Disclaimer: this is a subjective opinion and not a political statement
...I was sidetracked at 16, when news of Diana, by then LADY Diana hit Malawi. I was in a Catholic boarding school for girls at the time. We heard all the conspiracy stories as we counted the number of mangos in in the tree or was it during Prep time?...I believed some of them…even heard that some of her jewels had been donated to our school through a charity organisation. I pictured seeing my first royal jewels, I imagined huge orbs draped in gold...
I got boils around this stage (don’t be disgusted, it’s part of the story) and went home to my mother to recover. My mother lived in a small town, Kasungu but wouldn’t you know it. A family in my neighbourhood had the VHS of Lady Diana’s funeral. I watched the tape with that family’s kids (they were watching it for the umpteenth time) and wept as Elton John sang the ‘Billy Jean’ song re-written for Lady Diana. In my teen Christian mind I was puzzled and afraid as I read about the circumstances of her and her boyfriend’s deaths. I was happy I wasn’t Anglican, otherwise I would have been doubly confused, but then again, I should have been out in the trees swinging from limb to limb eating mangoes.
I try now to search my mind for other information I have gathered over the years that has something to do with the royals of the UK…a picture of Princess Euginee learning to swim with mittens on her hands ‘to prevent her from scratching herself’ was it? I’m not sure anymore…a picture of a balding Prince Edward… something about Princess Fergie starting a cartoon show (was it?)…some divorces…the death of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret…..
…..and suddenly, Friday 29 April 2011, me, housebound and the telly ontuned to SABC 3... I think that was interesting in itself, for had I been in Malawi at that precise moment, chances are I would not have been tuned to a live broadcast, not because it’s not accessible there, but it would not have been accessible to ME…now that I’m grown, I AM expected to swing from limb to limb don’t you know….the limbs of a non-student-full-time-employed-junior-can’t-get-a-day-off-randomly-to-ruminate-before-a-tv kind of existence.
...I was sidetracked at 16, when news of Diana, by then LADY Diana hit Malawi. I was in a Catholic boarding school for girls at the time. We heard all the conspiracy stories as we counted the number of mangos in in the tree or was it during Prep time?...I believed some of them…even heard that some of her jewels had been donated to our school through a charity organisation. I pictured seeing my first royal jewels, I imagined huge orbs draped in gold...
I got boils around this stage (don’t be disgusted, it’s part of the story) and went home to my mother to recover. My mother lived in a small town, Kasungu but wouldn’t you know it. A family in my neighbourhood had the VHS of Lady Diana’s funeral. I watched the tape with that family’s kids (they were watching it for the umpteenth time) and wept as Elton John sang the ‘Billy Jean’ song re-written for Lady Diana. In my teen Christian mind I was puzzled and afraid as I read about the circumstances of her and her boyfriend’s deaths. I was happy I wasn’t Anglican, otherwise I would have been doubly confused, but then again, I should have been out in the trees swinging from limb to limb eating mangoes.
I try now to search my mind for other information I have gathered over the years that has something to do with the royals of the UK…a picture of Princess Euginee learning to swim with mittens on her hands ‘to prevent her from scratching herself’ was it? I’m not sure anymore…a picture of a balding Prince Edward… something about Princess Fergie starting a cartoon show (was it?)…some divorces…the death of the Queen Mother and Princess Margaret…..
…..and suddenly, Friday 29 April 2011, me, housebound and the telly ontuned to SABC 3... I think that was interesting in itself, for had I been in Malawi at that precise moment, chances are I would not have been tuned to a live broadcast, not because it’s not accessible there, but it would not have been accessible to ME…now that I’m grown, I AM expected to swing from limb to limb don’t you know….the limbs of a non-student-full-time-employed-junior-can’t-get-a-day-off-randomly-to-ruminate-before-a-tv kind of existence.
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