A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Don't Let's go to the Dogs Tonight is a wonderfully evocative memoir of Alexandra Fuller's African childhood. Fuller regards herself "as a daughter of Africa", who spent her early life on farms in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Zambia throughout the turbulent 1970s and 80s, as her parents "fought to keep one country in Africa white-run", but "lost twice" in Kenya and Zimbabwe. This is a profoundly personal story about growing up with a pair of funny, tough, white African settlers, and living with their "sometimes breathlessly illogical decisions", as they move from war-torn Zimbabwe to disease and malnutrition in Malawi, and finally the "beautiful and fertile" land of Zambia.

Central to Fuller's book is the intense relations between herself and her parents, a chain-smoking father able to turn round any farm in Africa, her glamorous older sister Vanessa, and the character who sits at the heart of the book, Fuller's "fiercely intelligent, deeply compassionate, surprisingly witty and terrifyingly mad" mother.

Fuller weaves together painful family tragedy with a wider understanding of the ambivalence of being part of a separatist white farming community in the midst of Black African independence. The majority of the book focuses on Fuller's early years in war-torn Zimbabwe, with "more history stuffed into its make-believe, colonial-dream borders than one country the size of a very large teapot should be able to amass." This is the most successful dimension of the book, as Fuller describes growing up on farm where her father is away most nights fighting "terrorists", and stripping a rifle takes precedence over school lessons. The sections on Malawi and Zambia are more prosaic, but this is a lyrical and accomplished memoir about Africa, which is "about adjusting to a new world view" and the author's "passionate love for a continent that has come to define, shape, scar and heal me and my family." --Jerry Brotton

A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Evocative but unpalatable, 31 Aug 2008
This was Englishmum.com's book club book for June. First off, I would say that this is not my usual reading material, which tends to be either cookery books or nasty, grisly Mark Billingham-esque murder mysteries. Having said that, the whole point of a book club is to challenge oneself to read books outside one's `comfort zone' shall we say. I suppose I enjoyed this book; I liked Fuller's honest, nostalgia-free style of writing and found her descriptions of her childhood Africa highly evocative. I found the way she wrote of the loss of two of her siblings incredibly moving. I didn't, however, find it a page-turner and felt that I was forcing myself through it. I also found some of the language and opinions unpalatable (well, we're talking white settlers in 1970s Rhodesia with the inevitable black household staff, to be fair). She relates all this, however uncomfortable, without judgment or criticism, and I like the fact that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Read what our book club members thought about this book:

http://englishmum.com/2008/07/05/ems-bookish-club-our-june-book/

A real scratch and sniff book!, 27 Aug 2007
The narrative is so engaging and descriptive that your senses are brought alive and you are almost transported to Africa.
The child's eye view on events is refreshing, and adds another dimension to the unfurling events.
She has a lovely comic timing which sits comfortably, although often excruciatingly, with the harrowing tales of war, sadness and poverty.


Fascinating and funny, 14 Aug 2007
The true story of an eccentric white family living in Southern Africa through the wars of the 70s.Told from a child's point of view it's very honest & funny and is a brilliant insight into a fascinating time and place.

Once you have smelled the African bush, 20 May 2007
Intensely evocative.

There is an African saying that once you have recognised the smell of the bush it will never be forgotten...and that your heart will never leave Africa.

The terrs (terrorists) might have won the battle but have lost everything else.

Remember, Old Rhodies never die and this book explains why, but perhaps without the author really realising - but she certainly conveys the smell of the bush.

John Bell

A Great account of a unique upbringing., 12 May 2007
As an avid reader of alot of African non-fiction, this book was unique in that I read it in two days without ever feeling as though I was become bored of it.

I really enjoyed her unique style, successfully used in her second book as well, with short chapters and anecdotes that were always interesting, if at times heart renching.

Where this book succeeds, and others in this genre fail, is in her "no-holds barred" approach which never leads to nostalgia.

Fuller's story itself is a unique one, in that it covers so much of Southern Africa's turbulent history, she was brought up in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, which means that the reader gets both an interesting story and the history of this troubled region.

So, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern history or in unusual biographies.

A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Evocative but unpalatable, 31 Aug 2008
This was Englishmum.com's book club book for June. First off, I would say that this is not my usual reading material, which tends to be either cookery books or nasty, grisly Mark Billingham-esque murder mysteries. Having said that, the whole point of a book club is to challenge oneself to read books outside one's `comfort zone' shall we say. I suppose I enjoyed this book; I liked Fuller's honest, nostalgia-free style of writing and found her descriptions of her childhood Africa highly evocative. I found the way she wrote of the loss of two of her siblings incredibly moving. I didn't, however, find it a page-turner and felt that I was forcing myself through it. I also found some of the language and opinions unpalatable (well, we're talking white settlers in 1970s Rhodesia with the inevitable black household staff, to be fair). She relates all this, however uncomfortable, without judgment or criticism, and I like the fact that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Read what our book club members thought about this book:

http://englishmum.com/2008/07/05/ems-bookish-club-our-june-book/

A real scratch and sniff book!, 27 Aug 2007
The narrative is so engaging and descriptive that your senses are brought alive and you are almost transported to Africa.
The child's eye view on events is refreshing, and adds another dimension to the unfurling events.
She has a lovely comic timing which sits comfortably, although often excruciatingly, with the harrowing tales of war, sadness and poverty.


Fascinating and funny, 14 Aug 2007
The true story of an eccentric white family living in Southern Africa through the wars of the 70s.Told from a child's point of view it's very honest & funny and is a brilliant insight into a fascinating time and place.

Once you have smelled the African bush, 20 May 2007
Intensely evocative.

There is an African saying that once you have recognised the smell of the bush it will never be forgotten...and that your heart will never leave Africa.

The terrs (terrorists) might have won the battle but have lost everything else.

Remember, Old Rhodies never die and this book explains why, but perhaps without the author really realising - but she certainly conveys the smell of the bush.

John Bell

A Great account of a unique upbringing., 12 May 2007
As an avid reader of alot of African non-fiction, this book was unique in that I read it in two days without ever feeling as though I was become bored of it.

I really enjoyed her unique style, successfully used in her second book as well, with short chapters and anecdotes that were always interesting, if at times heart renching.

Where this book succeeds, and others in this genre fail, is in her "no-holds barred" approach which never leads to nostalgia.

Fuller's story itself is a unique one, in that it covers so much of Southern Africa's turbulent history, she was brought up in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, which means that the reader gets both an interesting story and the history of this troubled region.

So, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern history or in unusual biographies.

A good reportage or a good propaganda?, 23 Dec 2008
I was reading the first part of the book and admiring the `reportage' and excellent 'journalism' of the writer. I met many Portuguese guys that left and came back to Angola when the war ended and I was still looking for the why, what made people leave everything they've toiled for, their farms, houses, churches, animals, the icon of the family's saint above the door frame. Kapuscinski tell their story nicely, his story make sense.

But then he leaves Luanda and travel to the fronts and my affair with him ends there.
I live in and out of Angola for over 7 years now, I've been there when the war ended, I worked with war veterans from both sides. I have good MPLA friends and good UNITA friends. I met South-African that were here, fighting, and Portuguese farmers that never left. I traveled the country by length. I know the places that Kapuscinski visited. I know them well.

Kapuscinski does what I thought a good foreign journalist in a new place must not do- take a side. How can you tell a story when your political views are so one sided (and in 1975 Kapuscinski came from a Communist, not a Socialist country and the war in Angola was, when the book was published in 1976, an important icon of the cold war- a case study for `war by proxy').

When one can see only the mixed race elite of Luanda as the legitimate owners of that land yet one choose to ignore the views of everyone else, as educated but yet fully African.

Most of the friends Kapuscinski make are white or mixed race Angolan. Some of them Portuguese adventurers, but they chose a communist flag so they represent the brave young republic and for them Kapuscinski will cross journalist lines and will pass information that might help stop the `others' to whom he does not speak, which he does not even meet. The others must be puppets of foreign masters and their white soldiers all mercenaries.

The Cuban where the one really to turn the tide, 25,000 of them will be a much more accurate number then what the book says. It wasn't just their uniforms that made UNITA run as Kapuscinski suggests, it was also their MIG airplanes and their heavy tanks and the mountains of Russian AK 47's that they brought with them.
This book tells an interesting story and it tells it nicely. The story was told in a political context, not just a journalist context. There are so little stories about that period of time so this little different in context is Important.

The product summery quotes from the book: "It's wrong to write about people without living through at least a little of what they are living through', I agree, a fair rule. I only wish Kapuscinski would have kept it beyond his immediate political views.


Angola's descent into a nightmare., 25 Jul 2007
This was the first book of Kapuscinski's I ever read(in about 1986)and I've been a huge fan ever since.Not the archetypal war junkie that western media outlets habitually send to Africa,Kapuscinski's humanity and gift for the arresting detail shine out in this book.Two highlights in a fantastic book are:
1-The passage describing roadblock etiquette.How vital it is to know the difference between "camarada"(comrade) and "irmao"(brother).Saying the wrong word at the wrong roadblock means instant death.
2-When he hears a radio broadcast saying that the MPLA are a bunch of communist stooges,lackeys to their Soviet masters,and that any communists would be hunted down.At this point in time,Kapuscinski is,as far as he knows,the only citizen of a socialist country anywhere in Angola.a terrifying moment which he puts across very well.
If only Kapuscinski knew that the war between the MPLA and it's enemies would go on for almost another 30 years.Fantastic journalism,and a good primer on the roots of Angola's post-independence nightmare.

A vivid description of descent into war in Angola, 22 Sep 2004
Kapuscinski's reportage is uniquely engaging, often showing close similarity in style to the 'magical realism' (forgive the term!) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In this, perhaps his best book and probably my favourite work of reportage, he describes life as a Polish foreign correspondent caught up in the last days of the Portuguese empire, in Angola in 1975. He describes the changes taking place as the Portuguese leave and Angola descends into the hell of civil war. He is not afraid (or is afraid, but still does it!) to risk his skin, travelling as a sole outside witness in hair-raising circumstances to report to the world. Kapuscinski shows a close bond to the people that he writes of - one of his great strengths - and a strong sense of humour. If you are interested in 20th century African history, and want more that a dry text, this is one of several books to read by Kapuscinski! There is no equivalent.

Martin Meredith's new book on Robert Mugabe, Mugabe: Power and Plunder in Zimbabwe comes as a welcome antidote to the current one-dimensional portrayals of the president as an "evil monster" that narrow our understanding of the man. Meredith has spent most of his career reporting on Zimbabwe and South Africa, first as a foreign correspondent and latterly as an academic, so his credentials are impeccable. He does not shirk from condemning Mugabe for his single-minded obsession with power that has left Zimbabwe's roads flowing with blood and its economy bankrupt, but Meredith reminds us that in his earlier days Mugabe was a much more considered political radical. Mugabe spent his early years under the tutelage of the Jesuits, and only abandoned religion in favour of Marxism after he won a scholarship to study at university in South Africa where he quickly became a highly politicised member of the African National Congress. He came to Western attention in the late 1970s when the apartheid regime in Rhodesia, as Zimbabwe was then known, creaked to its inevitable demise and Britain set about establishing an independent African regime in its former colony. Britain did its best to rig the results in favour of its preferred candidate the moderate and easily controlled Bishop Muzorewa, but much to the surprise of the Thatcher government--but to no-one in Zimbabwe--Mugabe's ZANU party romped home as landslide victors. Britain held its breath for the backlash and... nothing happened. In fact, Mugabe showed himself to be surprisingly conciliatory and Christopher Soames, the British governor-general who had been appointed to supervise the elections reported that he "ended up not only implicitly trusting him but also fondly loving him as well".

So where did it all go wrong? It is tempting to suggest that his father's desertion and the death of his young son were key factors in Mugabe's subsequent emotional detachment, but Meredith resists drawing such a linear psychological equation. Instead he catalogues the landmark events, such as the scandal of the war veteran pensions, that led Mugabe to compromise both his morality and his country and one is left with the impression that Zimbabwe's fate was inevitable given that Mugabe's only guiding motivation was to hang on to power whatever the cost. Mugabe: Power and Plunder in Zimbabwe is the first book of a brand new non-fiction imprint, PublicAffairs Ltd, that is dedicated to following the standards of IF Stone and Benjamin Bradlee: both would be more than happy to be associated with Meredith's volume. --John Crace

A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Evocative but unpalatable, 31 Aug 2008
This was Englishmum.com's book club book for June. First off, I would say that this is not my usual reading material, which tends to be either cookery books or nasty, grisly Mark Billingham-esque murder mysteries. Having said that, the whole point of a book club is to challenge oneself to read books outside one's `comfort zone' shall we say. I suppose I enjoyed this book; I liked Fuller's honest, nostalgia-free style of writing and found her descriptions of her childhood Africa highly evocative. I found the way she wrote of the loss of two of her siblings incredibly moving. I didn't, however, find it a page-turner and felt that I was forcing myself through it. I also found some of the language and opinions unpalatable (well, we're talking white settlers in 1970s Rhodesia with the inevitable black household staff, to be fair). She relates all this, however uncomfortable, without judgment or criticism, and I like the fact that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Read what our book club members thought about this book:

http://englishmum.com/2008/07/05/ems-bookish-club-our-june-book/

A real scratch and sniff book!, 27 Aug 2007
The narrative is so engaging and descriptive that your senses are brought alive and you are almost transported to Africa.
The child's eye view on events is refreshing, and adds another dimension to the unfurling events.
She has a lovely comic timing which sits comfortably, although often excruciatingly, with the harrowing tales of war, sadness and poverty.


Fascinating and funny, 14 Aug 2007
The true story of an eccentric white family living in Southern Africa through the wars of the 70s.Told from a child's point of view it's very honest & funny and is a brilliant insight into a fascinating time and place.

Once you have smelled the African bush, 20 May 2007
Intensely evocative.

There is an African saying that once you have recognised the smell of the bush it will never be forgotten...and that your heart will never leave Africa.

The terrs (terrorists) might have won the battle but have lost everything else.

Remember, Old Rhodies never die and this book explains why, but perhaps without the author really realising - but she certainly conveys the smell of the bush.

John Bell

A Great account of a unique upbringing., 12 May 2007
As an avid reader of alot of African non-fiction, this book was unique in that I read it in two days without ever feeling as though I was become bored of it.

I really enjoyed her unique style, successfully used in her second book as well, with short chapters and anecdotes that were always interesting, if at times heart renching.

Where this book succeeds, and others in this genre fail, is in her "no-holds barred" approach which never leads to nostalgia.

Fuller's story itself is a unique one, in that it covers so much of Southern Africa's turbulent history, she was brought up in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, which means that the reader gets both an interesting story and the history of this troubled region.

So, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern history or in unusual biographies.

A good reportage or a good propaganda?, 23 Dec 2008
I was reading the first part of the book and admiring the `reportage' and excellent 'journalism' of the writer. I met many Portuguese guys that left and came back to Angola when the war ended and I was still looking for the why, what made people leave everything they've toiled for, their farms, houses, churches, animals, the icon of the family's saint above the door frame. Kapuscinski tell their story nicely, his story make sense.

But then he leaves Luanda and travel to the fronts and my affair with him ends there.
I live in and out of Angola for over 7 years now, I've been there when the war ended, I worked with war veterans from both sides. I have good MPLA friends and good UNITA friends. I met South-African that were here, fighting, and Portuguese farmers that never left. I traveled the country by length. I know the places that Kapuscinski visited. I know them well.

Kapuscinski does what I thought a good foreign journalist in a new place must not do- take a side. How can you tell a story when your political views are so one sided (and in 1975 Kapuscinski came from a Communist, not a Socialist country and the war in Angola was, when the book was published in 1976, an important icon of the cold war- a case study for `war by proxy').

When one can see only the mixed race elite of Luanda as the legitimate owners of that land yet one choose to ignore the views of everyone else, as educated but yet fully African.

Most of the friends Kapuscinski make are white or mixed race Angolan. Some of them Portuguese adventurers, but they chose a communist flag so they represent the brave young republic and for them Kapuscinski will cross journalist lines and will pass information that might help stop the `others' to whom he does not speak, which he does not even meet. The others must be puppets of foreign masters and their white soldiers all mercenaries.

The Cuban where the one really to turn the tide, 25,000 of them will be a much more accurate number then what the book says. It wasn't just their uniforms that made UNITA run as Kapuscinski suggests, it was also their MIG airplanes and their heavy tanks and the mountains of Russian AK 47's that they brought with them.
This book tells an interesting story and it tells it nicely. The story was told in a political context, not just a journalist context. There are so little stories about that period of time so this little different in context is Important.

The product summery quotes from the book: "It's wrong to write about people without living through at least a little of what they are living through', I agree, a fair rule. I only wish Kapuscinski would have kept it beyond his immediate political views.


Angola's descent into a nightmare., 25 Jul 2007
This was the first book of Kapuscinski's I ever read(in about 1986)and I've been a huge fan ever since.Not the archetypal war junkie that western media outlets habitually send to Africa,Kapuscinski's humanity and gift for the arresting detail shine out in this book.Two highlights in a fantastic book are:
1-The passage describing roadblock etiquette.How vital it is to know the difference between "camarada"(comrade) and "irmao"(brother).Saying the wrong word at the wrong roadblock means instant death.
2-When he hears a radio broadcast saying that the MPLA are a bunch of communist stooges,lackeys to their Soviet masters,and that any communists would be hunted down.At this point in time,Kapuscinski is,as far as he knows,the only citizen of a socialist country anywhere in Angola.a terrifying moment which he puts across very well.
If only Kapuscinski knew that the war between the MPLA and it's enemies would go on for almost another 30 years.Fantastic journalism,and a good primer on the roots of Angola's post-independence nightmare.

A vivid description of descent into war in Angola, 22 Sep 2004
Kapuscinski's reportage is uniquely engaging, often showing close similarity in style to the 'magical realism' (forgive the term!) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In this, perhaps his best book and probably my favourite work of reportage, he describes life as a Polish foreign correspondent caught up in the last days of the Portuguese empire, in Angola in 1975. He describes the changes taking place as the Portuguese leave and Angola descends into the hell of civil war. He is not afraid (or is afraid, but still does it!) to risk his skin, travelling as a sole outside witness in hair-raising circumstances to report to the world. Kapuscinski shows a close bond to the people that he writes of - one of his great strengths - and a strong sense of humour. If you are interested in 20th century African history, and want more that a dry text, this is one of several books to read by Kapuscinski! There is no equivalent.

Portrait of a deranged despot, 13 Oct 2008
This book outlines the career of an evil and utterly ruthless man who emerged from being a key figure in a guerrilla war fought against white minority rule, to engineering through intimidation and terror a victory in Zimbabwe's first all-inclusive elections over the moderate Abel Muzorewa's United African national Congress and Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union.

After returning to Salisbury on January 27, 1980. after five years in exile, Mugabe was given a hero's welcome by a large crowd bearing banners with images of rocket grenades, land mines and guns, many wearing youth T shirts with the Kalashnikov rifle, which Mugabe's Marxist Zimbabwe African National Union party had wanted to use as an emblem, but which the British authorities had prohibited.
The scale of intimidation by ZANU was massive. Neither the UANC or ZAPU were allowed to campaign at all in eastern Rhodesia, leading ZAPU leader Nkomo to state that 'the word intimidation is mild, people are being terrorized, it is terror, there is fear in people's eyes."

Therefore Mugabe's landslide win and all of his subsequent electoral victories can not in any way be seen by a fair minded observer as in any way legitimate.

After victory and becoming Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Mugabe spoke the language of soothing words to the the country's White population and the international community.

But in 1982 he resorted to terror in order to impose the one-party state he dreamed of imposing and his goal of absolute. power. Mugabe unleashed his Fifth Brigade (trained in the brutal communist dictatorship of North Korea in the art of terrorizing populations) on the Ndebele and Kalangas population groups of western Zimbabwe, which had largely supported the opposition ZAPU, in a horrific campaign of genocide known as the Gukurahundi. Entire villages were massacred, men, women and children herded into huts and burned alive, all supplies, transport and drought relief were cut off the starving villages and a deliberate famine created.

A commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference Commission of Peace and Justice contained some damning evidence of 5 Brigade atrocities. The statement accused the army of conducting a 'reign of terror' in Matabeleland including 'wanton killings, woundings, beatings, burnings and rapings".
It had brought about the 'maimings of hundreds of people who were neither dissidents nor collaborators."

Over the four year period of the Gukurahundi over ten thousand people were massacred, and thousands more beaten tortured and maimed. An entire people had been victimized. but there was no world outcry, certainly none from the international left, who set themselves up as the great guardians of human rights, and who were great supporters of Mugabe as a revolutionary hero.

Meredith writes of the corruption of the wealthy new elite close to ZANU PF, who enjoyed the best of everything while the people of Zimbabwe grew more and more destitute, of Mugabe's machine of crushing opposition and the de facto one party state in Zimbabwe for 12 years.

He also outlines how the fraudulent so-called 'land reform programme' is nothing but cover to destroy opposition and reward ZANU PF cronies.

While the opposition Movement for Democratic change enjoys overwhelming popularity, it has been prevented from operating freely as Mugabe and ZANU PF continue to operate a reign of terror against Zimbabwe's people.

Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai rightfully described Mugabe a 'deranged despot', and politician Edgar Tekere called Mugabe 'an insane head of state."
"But there is a crude logic to Mugabe's actions' the author points out "His sole purpose has become to hold on to power. Whatever the cost, his regime has been dedicated towards that end. Violence has paid off in the past. He expected it to secure his future".
And so 6 years after this book was published Mugabe rand his ZANU PF retain a bloody and iron grip on power,
He still enjoys some support from Stalinists and anti-democrats in the world, today and his excesses are defended by such outfits of evil as the monstrous Workers World Party in North America, which supports every evil regime and terror outfit in the world today.

A fascinating over-view, 10 Sep 2008
Having spent 3 years working in Zimbabwe, and lived through many of the most exciting recent developments, I found this book fascinating and highly informative. I met Mugabe himself during my time there, and Grace Mugabe on another occasion. Everyone spoke of him as having gone off the rails, but Mr Meredith's book demonstrates that Mugabe's recent conduct has been entirely consistent with his methods during the previous two decades - a real eye-opener.
The book is gripping and readable, particularly for one which inevitably is fairly dense with names and facts. I consider it an extremely useful over-view of the topic. The definitive story will only be written when Mugabe has gone, but, as a tool to help us understand history in the making, I think that this would be difficult to surpass.

A great introduction to Mugabe, 14 Aug 2008
This is a really detailed introduction to Mugabe. I knew very little about him before I read this book, but the book covers everything from his early days, to consolidation of power, to his actual dictatorship as it is today in very good detail.
The author does not give much analysis, a good 90% of the book is fact, so if it's opinions you're after then this book probably isn't right for you.
The book is very easy to read, and it explains all new terminology, so again that's good if you're new to the subject.
I brought the book to prepare for my uni dissertation, and after reading this I feel more confident than before- highly recommended by me.

An introduction surely, but not the be all and end all., 30 Jan 2008
I picked up this book whilst browsing my local bookshop. I had never ever heard of Mugabe and therefore didn't have a clue as to what he or the book was all about.
This book is definately intriging: Meredith paints a vivid picture of how a country with immense potential has just been drained of all its hope. But I don't think he does enough to try and understand the main character. Little attention is paid to the 'justification' of how a young man evolved into a sinister dictator. He only uses one chapter, which is chapter 3, to explain his background. The problem that is faced here is that anyone can argue that Mugabe is not a good guy, but only a small number can reason his behaviour by using his childhood and experiences growing up. Nevertheless it is a good starting point. It's short which helps!

A Brilliant Book To Understand The Man and The Party, 23 Sep 2003
Matin Meridith gives a good grounding to those wishing to know more about the complexities of the man behind the present situation in Zimbabwe. He breaks it up in to chapters taking us through the life of the President from his life as a School Teacher to the Present Day Autocrat that he has become.

As can be expected the Majority of the Book is devoted to the last 22 years as Mugabe has developed a system of personal rule, carefully using the party and clung on to power in the last couple of years.

I thoroughly recommend this book as it was a great read and a concise report of the man at the centre of this African country.

On Good Friday in 1914, a young British Army officer named Stewart Gore-Browne first glimpsed a lake in what was then Northern Rhodesia that the local Bemba tribe called Shiwa Ngandu ("Lake of the Royal Crocodiles"). At that moment, a love affair began which would last his lifetime, as the enraptured Gore-Browne set about creating a very British idyll in the African bush, complete with redbrick house and a terrace on which uniformed staff would serve champagne and cocktails. This is the complicated story of a man, his colonial vision, and the burden it became, set against the country in which he battles to realise it.

Christina Lamb has assembled the story from the mass of diaries and correspondence that lay within the now crumbling and neglected house. It is an extraordinary tale that leaps off the page with the grace of a springbok. Gore-Browne initially appears an extinct species, all Harrovian vowels, and prone to pepper with lead shot anything that moves. He is, however, infused with a liberal, humane streak that leads him in later life to support Kenneth Kaunda and the UNIP in their fight for power. Indeed, Kaunda said of him, "... he [Gore-Browne] was born an English gentleman, and died a Zambian gentleman".

Gore-Browne's personal life progressed from an unrequited love to a dramatic marriage, while still indulging in a formidably passionate correspondence with a favourite aunt. There are times when you wish for a timely swipe of the novelist's pen, but it is the nature of this beast that questions remain unanswered; what holds this engrossing chronicle in place is the Africa House itself, and the lives that unfold in and around it, perched incongruously as it is in a country that has outgrown it. --David Vincent

A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Evocative but unpalatable, 31 Aug 2008
This was Englishmum.com's book club book for June. First off, I would say that this is not my usual reading material, which tends to be either cookery books or nasty, grisly Mark Billingham-esque murder mysteries. Having said that, the whole point of a book club is to challenge oneself to read books outside one's `comfort zone' shall we say. I suppose I enjoyed this book; I liked Fuller's honest, nostalgia-free style of writing and found her descriptions of her childhood Africa highly evocative. I found the way she wrote of the loss of two of her siblings incredibly moving. I didn't, however, find it a page-turner and felt that I was forcing myself through it. I also found some of the language and opinions unpalatable (well, we're talking white settlers in 1970s Rhodesia with the inevitable black household staff, to be fair). She relates all this, however uncomfortable, without judgment or criticism, and I like the fact that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Read what our book club members thought about this book:

http://englishmum.com/2008/07/05/ems-bookish-club-our-june-book/

A real scratch and sniff book!, 27 Aug 2007
The narrative is so engaging and descriptive that your senses are brought alive and you are almost transported to Africa.
The child's eye view on events is refreshing, and adds another dimension to the unfurling events.
She has a lovely comic timing which sits comfortably, although often excruciatingly, with the harrowing tales of war, sadness and poverty.


Fascinating and funny, 14 Aug 2007
The true story of an eccentric white family living in Southern Africa through the wars of the 70s.Told from a child's point of view it's very honest & funny and is a brilliant insight into a fascinating time and place.

Once you have smelled the African bush, 20 May 2007
Intensely evocative.

There is an African saying that once you have recognised the smell of the bush it will never be forgotten...and that your heart will never leave Africa.

The terrs (terrorists) might have won the battle but have lost everything else.

Remember, Old Rhodies never die and this book explains why, but perhaps without the author really realising - but she certainly conveys the smell of the bush.

John Bell

A Great account of a unique upbringing., 12 May 2007
As an avid reader of alot of African non-fiction, this book was unique in that I read it in two days without ever feeling as though I was become bored of it.

I really enjoyed her unique style, successfully used in her second book as well, with short chapters and anecdotes that were always interesting, if at times heart renching.

Where this book succeeds, and others in this genre fail, is in her "no-holds barred" approach which never leads to nostalgia.

Fuller's story itself is a unique one, in that it covers so much of Southern Africa's turbulent history, she was brought up in Rhodesia, Zambia and Malawi, which means that the reader gets both an interesting story and the history of this troubled region.

So, I highly recommend it to anyone with an interest in modern history or in unusual biographies.

A good reportage or a good propaganda?, 23 Dec 2008
I was reading the first part of the book and admiring the `reportage' and excellent 'journalism' of the writer. I met many Portuguese guys that left and came back to Angola when the war ended and I was still looking for the why, what made people leave everything they've toiled for, their farms, houses, churches, animals, the icon of the family's saint above the door frame. Kapuscinski tell their story nicely, his story make sense.

But then he leaves Luanda and travel to the fronts and my affair with him ends there.
I live in and out of Angola for over 7 years now, I've been there when the war ended, I worked with war veterans from both sides. I have good MPLA friends and good UNITA friends. I met South-African that were here, fighting, and Portuguese farmers that never left. I traveled the country by length. I know the places that Kapuscinski visited. I know them well.

Kapuscinski does what I thought a good foreign journalist in a new place must not do- take a side. How can you tell a story when your political views are so one sided (and in 1975 Kapuscinski came from a Communist, not a Socialist country and the war in Angola was, when the book was published in 1976, an important icon of the cold war- a case study for `war by proxy').

When one can see only the mixed race elite of Luanda as the legitimate owners of that land yet one choose to ignore the views of everyone else, as educated but yet fully African.

Most of the friends Kapuscinski make are white or mixed race Angolan. Some of them Portuguese adventurers, but they chose a communist flag so they represent the brave young republic and for them Kapuscinski will cross journalist lines and will pass information that might help stop the `others' to whom he does not speak, which he does not even meet. The others must be puppets of foreign masters and their white soldiers all mercenaries.

The Cuban where the one really to turn the tide, 25,000 of them will be a much more accurate number then what the book says. It wasn't just their uniforms that made UNITA run as Kapuscinski suggests, it was also their MIG airplanes and their heavy tanks and the mountains of Russian AK 47's that they brought with them.
This book tells an interesting story and it tells it nicely. The story was told in a political context, not just a journalist context. There are so little stories about that period of time so this little different in context is Important.

The product summery quotes from the book: "It's wrong to write about people without living through at least a little of what they are living through', I agree, a fair rule. I only wish Kapuscinski would have kept it beyond his immediate political views.


Angola's descent into a nightmare., 25 Jul 2007
This was the first book of Kapuscinski's I ever read(in about 1986)and I've been a huge fan ever since.Not the archetypal war junkie that western media outlets habitually send to Africa,Kapuscinski's humanity and gift for the arresting detail shine out in this book.Two highlights in a fantastic book are:
1-The passage describing roadblock etiquette.How vital it is to know the difference between "camarada"(comrade) and "irmao"(brother).Saying the wrong word at the wrong roadblock means instant death.
2-When he hears a radio broadcast saying that the MPLA are a bunch of communist stooges,lackeys to their Soviet masters,and that any communists would be hunted down.At this point in time,Kapuscinski is,as far as he knows,the only citizen of a socialist country anywhere in Angola.a terrifying moment which he puts across very well.
If only Kapuscinski knew that the war between the MPLA and it's enemies would go on for almost another 30 years.Fantastic journalism,and a good primer on the roots of Angola's post-independence nightmare.

A vivid description of descent into war in Angola, 22 Sep 2004
Kapuscinski's reportage is uniquely engaging, often showing close similarity in style to the 'magical realism' (forgive the term!) of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. In this, perhaps his best book and probably my favourite work of reportage, he describes life as a Polish foreign correspondent caught up in the last days of the Portuguese empire, in Angola in 1975. He describes the changes taking place as the Portuguese leave and Angola descends into the hell of civil war. He is not afraid (or is afraid, but still does it!) to risk his skin, travelling as a sole outside witness in hair-raising circumstances to report to the world. Kapuscinski shows a close bond to the people that he writes of - one of his great strengths - and a strong sense of humour. If you are interested in 20th century African history, and want more that a dry text, this is one of several books to read by Kapuscinski! There is no equivalent.

Portrait of a deranged despot, 13 Oct 2008
This book outlines the career of an evil and utterly ruthless man who emerged from being a key figure in a guerrilla war fought against white minority rule, to engineering through intimidation and terror a victory in Zimbabwe's first all-inclusive elections over the moderate Abel Muzorewa's United African national Congress and Joshua Nkomo's Zimbabwe African People's Union.

After returning to Salisbury on January 27, 1980. after five years in exile, Mugabe was given a hero's welcome by a large crowd bearing banners with images of rocket grenades, land mines and guns, many wearing youth T shirts with the Kalashnikov rifle, which Mugabe's Marxist Zimbabwe African National Union party had wanted to use as an emblem, but which the British authorities had prohibited.
The scale of intimidation by ZANU was massive. Neither the UANC or ZAPU were allowed to campaign at all in eastern Rhodesia, leading ZAPU leader Nkomo to state that 'the word intimidation is mild, people are being terrorized, it is terror, there is fear in people's eyes."

Therefore Mugabe's landslide win and all of his subsequent electoral victories can not in any way be seen by a fair minded observer as in any way legitimate.

After victory and becoming Zimbabwe's Prime Minister, Mugabe spoke the language of soothing words to the the country's White population and the international community.

But in 1982 he resorted to terror in order to impose the one-party state he dreamed of imposing and his goal of absolute. power. Mugabe unleashed his Fifth Brigade (trained in the brutal communist dictatorship of North Korea in the art of terrorizing populations) on the Ndebele and Kalangas population groups of western Zimbabwe, which had largely supported the opposition ZAPU, in a horrific campaign of genocide known as the Gukurahundi. Entire villages were massacred, men, women and children herded into huts and burned alive, all supplies, transport and drought relief were cut off the starving villages and a deliberate famine created.

A commission of the Catholic Bishops Conference Commission of Peace and Justice contained some damning evidence of 5 Brigade atrocities. The statement accused the army of conducting a 'reign of terror' in Matabeleland including 'wanton killings, woundings, beatings, burnings and rapings".
It had brought about the 'maimings of hundreds of people who were neither dissidents nor collaborators."

Over the four year period of the Gukurahundi over ten thousand people were massacred, and thousands more beaten tortured and maimed. An entire people had been victimized. but there was no world outcry, certainly none from the international left, who set themselves up as the great guardians of human rights, and who were great supporters of Mugabe as a revolutionary hero.

Meredith writes of the corruption of the wealthy new elite close to ZANU PF, who enjoyed the best of everything while the people of Zimbabwe grew more and more destitute, of Mugabe's machine of crushing opposition and the de facto one party state in Zimbabwe for 12 years.

He also outlines how the fraudulent so-called 'land reform programme' is nothing but cover to destroy opposition and reward ZANU PF cronies.

While the opposition Movement for Democratic change enjoys overwhelming popularity, it has been prevented from operating freely as Mugabe and ZANU PF continue to operate a reign of terror against Zimbabwe's people.

Opposition MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai rightfully described Mugabe a 'deranged despot', and politician Edgar Tekere called Mugabe 'an insane head of state."
"But there is a crude logic to Mugabe's actions' the author points out "His sole purpose has become to hold on to power. Whatever the cost, his regime has been dedicated towards that end. Violence has paid off in the past. He expected it to secure his future".
And so 6 years after this book was published Mugabe rand his ZANU PF retain a bloody and iron grip on power,
He still enjoys some support from Stalinists and anti-democrats in the world, today and his excesses are defended by such outfits of evil as the monstrous Workers World Party in North America, which supports every evil regime and terror outfit in the world today.

A fascinating over-view, 10 Sep 2008
Having spent 3 years working in Zimbabwe, and lived through many of the most exciting recent developments, I found this book fascinating and highly informative. I met Mugabe himself during my time there, and Grace Mugabe on another occasion. Everyone spoke of him as having gone off the rails, but Mr Meredith's book demonstrates that Mugabe's recent conduct has been entirely consistent with his methods during the previous two decades - a real eye-opener.
The book is gripping and readable, particularly for one which inevitably is fairly dense with names and facts. I consider it an extremely useful over-view of the topic. The definitive story will only be written when Mugabe has gone, but, as a tool to help us understand history in the making, I think that this would be difficult to surpass.

A great introduction to Mugabe, 14 Aug 2008
This is a really detailed introduction to Mugabe. I knew very little about him before I read this book, but the book covers everything from his early days, to consolidation of power, to his actual dictatorship as it is today in very good detail.
The author does not give much analysis, a good 90% of the book is fact, so if it's opinions you're after then this book probably isn't right for you.
The book is very easy to read, and it explains all new terminology, so again that's good if you're new to the subject.
I brought the book to prepare for my uni dissertation, and after reading this I feel more confident than before- highly recommended by me.

An introduction surely, but not the be all and end all., 30 Jan 2008
I picked up this book whilst browsing my local bookshop. I had never ever heard of Mugabe and therefore didn't have a clue as to what he or the book was all about.
This book is definately intriging: Meredith paints a vivid picture of how a country with immense potential has just been drained of all its hope. But I don't think he does enough to try and understand the main character. Little attention is paid to the 'justification' of how a young man evolved into a sinister dictator. He only uses one chapter, which is chapter 3, to explain his background. The problem that is faced here is that anyone can argue that Mugabe is not a good guy, but only a small number can reason his behaviour by using his childhood and experiences growing up. Nevertheless it is a good starting point. It's short which helps!

A Brilliant Book To Understand The Man and The Party, 23 Sep 2003
Matin Meridith gives a good grounding to those wishing to know more about the complexities of the man behind the present situation in Zimbabwe. He breaks it up in to chapters taking us through the life of the President from his life as a School Teacher to the Present Day Autocrat that he has become.

As can be expected the Majority of the Book is devoted to the last 22 years as Mugabe has developed a system of personal rule, carefully using the party and clung on to power in the last couple of years.

I thoroughly recommend this book as it was a great read and a concise report of the man at the centre of this African country.

In my all time top ten, 21 Aug 2003
I loved this book. If this story were written as a piece of fiction, you'd roll your eyes and wonder at the author's imagination. The fact that this story is true is simply incredible. What a life! What a character! It's made me long to go visit the Africa House. Brilliant, brilliant.

Captivating the beauty and incongruity of Africa House, 23 Sep 2002
I read a copy of Africa House whilst on a week's visit to the super country of Zambia. I found the storyline both rivetting and mysterious, it was very well researched and the atmosphere of the place comes across very effectively to the reader. It made the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end when afterwards I saw the slightly tarnished ink-pot with which Gore-Browne wrote all the letters (on display at the National Museum in Lusaka), along with his walking stick and other items. Only wish I had more time to go and visit the house, I heard it was beginning to fall into ruin.

Amazing historical story, 31 Jul 2002
I read this book while on holiday and had spotted it while searching through for books about Africa. I started off by finding Stuart Gore Brown a very difficult man to comprehend and the violence he used on the black people who worked for him I found hard to handle. However I read on and really found his journey amazing. His place in history has been made through this book and his is a life that has slipped by and until now been unknown (well to me anyway). His part in campaigning for equality and the effort he put into educating some of the most famous polictical leaders was what I found so interesting. The life he lead in Africa, his love for Ethel and his never ending passion for what he had built and the lives around him made this a really brilliant read. I also learnt something from it!

Well-written,compelling - an unusual story of an unusual man, 02 Feb 2002
I really enjoyed this book. I had not heard of Gore Brown, nor his dream mansion in Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia. A man of contradictions, who wanted Africa for the Africans and the white man to help them show the way, his eccentricities and determination is eloquently portrayed by Lamb. Losing his first love to another, he oddly marries her daughter, who bears him two girls.
A life of politics, farming, and entertaining foreign and domestic dignitaries, he made an impact on Copperbelt politics, and was disappointed he was too old to assist in Kenneth Kaunda's new goverment. He is the only white man to have received a full Bemba funeral, attended by Kenneth Kaunda, ex-president of Zambia. He was truly an unique and incredible man. Christina Lamb presents a believable portrayal of an English eccentric, who realised his dream,and built an English mansion in the African bush, for his favourite Aunt. A great read, and the political and cultural context is blended well with the life story of Gore-Brown.

There must be a film on the way!, 04 Aug 2001
I thought this might be a heavy-going and 'worthy' read, but far from it. I zipped through it in no time and couldn't stop turning the pages! What an amazing, complex man and an almost unbelievable life! It's interesting to note that Mark at the Africa House has now finished renovating it - it will definitely be on my list of 'must see' things before I pop my clogs. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in travel, or African history or indeed anyone who just wants to read a fantastic, inspiring tale about one of the lesser known, but hugely influential, characters of recent times.

A White Boy in Africa, 29 Oct 2008
This is an excellent book - very interesting and instructive and a "must" for anyone wanting to know more about Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, and the background to its present problems. Well worth reading, too, is Peter Godwin's other book "When the Crocodile Eats the Sun" which explains further why Zimbabwe has so many problems and starving people at present

A sad and moving book, 23 Sep 2007
Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It's a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin's early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn't the word...

Peter Godwin's mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It's a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won.


You should read these TWO books!, 30 Mar 2007
Peter Godwin has written much, but "Mukiwa: A White Boy In Africa" and its follow-up, "When A Crocodile Eats The Sun," must surely be the volumes of which he is most proud. For anyone with even a passing interest in Africa and/or the present problems in Zimbabwe/Rhodesia, they are 'must-reads,' preferably in chronological order - Mukiwa (1996 and later paperbacks) first, and then Crocodile (2005 and 2007).

I confess straight away that my own knowledge of Africa is limited, but I have interested myself in the continent's affairs for as long as I can remember and I also nurtured enormous sympathy for Rhodesia, for its people, and for former Prime Minister Ian Smith.

Peter Godwin has little apparent sympathy for Smith and, for that and other reasons that are clear in his books, he can be looked upon as a liberal. Therefore, his two books are all the more potent for their description of 'the reversal of progress, the shocking decline, the descent into darkness' (Crocodile 2007, page 314) under the tyrannical and murderous regime of Robert Mugabe. These beautifully and movingly written but appallingly tragic books, based on first-hand experience and knowledge and Godwin's own family's declining circumstances, should be compulsory study for all liberals.

I was born before the Second World War. Therefore, I was around when Hitler's 'Third Reich' was crushed. I always hoped, but I never thought I would live long enough to see the collapse of Communism in 1989. I still hope that I live long enough to see Mugabe go and for the name of Ian Smith to be honoured again in Rhodesia!

In Memoriam: Ian Douglas Smith, died 20th November, 2007. Greatly missed.


Splendid, 16 Mar 2007
This is a triumph. Godwin's account of the beginnings of Rhodesia's move towards independence and its fruition is 1980 is a beautifully crafted, honest and at times terrifying read. I have never in my life finished a book and immediately turned back to page 1 and started all over again (although I did force myself to stop at page 18 when I realised what I was doing). Peter Godwin invites us to share the love he has for his family, friends and a country struggling to free itself from its colonial past. From childhood to adulthood Mukiwa charts the drastic changes of a country and its effect on the Godwin's. The companion piece, When A Crocodile Eats the Sun is even more profound. A work that lets us know more of the tragic situation in Zim. I wept.

A wonderful encaptivating insight to open your eyes, 12 Sep 2000
A fantastic book for everybody. It gave me an interresting insight into the colourful politics of the rhodesian war. Peter Godwin's experiences will change your views and open your mind. This charming story of his change from boy to man also dipicts a beutiful country that has since been shadowed.

Evocative but unpalatable, 31 Aug 2008
This was Englishmum.com's book club book for June. First off, I would say that this is not my usual reading material, which tends to be either cookery books or nasty, grisly Mark Billingham-esque murder mysteries. Having said that, the whole point of a book club is to challenge oneself to read books outside one's `comfort zone' shall we say. I suppose I enjoyed this book; I liked Fuller's honest, nostalgia-free style of writing and found her descriptions of her childhood Africa highly evocative. I found the way she wrote of the loss of two of her siblings incredibly moving. I didn't, however, find it a page-turner and felt that I was forcing myself through it. I also found some of the language and opinions unpalatable (well, we're talking white settlers in 1970s Rhodesia with the inevitable black household staff, to be fair). She relates all this, however uncomfortable, without judgment or criticism, and I like the fact that the reader is left to draw their own conclusions.

Read what our book club members tho