FRIEDA BOKWE MATHEWS

The occasion was my 17th birthday, September 16th. My sister, Pearl, then a school teacher at the Lovedale Primary School, had arranged for a picnic to celebrate this and asked Rosebery, my older brother, to organise a few friends at Fort Hare [College] to be present. My sister wanted the party to be a surprise for me. So there I was surrounded by Rosebery's friends and their girlfriends mainly. Amongst the guests were Zac [Matthews] and Mark Radebe who were both my brother's closest friends, all older than I was and not very interesting, I thought. . . . Rosebery always came home with his friend Mark who later married my sister Pearl. My sister and I sometimes wondered if our brother's friendship with our husbands was one of the reasons they chose us for their future wives. Not a very flattering thought but it certainly gave us the thrill of being sought after by the most eligible young men at the College. Mark was a brilliant pianist and excelled in all sporting activities. He was the second son of a well known family in Natal, held in high esteem for being the only African in the city of Pietermaritzburg who had his business and residence in the city.

-Frieda Bokwe Matthews, Remembrances, (1995).