Biology Reference
In-Depth Information
Barberton daisy
I was born in Barberton, for I wanted to come out feet first and a specialist was needed but
not available at our small hospital. My playpen was bordered in the west by acacia and
buffalo horn thorn bushes (the latter planted on the graves of local African leaders, including
Chief Shongwe) on top of the Shongwe Koppie on the slopes of Kamhlabane, the pig sty
towards Swaziland in the south, the Lomati crocodile and hippo infested river to the east, and
to the north by the Hhlabanyati crocodile infested stream. From the Koppie at Shongwe we
looked over the Gogwane stream riverine forest over to Jeppes Reef a few of miles away and
in the distance was Piggs Peak from which microburst dense violent thunder storms would
descend with hurricane force winds ripping trees apart. On the tawny long-grass plain between
the Koppies, scattered with acacia, Marula, monkey orange, and wild fig trees, puckered by
termite mounds and subterranean burrows, I would ride Friday, a tough and spirited Basuto
horse, accompanied by our very intelligent and spunky terrier named Diana, the goddess of
hunting, calling her back from chasing sundry small wildlife. Hhlabanyati means “the earth
muddy place of buffaloes.” “Hhlaba” means earth and “nyati” buffalo. The name “dagga boy”
for mostly elderly buffalo bulls is acquired from their preference for lying in mud, “udhaka” in
Nguni, among the reeds around water, and having a notorious bad temper when cornered or
wounded.
Couple of Old Daka Mud Wrestlers
We chose to spell “dagga” boy as “daka” boy because this spelling is more phonetically
correct and “dagga” in Africa refers to marijuana, the latter having been imported to Ethiopia
in about 1200 AD from India and then moved south with the Bantu tribes. These daka boys are
usually bachelor herds of buffalo of 5 or 20 of them. My later, larger playground was bordered
by a line between the Kamhlabane peak and Mbuzini in the south, the Lebombo Mountains in
the east, the Limpopo River in the north, and the Drakensberg Escarpment in the west,
enclosing the Lebombo plain and the Kruger National Park. This plain had a railway line
running east to west along the Crocodile River, entering the plain from Lorenzo Marques, now
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