Tommy Goes Home
By Peter Stiff
Published by Galago Publishing (2013)
ISBN: 978-1-919854-48-9

PETER Stiff, a former British South Africa Police officer-cum-writer penned the book Tommy Goes Home.
The book centres on the journey of the Forster family who bought a lion called Tommy in Germany and took it overland from West Germany, through Belgium, France, Spain and Portugal, where they took a ship to Angola which had just erupted into civil war.
The German family finally makes Zimbabwe their home.
The Forster family was made up of Manfred, a German doctor of geology, his wife Karin, their teenage sons Frank and Uwe and their eight-year-old daughter Gabriella.
On the trip the family was accompanied by Tommy a lion they bought in Germany.
Not only does the story focus on the Forsters, but is also about the civil war in Angola and the liberation struggle that birthed Zimbabwe.
The whiteman has no moral right to dictate what happens in Africa, or even tell the African man’s story on his behalf.
It should be left to the African to tell his story; however, the white man has often taken it upon himself to tell Africa’s story.
This point is overlooked by Stiff who speaks about the experiences of the black man in the fight to free his continent from white colonial rule.
Interestingly though, the writer acknowledges that the civil war in Angola was as a result of the whiteman’s doing.
Had the Portuguese not colonised Angola and fuelled rivalry between tribes, there would not have been any civil war, concedes Stiff.
During their journey the Forsters were beset by starvation, fever and threats of sudden horrible deaths at the hands of instant black soldiers, some as young as 12 or 13 years, dressed in rags, but armed with modern Soviet weapons and eager to kill.
Blame is shifted to the African elders for letting young boys and girls take part in the war.
What the author seems to overlook is the fact that during that time, everyone regardless of age had suffered at the hands of the brutal colonial masters and they felt the need to fight for the liberation of their countries.
Ironically, age matters to Stiff when the boys and girls took up arms, but nothing seems wrong with the very same young people being denied basic services in their country.
These young people were also forced to work in fields by the white masters and as maids in houses.
Stiff plays the tired card that black governments are not capable to govern Africa and that even Africans were of the same opinion.
Such lines of thought are perpetuated by disgruntled whites like the author, an ex-Rhodie who enjoyed life during the colonial period and had to lose all the privileges that came with being white after independence.
During a conversation between Manfred and a local man in the then Rhodesia the local expresses concern over the black Government that was to take over.
“Firstly we had to live under a corrupt white government and now we’re on the verge of being forced to live under a far-from-ready-to-rule black government, which is likely to be more corrupt than the white one,” writes Stiff.
What the writer seems to ignore is that it was the people that supported those fighting to liberate the country and had faith in them to let them govern them after independence.
What struck me was how Stiff refers to Zimbabwe as Rhodesia despite the book having been published in 2013, 33 years after independence.
The author could argue that the story took place before independence, but why only Rhodesia?
The Foresters pass through Zambia which during its colonial period was referred to as Northern Rhodesia, but Stiff refers to it as Zambia.
The reference to Zimbabwe as Rhodesia is just another delusion to revive the ‘dead and buried’ country the whiteman still longs and pines for, Rhodesia.
The whiteman will do anything to raise Rhodesia from its grave even if it means trying to fan non-existent flames.
The book ends as the Forsters settle in Zimbabwe and concede that “at last they had a place where there was room to breathe”.