West of the Moon by Ron Selley
Published by 30 Degrees South Publishers (2009)
ISBN: 9781920143329

THE quest for the thousands of gallant sons and daughters of the soil who took up arms to fight the colonial regime was to free the country and its people from the yoke of oppression.
Ironically 34 years after the country attained its independence concerted efforts are still being made by former colonisers to tarnish the image of the freedom fighters.
They have been labelled rapists, murderers and thieves.
But to every Zimbabwean they have remained the heroes they were and will always be.
In the book West of the Moon the writer, Ron Selley, chronicles his journey from South Africa to Zimbabwe then back to South Africa.
Selley, a game ranger driven by his ‘passion for animals’, came to the then Rhodesia in 1975 at a time when the liberation struggle was raging.
He writes, “As it turned out, the summer of 1975/6 was when Robert Mugabe’s ZANLA launched what ultimately turned out to be the final offensive in the liberation war, flooding the eastern border areas with communist trained insurgents from bases in Mozambique.
“Joshua Nkomo’s ZIPRA at the same time stepped up guerrilla incursions from Zambia across the Zambezi River.”
Like all other Rhodesian writers, the author uses the book to discredit the freedom fighters and portray white Rhodesians as the ones who had the best interests of the country at heart.
This warped thinking makes up the book as the writer tries to convince the reader that Zimbabwe would have been a better place if it had been left in the hands of the Rhodesians.
It is not surprising that the author refers to freedom fighters as terrorists and insurgents.
The use of such terms is an attempt to portray the freedom fighters as villains.
This, however, does not work especially if it is directed to the Zimbabwean audience as people know the rightful place of the freedom fighters in the country’s history.
Still harbouring the hope of the rise of Rhodesia from the grave, Selley refers to Zimbabwe as Rhodesia throughout the book.
Once again it is important for Selley and his kith and kin to understand that Zimbabwe will never be a colony again hence the thoughts of returning to Rhodesia will always remain a dream that will never come true.
Part of the synopsis reads, “trying to care for an environment and the animals that depend upon it, while the people around commit barbaric acts in the name of political ideology, brutally awakens the author to the reality of disintegration of an organised colonial subcontinent.”
Interestingly, the author thinks had it not been for him and his fellow game rangers there would not have been any wildlife to talk about in Zimbabwe.
He blames the freedom fighters for the animals that were killed during the liberation struggle and seems to forget that even the Rhodesian forces were operating in the bushes and should also shoulder the blame for the killings.
“In November there was an upsurge in terrorist activity,” writes Selley.
“There was a new threat to the animals in the park when the terrorists tried to destroy the fence along the minefield.
“Their intention was to drive cattle through the minefield to detonate the mines and clear a passage.”
The writer seems to overlook the fact that before the settlers came to colonise the country, people had taken care of their domestic and wild animals.
Every war has its casualties and in this case the animals suffered as a result.
The freedom fighters were forced to take the rather unjust but necessary measures such as that of passing cattle first through the minefields as what was important to them was the end goal which was to liberate the country.
Surely if they could sacrifice their own lives in order to win the war, animals too could be sacrificed for the greater cause.
Selley should also understand that had the brutal colonial rule not been imposed on the people they would not have retaliated and there would not have been any war in Zimbabwe that led to the deaths of the animals he ‘cared for’.
Ironically, Selley who purports to be an animal rights activist, only sees the injustices on animals by the freedom fighters but ignores the unwarranted slaughtering of domestic animals by the Rhodesian forces.
For instance, villagers in Marondera, Svosve, lost their livestock slaughtered by Selous Scouts but such acts do not seem to matter to the writer.
The writer blames the freedom fighters for the death of his fellow rangers.
“The upsurge in terrorist activities has affected all areas, particularly the Zambezi Valley, where we have unfortunately lost five members of staff through terrorist activities,” writes Selley.
We will not stop the writer from mourning his five colleagues who he alleges were killed by the freedom fighters but would remind the author of the thousands of sons and daughters we lost during the Chimoio and Nyadzonia attacks.
Selley writes about the blacks that had supported the Rhodesians who were not too pleased when the country attained its independence.
Indeed there were blacks who supported Rhodesia but the writer exaggerates the uncertainty of their future after independence.
“Our game scouts (blacks) could not go home as they would be murdered by the terrorists. They therefore had their families with them,” Selley writes.
“I really felt for them as they were caught in the middle of the conflict.
“When the terrorist leader, Mugabe, took power, theirs must have been an invidious situation.
“One can only hope that they survived the kangaroo courts.
“They were let down when Rhodesia fell.”
Surely if Smith was not sent packing by the black government in 1980 nothing bad would happen to the blacks that supported his rule.
Instead Government ensured that everyone regardless of political affiliation benefitted from its various social and economic empowerment programmes.
And Zimbabweans have managed to safeguard the gains of the liberation struggle, dampening the hopes of the likes of Selley who hold on to the dream of one day returning to Rhodesia.