SOUTH-AFRICA-L Archives

Archiver > SOUTH-AFRICA > 2004-06 > 1086379918


From: "Chuck Osborne" <>
Subject: Re: [ZA] Fort Genesa, Bechuanaland
Date: Fri, 4 Jun 2004 22:15:06 -0700
References: <005001c449f5$5541b040$825323cb@topend.com.au>


Hello Lorraine,

I have been to Ganyesa as it is now spelt, which was changed as it was in
part of the previous 'Homeland' of Bophuthatswana. My reason for going
there was to scatter my father's ashes on his Grandparent's grave - JOHN
JOSIAH BAIN & SARAH JANE BAIN(nee RUDMAN). They owned the 'Ganyesa Trading
Post' in the homeland, next to the Ganyesa Police Station - a very dry and
desolate tribal area on the edge of the Kalahari Desert. I remember my
father saying that Ganyesa was the place where police patrols changed from
horse patrols to camel patrols - but the patrols never met, or else the
horses would bolt when they smelt the camels !!!
My Grandfather PERCY OSBORNE came to SA in 1902 to join the Cape Mounted
Police and was posted to Ganyesa, where he met and married my Grandmother
LILIAN MARY MARIA BAIN, and being a grocer by trade, took over the Trading
Post.
Another policeman posted to Ganyesa was HARRY CHAPMAN, whose son married my
Dad's sister.
Apart from the Police Station and Trading Post, there is a very basic church
and very little else amongst the tribesmen's dwellings.
My family left the Trading Post in 1935 to move to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe,
and sold out to a family that still owns it - I have their address.
Contact me off list if you would like more details.

Kind regards,

Chuck Osborne,
Durban, SA.

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lorraine & Rick Vass" <>
To: <>
Sent: Thursday, June 03, 2004 10:32 PM
Subject: [ZA] Fort Genesa, Bechuanaland



This thread: