Category: History

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Saturday/ South West Africa’s first definitives ✉️

The stamps to complete my 1931 set of South West Africa’s* first definitive stamps arrived in my mailbox today, and I promptly added them into my album.

*Namibia, since 1990. Namibia’s history spans from the arrival of hunter-gatherers like the San and the Bantu-speaking peoples to European colonialism and finally, independence.
Key periods include it as a German colony (1884-1915), a South African mandate (1915-1990), and the struggle for independence during that time, culminating in the nation’s independence on March 21, 1990.
[Source: Google Search Labs | AI Overview]

The 1½ penny was issued later (1937), but I included it in the set .. why not?
I have a mint 1½d pair coming, but the used ones that I have now with OTJIEWARONGO and GROOTFONTEIN postmarks are cool, too.
What’s unusual with this set is that the country name is in a different font for each denomination. Usually, the lettering for the country name is identical for all the stamps in a definitive set.
The 20 shilling stamp denomination at the very end of the set is an extremely high value and must have been intended for very heavy or very large parcels. (20 shillings translates to a modern currency value at least 10x than the highest denominated modern stamps!).
Furthermore: The “Okuwahakan Falls” depicted on the 1931 20-shilling stamp of South West Africa is something of a mystery. Despite its prominent appearance on the stamp, there is no well-documented waterfall in present-day Namibia known by this name, either historically or currently.
Chat GPT says it is possibly a former or obscure name for a known waterfall:
One candidate is Ruacana Falls on the Kunene River (the border with Angola).
Another is Epupa Falls, further downstream on the Kunene. Both are among Namibia’s only notable large waterfalls.
It is speculative, but “Okuwahakan” could be an old or alternate indigenous name for one of these falls.
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Friday/ another week 💔

Happy Friday.

It’s the 81st D-Day Anniversary today.
The wars in Ukraine and Gaza are dragging on.
And we are left with the smoldering wreckage of the Trump-Musk bromance.

‘I HATE MY X!‘ ‘says’ Trump of Musk on the cover of today’s New York Post .. and ‘Big, beautiful break-up—Trump-Elon bromance explodes into insults, threats*.

*X is formerly Twitter, now owned by Musk, from where he flung insults and allegations. (Trump fired back on his social media platform, called Truth Social). The big, beautiful is a reference to the The ‘One Big Beautiful Bill’, the massive and garbage federal bill proposed by Trump and his Republicans that includes tax cuts for the rich, debt ceiling increases, and changes to social programs. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates that by Fiscal Year (FY) 2034 the bill would increase America’s debt by nearly $3 trillion.

Reporting from the New York Times. One wonders if Trump took even one turn at the wheel of this Tesla Model S. (Definitely not on a public road, but presidents ARE permitted to drive on private property, such as golf courses or within controlled estates.)
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Thursday/ an e-bike ride⚡🚲

Four amigos met at the Seattle waterfront this morning.
We rode our e-bikes along the bike trail to Elliott Bay marina where we met up with a fifth amigo for lunch.

I took the G-line bus along Madison Street to the waterfront. There goes my bus, actually, but it does not matter. It’s only 6 minutes between buses, so there is no need to even look at the schedule, or worry that you might miss your bus and wait a long time for the next one.
It’s a short walk from the 1st Avenue bus stop to Colman Dock, also called Pier 52, the primary ferry terminal in Seattle.
That’s the Kaleetan ferry, just leaving for Bainbridge Island. The Kaleetan went into service in early 1968 serving the Seattle-Bainbridge Island route. Over the years it has been upgraded and it has also served the Seattle-Bremerton route and the Anacortes-San Juan Islands route.
Our rendezvous point for starting the bike ride was Molly Moon Ice Cream up ahead.
I’m stopping for a moment to admire the public art made of ‘dolosse’.
Dolosse* is a South African invention, first deployed in 1964 on the breakwater of East London, a South African port city.
* A dolos (plural: dolosse) is a wave-dissipating concrete block used in great numbers as a form of coastal management. It is a type of tetrapod. Weighing up to 8 tonnes (8.8 short tons), dolosse are used to build revetments for protection against the erosive force of waves from a body of water. [From Wikipedia]
Look! No Alaskan Way Viaduct in sight. We’re on our way, on the bike path along Alaskan Way (originally Railroad Avenue, until 1936), and the major north-south street that runs along the Elliott Bay waterfront.
I don’t have my own e-bike, so I picked up a Lime bike for rent that was on the sidewalk near Molly Moon Ice Cream. ($1 to unlock plus 43 cents per minute).
Irises in the flower beds that line the promenade on the waterfront.
This is further up north along Alaskan Way, just past Pier 66 on the left. The construction work (of the overwalk and the aquarium extension) along Alaskan Way has been completed, but not all the paving work for the intersections and bike lanes.
A brief stop by Myrtle Edwards park with its 1.25-mile winding bike and pedestrian paths along Elliott Bay, offering beautiful views of the Olympics Mountains. There’s a Carnaval cruise ship in the distance at the Pier 91 cruise terminal. It was scheduled to depart at 3.30 pm for its ‘Alaska Inside Passage Glacier’ round trip.
We reached our destination: Maggie Bluffs restaurant with its outdoor patio with views of Elliot Bay Marina.
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Tuesday/ South Korea’s new president 🇰🇷

Headline and photo from the New York Times

South Korea is in a vastly better place now that former President Yoon Suk Yeol has been replaced— the president that declared martial law during a televised address on 3 December 2024.

Here is Choe Sang-Hun reporting from Seoul for the New York Times:

If there is one characteristic that defines Lee Jae-myung, South Korea’s new president, it’s that he is a survivor.

He has survived criminal charges, a near-fatal stabbing attack and the martial law enacted by his fiercest enemy, former President Yoon Suk Yeol. Now he is taking on what may be his toughest test yet. He must lead a deeply divided nation through daunting challenges, both at home and abroad.

Mr. Lee, who won South Korea’s presidential election after his opponent conceded early Wednesday, takes office as one of the most powerful presidents that South Korea has elected in recent decades. Much of South Korea’s political power is concentrated in the presidency, and Mr. Lee will also wield considerable control over the National Assembly, where his Democratic Party holds a large majority of seats.

But long is the list of problems that Mr. Lee faces.

​The political turmoil set off by Mr. Yoon’s short-lived declaration of martial law and his subsequent impeachment and removal​ has exposed a country deeply fractured between the left and right, between generations and between genders. South Korea is ​facing ​mounting pressure from its sole military ally, the United States, even as the nuclear threat from North Korea grows. President Trump has not only slapped South Korea’s export-driven economy with heavy tariffs but also demanded that it pay more to keep American troops on its soil.

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Monday/ you got mail— official mail 📩

I found this set of envelopes on Ebay, and I “had” to buy it.
It has South African stamps with OFFICIAL overprints on that I was still missing in my collection.
I guess I will put the envelopes as is in my album.
My policy is not to remove stamps from an envelope with significant labels, postmarks, and markings.

Sent by registered mail from Pretoria, South Africa, to Folkestone, England.
Folkestone is on the English Channel just to the south of Dover).
A postmark on the back from the Folkstone post office is dated Apr. 27, 1936.
The lettering at the top says ‘In Sy Majesteits Diens’ / ‘On His Majesty’s Service’.
‘His Majesty’ would be King Edward VIII, at the time king only since Jan. 1936. He would abdicate in December of that same year, to marry American divorcée Wallis Simpson. George VI then became the next king of England.
Sent by registered mail from Pretoria, South Africa, to Minchinhampton, England.
Minchinhampton is south of Gloucester in the Stroud District.
A postmark on the back indicating the arrival date shows Jul. 10, 1933.
Sent by registered mail from Johannesburg, South Africa, to New Cross in London, England (postcode district SE14) on Dec. 23, 1931.
It looks like it arrived on Jan. 11, 1932, so the letter must have been sent by airmail.
Official souvenir cover from the Johannesburg National Philatelic Exhibition. Sent on Oct. 28, 1950 to Indonesia.
It looks like official stamps were offered for sale to collectors at the exhibition.
(Stamps with the ‘Official’ overprint are designated to be used by government departments and agencies for official correspondence.)
Another envelope, just a plain one, sent from the Johannesburg National Philatelic Exhibition.
It was sent on Oct. 24, 1950 and just to Cape Town.
The customized registered mail postmark mentioning the exhibition is unusual.
Sent registered mail and airmail from Johannesburg to the town of Gomersal in West Yorkshire, England (southwest of Leeds).
It was sent on May 4, 1948. The 1947 stamp on the left features King George VI.
That uniform he is wearing looks like a navy uniform (he served in the Royal Navy as well as the Royal Air Force; was the first member of the British royal family to be certified as a fully qualified pilot).
Sent in 1938 from Johannesburg to Cape Town by registered mail, with official stamps.
I love this 1936 stamp that depicts the mine shaft machinery of a Johannesburg gold mine. Also on the stamp, the mine dump of excavated earth, and the skyscrapers of Johannesburg behind it.
Envelope for registered mail, printed by De La Rue & Co. in London, England, with an embossed 5½ penny preprinted stamp on the flap (depicting King George V) and official stamps added.
The letter was sent to King’s College Hospital in London SE5 in August 1935.  The hospital was established in 1909, and is a major teaching hospital and major trauma center today. It is referred to locally and by staff simply as “King’s” or abbreviated internally to “KCH”.
Registered letter with official stamps and very nice air mail label, sent from Johannesburg, South Africa, to an address in Southsea (literally on the English Channel, in Portsmouth) on Jul. 14, 1951.
The coat of arms with the leopard on the rock and motto “Lux in Tenebris” (“Light in Darkness’) is that of Nyasaland— a British protectorate, later part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, and now the country of Malawi.
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Monday/ Memorial Day 🇺🇸

It’s the last Monday of May, and Memorial Day in the United States— the day for honoring and mourning the U.S. military personnel who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces.

Red poppies from a garden in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Seattle.
The red poppy is a nationally recognized symbol, worn to honor and remember all those who have served. 
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Wednesday/ South Africans in the White House 🏛️

South African daily newspaper ‘Die Burger’ (‘The Citizen’) reporting about the meeting in the White House between the South African delegation, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa. 
I added in some translations for the Afrikaans.
This newspaper, and the BBC’s reporting, says that Ramaphosa ‘survived’ the attacks against him by not fighting it too vociferously, and by staying calm and by  making a joke about offering a plane to the US.
P.S. Trump formally (openly, brazenly) accepted the $400 million dollar jet gifted to him from Qatar today*.
Does that make it official that he is the most corrupt president in America’s history— or was he that already, long before this?
*The Foreign Emoluments Clause (Article I, Section 9, Clause 8) states: “No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States: And no Person holding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without the Consent of the Congress, accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or foreign State.”

Here are the other South Africans that came with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to the White House today.

John Steenhuisen: South Africa’s Minister of Agriculture, who clarified political affiliations of individuals featured in a video presented by President Trump.
Ernie Els (nickname “The Big Easy”) and Retief Goosen: Professional South African golfers who were part of the delegation and contributed to the discussion during the meeting.
Johann Rupert: A prominent South African businessman who emphasized the broader issue of violence affecting all South Africans and proposed technological solutions to improve safety.
Zingiswa Losi: A trade union leader who stressed that crime in South Africa affects all demographic groups, not just whites.

Here’s Erica L. Green and Zolan Kanno-Youngs writing for the New York Times:
The encounter in some ways echoed the February visit to the Oval Office by President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Mr. Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Mr. Zelensky in front of TV cameras, cutting short a visit meant to coordinate a plan for peace.

The meeting with Mr. Ramaphosa on Wednesday was also striking because of the ways in which Mr. Trump dismissed attempts to push back on his fringe claims by those who knew most about them.

Mr. Trump scowled and dismissed Mr. Ramaphosa and his delegates during the meeting, including a Black woman who tried to explain that brutal crimes happen to Black people in the country as well.

By contrast, Mr. Trump joked around and listened attentively as Mr. Els, Mr. Goosen and Johann Rupert, a white South African billionaire, said crime was prevalent across the board in the nation, not just against white farmers.

Mr. Ramaphosa entered the meeting seemingly optimistic about maintaining a cordial conversation with Mr. Trump. He offered olive branches to Mr. Trump, including a book about golf. He complimented Mr. Trump’s décor in the Oval Office.

He even tried to joke with the president, who had become irate when a reporter asked him about a free plane from the Qatari government.

“I am sorry I don’t have a plane to give you,” Mr. Ramaphosa said to Mr. Trump.

“I wish you did,” Mr. Trump replied. “I’d take it. If your country offered the U.S. Air Force a plane, I would take it.”

Mr. Trump seemed more intent on relaying the talking points from leaders of Afrikaner lobbying groups, who have traveled to the United States repeatedly over the years to gather support for their claims of persecution. When one of those groups met with Mr. Trump’s top aides this year, the White House identified them as “civil rights leaders.”

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Monday/ stamps from Great Britain 🇬🇧

These stamps were on the envelope that landed in my mailbox today, mailed from the suburb of Northwood to the northwest of London.
(The Trump tariffs do not seem to affect my purchases of stamps on Ebay from overseas vendors. These are just envelopes with stamps in, though. I’m not sure what will happen if I order new albums and pages from overseas that come in a proper package).

Clockwise:
Merry Christmas
Issued Nov. 2, 2004
Perf. 14½x14 | Design: Raymond Briggs | Engraving: De La Rue | No Watermark
2238 BPD1 1st Class | Multicolored | Santa with red suit looking at sunset
25th Anniversary of Duke of Edinburgh Award Scheme
Issued Aug. 12, 1981
Perf. 14 | Pair of stamps with gutter | Design: P. Sharland | Phosphorized paper | Litho. | No Watermark
1163 638 18p Greenish yellow, magenta, pale new blue, black, cobalt & gold | Woman at pottery wheel (“Skills”)
Folklore
Issued Feb. 6, 1981
Perf. 15×14 | Design: F. Wegner | Phosphorized paper | Litho. | No Watermark
1144 620 18p Dull ultramarine, lemon, lake-brown, bright green, black & gold | Morris dancers ‘A Merry May’
British Wildlife
Issued Oct. 5, 1977
Perf. 14×15 | Design: P. Oxenham | ‘All-over’ phosphor | Litho. | No Watermark
1043 522 9p Reddish-brown, grey-black, pale lemon, bright turquoise-blue, bright magenta & gold | Badger (Meles meles)
Millennium Stamps— Life and Earth
Issued Apr. 4, 2000
Perf. 14¼x14½ | Design: Post office artists | Engraving: De La Rue | No Watermark
1837 BBX 2nd Class | Multicolored | Ecos Nature Park, Ballymena, Northern Ireland
[Sources: Stanley Gibbons Stamp Catalogue Part 1 Volume 1 British Commonwealth 1998, stampword.com]
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Thursday/ a postcard from Japan 🇯🇵

These days, stamps from Japan is one of my favorite searches on EBay.
I couldn’t resist this beautiful postcard and stamp from 1921 that was offered for just a few dollars.

 

50th Anniversary of the Establishment of Postal Service in Japan in 1871
Issued Apr. 20, 1921
Perf. 13 x 13½ | Uncoated paper | Engraved
164 A47 3 sen violet-brown Ministry of Communications Building, Tokyo
____________
Translation of the Japanese text on the postage stamp:
At the top 貳拾五年紀念奉祝 (Nijūgo-nen Kinen Hōshuku) – “50th Year Commemorative Celebration” 
At the bottom 日本郵便 (Nihon Yūbin) – “Japan Post”
三銭 (San sen) – “3 Sen” (Sen is a sub-unit of the yen, used until 1953. Following World War II, the yen lost much of its pre-war value as Japan faced a debt crisis and hyperinflation)
Bottom right: 大日本帝國政府印刷局製造 (Dai Nippon Teikoku Seifu Insatsu-kyoku Seizō) – “Manufactured by the Printing Bureau of the Government of the Empire of Japan”
[Sources: stampworld.com, Scott Standard Postage Stamp Catalogue 2017, Vol. 4, Chat GPT]
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Thursday/ the new Pope ⛪

VATICAN CITY — Habemus Papam! The world’s 1.4 billion Catholics have a new leader — Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, the first American-born pope.
Prevost, 69, is originally from Chicago and has chosen the papal name Leo XIV. He was most recently the head of the dicastery responsible for the appointment of bishops and the archbishop emeritus of Chiclayo, Peru.
– Senior Reporter Alexander Smith writing for NBC News

The new pope on the balcony in Vatican City.
[Still image from NBC News]
A 2018 tweet from Cardinal Cupich, archbishop of Chicago at the time, that was retweeted in 2018 by the new pope.
At the time in 2018, Robert Prevost was bishop of Chiclayo, a city in Peru. He became an archbishop in January 2023, and a few months later pope Francis made him a cardinal.
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Monday/ different by a hair 📏

I updated this page in my stamp album today.
I added a new line of  ½ penny springbok stamps, from 1947.
Only a very finely calibrated ruler will show the ¼ mm size difference between the printed designs of the stamps issued in 1937 (18½x22½ mm), in August 1947 (18¼x22¼ mm) issue and in November 1947 (18×22 mm).

A quarter mm is only one one-hundredth of an inch! 

The postal authorities tried to squeeze in a little more white space between the stamps in the 1947 printings, for the perforation machine.

I added in one more line with ½ penny springbok stamps, and pushed the red 1d Dromedaris* ones onto the next page.  

*The “Drommedaris” was a Dutch ‘jaght’, a type of sailing vessel, built in 1645. It was operated by the Dutch East India Company (VOC) from 1645 to 1661. The Drommedaris played a significant role in the establishment of a halfway stop for VOC ships on the trade route between Europe and the East Indies.
Ultimately, the Drommedaris’s voyages to Table Bay led to the establishment of a crucial trading post and settlement at the Cape of Good Hope, in what would become the Mother City— the city of Cape Town, South Africa.

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Friday/ another week, done 📆

It was beautiful outside today (68°F/ 20°C).
I walked down to Capitol Hill library to return two books, where I found the latest issue of The Atlantic on the magazine rack, with some unsettling writing inside (see below).

In the upside-down place we find ourselves with the Trump administration, it’s almost a positive that his 42%-or-so approval rating after 100 days in office is the lowest of any modern US president.

P.S. The US stock market held up surprisingly well this week, and April’s jobs report showed a gain of 177,000 jobs, exceeding expectations. Unemployment remains steady at 4.2%, and average hourly earnings rose modestly.

Here are the headlines and taglines from inside:
I Should Have Seen This Coming
When I joined the conservative movement in the 1980s, there were two types of people: those who cared earnestly about ideas, and those who wanted only to shock the left. The reactionary fringe has won.
DAVID BROOKS
—-
The Hollow Men
It takes a special talent to betray an entire worldview without missing a beat.
GEORGE PACKER
—-
America’s Future Is Hungary
MAGA conservatives love Viktor Orbán. But he’s left his country corrupt, stagnant, and impoverished.
ANNE APPLEBAUM
—-
Watching the Rise of a Dual State
For most people, the courts will continue to operate as usual—until they don’t.
AZIZ HUQ
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Thursday/ May Day protests 🪧

Three of us went down to Cal Anderson Park at noon, to protest in support of workers’ rights, and those of immigrants. (A panoply of other protestations were depicted on the posters that people had made). We joined the march to downtown that started at 2 pm.
The crowd that marched was not huge— reportedly somewhat over 1,000 people— and the protesters spanned two to three blocks as they walked.

We stepped out of the march by the Seattle Convention Center to look at the crowd and the rest of the protest signs. The marchers went further on down Pike Street, and turned on First Avenue to reach the Henry M. Jackson Federal Building.

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Monday/ Canada’s election 🍁

Congratulations to Prime Minister Mark Carney and to the people of Canada with their election results.

Headlines from the Washington Post, with a pictures from Reuters.

P.S. There was this post on Truth Social (read: anti-truth, anti-social) from the President of the United States this morning. Illuminating. Hallucinating.

Good luck to the Great people of Canada. Elect the man who has the strength and wisdom to cut your taxes in half, increase your military power, for free, to the highest level in the World, have your Car, Steel, Aluminum, Lumber, Energy, and all other businesses, QUADRUPLE in size, WITH ZERO TARIFFS OR TAXES, if Canada becomes the cherished 51st. State of the United States of America.
No more artificially drawn line from many years ago. Look how beautiful this land mass would be. Free access with NO BORDER.
ALL POSITIVES WITH NO NEGATIVES. IT WAS MEANT TO BE!
America can no longer subsidize Canada with the Hundreds of Billions of Dollars a year that we have been spending in the past. It makes no sense unless Canada is a State!

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Saturday/ stamps from Namibia 🇳🇦

I touched up my stamp album pages for Namibia today, and noticed that there is a mineral on the R5 stamp named after me*: Willemite.

*Actually, it is named after King William I of the Netherlands 😁.
Willemite is a silicate mineral (Zn2SiO4), discovered in 1829 in the Belgian Vieille-Montagne mine. Mineralogist Armand Lévy was shown samples by a student at the university where he was teaching, and he named it after William I. It is occasionally spelled villemite.
[From Wikpedia]

These stamps were issued in 1991 and 1992, and are still denominated in South African rand. The Namibian dollar (NAD) was introduced in 1993, replacing the country’s use of the South African rand (ZAR). South African rand is still widely accepted in Namibia, though.
On Mar. 21, 1990, the territory called South West Africa became independent from South Africa, and a new country called Namibia was established. Here is the front page of the New York Times reporting on it.
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Friday/ a book on railway stamps 🤗

Although stamps for railway parcels and newspapers have been in use in this country for over a century, they have received scant attention from philatelists.
— From the preface to the book ‘Railway Stamps of South Africa’, published by The Philatelic Federation of Southern Africa in 1985.

My spectacular* book about South Africa’s railway stamps arrived today (from South Africa, of course).

*Spectacular, because almost none of the information in it is available online, nor in any of the standard stamp catalogues.

Railway Stamps of South Africa (1985) by H.S. Hagen and S.P. Naylor.
The first of the railway stamps in South Africa were issued in 1880 (those at the top).
The Central South African Railways (CSAR) was (from 1902 to 1910) the operator of public railways in the Transvaal Colony and Orange River Colony.
At unification of the four colonies into the Union of South Africa in 1910, the unified rail network was named and operated as South African Railways.
The ‘Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij’ (South African Railway Company) was established in 1887. The company was based in Amsterdam and Pretoria, and operated in the Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek (South African Republic) during the late 19th century.
Abbreviations on the stamps:
C.T.R.—Cape Town Railways;
N.G.R.—Natal Government Railways;
C.G.R.—Cape Government Railways;
S.A.R.—South African Railways;
Z.A.S.M.—Zuid-Afrikaansche Spoorweg Maatskappij.
At the top: more stamps for South African Railways (S.A.R.), denoted in South African pennies, shillings and pounds and used until 1961.
The first bilingual stamp sheets were printed in 1929 with alternate Afrikaans stamps (S.A.S. for Suid-Afrikaanse Spoorweë) and English stamps (S.A.R.). 
Middle of the page: the pair of bright turquoise stamps are “bantam” stamps: half-sized stamps printed during World War II, when paper supplies were limited.
Bottom row: In Feb. 1961, the South African rand was introduced as currency (one hundred cents to a rand). The denominations on the post-1961 stamps were no longer part of the main design of the stamp, but overprinted in black ink.
.
.
An explanation of some of the finer differences in the fonts used for the overprints on some of the stamps.
At the back of the book: an index of abbreviations for the railway station names.
Sweet! No more blood, sweat and tears for me to figure out the station names for the abbreviations printed on the stamps.
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Wednesday/ tennis in Marrakech 🎾

The clay court season (April to June) in men’s tennis has started with ATP 250 tournaments (smaller tournaments) this week in Houston, Texas, in Bucharest, Romania, and in Marrakech, Morocco.

Here is Nuno Borges (28, 🇵🇹) being interviewed after beating the Belgian Raphaël Collignon (23, 🇧🇪) in a closely fought match on the red clay in Marrakech. It ended in a third set tie-break in which Borges iced out Collignon 7-0, though.

Afterwards the announcer addressed the remaining spectators in French.
A bit of history [from Wikipedia]: The French conquest of Morocco began with the French Republic occupying the city of Oujda on 29 March 1907. The French launched campaigns against the Sultanate of Morocco which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Fes and establishment of the French Protectorate in Morocco on 30 March 1912.

There is a 1977 song by Mike Batt, The Ride to Agadir, from the album Schizophonia, about the Rif War— an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber (Amazigh) tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
I must have played The Ride to Agadir a hundred times or more, while driving in my car in the late 80s and early 90s.

Lyrics: The Ride to Agadir

We rode in the morning
Casablanca to the west
On the Atlas mountain foothills leading down to Marrakesh
For Mohammed and Morocco
We had taken up our guns
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons

In the dry winds of summer
We were sharpening the blades
We were riding to act upon the promise we had made
With the fist and the dagger
With the rifle and the lance
We will suffer no intrusion from the infidels of France
We will suffer no intrusion from the infidels of France

We could wait no more
In the burning sands on the ride to Agadir
Like the dogs of war
For the future of this land on the ride to Agadir

Though they were waiting
And they were fifty to our ten
They were easily outnumbered by a smaller force of men
As the darkness was falling
They were soon to realize
We were going to relieve them of their godforsaken lives
We were going to relieve them of their godforsaken lives

We could wait no more
In the burning sands on the ride to Agadir
Like the dogs of war
For the future of this land on the ride to Agadir

We rode in the morning
Casablanca to the west
On the Atlas mountain foothills leading down to Marrakesh
For Mohammed and Morocco
We had taken up our guns
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons

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Sunday/ more revenue stamps 🪙

Here are the three sets of South African revenue stamps that followed on to the two sets that I had posted about earlier in March.

The last of South Africa’s revenue stamps were issued in 2008.
The use of revenue stamps on contracts and other legal documents was discontinued in March of 2009.