A review by aerdna
Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin
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.