Thomas Bass (United States, WK 68-69)

What years did you attend Waterford Kamhlaba? (What forms/year group?)

I arrived at Waterford on September 6, 1968 as a seventeen-year-old volunteer on a gap year between high school and university. I had been recruited by Michael Stern when he visited my school on a speaking tour the previous year. We had corresponded and arranged for me to graduate early, skipping my senior year, in order to show up in Africa.  

Swaziland was the other side of the world for a kid from Ohio, all the more remarkable because on the day I arrived the entire country was gathered in the national football stadium. King Sobhuza and the royal court were dressed in their finest furs and feathers and the queens were ululating like crazy as a cortege of black cars rolled into the stadium and out popped a covey of British dignitaries in top hats and tails to deliver Swaziland's scrolls of independence. On the following day WK's American recruit arrived on campus.

Tell us what the school was like in those days.  

I was delighted by this little city on a hill, with its thatch-roofed rondavels and white cement buildings designed by Pancho Guedes. I loved that the school uniform was blue jeans and that everyone was working with hands, head, heart—by any means necessary—to build this better world, which was radical and political by its very existence. I had been right in thinking that Michael Stern was a visionary leader worth following to Africa.

Please tell us what you have done or are doing at the moment? (e.g.. what you studied and what field you are currently working in)

After my year in Mbabane, I went off to university for undergraduate and graduate degrees and began writing books on science, travel, politics. Africa tugged me back to write a book called Camping with the Prince and Other Tales of Science in Africa, which involved traveling on seven scientific expeditions, over a period of two years, for a book published in 1990. I thought of this project as completing what I had begun with Michael Stern. I would take a serious look at Africa and its possibilities and engage with the continent and its future. The book was not as grand as building a city on a hill, but it shed some light for what Stendhal called "The Happy Few."     

Could you tell us what inspired you to pursue your career path?

Investigative reporters, writers, and journalists like sticking their noses into other people's business, ferreting out the news, and militating for truth. We are an inquisitive lot who have a hard time sitting still and feel blessedly spared from having to do anything that resembles a job.  

Did Waterford in any way play a role in your career path choice?

Waterford was my first great adventure, one that I returned to later and did over again, smarter and better informed. One seminal experience was a trip that Michael and some of us took driving Land Rovers from Johannesburg to Ethiopia. Michael drove on to England, while the rest of us headed back to Mbabane, but from that point forward the continent was an open map.

What advice would you have for aspiring students who would want to be involved in
similar areas of expertise?

I begin writing projects with large ideas and start traveling around the world to research them, but often the real breakthroughs come when I start traveling around the block.

Do you have any fond memories of Waterford? Could you possibly share one with us and could we also ask you to send us one or two pictures of your time at WK?

The year was a cavalcade of remarkable experiences, beginning with the fireworks surrounding Swazi independence, but one particularly fond memory was a visit to Pancho Guedes and his family in what was then known as Lourenço Marques (Maputo). I admired his elegant buildings at Waterford, but here in his house I found the exuberant love for art and beauty that comes from being in the presence of a true artist.

Most embarrassing moment at Waterford?

My late arrival on Day One might count ….

< < < Back to other Alumni Profiles