Freedom of One's Feet: A Passion for Journeying

Aidan Southall's cultivated the enjoyment of life's simple luxuries. He loved travelling. Difficulties encountered on journeys were extraneous to the destinations' experiences. As a researcher, tourist or and pilgrim, he believed in travelling with "an open mind, leaving back light footprints, and returning with treasuries of memories". Born in Birmingham, moved as a baby to "Fenlands" where the love for simple life developed while cycling, swimming in rivers, camping and hitch hiking. During family holidays, besides rowing, and standing on his head (his life long mode of exercise), he already demonstrated an anthropological predilection: quizzing and recording fishermen about their boats and fish. Two years after arriving in Uganda, he established anthropology syllabus in 1947; departed Makerere in 1964 having chaired the department of anthropology and sociology; and directed the Social Research Institute. In 1991 he retired from the University of Wisconsin Madison, his base since 1969, to Southwest France.