Zambia World Wide

John & May Lougher, missionaries in Northern Rhodesia, regularly sent letters to “Echoes of Service”, Bath, UK, the organisation responsible for forwarding money donated by the supporting Brethren Assemblies. These letters are now kept at “The John Rylands University Library”, the University of Manchester. “Echoes of Service”, who hold the copyright, have kindly granted permission for extracts from these letters to be used in this series of articles.

Article 1 From Cape Town to Fort Rosebery

The Loughers were from South Wales and went out to Northern Rhodesia in 1946. They eventually settled in Ndola. They died before Zambia’s independence and were buried in Kansenshi cemetery.

After arriving in South Africa, John and May travelled by train from Cape Town to Ndola, via Bulawayo and Livingstone, and then by lorry to Fort Rosebery. This was a journey of about 3,250 km and probably took them a week to complete.

The Journey from Cape Town to Ndola

May describes the journey in a letter dated 11^th August, 1946.

After passing through the Customs and the usual tiresome Government formalities at Cape Town, we boarded a special boat-train which was scheduled to leave at 6.30 p.m. but was very much delayed. Imagine 400 of us trying to get on the train! The sun set and soon it was dark, and there was the added difficulty of finding our names which were supposed to be pinned up outside the compartment. It was the cold season in the South and the wind was specially fierce at the docks ….

Here, in this small space we lived and slept for 3 days. There was only one dining car on the train, to cater for 400 passengers, so you can imagine how we fared! …. There were seven sittings every mealtime. Meals were served up to midnight, some evenings …. Owing to the congestion, most of us were quite satisfied – mentally – to be content with one or two meals a day. We stopped at various stations along the way to change engines and replenish the water supply. Needless to say we were afforded an opportunity for some exercise. It was very interesting, too, to watch the natives and no doubt they were just as interested to study us. About 7.30 a.m. on Thursday we arrived at Bulawayo.

After customs clearance and some shopping they boarded the 2 o’clock Northern Rhodesia train for Livingstone. May continues with her account:

Livingstone is the old capital of N.Rhodesia and is still an important town. All passengers had to go off the train here to go to the Immigration and Customs Office. The most interesting thing here is the Victoria Falls or “Musi-wo-tunya” [sic] as they are called by the Africans. The Falls are a wonderful sight. The spray from them is flung high into the air and catches the sunlight, forming beautiful rainbows, while all around there is a continual rain which has made a “rain forest” of tropical trees and plants.. On the other side is a statute of David Livingstone looking out - over the falls he discovered – to Northern Rhodesia, the country for which he died. Slung across the gorge is the railway bridge which many Africans think more wonderful than the Falls! It spans the deep gorge at a height of 360 feet and is the only bridge joining North and South. Our train had to go across very slowly and thus gave us a grand view of the Eastern Cataract

After passing through the Southern and Central provinces they reached Ndola on Friday 28^th of June but had to wait until Monday for a lorry to Fort Rosebery (now Mansa).

The Journey from Ndola to Fort Rosebery

This part of the journey would take the Loughers across the Belgian Congo (the pedicle), passing through Sakania and Capalala, before crossing the Luapula River.

We had a wayside meal at Sakania and spent some time crossing the border into the Congo, having to interview the Belgian District Officer. We travelled 90 miles across Belgian territory arriving at Capalala – on the border – at 8 o’clock at night. The Luapula had to be crossed in a ‘dug-out’ canoe. The natives baled out the water before we got in and this made me feel a bit dubious! In the pitch dark my foot slipped on the side of the canoe and my helmet – which I had thought safer on my head than in my hand - slipped into the river! Mr Lougher quickly snatched it out, before it had time to sail too far …. The heavily loaded lorry crossed on the pontoon early the following morning. We were very glad to spend the night at the Rest House here as we felt very tired after travelling all day along the dusty and unkept road. Another alarming story was told us before we retired that night. A native had been killed by a lion two days before! Log fires were seen dotted here and there, with groups of natives around. …

.. at dawn the following morning the river was shrouded by a thick mist. As the strong sun peeped through so the mist rolled away and we were once again able to view the beauty of that rare scenery. After a few interruptions and set-backs … we finally got seatedin the lorry and hit the trail once more …. This part of the road was worse than the former and at some places the lorry simply ploughed through thick sand. We had a break for lunch and happily the lorry stopped near a river. We filled a saucepan with the water and the lorry-driver helped to get a log fire blazing. Here we refreshed ourselves with sandwiches and plenty of tea. After a few more hours travelling – passing some villages and waving to the crowds along the way – we suddenly perceived Fort Rosebery in the distance. Past the Government Post, across the long narrow bridge, then speeding up the hill, we finally reached our destination.

(From a letter dated 11^th August, 1946, written by J & M Lougher from Lwela Mission, Fort Rosebery)