire ever), maar, nee wat, daar is groote backfires as dit....
Known for its military might, global influence and cyber control, the USA is often set in contrast with the country that is often assumed to represent its antithesis, Russia -- due largely or, perhaps, entirely, to the cold war, which resulted in the Soviet being sliced up and the advent of American shops popping up in Russia as (capitalist) saviors to their slavic small-mindedness. Right? 1*
Does it need to be mentioned that prior to these rabbit-out-of-a-hat moon-landings, Russia beat USA at every step of the space-race? Iemand voer 'n aap in die mou.
Unfortunately, it does need to be mentioned because it is at the heart of Secret Services Surveilance, as we have come to know it -- first from Gestapo-like symptoms of total-control in Germany (WWII), and then, inexplicably ironically, from the so-called totally-new-free-world, USA, in the digital age.
Meaning: if you tell cosmic-sized lies to the world, your knee-jerk reflex will be to secretly listen for its echo -- to make sure it returns what was uttered. God forbid any wave-length is returned with, "no...we don't believe it". Because, then it is known that you cannot fool everyone all of the time. In real terms, digital surveilance from USA would be listening to nothing moreso than their echoes of their greatest-moonleap-for-mankind. That is, the hollywood-style step by Neil Armstrong. In fact, protecting this triumphant image, and possibly even its Other (the 'tragically victimized 911 America', another example), is at the centre of the excuse to surveil the world, to police the world, to protect all of us. Truly? Or, to quash so much as a pebble-sized ripple with regard to their honorability over the last 80 years.

So what do you use in everyday life to convey yourself to others? What conversational apps do you use? Who made them? Where are their servers? Who holds the encryption keys?

If you tick none of the above, you are using a weapon of mass stupidity and dysfunction, a smart phone. And sadly you feel enormously clever about pairing this smart device with that device. Perhaps one might think that the biggest backfire is on you, because for as smart as what you believe you are in being able to listen to what's going on in your life, you yourself are watched likewise. But, alas, no that's not the biggest amiss. The biggest shot-in-the-foot must surely be that in NSA*2listening as closely as possible to determine if anybody, anywhere, does not believe the discourse of their great 1st-world-intel; even applying algorithms to make absolutely sure of the safety of an abode constructed from deceit; those very same tools have not returned a carbon-copy of the lies told to humanity, and unforgivably to their own American people, but the truth behind it. 'Mirror, mirror on the wall...' never ultimately lies. And far from being the desired response from the mirror on the wall, the biggest backfire must surely be the extreme times of disconnect and discontent for the American people, currently.
1* - Editorial note: the case up until very, very recent history.
*2 - not NSO, this is National Symphony Orchestra

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25th November 2023

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 Failed Rocket Launch

This month's second SpaceX failed launch is a real humdinger for anyone who ever protested NASA's umpteen-moon-landings. Defying gravity in itself is still problematic, it would appear, even when the information technology that powers and drives the rockets used today are infinitely more capable than the mobile-phone strength of America's original command center, back in the day (50 years ago), which successfully achieved moonlandings, again and again.
Rather than hurl stones at this column for insinuating 'conspiracy!', perhaps reconsider that if lies were told to create astronomical falsehoods, then therein is a conspiracy -- and not just a theory about it, so many years on, but the actual full and knowing deceit of a nation that can drop atom bombs on entire cities, seemingly without reproach. If you could get away with all that, wouldn't you say what you liked to whomever, also? Even if it concerned something as immeasurably beautiful as landing on our nearest celestial body, the moon?
The one upside of the information age is that such scripts cannot be written and rehearsed again in quite so a convincing manner. Though it is true that because of social media we are all often prone to popular opinion (the highest 'liked' post), in recording actual events, like SpaceX's failed mission, popular opinion carries no weight -- it either did fail or it didn't, and information systems of today do not allow the conspiratorially-woven wool to be pulled over our eyes in the service of deep-state fakes.

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Earth Watch: Fauna

Rain Frog or Toad?: Breviceps Genus Species, Seen 8/12/23 by Nita, Limpopo South Africa.

Bushbaby: Seen 24/11/23 in a hollow tree-trunk, near Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe. Healthy resident population.

Leopard Spoor: Seen 1/11/23 Musina, Limpopo, Baobob Tree Reserve.

Nyala. Seen 16/11/23, Musina Baobab Reserve, South Africa.

Giraffe. Seen 16/11/23, Musina Baobab Reserve, South Africa.

Moth. Seen 12/'23 in Zimbabwe on a Nyala Tree. New Zealand's magpie moth, as on their vintage stamp?

Baby scorpion is the size of a matchstick head, seen in Mozambique, Vilanculo New Years Day 1/1/24

An unearthly blue scorpion species, seen Musangano Lodge, Jan/2024.


Above, two scorpion species sighted in Namaqualand, South Africa, April 2024.

Comparable to the bright red poisonous grasshopper from the Karoo and Namaqualand, this one is seen in Zimbabwe. Jan/2024.

An ant with a parasite or a grain of pollen on its back. Seen Odzi, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.
Seen at Vilanculo, Mozambique -- symbiotic miniature crab and clam relationship. Seen several times, several mini crabs inside clams. 15/Jan/2024

Possibly ctenophryne black rain frog species, seen Vilanculo Jan/2024.

A large sand lizard, Archepelago dunes, Mozambique Jan/2024.

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Earth Watch: Fauna

Travel to
1) Sustainable Green Destinations
2) Travel in a group to have a Low Carbon Footprint
3) There'll be no need to pilfer priceless Copyright images from the web

4 Recommended Low-Carbon Footprint Destinations in Southern Africa for Butterfly Research & Photography:

1. Musangano Lodge Zimbabwe
2. White Horse Inn Zimbabwe
3. Ndzou Elephant Retreat Mozambique
4. African Bulb Flower Reserve, SA


Musangano Lodge, Odzi, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, has a butterfly wall in their conference area. Very apt. Musangano is worth any researcher's or photographer's while for butterfly-and-bird species. On average, a couple dozen butterfly species and close to a hundred bird species can be recorded in a single day, after the yearly rains have set in -- January to March. Musangano has top-quality overnighting and a restaurant. To appreciate the full range, for butterfly collectors, entomologists and ornithologists, longer stays are essential.

Appias butterfly species, highly migrant and seen throughout Southern Africa. This one, seen at Odzi, Zimbabwe 19/1/2024.


Belenois gidica butterfly species showing varied patterns under-wing, seen Odzi, Zimbabwe 19/1/2024.


A few Colotis butterfly species, seen near Odzi, Zimbabwe 19/1/2024

Iolaus species, little butterfly with shiny blue inner wings, seen Odzi Zimbabwe 19/1/2024.


Anthene, above and below, butterfly species, a minute species with slightly shiny blue inners, seen Odzi Zimbabwe. And here with open wings:


Belenois creona, lacking the inner-wing black bar, seen near Musangano Lodge, Odzi Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Deudorix butterfly species, above, seen Odzi, Musangano Zimbabwe Jan/2024

Eronia butterfly species, seen Odzi, Musangano Zimbabwe Jan/2024

Colotis euvippe, with unmistakable markings, seen Eastern Highlands, near Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe. Jan/2024.


Colotis vesta, maybe subspecies, as the middle of the inner wing is white, not yellow-to-orange as compared with Borboletas de Mocambique, below. Seen, Odzi Musangano Lodge, Jan/2024.


Teriomima butterfly species, Jardin-species, often seen in domestic gardens. Here wild sighting in Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.



Above, open and closed wings, almost totally blue inners, of yet another Hypolycena species butterfly. Directly above -- possibly Euthecta, Alacides, or Baliochila. Seen Jan/2024.

Fritillary butterfly species, another species with a penchant for wild salvia flowers, seen Odzi, Musangano Zimbabwe Jan/2024

Junonia, butterfly species, with its shiny blue eyes, seen Odzi, Musangano Zimbabwe Jan/2024
And with opened wings:

Its camouflage, if it can be called that, is to be as brightly coloured as its favourite flowers -- hiding in plain sight.

Junonia species or subspecies; markings very unalike. Seen near Musangano Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Precis butterfly species with its shiny blue and eyed wings, seen Odzi, Musangano Zimbabwe Jan/2024

Colotis species, evenina and pallene, above and directly below. Followed by colotis or belenois species, above and below wing patterns. All seen Odzi, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, near Musangano Lodge Jan/2024.




Another species of Precis, seen Odzi, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, near Musangano lodge Jan/2024.


Precis natalica with closed and open wings, and showing its camouflage ability on bare ground in leaf litter. seen Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.


Above, Skipper Butterfly Species: two of many little, unidentifiable in specific terms, butterfly species with big-heads and little bodies, seen Musangano Lodge, Odzi Zimbabwe.


Byblia butterfly species, standing out like a sore thumb on grass and blending in with leaf litter, Musangano Lodge, Jan/2024.

A marvelous miniature with part see-through wings, Acraea butterfly species, seen near Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe Jan/2024

An impressively saturated set of wings from Acraea anemosa, seen Musangano Lodge, Odzi Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Acraea nohara species, Jan/2024


Acraea natalica, although named after Natal, South Africa, seen in the Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

Acraea, lower wings suggest caldarana, seen same locality 2024.


Another species of Deudorix. Closed and open wings and with tail-feathers, so to speak, seen Odzi Mutare Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.


Papilio leonidas above and below wings, showing the softest turquoise mottling, seen loving Africa's lantana, Odzi Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe. Jan/2024

Half-size to Appias, Dixea is nearly pure white, inside and outside. Seen Jan/2024, Mutare.


Colotis eris, or an unlisted species of colotis. Closed and open wings, seen Jan/2024, Maranatha Residence.


Colotis regina, with two-tone shimmering wing-tips, seen Maranatha Residence, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.


Closed and open wings of Eronia eleodora, seen Jan/2024 Nyazura

Hypolycena amanica, open winged. Nyazura Inyazura Jan/2024.

Above, possibly Aslava butterfly species, Inyazura Jan/2024.

Belenois aurota species, seen Jan/2024, Inyazura Zimbabwe.

Mylothris butterfly species, generally light with peach colours concentrating towards its thorax, upper and below wings. seen Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Pinacopteryx butterfly species, with a quick 3 flaps or so, and then a glide -- a bit like the flight of Charaxes. seen Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe, Jan/2024.

Colotis erona, much less venation than C.regina, though might still be a variation of the latter. seen Musangano Zimbabwe.Jan/2024.

Colotis calais, close to E.eleodora, though wings open display black bars on the upper wings, not seen in Eleodora. seen near Maranatha Residence, Odzi Jan/2024.

Eurema hapale, possibly -- but such a flip-flapper, a still-shot is tricky. Seen Odzi, Jan/2024.

Probably belongs to species group, Ornipholidotos -- only one seen in ten days of butterfly photographing, near Odzi, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.
Below, 1, 2 and 3 -- Papilio dandanus, Eronia leda, and Catopsilia florella. All three are large butterflies. Dandanus with exceptionally long tails, Leda with its bright orange wing-tips, and Florella being almost totally canary yellow. Not for photographic enjoyment but for posterity -- all three recorded as being seen in the Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe Jan/2024.






Musangano Lodge is a sustainable, low carbon-footprint travel destination.

Below, butterflies from White Horse Inn, Vumba: hippocoonides, demodocus, parhassus, and papilio.




Papilio nireus wings underside. Endless slow-motion hovering typifies its flight and search for nectar. seen Jan/2024, Odzi and Vumba.







Wall-mounted butterfly displays, line-art, and stamps at Inn on the Vumba showing the well-known association of the region with butterflies. Seen Jan/2024.


Above, male Danaus. Hullets Triangle Country Club, Jan/2024.


Colotis danae, closed and open wings, Burma Valley, Zimbabwe Jan/2024


Another species of Byblia (vulgaris), closed and open wings, Manica, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

If your research or photographic expedition requires short-term stay, Friends of Forestry, Birds and Butterflies Association will be happy to put you in touch with someone in the Eastern Highlands region for affordable short-term stays.

Above, our last but not least recommendation for butterfly species viewing is in the Kamiesberg, South Africa. It might surprise some people to know that while the region is known for its winter-time flowers, summer-time butterfly migrants are many and varied.

Hypolimnas

Anthene

Belenois

Catacroptera

Colotis

Cynthia

Junonia

Danaus

Catopsilia, possibly Mylothris

Spindasis

Teriomima or Eurema
Above, all sighted 2022-2023 Kamieskroon, South Africa.

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Below, Byblia has not yet been seen in Namaqualand -- not even as a migrant -- but has been seen numerous times in Nelspruit, month of February.



South Africa's dry Northern Cape seems to see mostly migrants. Lepidopterists might appreciate a paper on dry-area butterflies: Arid Africa Region Butterflies

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Above, engineering of egg-sac and cocoon marvels made from mud, fibre, gravel, and wax and sticks. Wasps, bees, worms, praymantis. Entomological identification skills will be appreciated.

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submit your sighting:
replykakenbetaal.co.za

Comedy
25/Apr/2024



What do you get when you cross a German-Jew with an American?
What's black and white and red all over?
What's Count Dracula's motto?
Tune in next month for the update!

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Animal Rescue South Africa
2/Apr/2024
Roadkill survivor:
A group of meercats on the Namibia N7 highway appeared to be mourning, or encouraging, a roadkill to wake up. It didn't. If it wasn't picked up by a concerned traveller who stopped, heard it grunt and take a breath, it would have been driven over by the next driver. It recouperated and made its own way out of a Namaqualand garden 24hrs after waking up from being out cold. Never leave roadkill for dead. If you have a story, let us know.

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Economics
14/Jan/2024
Worth One's Time and Consideration:
A Thread Putting Oil and Local Economy in Context, for South Africans

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1/2024
Mozambique has a SPAR in Vilanculo. It doesn't have boerewors or skaap, as we know it in SA. The wors is spicier. It has a lot of imported Portuguese products, liquor, and general luxuries. Except for the imported liquor, its prices are comparable to SA's SPARs. Vilanculo has a South African mini convenience shop, Taurus, with boerewors and skaap -- and many other SA'isms. Comparably good prices. Vilanculo hasn't fixed any of its roads in a decade. But private efforts have continued. Some well-known tourist restaurantes have shut, post corona -- but some new ones have opened. Much the same. What has changed, is the price of a Sea-Food platter -- now even more costly than one in S.Africa, which is surprising since every crustacean imaginable is right here, in Vilankulo's seas. Buy direct from dhow boat fisherman for best prices. Plus-Minus: an honest dhow fisherman asks, 1/2024
MT200 p/kg 'lula' (calamari);
MT800 p/kg 'lagostim' (kreef, crayfish);
MT100 p/kg fish (tuna/barracuda/whichever);
MT100 for 5 good-sized crabs
MT100 for 1 pan-sized skate
MT150 2kg sea-clams/shellfish
MT10 for 1 coconut.
If you are lousy at negotiating, a research trip or holiday to Mozambique's Archipelago can cost you double, food-wise.

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11/2023
South African produce is still a better buy in SA than in most of its neighboring countries.A whole Spar roast-chicken is about R90.00, where at local stores in Zimbabwe and Mozambique it is double that.

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Int. Relations
Malaysia has expressed doubt about the value of joining brics. This is the only publicized doubt so far, issued by News24 group member.

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Industry
China lobbies for favourable pathway to sell vehicles in Russia. Harare becomes inundated with KFC, FedEx, and McDonald.

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25th April 2024


"If you don't believe me logon to the website w-w-w dot..."

Roughly two decades to date, the above title was the catch-phrase of Georgie-&-Martin's skit on the inimitably dry and socially-reflective parody, The Catherine Tate Show. Prescient as those xtra-xtra large and laughable skits might seem today, the gravity of which not grasped then; meaning, what wasn't fully parodied in their hilarious depiction of the then online social present is just how much -- your, yes you the reader -- your own personal shite was going to sell over the internet: someone, somewhere, on the internet was destined to click on your refuse-like posts and spend data doing it. And this? In the same manner that you spent money on data to post it. Mostly, this achievement by BigData -- to wield zombie-like power over you -- has been made through website platforms that are satisfyingly elementary for the majority of users, who, to their detriment, never learnt anything passed "click and emoticon, emoticon...and another [emote][icon]".
It is perhaps a bitter pill to swallow, but, speaking of parody, the online tripe -- to which Tate alluded, ages ago -- being turned into a sellable commodity is no less comparable to how McDonalds MSG burger bar turned that American style patty into something that so many people could want, however incomprehensibly tastelessly so. Fill an empty space in my life, quickly and easily. A telecommunications achievement nothing short of a miracle, sadly reflecting the cheapest and easiest and pushover qualities of humanity.
Of course, it didn't start off like this. In the 80s and 90s universities were hopeful that their interlibrary online terminals and all their .edu extension emails were the start of something great -- and meaningful (meaningful tools of collaboration for the betterment of growing and educating minds). But it wasn't even another full decade passed before commercial email platforms, sell-your-shite websites, x-rated and buy-a-bride, etc, and, not least of all, an "...many theorists extrapolate that because NASA staged mankind's greatest lie (moon landing hoax), hearing what everyone was going to say about American lies of this magnitude made 24-7 backdoor surveillance essential: no rest for the wicked." (citation: 9/11: 102 Nationalities Line Up to Buy American Internet Surveillance, pp. 102-255)avalanche of internet surveillance/security (post 9-11) and so on, I.E. not even ten years passed, before all this backend tripe littered our online presences pervasively, as the Tate Show showed. This was the internet age when many cum-laudes degenerated into emotionally deficient online idiots, when housewives became online shopping addicts, when little basement-living PC coding fuckwits became billionaires, and where the opportunity to profile everyone as a potential weapon of mass stupidity surfaced -- and if it was a total utter near-sighted failure at a see-all hear-all intel, the ignorance surrounding all concerned didn't begin to clear up-and-out until people like Assange and Snowden came forward. But the extent to which the world wide web failed wasn't to be in full effect until the following decade: leading up to and around the 2020s. Cathy Tate's,

"[it's the truth] so logon to double-u double-u double-u dot [pick-your-friggin social media] forward slash [um...you're the infected idiot] and see for yourself"

...is spot on.

What to make of a website named, "kak en betaal dot c-o dot z-a"? Well, kakenbetaal.co.za is cognizant of all of the above internet history -- and it is aware that even in South Africa whatsapp, for one, can infect the everyday Joe to the extent that they'll paint their house grey or change the default colour settings of their printer to Nazi-red-black-and-whites, all because a msg -- from Jew-owned platform, facebook/whatsapp (God alone can explain all this crookedness) -- makes them feel as though they are undoubtedly part of a spioen-spioen netwerk; en dit is nou net hoe slim hulle is.

The difference between genius and complete and utter stupidity, as the expression goes, is that genius knows its limitations.

In the spirit of expressions, idioms and adages, kakenbetaal.co.za has no wool over its eyes; we are an online drop of brutal as-it-is in a bucket of nefarious networked kak, but have taken necessary precautions -- two steps back, keeping it simple and str8 forward -- not to over-endow the so-called developed world with power over you, the logged-in user, with locked-on privilleges it shouldn't have had in the first instance.

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Earth Watch: Flora

Above, a Stapelia hirsuta flowering in nature, Namaqualand South Africa -- photographed April 2024.



Above, Bulbine alooides, and above that a new Bulbine sp. This one shows itself after 6 years of being undetected at the African Bulb Flower Reserve, Kamieskroon Namaqualand South Africa. The Kamieskroon valley receives strong dust storms because of north easterly winds, from Bushmanland due east, and occasionally blankets of dust blow in from the Knersvlakte, in the south, all bringing exciting species as seed to the valley. Possibly Bulbine monophylla, having one very indistinct short and fine leaf. Photographed, April 2024.





Above, Strumaria merxmuelleriana, an endemic species only known from a small area within Namaqualand, South Africa. Then, Hessea pulcherrima, possibly, or a Hessea/Strumaria spiralis, since its two leaves which appear in winter spiral tightly upward (no identification plate in Duncan's Amaryllidacea depicts this). Next, pink Hessea breviflora with a conophytum sp (bababoudjies) behind it. Lastly, Conophytum with yellow flowers and Conophytum (subfenestratum) with lilac flowers. Sighted in flower, April 2024.

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Earth Watch: Flora

Op die tema van, "bloed kruip waar dit nie kan loop nie"
Blood Lilies -- Maart Blom (of Skeerkwas Blom)








Above, Blood Lilies -- often lumped together with Maart Blomme (e.g. the picture directly above), because Blood Lilies also flower within the first couple weeks of March every year, if there has been enough rain.
1. and 2. Haemanthus crispus, with Kroonkop from Kamiesberg in the background. H. crispus has 'simba-crisp' shaped leaves in winter
3. Haemanthus coccineus ['haem'-as-in-'blood' and 'coccinea' colour]
4. Haemanthus namaquense, endemic to Namaqualand
5. Haemanthus polyanthus, one out of twenty species that's pink ('polyanthus' -- poly=many anthus=anther)
6. Haemanthus unifoliata -- one-leafed blood lily
7. Brunsvigia namaquana, endemic to Namaqualand. The smallest of all Maartblom species.
8. Brunsvigia bosmaniae, one of the largest of Maart Blomme.
Kamiesberg reportedly received about 3ml of rain on the 4th of March (2024), and this appears to have been enough for some of the strong Maart Blom bulbs to flower. One would have to tour Namaqualand in early March to see these species in flower.
Bracts: Almost all species have different numbers of bracts. Careful not to confuse bracts with petals or flowers. The bracts envelope the tiny little flowers and their bracts in every species are easily mistakable for petals. For example: H.Coccineus has many medium bracts, but H.Namaquense or H.Crispus have only a couple large bracts.
Flowers: The flowers of all species are many and tiny, only a few mm long, and sit within the bracts.Click Here for Beginners Guide to Blood Lily ID
The occurance of so many species of March Flowers, seen 2024, in the middle of an incredibly hot and dry season, is of great evolutionary importance as most of what one sees in this biodiverse region at this time of year is as below -- in one square foot, 5 kinds of stone-looking succulents (crassula and mesems), or several species of Eriospermum in flower (in order; Paradoxum [with pollinator], Rhizomatum, Multifidum, Exile, Crispum with a crab-spider, Proliferum, Undulatum, Zeyheri and Patentiflorum), which are just as easy to overlook as the stone-looking flowers.









All of the above sighted, photographed March-April/2024.

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25th March 2024
 The Undoing

An unforgivable 30-something% of global wealth sits in America. Close-on 40% of the world's millionaires are in America. How much of that has been achieved by whitewashing its own dirty dollars? How much of that has been made with your help, over the last few digital decades post-9-11? How much of that has been achieved through your data-subscription, your Windows OS, your MAC, your Google-Search, your Facebook...and, if one's honest, a general total ignorance about who benefits the most from Information Technology? While Kruger Rands ruled the roost years ago, convincing the world that one's digital device is worth more than this gold was at the heart of the New World's Global-Order objective -- without convincing one of this new digital value, most of America's silicon valley would not be what it is today; be sure, if there hadn't been a belated wake-up concerning "wealth from thin air", crypto-currencies, S.Valley types would've continued without one moral care in the world, for the rest of us.
A sad irony is that whilst SA is part of BRICS+, even local banks may be compromised by their telecommunications, which use CISCO devices, Windows OS -- which keep record of all customers' wealth. This isn't a backdoor monopoly over information, this is an American informational Highway in our backyards. Simply put, if SA's infrastructure represents 0.5% of the world's reliance on Big-Tech (give-or-take, working with 200 countries globally), it would take a lot more than BRICS+ to undo this monopoly, to undo this monetary underpinning -- or undermining -- of so many, many cultures and countries.
Every item of information you have ever entered on your Big-Data-borne device has been fed-back via a shell programme to its inventors. Perhaps this doesn't impact China or Russia. They surely had the foresight to not allow the heart of their information to be routinely fed back to a monopolistic ethernet empire. But it does have an impact for the less robust links of an alliance that wish to cleanse themselves of tasteless hamburger patties, impotent French-vanilla coffee, and symptomatic digital systems.
Shifting this perspective to the other foot: there is a school of popular opinion, easily available on internet search, which suggests this nation is so deep in debt (despite its multitude of millionaires, or perhaps because of such excesses), that if it was a monopolistic, capitalistic dystopia, it deserves sympathy, not scorn; specifically relevant, here, is that one quarter of all American debt is apparently shared by foreign governments' treasuries. And, that if America failed on its debts, the world would come crashing down. Well, by that commentators mean, "America and all those who've invested in her". The catch-22, naturally, is that for all those who've invested in America's global informational monopoly, if America fails, so too do they -- because of that consequence, it shouldn't be surprising that they may well be propped up by some of their peers, regardless of its dues -- or guilt. Sort of, like, to make this easy for the indoctrinated social-media dons-doosies to understand: the "mother of the abused-child syndrome" -- you know, where the mother who supports her manipulative and abusive husband knows full well what he's guilty of, but because it implicates her financially (i.e. 'her', as in, all the countries that support an abusive paternal USA), she toes the line and keeps silent. More than that, she (i.e. all those Uncle-Sam supporters) is complicit with what transpires. Perhaps France would again help with American independence and reward them with a Statue of Lie-ability?

The stink that's been let off with regard to the USD's actual value -- not its dreamy value, or its investor value -- in the past couple years isn't disipating. Since 2023 a de-dollarization has been at the forefront of many agendas, world-wide. The reasons for which as above, but also the world-wide realization that at the pinnacle of America's modern-man delivery lies just a smart-home, just a smart-car, and a smart-phone, all of which, for all their nifty internet smarts, is just another back-door surveilance scam, couched in whatever creature comfort it seems to be. Fatigue, you might say, for the like, is possibly why the world is currently shortlisting currencies to better represent humanity's monetary ambitions; with the American Dream having been upgraded to a nightmare, the Franc, the GBP, the Chinese Dollar, the Rubel (not the 'Rubble', lost on most), and the Euro, are some of the contenders that might fill the vacuum in a dollarless utopian market, where ideals are backed by actual worth. The Franc and the GBP probably do not need the psychological boost; history is on their side; that might be true also for Japan (despite the unnecessary humiliation courtesy of USA, WWII), China, Russia and the UAE denominators. Which, for all intents and purposes, politics aside but not economics, leaves only ... one "aye aye madame" and one "non non, Mns". This, neither here nor there in an aside in respect of this article concerning Western Wealth: the undeniable knee-jerk reaction and thus proof-in-the-pudding and vindication of this opinion-piece to keep watch for would be the graph that illustrates current megalomaniac-jugonaut reinvesting patterns, not in its narcissitic self but in others' currencies. Contradiction in terms? A narcissictic American monopoly investing in anything other than itself? Yes. A contradiction in terms. Just walk away.

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One for the Botanic Taxonomists or Evolutionary Biologists, below (uploaded 25/2/2024):


Who would like to hazard a guess: which of the above is Gethyllis heinziana (a winter-growing koekemakranka from Namaqualand) and which is Pancratium tenuifolium (a widely distributed summer-growing African bulb)?
Below, succulent Pelargonium caffrum (carnosum ssp?), Haassuring ('rabbit sour-leaf') with honey-bee pollinator, Acanthopsis -- Blepharis, look alike -- and Viooltjie, Peliostomum. Lastly, wild South African carnations: Dianthus namaensis (meaning, coming from the semi-desert region, Namakwaland).






Remarkably, except for the succulent Pelargonium (top two), these plants hang onto their greenish leaves and can even flower in the middle of a dry, semi-desert season in Namaqualand. The pelargonium flowers too, but even without being in leaf. Seen Feb/2024.

Below: One of only a few trees endemic to Namaqualand, same region as above, is the aptly named Namaqua Fig (Ficus cordata), which gets fig-like leaves and fruits that are loved by birds and bats -- this prize example can be seen in the town of Kamieskroon, which is in the Kamiesberge of Namaqualand (seen 2/2024). It has been there for more than a hundred years, say local residents: compare this semi-desert growth-rate to the Sycamore fig, below that, which is a mere 20 years old, sown from seed by the very gardener in the photograph, in the North of South Africa, Limpopo River Valley (photo taken 1/2024).

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Op die tema van:
Die hoogste boom vang die meeste wind
20/2/2024








Above, starting with the fried-egg shape of African Teak seeds, ending with Acacias, and Albizia in the middle. While it's not possible to find a 60 meter mahogany on an African savannah, because it's usually a forest tree, there are many other tree species reaching 30m in height. Tall for a grassy savannah.
Below, medium-sized trees with attractive flowers from the Nelspruit area, Feb. 2024. Including yellow Bauhinnia, a rock ficus, and the lilac summer shrub, Polygala.

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25th February 2024

Don't Cry for Me Argentina

An informative article on briefly.co.za recently outlined the success of BRIC'S invitations-to-join; UAE, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Egypt and Ethiopia accepted, but Argentina not -- not an outright 'no', but more of a,

"sorry we're so busy dancing 'soos 'n kat op a warm sinkplaat' as a result of a politically-motivated socio-politico-media campaign and a simultaneous desperate dollarization, very possibly all instigated by big-brother above, that our change of presidency, as a consequence (who seems hazardously pro-USA), neglected to pay the invite the attention it was worth."

Standing on a crowded field, a bunch of kids wait to see if their names will be called next, by aspiring bafana boy Wes-thuizen and unpopular Oos-thuizen, Junior. Many people will remember how it was done as kids. And although as adults we think we leave this behind, forming allies in the current political world seems at times and in specific instances no less infantile, especially because of the superficial tactics that seem to have been employed in disrupting Argentina's government -- with all the online 'tools' necessary for the residing pickers to be able to keep potential pickees in no-mans land. Or has Argentina already sided with x, y and z, because of a, b and c?
Argentina is smaller than Brazil, which is already in BRICS+. And Argentina is a close neighbor of Brazil, so the players are hotting the pitch up with proximity.

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Earth Watch: Flora

Above, sign for the Prince of Wales view, Vumba, which passes through Bunga Forest before reaching Leopard Rock Hotel, where Royals graced Rhodesians with their presence many decades ago. Above middle, branches from a Prince of Wales tree, Eastern Highlands, seen Jan/2024. Directly above, seen Jan/2024, young leaves from a Prince of Wales tree -- from where it gets its name, because the young leaves mimic the flurry of feathers that sit atop a Prince-of-Wales hat.
At Leopard Rock, you can see one of the Eastern Highland's most beautiful endemic tree-ferns, Cyathea dregei, a Crown-Top, or Flat Top, acacia tree, and a Sky's The Limit. In order, below. seen 24 Jan/2024.





Above, African Flame Tree and Forest Fever Tree; former gets a seed pod in the shape of a boat, the latter's leaves can be over a meter in length. Eastern Highlands and Vumba forest, Jan/2024. Below, white jasmine-like shrub to small tree -- Zimbabwe, also occurs in Mozambique.


Wisteria vine, Eastern highlands, seen Jan/2024.


Euphorbia tree species, behind the Halfmens, equal in height to a Msasa tree. Euphorbia species growing on granite rockfaces, Mozambique. Seen Jan/2024.


Above, the same area 1984 and 2024 -- showing how an anti-tree chopping policy in Zimbabwe allowed the indigenous forest to tower over the White Rose Motel, Rhodesia. Even on zoom in picture 2, the white-rose-motel is only barely visible through the foliage. Today, zama-zama opportunistic gold digging -- following the green-beret land-grab and its economic implications -- is ruining parts of the natural vegetation which was protected for decades by home-owners.

Perhaps a Rhodesian forester can email us the ID of this tree species? It appears to be completely leafless and yet it has attracted 1000s of butterflies, colotis, belenois, and iolaus species, as well as a namaqualand dove (yes, namaqualand doves occur this far away from the Kamiesberg).




Above, in order: Baobab and baobab curios -- the reason why the Baobab Reserve in the Limpopo made the effort to preserve baobab trees in the region; euphorbia; mopane and indigenous aloe; nyala tree; and pod mahogany -- with its usual impressive, large, glossy green canopy. All located around Birchenough Bridge, Hotsprings, Zimbabwe. Seen 2024.


Gloriosa superba, Rhodesian (Zimbabwean) National Flower. Not a true member of the Lilium genus. Rather an African genus comprising only a few species. Colours vary, from yellow, to coal-hot orange, to this -- an extremely civilized shade of oak burgundy wine.

Gloriosa superba are part-bulb-part-vine, and make wildly attractive vase features. Seen and wild-cut, Odzi, Zimbabwe Jan/2024. Occurs naturally in parts of Zimbabwe, Mozambique and South Africa. If Superba does not occur naturally on your property for arranging, buy seeds to grow your own.

The Rhodesian Flame Lily has inspired stained glass windows, as seen at the Inn on the Vumba

The Rhodesian Flame Lily has inspired jewelers to make this, a brooch in The Royal Collection Trust, made for Queen Elizabeth, possibly for when she stayed in the Queen's Suite, pictured below, but above the patio, where a pair of when-we's (webmaster's parents) have a g-n-t at the Leopard Rock Hotel, formerly in Southern Rhodesia.


Scadoxus species, Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe (lacks leaf undulation, as seen with Scadoxus, Limpopo River Valley). seen Jan/2024

Setting seed, Boophane disticha -- known in Namaqualand as 'Gifbal' or 'Bushmans bulb' -- because the bulb sap was used to poison arrowheads to paralyze hunted wild game. seen near Hot Springs, Birchenough Bridge, Zimbabwe 11/2023.

White annual, wild flower -- Mutare, Zimbabwe Jan/2024




Seen in Zimbabwe, 1 and 2. Seen in Mozambique, 3 and 4. A range of Wild Wondering Jew plant species. Photographed Dec/2023-Jan/2024.

Panga-Panga tree, at least 40m in height, foreground -- view from a chalet at Ndzou Elephant Camp, Mozambique.

Mozambican Swamp Land plant, 'Poison Rope' vine-like-tree with orchid-like flowers, more than a foot long. When homocide is suspected, but cause of death indeterminable, this wild African species is often the suspected murder weapon (source, PalGraves, Trees of Southern Africa). Strophanthus species, seen rainy season Maboti Mozambique, jungle undergrowth but not far from fresh water pans. Jan/2024


Lapeirousia bulb species, in Namaqualand, named after Botanist Lapeirous -- seen August/2023, African Bulb Flower Reserve South Africa.

Moraea bulb species, in Namaqualand -- seen August/2023, African Bulb Flower Reserve.

Namaqualand Daisies, Gousblomme -- September/2023 at the African Bulb Flower Reserve, Kamieskroon, Kamiesberg Namakwaland, South Africa.

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25th January 2024
 ... continued Column 2

-- an airport that sees no less than two planes a day, while not O.R.Tambo, Johannesburg International or even Cape Town's airport, is rather busy for its size. Vilanculo is a blip on the map, though surely tremendously important when considering its mangrove forests, islands, and coral reefs.

**side-by-side mangrove species and salt-living restias

And, even moreso, tremendously important if considering that the new oil is not black but green -- green carbon, green credit, green life: and Vilanculo in Mozambique, comparable to Namakwaland's rich biodiversity, has one of the wealthiest experiences available of this new post-oil green-gold planetary existence.

A green-gold combo, easiest to appreciate when looking at ...

Continued in Column 3 --->

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25th December 2023
 Ukraine's Users

Who used Ukraine? If you have travelled as much as I have, this column's writer, you'll know you'll meet Ukranians outside of the former Soviet block who'll say, "I'm not Russian, I'm Ukrainian" and you'll meet Siberians outside of the Soviet block who'll say, "I'm not Russian, I'm Siberian". And yet they'll both speak Russian. In the same way, Canadians speak 'American' or at least sound American on any and every day of the week. From where did such subtle, splitting of hairs arise? Well, from a Canadian perspective it is very easy to answer: a shroud of negativity has so overcome America (Atom bombs, Cold War, Vietnam, Afghanistan, digital Surveilance, AI and Buzz Aldrin) that even sounding American puts a somewhat comedic target on one's back.
A similar sort of target, it might be said, is to be felt on the backs of many Slavs. But this has not developed, as with Canadians, from a series of mushroom clouds, laughable wars, sinister spying, and asstronauts. Rather, it has developed from their belief in what the west has told them, about themselves.
Ukraine -- home to Kiev, home to the Great Gates of Mother Russia as portrayed by Modest Mussorgsky in the mid-1800s -- having been excised from the Soviet Block following the Cold War, must have felt like nothing short of the Cullinan falling comparatively speaking from Queen Elizabeth's crown.
In other words, save Apollo's lunar landings, the greatest achievement of Western mankind was to cut snow-white's little heart out from its block. At this time, the real effect of a symbolic fairty-tale ending, of disasterous proportion, could not be understated. That that end was achieved through questionable means was of little-to-no consequence for many -- and for the people you meet outside of their former slav regions, obviously it was enough to make them feel as though they deserved the target pinned on them, regardless.
Currently, western news sources draw heavily on the post-soviet state to perpetuate the idea that Ukraine was and is simply used by Russia. Nothing could be further from the truth, historically. And yet the users of Ukraine for political ends persist today, as a shroud of success falls from the Statue of Liberty -- as she's exposed as anything but beeldskoon.

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25th November 2023

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AI Turmoil In '23

Artificial Intelligence takes one of its biggest knocks yet. CEO's ousted, boards in disarray, crossing the floors, then crossing back again, and Microsoft lapping up the spillage of skills. Or simply in damage-control, since it was always a share-holder and big subsidizer of open AI. And all this on the heels of its biggest acquisition yet, the purchase of yet another games maker. Why the fall of AI is whispered in the wings before it's even flown has a lot to do with this:
it has to do with why it took so long for the obvious absurdities that surrounded making money from thin air (the American Dream) -- ftx, bitcoin, etc -- to be understood as just that; absurd contortions of the concept of value and wealth. In simpler words, once bitten twice shy; having realized that leaping first off of a bridge and into the bitcoin abyss, for instance, without having first looked, was a failsafe rule not to be overlooked with yet another fast-internet-craze, promulgated mostly by the West.
Although there were skeptics at the onset of ether-currencies, they weren't heeded until being exposed as largely fraudulent. Similarly, there is a lot of popular opinion raining on AI's parade currently. This time around, objections to yet more 'new tech' appear to be more successful than those of the get-rich-quick tech-$chemes which infected global aspirations for the last decade.
"Red flags", as France24 recently pointed out, are up regarding AI as its assumed leader in the field has opted to make money fast with a for-profit organisation, rather than through its not-for-profit beginnings. Did anyone ever think that it was going to be any other way?

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Earth Watch: Flora

Wild African Orchids: Seen 21/22/23 Eastern Highlands, Peterhouse, Zimbabwe.

Non-indigenous Rubber Trees begin to naturalize: Seen 5/5/23, in the Msasa Tree Forest Eastern Highlands. 10 rubber-saplings p/acre always in wood-knots.

Scadoxus species (multiflorus? undulata?), seen Limpopo River Valley 16/11/23.

Seen 20/12/22 African Bulb Flower Reserve, Namakwaland. Koekemakranka flowers.

Leboom Baobab, Baobab Reserve Limpopo. '23

Pod Mahogany flower, orchid like, seen in South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique along summer-zone highways. Seen 6/12/23

Crown-Top Albizia Tree, flowering after 15 years growth from seed 10/9/23.

Cape snake head flower. Seen Northern Cape, 5/8/23

Avenue of East African Mahogany, known as Lover's Lane in Umtali, photographed Dec/23

Vilanculo Mangrove Forest. This photograph wins Best Photo from Camp Mira D'Ouro -- booking form, for Camp Golden Sunset. Cape Argus or Cape Times (09, sic) Mangroves of Mozambique -- salt-breathing-living trees in the archipelago of Vilanculo Vilankulo, uploaded December 2023.

Wild Ferox Cycads, tented camping at Mira D'Ouro, birdwatching amongst tree orchids along the Mozambican coast, 30th Dec 23

Wild Orchid, Mozambique seen 12/23

Crinum buphanoides species seen in Mozambique 12/23

Rain Lily, another species of Crinum in Mozambique, seen 12/23.

River Lilies, Crinum in Mozambique, seen 12/23

Wild African Potato (Hypoxis), seen in Mozambique 12/23

Spotted African Squill flower,Ledebouria wild in Mozambique seen 12/23

Crinum stulthamense, yet another species, delagoense? Wild genus crinum in Mozambique seen 12/23

Relative of the Sabie Star from South Africa? Seen in Mozambique, 12/23

Mozambican shrub species -- remote Mocambique is FULL of beautiful wild shrub and tree species! seen, 12/23

Mozambican shrub species Wild jasmine bush? 12/23

Mozambican vine climber species. Wild Primrose or Jasmine? Gets black grape-like edible fruits 12/23

Mozambican shrub, Maerua, members of this genus also seen in Zimbabwe and South Africa -- gets an edible green, ribbed fruit which turns bright purple when ripe, see below 12/23



Mozambican shrub sp 12/23

Mozambican shrub species Wild camelia 12/23

Mozambican shrub species Wild gardenia, wild camelia 12/23

Mozambican tree species, Panga Panga in flower seen in Mozambique, also known as Patrys Hout 12/23

Mozambican tree species 12/23

Mozambican tree species 12/23

Mozambican tree species 12/23

Mozambican shrub or small tree species with Legume shaped flowers. seen by Nita and Frik, Jan/'24

Mozambican mother-in-law-tongue plant, growing wild beneath msasa trees in Vilanculo, Mozambique Jan/'24.

Traditional African beehive made from tree-bark stripped and placed in highest branches of Msasa, Mozambique. Seen Jan/'24.

Southern African Parasitic plant, Mistletoe, Tapinanthus -- mostly in Msasa trees. Loved by nectar birds and the sweet red fruits by all birds. Seen Jan/'24

Lucky Bean wild vine, Vilanculo, Africa, Seen Jan/'24.

Glorious Flame Lily, from Africa - Gloriosa Superba, with Vilankulo islands on the horizon. National Flower of Rhodesia. Stunning brooch of it, linked. Not sure if it is still for Zimbabwe. Seen Jan/'24.
















Above, a range of wild flower, shrub and tree species: including wild daisies, legume vines, wild salvia (a favourite with butterflies), bauhinia with beautiful orange and white flowers, a parasite on an acacia trunk, spotty Ledebouria bulb leaves and Tulbaghia (wild garlic), as well as wild morning glories. seen Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe, Jan/2024. While it is summertime birds and butterflies that make visiting Musangano a must-see for respective professional researchers, flora is a close-third for biodiversity purposes.



Three different mushroom species within a square acre, Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe, near Musangano Lodge, seen Jan/2024. If you are a mushroom expert, kindly let us know by email the IDs of these toadstools.

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Earth Watch: Flora

Onkruid vergaan nooit.
The theme for Limpopo River Valley's 'weeds' below, including wild hibiscus, devil thorns, sabie stars (adenium), and vines, a belenois butterfly, and Acacia albida trunk with a girth of about 2m all seen Feb 1st 2024.











Not onkruid, per se, below are a number of beautiful wild shrubs seen bordering South Africa, Zimbabwe and Mozambique -- all around that Transfrontier Park region.



And below these shrubs, some interesting bulbs from the same region, seen Dec/2023


Above, the wild African Potato, Hypoxis, and Ammocharis coranica.

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submit your located-and-dated sighting:
replykakenbetaal.co.za

Facebook Fails
15/4/24

How many times have you spoken to a face on Facebook (or their little brother, called Whatsapp), but, actually, it wasn't them. Most of the time, you wouldn't know: their speech, their digitally transcribed written footprint and FBI sampled voicemail [FBI, meaning Face-Book-Ignoramus], has been so AI'ed out that almost all chat-app users are so invested in their own reflections-of-self that they wouldn't know that whom they think they're talking to (on the digital face of it) may well not actually be them. In a similar way, on the face of it, the BBC documentary about the discovery of Egypt and its ancient recorded language -- that is, about Young and Champollion -- screams "error" when it comes to details concerning at least one important face.

The above Cattle Egret, according to this documentary, is at one very important moment mistakenly called a "Sacred Ibis", perhaps purposefully mistaken for nothing more than the sake of the argument. Deliberately mistaken simply to prove a point, in other words. One's tempted to let it fly as a little faux pas; "oh it's just something about birds, the Sacred Ibis of ancient Egypt; this one's for the birds and doesn't really have anything to do with hieroglyphs" -- adopting this position, that it does not actually matter in the grand scheme of a documentary concerning more important human names, faces, and dates. But the possibility lingers that because of such severe avian oversight, there might also be other alike errors of facial-recognition of greater consequence.
"Belson", "Lavoir", in the subtitles, and "Miche", below, are supposedly three (of four, in all) early Coptic names for "lion", according to this same BBC documentary.

Taking the accuracy of names within this documentary cautiously with a pinch of salt, "Belson" -- a Coptic lion -- also happens to be the earliest recorded surname for my maternal, great great grandfather. Towards the last quarter of the 1800s this maternal great great grandfather was sired by a "Belson" according to his baptismal record from the Cape Colony, Cape Town. And his Christian names (William Pritchard), presumably, were also linked in some familial way to his father. But neither his father nor his mother were present at his name-day christening. His adopted parents offered up his names, linked to his parentage.
Hear-say has it that years later the biological mother of William Pritchard Belson was found. A dubious affidavit then surfaced, signed with nothing more than an "X", confessing that "a mistake" was recorded on the child's Christen Day: "perhaps", she wrote in her affidavit, "the priest got muddled between Belson and Belcher". His name should read, "William Richard Belcher" not "William Pritchard Belson". And with the biological father still not present in the adopted child's life, the affidavit probably could not be refuted.
The top-most portrait in this article would supposedly have been of this man "Belson", but now a "Belcher", because a bunch of Belchers handed this portrait down generation after generation since the late 1800s as hearsay "heads" of our family (not knowing about the first-most Belson-name Christening).
Except, according to a geneological post on Facebook, this portrait is neither Belson nor Belcher but someone named "Fuller". This name was confirmed by comparing face and name in a hardcopy of contemporaneous characters of the Cape Colony: Men of the Times. Unfortunately, the Jagger Library in Cape Town burnt down some years back and the only known library hardcopy which identifies this missing materanl link went up in flames.
The tortuous trail of a face and a name through history has ended with a named face from Facebook sadly trumping all documentary proof to the contrary. It is now largely believed by my family that maternal identification with the added spinner of an adoption must be taken at face value: on the face of things, we descend from neither the christening documents naming Belson nor the under-oath documents naming Belcher, but the named face of a man who appeared on Facebook, and who can subsequently be found in an encyclopedic who-was-who. And this, of course, makes it the truth of the matter for everyone who's on such a platform in search of reflections on the face of it, however distorted and far-removed they might be in terms of literary, documented reality.
If this is the face-value way of today for a net-booked society, we can also conclude that the woman in the profile pic at the top must surely be Judy Dentch.

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Travel
29/2/24
Take it from someone who has toured every continent, save South America (too frighteningly Amazonian), the best thing about other cultures is their food. Die kos! For South Africans in our beefy interior, getting away from the braai might be a taste-bud challenge. But, for our Capees, not so -- our coastlines are full of exciting and delicious crustaceans. The only problem is, they too often think a braai is the only option -- throw the kreef en kingklip op die braai, die calamari, die perlemoen (die wat? wat jy waar kry?!), en die vis! If you find that the brain-food which seafood brings to your palate is unbeatable from a South African braai, you should try our closest neighbor -- the Portuguese tasting Mozambique, especially its Archipelago Vilankulos. They do spicier, fresher coconut creams and milks, and a different assortment of flavour, in general. You will definitely meet other South Africans while there, even if only working for Sasol. About which.... Post covid, cost of travel and gas is high. Don't go alone. Take as many friends with as possible. On the whole, your carbon footprints will be at their lowest, and that is the biggest help for our green planet.
Here is what you can expect to eat if you are prepared to negotiate good prices for fresh delicacies directly from dhow-boat fisherman: skate, shellfish, clams, calamari, oysters, mussels, molluscs, snails, crabs, crayfish, prawns, and fish.

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Archeology
11/23
Anyone who has seen the Zimbabwe ruins will recognise that the new, Zimbabwean border, across the Limpopo, has recently been built likewise, and modelled after this ancient archeological discovery.

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OPINIONS
I think it's tragic that BuildIt in Springbok has closed. It was one of only two chains that kept prices competitive and in check. There are a few Pakistaan stores, but their merchandise isn't broad-spectrum.
25/2/2024

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"Toe ek 'n klein seuntjie was het ek warm gekry. Ek is nou drie-en-tagtig jaar out en ek kry nog steeds warm: ek sien geen verandering nie. Klimaats verandering; so global warming maak my nie bang nie. Van kleins af het ons droogtes gehad en ook oorstromings; ons het dit nou nog alhoewel ons meer nuus kry daar omtrent." F.deJaar

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25th March 2024
 
Socialistic Media

"A 100 years from now there will be another socialist uprising", Hitler. According to one of his secretaries, with him at his end, this is what he foretold, so certain he was that the community's needs -- German, in this historical instance -- were greater than those of any of its individuals.
The closer mankind has come to this 100-year foretelling, the more his words have rung true; we have social groups left, right and centre, littering most of where many of us spend most of our time, the www's social network. And all of them marginalize the opinion that does not click the "like" button -- like our group, like our post, our profile, or simply what has already been "liked". Whichever, in this unfortunate way, and in all instances, the community's click-happy and heady infection marginalizes mindful opinions of individuals that, in any other non-cyber circumstance, should sit on the shoulders of giants.
Hitler undoubtedly did not foresee who would be behind this new version of socialism, nor the medium through which such a war of ignorance would be played out: viral outlook emails, mass hysteria, for example, and influencers' posts on a multitude of platforms that appear more like attention-seeking battlefields. Some have long-since called this WWIII. A cyber war where holding sway over as many mindless individuals as possible, driven by their cyberspace community, may lead to global domination, and social engineering, in no less a manner than the Nazis had hoped in the mid-20th century.

12 months before anyone else, England took a moral stand against Germany. This, as the American historian on the World at War documentary suggests, is pretty much all of what Britain got out of WWII. If that's true -- that, even though Germany was quartered into the 'foster care' of four countries, post WWII (one of which was Britain), an "I told you so" was all with which UK could be bestowed -- it makes one wonder if Britain, in the same position 100 years on, would keep the "I told you so" to themselves? Not raise a moral claim against the perpetrators of WWIII, but keep it to themselves -- or worse, go along with it. Once bitten twice shy; once, got nothing out of taking (rightly so) the moral highground regarding real-life Nazis, twice shy about bringing the same sort of moral dilemma to everyone's attention in advance of internet socialism.
The agents and actors are obscure. Many hide behind URL addresses, avatars and platform names, all disguised as anything but who they really are and much of the time deep-state deep-fake; and obviously playing on people's IT ignorance, not knowing any better when it comes to who to turn to in times of informational war. While, pre-global shutdowns (circa 20-20hh, the "Age of Hindsight"), it might have been said that many people are completely unaware concerning socialist internet's demise, today, post shutdowns, not so. Although somebody should probably tell the Japanese Royals, who've just recently boarded Instagram -- afraid of another abomb, possibly. Comparably, it is well known that the firewalling of eastern Europe and the East has long-since treated pop-cyber culture as the potential a(sshole)bomb that it was intended to be. In this way, regardless, the resistance shown by these countries has very much so played the part that Britain's unyielding resistance did, mid-last century.

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Bird Watch: Avian

Black Eagle in flight, Kamiesberge South Africa. Then, Karoo Prinia -- the smallest of birds with speckled chest and a long tail, and a delightful chirp in the undergrowth of the Karoo. Eating the sour berries of the witkaree tree, Namaqualand, sighting March, 2024.

Above, the rooibors suikerbekkie -- the Lesser-Double-Collared Sunbird -- sighted in Namaqualand, March 2nd, with bright yellow pollen all around his beak. What flowers in March in the semi-desert region? Blood Lilies. See below, the same suikerbekkie doing a good job of pollinating Haemanthus coccineus -- one of several flowers loosely termed 'Maart Blom' because they flower in March. His colours, closely matching the South African Northern Cape Biker Tourists, stopping in at Kamiesrkoon -- with their red, blue and green outfit.

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Crombec, Bokmakierie en Barbits below:


In Afrikaans, "Stompstert" ("stump tail") because he's one of the few birds to have a tail so short, you can barely see it. Probably lost it during a war, wrestling all those Whatscrapp and Fakebook zombies to the ground. Krombek has a penchant for white, wooly aphid -- often seen eating these sugary delights in Namaqualand undergrowth.


Above, bokmakieries and barbets. There seems to be no text-book, common English name for the bokmakierie. But there is an Afrikaans name for the Pied Barbet -- bonthoutkapper. Both move about in pairs or small groups. Both sighted Namaqualand 1/3/2024.


Above, two species of House Sparrow (Great Sparrow and Cape Sparrow / Mossie en Groot Mossie) that coexist in the town of Kamieskroon; easily told apart because the first has a bokbaard and the second, a vol-baard.






Above, birds of Namaqualand, Kamiesberge: Fiscal Shrike, a white-backed mousebird, a resident swallow sp (ID?) in flight, Yellow-Throated Sparrow, a Piet Tjou Tjou (Grey Tit), and the Cape Glossy Starling -- looking as shiny as the glossy starling species of central, eastern, and northern South Africa. Sighted, Feb/2024.






Above, not the black-eyed or the red-eyed, but the white-eyed bulbul (or the Cape Bulbul), the Cape White-Eye (wit ogie), a white-browed seed eater, a Familiar Chat, the bigger Karoo Chat, and a cape bunting -- Kamiesberge, Feb 2024.
Below, in order, also seen in the Kamiesberge: African Hoopoo (not caged, near a small-holding's fence), a Butcher Bird eating a mole that popped its head too far above its molehill, a Pied Barbet, Rock Pigeon sunbathing, Namaqualand's famous (and delicious) Sandgrouse, and lastly cape turtle doves.

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25th February 2024
 
Don't 'do it for your country'

That old expression, "do it for your country" is not a compelling state-based appeal anymore. Countries have changed, globally. Many of them are barely recognizable, today, as worthy portraits of what was once upon a time the-big-picture supported by patriotic citizens. So when did it all change? And what changed everything en masse? Questions that are too broad in scope for this column (see Decline and Fall, TheGuardian 2013 for further reading). Suffice it is to say, major overly-patriotic powers -- meaning the supposed stalwarts and beacons of global progress -- have been fragmented to such an extent, possibly because of such immense monetary-driven goals (be they minerals, big-tech, or oil), that what one would "do it for" now is not what one would've, and did, "do it for" then. Emerging today, more and more, there are concerned and committed individuals doing it for themselves and not for their country -- the rewards of which are not patriotically-incentivised but alligned moreso with that warm-fuzzy feeling one gets when doing something for a cause even greater than a government. We're talking about the green movement. When one does something for the biggest picture possible. Planet Earth. Governments, if they benefit from it, this isn't the primary reason behind a private entity's motivation. A bleak situation? Actually, there are programmes emerging where private people's efforts to contribute to the big, green picture are rewarded at bank-level if not by state. This is in South Africa. In the greater region of Southern Africa, the WWF has stepped up since 1990. See, wwf.org

"To combat these threats [threats to Mozambique's marine life], WWF's marine programme in Mozambique focuses on habitat and marine species conservation, the creation of protected areas and promoting responsible fisheries. The overall objective of the programme is to ensure a healthy marine and coastal environment for both wildlife and local communities that depend on the sea's natural resources. Background. WWF's work in Mozambique was initiated in 1990 with support to Bazaruto National Park by WWF South Africa"

This month's featured, magnanimous contribution in this regard comes from Kwalala Marine Reserve -- Kwalala Lodges, Nkala Mozambique, and is our recommended green marine destination.

Travel to
1) Sustainable Green Destinations
2) Travel in a group to have a Low Carbon Footprint
3) There'll be no need to pilfer priceless Copyright images from the web

A group of Zimbabweans have brought marine-life back to this desolate Mozambican sea-bed.

Above, car-shells have been sunk to recreate inviting real-estate for marine life. Over the course of a couple decades, many species of fish have accepted the invite and now form shoals around the sea-shells and corals that have replaced the disintegrated car-shells.
There is a menu, delicious, fresh seafood, a stylish boat-bar and also a list of recreational things to do -- to photograph, to research -- while getting a healthy dose of 'vitamin-sea'.

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Bird Watch: Avian

Below, black flycatcher finding the photographer below very amusing, then the double breasted sunbird, cock and hen. Also, a village weaver, glossy starling, golden-tailed woodpecker, and a white-throated bee-eater enjoying its catch -- a large moth.








Above, seen Nelspruit UitKyk Drive, near Eco-Villages, Feb 11/2024. Below, golden-coloured Black-Headed Oriole, seen Pretoria North South Africa Feb 8, 2024.



Above, seen Feb 2024. Woodland kingfisher hen and Heuglins robin, Limpopo undergrowth.

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25th January 2024
 ... continued Column 3

... the trees of the oldest-order in Africa. Ones which primordial man sat beneath, or, as in this case, one where a Portuguese explorer traded South-Asian spices.
Oldest Trees in the World. Giant 1000+ year-old Msasa, left. Neil de Jager, right.

Not even 2 minutes from Vilanculo's beaches, this giant Msasa tree still today sees dozens of dhow boat fishermen. And it sees a range of delectable dishes pass it by in nets and buckets for set tables at local tourist destinations.
Much of Vilanculo's cuisine is still inflected with coconuts and oriental flavours.



Whole pan-fried skate with whole crab and spicey fried rice is considered a change to the usual menu on Mozambique's coast, which is prawns, calamari and crayfish. Crab with its superior sweet meat -- and skate with an extremely fine texture, very easy flaking for filleting, and a coconut hot rice with lemon butter and garlic sauces -- is something all visitors to the archipelago should taste.
And with a new political party in charge of several Mozambican regions, whilst not even heard about via broadcasters, is already making a real difference; the electricity supply network has expanded overnight and the availability of 5-star menus at exotic destinations along the Archipelago of Mozambique has grown hand-in-hand.

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Dhow Boats Vilanculo Mozambique

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25th December 2023
 Israel's Interface

If Ukraine epitomizes a 'used country', none represents inter-facing moreso than Israel. Described as 'America's sacred cow' in well-known media sources, Israel, it might be said, is the plug-in, the adapter, the external drive, the golden holy grail, that can be ruinous when employed without knowing the first thing about technology and its purporters.
Considered a pioneer in technology, its IT representatives are mostly known thanks to Facebook, Google, etc, and less known is software like Pegasus, and its use as a spy-tool on messenger services, including whatsapp and other platforms. It follows that the recent attacks on Israel were largely achieved by disconnecting from all electronic interfacing through which surveillance occurs.

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25th November 2023

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1st of the 3rd Worlds:
SA Leads Screen-Addiction

Maroela jelly, watermelon konfyt, pannekoek, koeksusters, moskonfyt, fig konfyt, gemmerbier, crocheting, knitting, sewing; the list goes on. The number of things that were made domestically as every-day items has plummeted. This is partly due to mainstream supermarkets making factory-lines out of such things. And, hand-in-hand, just as well these South African-isms are now ready-made for this allows us that much more time to spend in front of a screen. Right? A whatsapp screen. A facebook screen. A netflix screen. Did you know that many people have begun to spend hours watching cents grow with banking apps? Cent-wise, pound-foolish. And so on.
If the algorithm that keeps you glued to your galaxy is 'viral-comedy'; if the algorithm that keeps you bug-eyed stuck on your iphone is 'run-to-Portugal'; or if the algorithm that freezes you in fear is 'legal-protection'; then the only people making a difference in South Africa today are the companies that coin it from these air-time maladies. That is, the difference that's being made is when in past times your real-time was productive for your benefit, it's now unproductive but enormously profitable for other's.
So why do we do it? The simple answer is that the bait which keeps you hooked has been engineered to do so. These are some of the reasons why, recently, India extended the definition of 'online addiction' to encompass any screen; not only gaming, chatApps or online shopping, but any screen through which algorithms can work you out, give you what you want, even if it is at the expense of those around you, and to keep you scrolling -- never mind the cost of the data or its dehumanizing psychological effects on the user.
In South Africa, opinion polls indicate that people would rather be fed an imaginary cyber life than the bleak prospects of rejuvinating the country. In this way, real-life circumstances surrounding addiction-level usage of screened devices have contributed to counter-productive behaviour; behavior that has seen South African's idle-phone-time shoot up from the essential-calls bracket (well-under an hour per person) to an average of 3hrs of mindless scrolling per day.
There are many efforts underway to reclaim hours of real-life for South Africans: manditory phoneless school outings are on the increase, and phoneless classrooms are slowly becoming compulsory. Although the "no wi-fi talk to each other" signs became gratuitous when mobile data became available on each and every smartphone, this sentiment is making a come-back -- for the right, real reasons, and never before was it more applicable.

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Bird Watch: Avian

Above, Long-Tailed Glossy Starling and White Crested Helmet Shrike bird species, near Hullets Triangle Country Club, Zimbabwe, seen Jan 28/2024.


A bird-species list of the Eastern Highlands, Inyanga / Juliasdale, 1990. Below, several species seen recently in the same locality.

Grey Headed Bush Shrike, being at home in a thicket, seen Odzi, Jan/2024.

Blue Waxbill, finch species, seen Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

Rock Bunting, seen Jan/2024, Zimbabwe.


Red Collared Widow and Yellow Backed Widow, seen near Osborne Dam, Odzi Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

Nest-Robber caught in the act, Gymnogene seen at Leopard Rock Hotel, Jan/2024.

Prinia, maybe Wagtail, bird species, small bird with a huge click followed by a melodious squawk. seen Odzi, Jan/2024.



Three shy, rare bird species from Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe. Golden Breasted Bunting, Tree Pipit, and a Chin Spot Batis, directly above. ID clarification welcomed by email. Seen Jan/2024.




Above, a White-Eye, one of the wild yellow canary (geel sysie) species, Brown-Hooded Kingfisher and a Woodland kingfisher, seen in the Eastern Highlands and then at the Bubi River, close to the Limpopo River, Zimbabwe Africa. Jan/2024.

Crowned Plover and Chicks, Pretoria Trailer Park, seen 8/2023.



Above, a Murder of Crows, a flock of feral pigeons and a house sparrow -- Mutare, 2024.


Hen and cock, Purple Banded Sunbird, seen Beit Trust gardens, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.


Pintailed Whydah, hen and cock, seen Mutare Beit Trust Pensioner's Garden, Jan/2024.

Below, another suikerbekkie, olive-backed sunbird, and a nest-building black-eyed bulbul, all seen same locality.



Glossy Plum Coloured Starling: Seen 21/11/23, Vumba Forest.

Crested Guineafowl: Seen 16/11/23, Baobab Tree Reserve, Limpopo.

Weaver Species (?) Nest: Seen 20/11/23, near Musangano Lodge, Zimbabwe.

Black Collared Barbet bird species, 12/23 Limpopo South Africa

Fork Tailed Drongo, Mozambique border, Forbes 12/23

Speckled Mousebird, Limpopo River Valley, Nov '23

Rarely seen, Collared Flycatcher, Musina South Africa Nov '23

Paradise Flycatcher nesting, Limpopo River Valley, Nov '23

Heuglin's Robin seen in undergrowth, Limpopo, SA Nov 23

White-Bellied Sunbird, Vilanculo Archipelago feeding on parasitic flower nectar, 30 Dec 23

White-throated Robin, Vilanculo Bazaruto, Magaruque Islands, Mangrove swamps, Mozambique seen 30th Dec '23

Mangrove Kingfisher, Vilankulo, doing a song and dance on the newly installed cables, seen 1/2024

Blackeyed bulbul, in a wild orange tree, Vilankulo Mozambique, 1/2024

Rare Chirinda Apalis, Vilankulo Mozambique, 1/2024
Pink Flamingo flock of 100, over Vilankulo horizon and Bazaruto, seen 1/2024

Turtle dove ring-necked, in Vilankulo mangroves, seen 1/2024

Olive Bee Eater, Vilanculo Mozambique, Mangrove bird species -- seen 1/2024
Cormorant fishing at Vilankulo and Bazaruto, seen 15/2024

Whimbrel Seabird, seashore of Vilanculo, Mozambique, seen 15/2024

Sandpiper clam hunting, seashore of Vilanculo Mozamabique, seen 15/2024



Above, the Cape Eagle Owl in a coconut palm, Vilanculos Mozambique, an egret in mangrove trees, and the African Hoopoo, Mozambique Archepelago, images taken by Dr Andrew McDonald, uploaded Jan 2024.

Burchells Coucal, an omnivorous bird, eating fruit, frogs and other small reptiles or small snakes, and insects, and others' eggs and fledglings. Seen in Manica undergrowth, Mozambique Jan/2024.

African Goshawk, on a look-out branch in overcast weather -- often using it to a hunting advantage. Seen Maranatha Residence, Odzi, Zimbabwe. Jan/2024

Manikin Finch -- seen on Excelsa Aloe, a favourite nesting site between the dead thorny leaves. Seen Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe Jan/2024

Red Bishop weaver, seen in Manicaland, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

Cape Weaver colony, nesting in Manicaland, Zimbabwe. Seen Jan/2024.

Red Fire-Finch, possibly twin-spotted if visibility were better, seen Eastern Highlands, Zimbabwe Jan/2024.

It might surprise our northern hemisphere birdwatchers to know that the European Starling is alive and well in Southern Africa, often in large flocks feeding on nectar from our largest trees, such as Mahogany. Seen June/2023, Limpopo River Valley

One of the most beautiful sunbirds, comparable to Namaqualand's Malachite Sunbird, except this one from the Eastern Highlands Zimbabwe is near black with a scarlet touch and suitably called, Black Sunbird. Hen, below. Seen at Musangano, Jan/2024.




Above, Malachite sunbird, Northern Cape South Africa, seen 2023. And Ground-Hornbill. Email us if you see one, we'd love to hear about it, or email to the contact on this public poster: researchground-hornbill.org.za


Above, a raptor and a scavanger: a snake eagle from the Kamiesberg, seen 2023, and white-backed vultures congregating after a kill, seen Limpopo, Jan/2024.

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