Swaziland Safari

In the fall of 1971, I received an invitation to join a European film crew and producer, Ashley Lazarus, who was planning to film Percy Sledge performing on stage before an African audience, and then travel with him around some of South Africa's interesting locales. The project was called “Soul Africa” and was a film released in Europe and Africa, but not in America. Percy had been on tour for 17 weeks, breaking all concert attendance records in South Africa. The film was to start with Percy's final concert at Mbabane in Swaziland, which was where I was to join the group. My partner at the time was Jeanie Greene. She had some anxiety about the trip from the beginning but finally agreed to leave the country, something neither of us had ever done. We left Muscle Shoals on an American Airlines jet to Nashville, then on to New York — another first for us. From New York we flew to Lisbon, Portugal for a full day lay-over which allowed some sight-seeing. Almost no one spoke English and Jeanie's anxiety increased when I told her I wanted to rent a car. I was determined to see as much of this country as possible in the short time available. All went smoothly until we got hungry and thirsty in the afternoon heat on a road along the breathtaking Atlantic coast. After several frustrating stops, asking for water where no one understood us, we finally found a small cafe where the waiter could manage a little English and he served us “água fresca” and a nice lunch.

Next day was another long flight to Johannesburg, South Africa where we were to connect up with a pilot who would fly us to Mbabane, Swaziland (now renamed Eswatini) in a small Cessna. We arrived in "Joberg" — as everyone called it — and as we were gathering our bags we heard my name being paged on the public address system. Not a good way to be greeted thousands of miles away from home and knowing no one. I found the TAP airlines desk and was handed a transcript of an earlier phone call from the pilot who was supposed to met us. He stated that he had been delayed due to bad weather and could not arrive until next day.

South Africa at this time was a war zone. There were armed guards with automatic weapons inside and around the terminal. Foreigners were not allowed to leave the building. The airport authority informed me that they had a few "guest rooms" reserved for travelers who had connecting airline flights the next day, but that my private Cessna didn't qualify as an airline. Without a blink, and wielding my newly acquired American Express card, I went back to the TAP airlines desk and booked a flight back to Lisbon for the next day. Now we could get a room. By now Jeanie was exhausted and almost in tears, but having a place to sleep relaxed her.

Next day the pilot called us early from the lounge. We connected up and introductions were made over coffee. He assured us the weather was fine now and that we would have just a short hop to Swaziland. As we left the terminal and I was happy to see our "non-airline" Cessna waiting on the tarmac. I have always loved flying in small airplanes and the flight over the Africa Savannah was breathtaking. At times we saw wild animals, birds and interesting vegetation clearly visible from out relatively low vantage point. Our pilot pointed out interesting landmarks. It was over too soon as we were making the approach to the small landing strip in Mbabane, Swaziland.

The concert at the sports stadium in Mbabane was an extravaganza with full orchestra and a choir. I was officially an expenses paid "advisor," but I mostly just took a few photos and enjoyed being a tourist. Percy's musicians and the music director was professional and had everything under control. At the closing of the concert Swazi tribal drummers and dancers performed in front of the rostrum. Joining the celebration was the king and his thirteen wives.

An important historical note: Percy was originally restricted to appear before black-only audiences on his tour. But South African white fans were clamoring to see him, some even masqueraded as black and slipped into his opening night show in Cape Town. So the Government of South Africa relaxed restrictions and allowed Percy Sledge to appear before mixed audiences — a first for any performer in the country.

When Percy left Mbabane, Ashly Lazarus and two cameramen went to Zululand, the Kalahari Desert, the Okavango Swamps and Botswana, for three weeks of travel and filming. I wanted to join them, but the South African authorities would not grant me a visa. The stated reason was "it has been delayed" — the actual reason was they were pissed because I was part of the American trouble-makers mixing races. This attitude prevailed despite the fact that anyone could observe the lily-white Joberg businessmen flocking to the Casino in Mbabane to mix with and play roulette with the local blacks, and to enjoy the company of the attractive black ladies.

We met up with Billy Crauser, a friendly restaurant owner visiting from Cape Town who told us stories and filled is in on some of the cultural aspects of Swaziland. The country is extremely welcoming and peaceful. The military has never been involved in a foreign conflict. Maybe a king with thirteen wives had his mind on other things.

Billy pointed out that some fine local weed was available at the open market if you knew who to ask — which Billy did. I got the idea to make some brownies if Billy could secure some weed. I went to a general store and bought a small metal baking pan while Billy scored at the market. The plan was to wait until late that night and sneak into the kitchen, fire up the smaller oven and have a private bake off. Everything went as planed at first. We made it into the kitchen undiscovered, found a blender, ground up the "dagga," then added that to pre-made brownie mix from the grocery store... just like at home. We were just about to lite the oven when we heard, in an obvious German accent, "Vot are you do-ink in my kitchen." "Oh hi Chef, we were just going to bake some brownies — we didn't want to bother anyone." "Out, out now!" was his response. He wasn't in any mood to negotiate so we followed his suggestion. Back in our room we tried to consume the late-night brownie dough but our mood had been shattered and it tasted terrible, so we flushed our experiment and called it an evening.

The Swazi market held another fascinating attraction. The bead-making ladies had a small bowl with glass beads of many colors rolling around inside. In one hand they hold the bowl and in the other they hold a small needle and thread. They move the needle, pointed downward, over the next bead the want to add to the thread. The bead then literally jumps onto the end of the needle and the lady pushes it up onto the thread. There is probably some kind of electrical charge going on here, but to see it happen looks like magic.

Before we left we bought some of the beautiful and colorful fabric that Swaziland is famous for and several wooden artifacts and beaded items which I later donated to the art museum in Muscle Shoals. The trip back home was long an uneventful. The thing that made the most lasting impression on me was that the greatest reward of travel is to be able to experience everyday things from a different point of view. I read this somewhere: "I am not the same having seen the moon shine on the other side of the world.”