Out of Action
By Chris Cocks
Published by 30 Degrees South Publishers (2014)
ISBN 978-1-928211-58-7

THIRTY-SIX years on after the indigenes liberated the country from colonial rule, it is sad to note that the defeated Rhodesians continue to dominate when it comes to telling the story of the struggle.
History remembers the victors, but in this case the conquered are seemingly stealing the thunder and making the loudest noise.
Could it be a case of the Rhodesians holding on to a dream that never was?
A dream that is long gone and is now lived by the ones they oppressed.
Books have been written telling the story of the struggle from the eyes of the Rhodesians and painting them victims who fought hard and had ‘their country’ taken away.
Really?
One such book is Out of Action by Chris Cocks.
Having fought during the struggle, the Rhodesian gives an account of his ‘heroic’ acts during the war and his life after the country gained independence.
It is not surprising his account was described by US Army Special Forces Commander Colonel Peter J. Benson in the foreword as a ‘nothing-held-back account, a courageous work’.
“I finished reading Out of Action recently. I wanted to tell you that your honest, nothing-held-back account of that period of your life was a pretty courageous work,” remarks Benson.
“The experiences that you had in the RLU and PATU as a young man during war time and the dissolution of your society and country are mirrored in your history and narrative.”
In all fairness which is their country?
These were invaders who came from England and other nations in the West.
The Rhodesians had not realised they were living on borrowed time and it was only a matter of time before the owners of the land would reclaim what belonged to them.
Cocks, however, paints a different picture: It was their country and the locals had taken it away from them.
His hate for the blacks is evident throughout the book.
Even after the liberation struggle when they had been defeated it still had not dawned on him he had to face reality and accept blacks as fellow humans.
When Cocks relocates to a farm in Centenary after the liberation struggle, he still looked at his farm workers with suspicion.
To him, even in a free Zimbabwe, they were still his enemies.
He was not going to forgive them for destroying his hopes and dreams of a comfortable life in ‘Rhodesia.’
“Undoubtedly they’d all been mujibhas, or aspiring mujibhas, during ‘the struggle. Mujibhas – the civilian eyes and ears of the vakomana, ‘the comrades’, ‘the boys in the bush’. And undoubtedly, some of them had had a hand in Koen’s murder,” writes Cocks.
“I see you, you bastards,” I muttered under my breath.
From his tone of writing one can sense the anger he unashamedly parades.
The hate for the blackman is also brought out through remarks made by his wife when a former friend, Charlie, visits the family in the company of a blackman.
“What! D’you mean to tell me we’re gonna have a munt sleeping in my house and sitting in my chairs and sitting on my toilet!” She spat the words.
“And he’s a bloody terrorist as well!” writes Cocks.
“I don’t care. He’s…he’s black! He’s a murdering, bloody munt.”
The views by the Cocks on the blackman are a graphic representation of how the whiteman views blacks.
They can never be equals.
This warped way of thinking is what they want the world to adopt.
Interestingly, even after the war, Cocks still had the urge to kill.
“Waiting for the rains brought on another period of idleness and I took up my old shooting habit, but this time animals not people,” he writes.
What an interesting pastime for someone who claims the war had negatively affected him.
Cocks still holds on to the dream of re-uniting with fellow Rhodesians and possibly reviving the Rhodesian dream.
“My friends from the war are now scattered over the globe,” Cocks writes.
“We have walked divergent, but strikingly similar paths during the last 20 years.
“But there will be forever that special bond between us one-time comrades in arms.
“Surely that counts for something?”
Well, Cocks and company may stand on mountain tops and make all the noise they want, but Rhodesia is a long gone dream and their paradise will never rise from the dead.
However, the onus is on the victors to tell the story of the liberation struggle and shame the likes of Cocks who now wants to play the victim.