msjoanna's review against another edition
4.0
I read Mr. Godwin's two memoirs backwards -- I started with [b:When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa|2538189|When a Crocodile Eats the Sun A Memoir of Africa|Peter Godwin|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255707395s/2538189.jpg|1201622], which tells of his later life, then moved on to this book. I really enjoyed reading Godwin's perspective on Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. He was born there and grew up in white-run Rhodesia. While his parents were fairly liberal for British settlers, Godwin nonetheless grew up in the segregated and racially divided colonial society and gives a clear presentation of the realities of that setting.
At the same time, Godwin expresses his frustration that a country that had so much potential fell into such ruin during civil war and transition from colonial rule to independence. Godwin had the opportunity to see the war up close as he served in the military, then as a lawyer defending certain prisoners accused of treason.
I found the description of Godwin's childhood a tad longer than necessary and it slowed my reading of this memoir. Once I got to his teen years and his military service, the story picked up and moved along more quickly.
At the same time, Godwin expresses his frustration that a country that had so much potential fell into such ruin during civil war and transition from colonial rule to independence. Godwin had the opportunity to see the war up close as he served in the military, then as a lawyer defending certain prisoners accused of treason.
I found the description of Godwin's childhood a tad longer than necessary and it slowed my reading of this memoir. Once I got to his teen years and his military service, the story picked up and moved along more quickly.
michielsaey's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
4.0
rachaelreads92's review against another edition
4.0
**4 stars**
A really well told personal account of the Rhodesian Bush War!
This is the second biography I have read on the Rhodesian Bush War, and the emergence of the country of Zimbabwe (I have already started with a third). A few weeks ago I remembered a line from Leonardo Di Caprio's character from the film Blood Diamond about growing up in Rhodesia.
Danny Archer from Blood Diamond:
I realised I knew almost nothing about Rhodesia, or that it became Zimbabwe after the war. I began to read about the war and I began with [b:Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm|102450|Rainbow's End A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm|Lauren St. John|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266472554l/102450._SY75_.jpg|98776] which is the story of Lauren St. John growing up in Rhodesia on a farm with her family supporting Ian Smith's policies. It is interesting to read as you can see how the author's view on the war changes after independence was declared. Initially she believed that the they were fighting the communist before coming to realise that it was actually a war of oppression. Again this made me think back to Blood Diamond.
Danny Archer from Blood Diamond
Peter Godwin's account was different to that of Lauren St. John. Unlike Lauren, Peter was first generation Rhodesian (Lauren was fourth generation) and mainly grew up in the cities and suburbs (Lauren grew up on vast farms). Unlike Lauren's family, Peter's family did not support Ian Smith and his ideas and believed in black majority rule. Another big difference for me is the attitudes toward the war. Lauren's family believed in the war and her father was a volunteer solider. Peter's family did not believe in the war, but Peter was conscripted and detested his time in the armed forces.
I very much enjoyed reading about Peter's account and how his views and values changed. From being a young boy who went to church with his black nanny every week, to a boy in an all white boys school, to his time being conscripted into the army and leading black soldiers, to his time defending "terrorists", to his time being declared an "enemy of the state"... Peter is honest with his observations about life in Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe, how things changed for both the better and worse and the sheer horror of war.
Both of the books are fantastic reads and I recommend them highly. I am loving learning about this topic and will continue to read different accounts of the war.
A really well told personal account of the Rhodesian Bush War!
This is the second biography I have read on the Rhodesian Bush War, and the emergence of the country of Zimbabwe (I have already started with a third). A few weeks ago I remembered a line from Leonardo Di Caprio's character from the film Blood Diamond about growing up in Rhodesia.
Danny Archer from Blood Diamond:
...That's a - That's a polite way of putting it, ja. Mum was raped and shot and um... Dad was decapitated and hung from a hook in the barn. I was nine...
I realised I knew almost nothing about Rhodesia, or that it became Zimbabwe after the war. I began to read about the war and I began with [b:Rainbow's End: A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm|102450|Rainbow's End A Memoir of Childhood, War and an African Farm|Lauren St. John|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1266472554l/102450._SY75_.jpg|98776] which is the story of Lauren St. John growing up in Rhodesia on a farm with her family supporting Ian Smith's policies. It is interesting to read as you can see how the author's view on the war changes after independence was declared. Initially she believed that the they were fighting the communist before coming to realise that it was actually a war of oppression. Again this made me think back to Blood Diamond.
Danny Archer from Blood Diamond
We thought we were fighting communism, but in the end it was all about who gets what...
Peter Godwin's account was different to that of Lauren St. John. Unlike Lauren, Peter was first generation Rhodesian (Lauren was fourth generation) and mainly grew up in the cities and suburbs (Lauren grew up on vast farms). Unlike Lauren's family, Peter's family did not support Ian Smith and his ideas and believed in black majority rule. Another big difference for me is the attitudes toward the war. Lauren's family believed in the war and her father was a volunteer solider. Peter's family did not believe in the war, but Peter was conscripted and detested his time in the armed forces.
I very much enjoyed reading about Peter's account and how his views and values changed. From being a young boy who went to church with his black nanny every week, to a boy in an all white boys school, to his time being conscripted into the army and leading black soldiers, to his time defending "terrorists", to his time being declared an "enemy of the state"... Peter is honest with his observations about life in Rhodesia/ Zimbabwe, how things changed for both the better and worse and the sheer horror of war.
Both of the books are fantastic reads and I recommend them highly. I am loving learning about this topic and will continue to read different accounts of the war.
taniabotes's review against another edition
4.0
This book was written in three parts:
1. A description of his African childhood.
I don't think it was the author's intention, but I felt very sorry for this lonely little boy. I had to remind myself that this was a different time, and that children were raised with much less fuss.
2. His time fighting in the Rhodesion war.
Imagine figting a war that you don't believe in. Putting your life on the line for a war you know can't be won.
3. His time as a lawyer and investigative reporter in Zimbabwe.
This is the part of the book that really got to me. I thought his actions here, so much braver than figting a war only because you were told to. This is probably because he now believed in what he was doing. It must be amazing knowing that you made a difference in people's lifes.
Overall, I thought it very sad that this story reminds me so much of my own country - South Africa.
1. A description of his African childhood.
I don't think it was the author's intention, but I felt very sorry for this lonely little boy. I had to remind myself that this was a different time, and that children were raised with much less fuss.
2. His time fighting in the Rhodesion war.
Imagine figting a war that you don't believe in. Putting your life on the line for a war you know can't be won.
3. His time as a lawyer and investigative reporter in Zimbabwe.
This is the part of the book that really got to me. I thought his actions here, so much braver than figting a war only because you were told to. This is probably because he now believed in what he was doing. It must be amazing knowing that you made a difference in people's lifes.
Overall, I thought it very sad that this story reminds me so much of my own country - South Africa.
alexisrt's review against another edition
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin (2007)
monsieur_tunin's review against another edition
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
medium-paced
2.0
aerdna's review against another edition
4.0
Totally exceeded expectations- I must admit I was a little wary about the title and the fact that so many of these memoirs seem to be written from the perspective of "a white boy in Africa." But it was an incredible story, and to my mind the subject matter was handled deftly by Godwin. He avoids the trap of over-exoticizing or symbolizing or simply ignoring the locals as background, a habit I have found disturbing in several of these memoirs. He is much less detached from his surroundings than either of the white men in [b:A Bend in the River|5845|A Bend in the River|V.S. Naipaul|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1353691563s/5845.jpg|1158939] or [b:Disgrace|6192|Disgrace|J.M. Coetzee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385161943s/6192.jpg|1882981]. The writing itself is also better than expected. Turns out Godwin was a journalist, and I would guess from his writing here one of the good sort.
The meat of the story is the end of colonialism in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), a piece of history almost exactly coinciding with Peter's own coming of age. The book can be divided into three sections: his idyllic childhood in eastern Rhodesia, where his absentee doctor & factory directing parents leave his upbringing to their black servants (I'm not sure what other word to use), 2) his stint in the Rhodesian army, fighting an increasingly losing battle against guerillas seeking independence, and 3) the beginning of a career as an investigative reporter and his undercover actions revealing the atrocities committed by the government in southern Zimbabwe.
The first part gives a slow account of a dreamy childhood so far from anything I could imagine. It eventually transforms into a tremendously exciting narrative, at least in the final part when he begins to jump into a career in investigative reporting. Peter never loses his love of his home country, and doesn't hesitate to put himself into danger to expose atrocities and injustices. It seems improbable, the string of luck he has that saves him- picking up the hitchhiking pink beret, his kidnapper knowing his mother from the vaccinations campaigns of his childhood- but this is a memoir and one must accept it at face value. He is simultaneously a very lucky man and a very unfortunate one, born in a time where he was forced first into military service for a cause he can only loosely support and finally forced out of his home country for attempting to address injustices and atrocities.
The idea of guilt or disgrace on the part of the colonialists, one explored in depth in [b:Disgrace|6192|Disgrace|J.M. Coetzee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385161943s/6192.jpg|1882981], is left somewhat to the side here. When deciding whether to try to escape the Rhodesian army service callup, he comments only briefly that he decided that serving would not compromise his true ideals on the topic, which were towards majority rule. It is clear he views himself as a true African, regardless of skin color, and perhaps he is right. What other home does he know? Nevertheless, I found it somewhat an omission. He did do a fair amount for his home country during his investigative reporting phase, so maybe he feels that he adequately atoned for the sins of the past there. Or perhaps the later vendetta (I hesitate against more extreme words) against white settlers made him feel that all atonement is pointless, that all sides are equally sinning. Perhaps discussing the world in such sweeping generalities is beside the point, anyway. Regardless, his obsessions are different from the other African colonialism accounts I have read.
That last point is perhaps the most relevant takeaway for the reader- he mentions late in the book that he believed the war was spinning into chaos, and the chaos shows no sign of ending at the conclusion of the memoir. The tribes are fighting among themselves, the blacks are united against the whites, and Mugabe begins to preside over it all with the general air of a poisonous spider. His return visit to Mozambique, the land of his childhood beach holidays, underscores this sense that events are spiraling ever downwards. He finds the old zoo with people living in it, and paying rent for the privilege. There is one coconut for sale in the previously bustling marketplace. The Africa of his youth is visible only in the old monuments, slowly fading back into the background.
The meat of the story is the end of colonialism in Rhodesia (later Zimbabwe), a piece of history almost exactly coinciding with Peter's own coming of age. The book can be divided into three sections: his idyllic childhood in eastern Rhodesia, where his absentee doctor & factory directing parents leave his upbringing to their black servants (I'm not sure what other word to use), 2) his stint in the Rhodesian army, fighting an increasingly losing battle against guerillas seeking independence, and 3) the beginning of a career as an investigative reporter and his undercover actions revealing the atrocities committed by the government in southern Zimbabwe.
The first part gives a slow account of a dreamy childhood so far from anything I could imagine. It eventually transforms into a tremendously exciting narrative, at least in the final part when he begins to jump into a career in investigative reporting. Peter never loses his love of his home country, and doesn't hesitate to put himself into danger to expose atrocities and injustices. It seems improbable, the string of luck he has that saves him- picking up the hitchhiking pink beret, his kidnapper knowing his mother from the vaccinations campaigns of his childhood- but this is a memoir and one must accept it at face value. He is simultaneously a very lucky man and a very unfortunate one, born in a time where he was forced first into military service for a cause he can only loosely support and finally forced out of his home country for attempting to address injustices and atrocities.
The idea of guilt or disgrace on the part of the colonialists, one explored in depth in [b:Disgrace|6192|Disgrace|J.M. Coetzee|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1385161943s/6192.jpg|1882981], is left somewhat to the side here. When deciding whether to try to escape the Rhodesian army service callup, he comments only briefly that he decided that serving would not compromise his true ideals on the topic, which were towards majority rule. It is clear he views himself as a true African, regardless of skin color, and perhaps he is right. What other home does he know? Nevertheless, I found it somewhat an omission. He did do a fair amount for his home country during his investigative reporting phase, so maybe he feels that he adequately atoned for the sins of the past there. Or perhaps the later vendetta (I hesitate against more extreme words) against white settlers made him feel that all atonement is pointless, that all sides are equally sinning. Perhaps discussing the world in such sweeping generalities is beside the point, anyway. Regardless, his obsessions are different from the other African colonialism accounts I have read.
That last point is perhaps the most relevant takeaway for the reader- he mentions late in the book that he believed the war was spinning into chaos, and the chaos shows no sign of ending at the conclusion of the memoir. The tribes are fighting among themselves, the blacks are united against the whites, and Mugabe begins to preside over it all with the general air of a poisonous spider. His return visit to Mozambique, the land of his childhood beach holidays, underscores this sense that events are spiraling ever downwards. He finds the old zoo with people living in it, and paying rent for the privilege. There is one coconut for sale in the previously bustling marketplace. The Africa of his youth is visible only in the old monuments, slowly fading back into the background.
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