The Big Hole. Tuesday 21st February. Rose

I have always envied the job that Michael Palin has; he travels around the world, all the troublesome journey details are pre-arranged by the BBC and he meets local people who show him around their community. Well today I felt like Michael Palin. Our hosts Dirk and Christine De Beer had arranged for us to meet their friend Brian at the Big Hole in Kimberley.

Kimberley is about 100km away from where we are staying in Christiana. Brian showed us around explaining the history of the town. Apparently diamonds were first found here in 1866 and before long, more were found on land farmed by our host’s great great grandfather, Johannes de Beer. Following this discovery, fortune seekers from all over Africa, Europe, America and Australia flocked to this remote dry region, some walking the 1000km from Cape Town. The farmland of the De Beers was the focus of the digging and holes were dug all over the land. The Big Hole that now remains is reported to be the largest hole dug by hand in the world. We stood in amazed silence when we saw the size of this hole. To think of all the people whose lives were spent digging, sieving, sorting and so on in the hope that the next bucket might contain the diamond. It was in this mine that the black labourers were kept confined to their compound to prevent illicit diamond buying. This then developed into the pass system and segregation that was one of the features of the apartheid era.

Brian then took us to the Kimberley Club for lunch. It is now a four star hotel but was an exclusive club started by people like Cecil Rhodes. It still has a very colonial atmosphere.

Brian showed us the historical buildings of Kimberley some of which are still used by the De Beer diamond company.

We felt very privileged to be shown this part of South African life but it seems such a long way from the sort of people we have met so far. South Africa is such a complex nation but we are trying to listen to as many different points of view as we can so that we can begin to build up a picture of the diocese we are partnering with.

Rose