Occassional Paper No. 6: vol. Supplement to 15(4): 1-28

The Postmark and Postal History Society of SA incorporating the Colonial Society

The Early Postal History of the Griqualands and the Bechuanalands

Plot

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION
It is not often that a philatelic journal is given the opportunity of publishing two lengthy and well researched articles by the same author within a comparatively short space of time. Yet Ken Baker is so prolific a writer that learned articles seem to roll off his pen with an ease which is almost embarrassing to other researchers. This can also be a bane upon an editor's life, for having said many of the relevant things that one can say about a man's work a scant few weeks previously, one has to beware of being unduly repetitive in one's introduction. This is possibly also based upon the (erroneous?) assumption or vanity that people actually read "Editorial Introductions" in the first place!
In this paper Ken Baker takes a wider look at the early postal history of the northern Cape and Bechuanaland, bringing together official records and the accounts of missionaries and explorers, written during the early part of the nineteenth century. In the process he challenges some of the basic assumptions made by both Jurgens and Holmes in their documentations of the early postal history of this region. The result is a provocative and yet highly sensible paper which adds much to our understanding of the processes which were involved in the establishment of an early postal infrastructure in Southern Africa.
Ken Baker should also be seen as an object lesson to all of us. Philatelists, true philatelists, are all students of their subject and in one way or another have knowledge to contribute to the hobby as a whole. Yet how much information, how much understanding and perception has been lost because so many people delay unduly or fail to find the time to commit their findings to paper. We owe it to ourselves, to other philatelists and to philately as a whole to circulate our knowledge to an audience wider than the usual circle of friends present at philatelic society meetings.
Ken Baker has an obvious gift for putting his thoughts down on paper. I wish there were more people like him in philately.
I would like to thank Mary Hazelton who undertook the task of proof reading this paper.
FRANCO FRESCURA. Johannesburg, November 1983