VIGNETTES FROM an African CHILDHOOD

By Evelyn Pursley-Kopitzke

My usual answer to the common icebreaker question “where are you from,” is, “I live in Tennessee.” That’s because the complete answer invariably begets a million more questions. When people find out that I’m “from” Africa, they always want to know, “what was it like?” Well, I was a child; and I didn’t know anything different at the time. My life in Africa was very protected and the cultures and political climates were completely at the periphery of my experience. However, I shall attempt to tell you, to paint a picture for you—in music—of what it was like. (Just so you don’t have to ask—we lived in Tanzania and Zambia with short sojourns in Uganda and South Africa. My parents were missionary teachers. I was 9 ½ years old when we came “back” to the US.)

1. " Baobabs, Anthills and Thorntrees" 1 minute, 52 seconds. (Zambia) I remember going to see one of the largest local baobab trees. My father, mother, brother and I couldn’t even reach halfway around its trunk, stretching fingertip to fingertip; diameters of over twenty feet were common. The bottle-shaped trunk was pithy and hollow and there was a huge anthill (taller than my father) built up against the trunk. The only sign that the tree was alive was the typical incongruously small cap of lacy leaves and branches, way up at the top. The ants, however, were very definitely alive, and made the hollow trunk a much less inviting place to play. Baobabs thrive in arid places—where you also find the acacia, or thorntree. The Africans call it the “wait-a-bit” tree because if you get caught in the thorns, you just have to stop and wait until you’ve unhooked yourself—or pay the price in badly torn skin or clothes. (Listen for the baobab trunks, treetops, the “ouch” from the thorns, the “wait-a-bit” theme, an anthill and the ants!)

2. "Azure Skies and Thunderstorms" 1 minute, 55 seconds.

When African skies are clear, there isn’t a blue that compares anywhere else I’ve ever been. But during the rainy season, there’s a daily, very short, violent thunderstorm sometime between two and four in the afternoon. The rest of the day, before and after, has glorious azure skies with a few cotton candy clouds floating overhead. (Listen for blue skies with lazy white clouds, lightning and thunder.)

3. “Floods on the Zambezi” 2 minutes, 1 second (Zambia: the Zambezi is the river that flows into Victoria Falls.) The result of the thunderstorms’ daily deluge was the annual flood season. The Zambezi River was in flood for several months out of every year. At peak flooding, the river was miles across and often too wide to see the other side (in this picture, the bank on the other side is actually just treetops growing from a flooded island.); the water appeared to be a truly calm lake—until we tossed in a stick or other floating object. Sometimes we even saw an “island” floating down the river. (Masses of flora break free of the ground and come floating down the river—birds, snakes and all.) The stationary islands that we saw were mostly just treetops above the flood. Water-loving animals, birds, and snakes had highly multiplied habitat with better access to their prey in shallow flood water. At night we often heard hippopotami “talking” to each other across the river. We never went near the river—even our fenced-off swimming area—without one of the men checking it with a pole for submerged crocodiles. (Listen for rising water flowing downstream, the “calm” flooded river, treetops, hippopotami “talking”, a kingfisher diving and the splash of its prey, snakes, crocodiles, and receding water.)

4. “Sunset on Dream Mountain” 2 minutes, 10 seconds. (Tanzania)

It’s a spectacularly vivid orange and purple sunset on the mountains behind Mbeya—not so unusual, except this one was in the dream I had when I was about five. I had recently been told how helicopters fly, and in the dream, whirling myself fast enough would make me fly too. I remember being so dizzy that I could hear my heart beat in my ears. And I have never seen a more brilliant sunset since. (Listen for the ear-ringing dizziness, the heartbeats, and the “sky theme” from #2.)

5. “Kopjes and Marmots” 1 minute, 26 seconds (South Africa)

‘Kopje’ (pronounced "copy") is the South African name for a flat-topped rocky hill—a perfect place for a pleasant afternoon hike. Marmots (hyrax or rock-rabbit) find the holes under the many rocks perfect places to live. When we went hiking up the kopjes, we’d see marmots calmly eating their seeds and we always thought we could get close enough for a better look. But every time we got closer, all-of-a-sudden, the marmots would just disappear! We never could catch them running, or diving, or whatever it was, into their holes. One second they were there and the next second they weren’t. (Listen for the kopje, hiking up the kopje, the marmots and the marmots disappearing.)