This is a series of tales, mostly in chronological order, about the short Rhodesian colonial period up to 1980, after which time the country became Zimbabwe. The tales in the book have very little political content and are not a critique on colonialism or post-colonialism. They show the lives and feelings of ‘ordinary people’ affected by the ‘winds of change’ in Africa, which were predicted by British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan in his famous speech in February 1960 in the Cape Town Parliament. The rapid changes in Africa were caught up in the initial stages at the end of colonialism in Africa after World War Two. Many of the newly established post-colonial regimes began their operations under the influence of the harsh realities of Marxist–Leninism and other forms of totalitarianism – and many of those countries still follow their versions of the ‘revolution’ – with varying degrees of success. From a Lost Land is not a biography, but many of the tales are based on one extended family. Each tale provides a link to following tales, not necessarily in the immediately following tale. Some of these ‘links’ are names but some refer to artefacts which still exist in families of those mentioned in the tales.
Discover