BBC [AFRICA] News : How an Ethiopian slave became a South African teacher Sandra Rowoldt Shell University of Cape Town 25 August 2011 Bisho Jarsa, trained as a domestic servant, went on to become a teacher When Neville Alexander used to visit his maternal grandmother Bisho Jarsa as a boy, he never suspected the extraordinary story of how she had come from Ethiopia to the South African city of Port Elizabeth. Bisho was one of a group of Ethiopian slaves freed by a British warship in 1888 off the coast of Yemen, then taken round the African coast and placed in the care of missionaries in South Africa. We were overawed in her presence and by the way she would mumble to herself in this language none of us understood, recalls Mr Alexander, now 74. This was Ethiopias Oromo language, Bishos mother tongue, which she reverted to as she grew older. Mr Alexander, who was a political prisoner in the 1960s, sharing Robben Island with Nelson Mandela, is today one of South Africas most eminent educationists. Bisho Jarsa, trained as a domestic servant, went on to become a teacher ....Bisho Jarsa, trained as a domestic servant, went on to become a teacher bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-14357121
Posted on: Tue, 25 Mar 2014 17:58:39 +0000
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