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Registered Mail from South Africa to Sekakes, Lesotho

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Despite this display being too modern and the subject too historically guilt-laden for many White South African collectors, this display is one of the very few with any hope of making postal history relevant to Black South Africans. It is more worthy of a top award than displays that re-work safe White South African State and Colonial  subjects like King's Heads, Jipex sheets and the  'Anglo-Boer War' over and over again to the point where you think you've seen it all before and wonder where and when something new will come along. Well, here it is!

Thank you Louwrens. 'Mooi skoot, meneer!' (Afr. nice shot, mister.)

Elitists may not like this material, (I do not), but it has, I assume, something to say about the Black experience under Apartheid. I have not seen much material that does that.  The covers shown are pretty scruffy given the harsh conditions that the senders. mostly mineworkers, lived and worked under, not to mention their transport to and storage in their final destination. Nevertheless, this display represents the ugly, uncomfortable side of South Africa during the Apartheid years, something many of us want to forget, not that we experienced the life of a migrant Black miner from Lesotho. For the philatelist and postal historian who wants to understand our history as an all-round reality, this is an excellent starting point. If postal history is to have any future in the New South Africa, we need more displays like this that uncompromisingly reveal a warts and all look at the past. I suspect that the judges were unable to rise to the challenge of recognising the social worth and intergity of your diplay, not that you get points for that under the current regime. You deserved better than to be marked down for technicalities. You have my admiration and respect for rising to the challenge of working outside their box. Keep up the good work. We need a lot more stuff like this.

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