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Forlorn dream of a white Rhodesian

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Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness by Alexandra Fuller
Simon & Schuster UK Ltd (2011)
ISBN: 978-0-85720-127-0

ON April 18, Zimbabweans celebrate 34 years of Independence.
Despite having achieved such a milestone, Western countries have not rested in their bid to once again control the country’s vast natural resources.
What they seem to overlook is that Zimbabweans have not forgotten the days of colonial rule and the liberation struggle.
Alexandra Fuller penned the book Cocktail Hour under the Tree of Forgetfulness which tells the story of her family.
The title is derived from a time she joined her family in Karoi during one of her visits from Wyoming.
The Fullers had spent time sitting under the ‘tree of forgetfulness’ which in the synopsis is described as a place to resolve disputes and forget the past.
This is no mere coincidence that Fuller chose that title to emphasise the need for one to forget the wrongs done to them.
Whites in the country want blacks to sweep under the carpet injustices they meted on them.
From slavery to colonialism to the continued interferences in Africa’s domestic issues, Europe wants Africa to forget and move on.
Ironically the West refuses to forget those that have done them wrong.
As the Shona adage goes “Chinokanganwa idemo muti watemwa haukanganwi.”
Africa will never forget.
In the book, Fuller chronicles how her parents Nicole and Tim met, their stay in England before relocating to Africa.
The Fullers first settled in Kenya before moving to the then Rhodesia.
After being enticed by the offer of being a manager at a farm in Rhodesia, Tim leaves his family to seek ‘greener pastures.’
In January 1967, Tim set sail from Mombasa to Cape Town en route to the then Rhodesia where he was to manage a 10 000-hectare farm owned by Lytton-Brown.
His wife joined him a month later.
The grass was not as green as the Fullers expected in Rhodesia as they were conned by Brown who fired them after the harvest.
Nicole and her husband lived out of their car as they pondered their next move.
Tim eventually found work at a smelting plant on a nickel mine near Shamva.
The Fullers were given free accommodation by Mike Dawson a farmer near Shamva.
After finding it ‘hard’ to cope with life in Africa the Fullers left Rhodesia and headed back to England only to head back to Africa.
Nicole told her daughter Alexandra despite the hardships they had faced in Rhodesia including the loss of a child they had ‘no choice’, but to come back.
“….we still had Rhodesian dollars in the bank from the Lytton-Brown settlement – a few thousand or whatever it was,” Alexandra was told.
“That was one thing.
“And it was Africa that was the main thing-we wanted to go back to Africa.
“We longed for the warmth and the freedom, the real open spaces, the wild animals, the sky at night.”
Nicole’s reasons bring out the real reasons why Europeans even today still want to come back to Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe was their small heaven, a paradise where they enjoyed the beautiful weather and had set themselves up as masters.
Fuller narrates her journey as they came back to the then Rhodesia for the second time.
The writer remembers being told by her mother that they were finally home.
“A hot African wind blew my black bowl cut into a halo.
“Smell that,” Mum whispered in my ear.
““That’s home.”
The Fullers had felt at home here, they owned vast tracts of land and had servants to do everything for them.
Fuller explores the issue of land in Zimbabwe during the colonial era highlighting some of the reasons whites had used to justify taking away land from the blacks.
“For another thing, many whites considered blacks so childishly inferior that taking their land was considered justified occupation of virgin soil,” she writes.
The reasons given by Europeans then are the same they harbour today as they still think Zimbabweans are not capable of being productive on the land.
As Fuller concludes the book she shows hope of the rise of Rhodesia from the grave.
Her tone is that of one who misses the good old days in Rhodesia when her people plundered the country’s wealth at the expense of the locals.
She writes, “We turned around the tree of forgetfulness and we said goodbye to Africa.
“We are going without knowing our destination; our heart is heavy with pain and our tears are bloody.
“The chain around our neck is so heavy!”
To Fuller, you might not know your destination, but Zimbabweans know they are home and that they have to protect the gains of independence.

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