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Daily Maverick
31-07-2025
- Daily Maverick
Journey through Kimberley: Explore the legends, battlefields and vibrant life of the diamond city
Discover the secrets of Kimberley — a well-known, old city shaped by conflict, captivating characters and, most of all, diamonds. When the first 20,000-odd fortune hunters arrived after many days of travel from Cape Town along the Diamond Way, they were met by vast empty plains and visited by horrendous dust storms and locust plagues. The many tent bars stayed open all day and all night, as kopje-wallopers (the local name for diamond middlemen) slaked their giant collective thirst. And into all of this excitement and confusion came young Barney Isaacs, soon to be reincarnated as Barney Barnato, actor, prize-fighter, seller of smelly cigars and, initially, a kopje-walloper whose fortunes were about to change for the better. Boutique hotel The engine room of Kimberley was, of course, the Big Hole. It was once a respectable piece of geography called Colesberg Kopje. Then it disappeared and became The Big Hole, currently residing on Tucker Street in Kimberley. In its time, it yielded 2,000-odd kilogrammes of diamonds from just more than 22 million tons of excavated earth. The Big Hole has a wonderful museum around it, complete with an Old Town where you can still hear the old honky-tonk piano and visit Barney's Gym. At the entrance to the museum, you can check out the old steam fire engine in front of the Pulsator Building and then walk down a long gantry to peer down at the pea-green waters of The Big Hole. Next up is the McGregor Museum, and the Duggan-Cronin Museum next to it. The building, which was once the Kimberley Sanatorium, is a grand old pile in Belgravia and the headquarters of a large museum complex. This is where we learn about the Kimberley Siege, how people were buried in the Stone Age, the lives of Lucy Lloyd and Wilhelm Bleek, who translated the thoughts and words of the !Xam people, and many paleo-insights. Next door, in the midst of other exhibitions, we learn about one Alfred Martin Duggan-Cronin, who spent more than 50 years on photographic field trips through southern Africa. He first took pictures of the black miners in Kimberley and was fascinated with where they came from. He ended up building a huge body of work in places like deep Mozambique, then southern Rhodesia, Bechuanaland and Pondoland, earning the Matabele name of Thandabantu in the process. It means 'someone who loves people' — and it shows in his work. The famous writer and activist Sol Plaatje once lived in Kimberley, and his home is now officially the Sol Plaatje Museum, full of books of historical significance. Pride of place in that extensive library belongs to a copy of Mhudi, published in 1930, considered to be the first novel by a black South African writer published in English. An outfit called Native Minds Tours organises guided visits to Galeshewe Township, adjacent to Kimberley. You can tour the township on bicycles, visiting the cultural village, the Mural Arts Project, the Kgosi Galeshewe Art Gallery and round it all off by attending a performance of the Galeshewe Theatre Organisation, which specialises in Northern Cape community stories. Kgosi Galeshewe, after whom the arts gallery is named, led his Batlhaping people in what became known as the Phokwane Rebellion against the British colonial government in the 1870s. Boers waiting in ambush Heading south out of Kimberley, we visit the Magersfontein battlefield, where the Highland Brigade was decimated by Boer forces waiting in ambush on 11 December 1899. We watch the short film reconstruction of the battle in the museum at Magersfontein, and then take a short walk up a hill to the looming Celtic cross that commemorates the fateful day. In October, the nearby upmarket Magersfontein Memorial Golf Estate sees the start of the Battle of the Bikes Festival, a very popular outdoor family event that welcomes mountain bikers, e-bikers and gravel bikers over three routes. The following day we dedicate to Mokala National Park, about 70km southwest of Kimberley. In this varying landscape of dolerite hills and grassy plains, expect to see breeding herds of everything from buffalo to blue wildebeest, with tsessebe and roan antelope included. The birders among us will, of course, go for sightings of the black-chested prinia, blacksmith lapwing and the short-toed rock thrush, not to mention the cinnamon-breasted bunting or the freckled nightjar. On our last day trip from Kimberley, we head north in the direction of Barkly West to Wildebeest Kuil and its famous rock engravings, presumably etched into the dolerite by people from the Later Stone Age. Wildebeest Kuil belongs to two San groups, the !Xun and the Khwe, and it is advisable to take a guide from the community to take you on an interpretive tour of the site. Look out for Kousop's Rock, a memorial to a Khoe-San rebel who fought the colonists here and was killed, along with 130 of his clan, in 1858. Know before you go Kimberley is full of vivid stories and remarkable characters, and is rightly rich in museums. Visit them to imbibe the spirit and history of this fascinating diamond city. DM
Zawya
04-06-2025
- Business
- Zawya
Artificial insemination a win for Zimbabwe's farmers
Zimbabwean farmer Freedom Sibanda used to sell his goats for US$30 each. Now, through crossbreeding techniques, one goat can fetch up to US$60 at market. Many smallholder farmers across Zimbabwe struggle with low livestock productivity and poverty. Traditional breeding methods often fail, leaving families with poor-quality animals and meager incomes. When Sibanda crossbred artificially inseminated goats with naturally bred goats from Zimbabwe's Matabele region, he noticed significant improvements in fertility, size, and disease resistance in the crossbred goats. 'This isn't just good for me but benefits the whole community,' he said. 'The meat quality is better and more nutritious, so my family eats healthier, and we can sell more at higher prices.' Behind this improvement is a team of researchers at Lupane State University testing low-cost reproductive technologies, including artificial insemination and crossbreeding in both poultry and goats, with early results showing striking gains. They evaluated the impact of artificial insemination on goats and poultry across a number of smallholder farms. While artificial insemination alone did not significantly outperform natural mating in goat fertility rates, both averaging around 85%, offspring resulting from crossbreeding the two lines exhibited superior performance in both size and reproductive success. Female Matabele-Boer crosses, for instance, reached up to 57.5kg, compared to just 42.3kg in purebred Matabele goats. In poultry, however, artificial insemination delivered a more dramatic result. Fertility rates jumped from 54% with natural mating to 89% with artificial insemination. Semen distribution Artificial insemination is a technique already widely used in agriculture in many other countries to improve genetic quality and productivity in cattle and poultry. In Zimbabwe, most poultry farms are owned by small-scale farmers, who typically keep one rooster with several hens. But roosters can be picky and mate only with their favorites. With artificial insemination, farmers take semen from the rooster and give it to every hen. 'Artificial insemination allows for better semen distribution, so every hen gets bred properly,' explains Fortune Jomane, the lead researcher of the project and senior lecturer at Lupane State University. 'In contrast, natural mating often faces issues, like roosters only choosing a few hens, which lowers fertility.' Extenders Jomane and his team developed special solutions that keep sperm alive longer. They used three types of extenders: a so-called 'ringer's solution' containing sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and sodium lactate; an extender with glucose, and a saline solution. They compared these to undiluted semen to assess their effectiveness. 'We found that the ringer's solution worked very well, maintaining osmotic balance, preventing dehydration, and preserving the structural integrity of the sperm while maintaining pH levels,' Jomane said. 'The extenders nourish the sperm and serve as bulking agents, helping to maintain semen quality for extended periods.' Forbes Chinyemba, senior technical officer for research management at RCZ, said 10 extension officers were trained to support farmers in using artificial insemination techniques in chickens to improve fertility rates. 'If you empower government extension officers, you empower the farmer too,' said Chinyemba. Hands-on experience Sibonangabo Sikhondze, a livestock expert from Eswatini, is convinced of the advantages of artificial insemination. He stresses the need for community training, saying farmers learn best through hands-on experience. To make the technique more accessible, Sikhondze recommends setting up local artificial insemination service centers, as well as awareness campaigns to help communities understand the advantages. Jomane says some farmers are skeptical about the effectiveness of artificial insemination, while transport issues and limited communication can also be an obstacle for remote farmers. Flooded rivers during the rainy season block access to farms and poor mobile network coverage makes it hard to contact farmers. Power shortages affect the cold storage needed to keep semen viable. Source: Artificial insemination a win for Zimbabwe's farmers
