Talk:Waterford Kamhlaba

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Kamhlaba - means of the world in SiSwati. SiSwati is a language spoken in Swaziland and South Africa.

I attended Waterford-Kamhlaba Boarding school from 1965 to 1971 when Michael Stern was Head Master, Tony Hatton (nicknamed "The Owl" and "Khaki") was House Master for Henderson House and Deon Glover was House Master for Guedes house. Gordon Milne and "Foundress" ran Elangeni, the junior boy's dorm', although, when I first came to the school, Elangeni was for the seniors.

It was "Waterford School" for the first part of my tenure and then, after Swaziland's achieving independence from Great Britain in 1968, we were given the tag-on "Kamhlaba" which, we were told at the time, was because we were multi-racial and therefore representative of the world. The K without an "h" after it is pronounced as a hard "G."

It means "Little World." We were also instrumental in choosing the new Swazi National Anthem, which goes: "nKulu nKulu mnikhati weti bu siso thema Swati, siyatibonga tonkhe tinhlahla..." Ok, my wife says I must quit, because the neighbors are complaining. I was in the choir that sang it to the government officials who came to us with several choices. I assure you I know it all the way through, with a few minor mispronounciations. I am, after all, 53 years old now. It happens that they chose the Anthem we all liked best and that is the anthem of Swaziland today.

Anyway, I knew and admired both Matthew and Roger Parris, I am a great admirer of Richard Grant (Esterhuysen), I wish I could find Alan McGregor, Johnny Nkambule (who once called me incorrigible in a report to my dad, but who I thought a great person), William Mbatha, Leslie and Karen McLeod, Xico Meirelles, Lyndsey Veloso, Miss Wentworth, a teacher with whom I was secretly enamoured and I wish could have stayed friends with the late Stanley Matsebula and his terrific brother Ryan, but now I live in Mexico and read as much as possible about the direction W-K has taken. By the way, if you're American and you make "Polish Jokes" you might want to bear in mind that aside from the Parris boys and Stephen Derfel Turner, the brightest kids in the school were Jan Ledahowski and Franek Roszwadowski.

I visit W-K on "Google Earth" and remember the times I climbed Tom and Kelly and the many "runs" I got around that field (which, oddly, has changed shape). I mourne Michael Stern's death, because he was a genuinely good man.

nKulu nKulu bless Swaziland and Waterford-Kamhlaba.