The Rain Goddess by Peter Stiff
Galago Publishing (2003)
ISBN: 1-919854-06-1

TO patriotic Zimbabweans the likes of Peter Stiff and Peter Godwin’s views leave a bad taste in the mouth.
They continue to masquerade as human rights champions and the voice of all Zimbabweans yet in fact they are fighting for the cause of the white man.
This week the book under review, The Rain Goddess, by Peter Stiff has been described by The Natal Mercury, Durban, as the ‘classic novel on the Rhodesian War’.
Having served for 20 years with the British South Africa Police in the then Rhodesia, Stiff has been described in many online reviews as one who knows the area and its people with an intimacy that leaves the ordinary observer trailing far behind.
The question that struck me after reading the book, is in what capacity does Stiff justify telling the black man’s experience of the liberation struggle.
Apart from the fact that he was part of the BSAP that terrorised the locals and was ‘fighting’ on the opposite side of the locals how well can he tell their side of the story?
The book, The Rain Goddess is set during the liberation struggle and centres around the people of Senga an area on the north eastern border of Zimbabwe.
I could not help but continuously pick out the subtle racism comments in the book between the white and black characters.
Stiff uses the subtle remarks in an effort to reinforce the notion that whites are superior to blacks.
In the opening chapter in a conversation between Saul Jenkins and Ndhlela, the former teases the latter on why mosquitoes in the area seemed to be attacking whites mostly.
“I don’t know why. I suppose it’s because there’s so many more blacks than whites. I guess they treat my blood as luxury,” says Saul.
Saul goes on and on about how whites were the precious jewels of the area.
He claims that though they were few they were making a remarkable difference that the blacks had not been able to achieve.
Stiff through the book fans division between the blacks.
During and after the liberation struggle, the whites have tried to fan divisions by pitting the Shona and the Ndebele against each other.
Whites are aware that Zimbabweans united cannot be defeated so they try to divide them.
During a conversation between Kephas (Ndebele) and Matavi (Shona) the two seemingly shift the blame from the white man for the troubles leading to the liberation struggle.
Kephas says the Shona people had no right to say the whiteman stole their land from them as they too had stolen it from the Ndebele people.
Bringing this argument, Stiff is painting a picture that no Zimbabwean is the rightful owners of the land instead it belongs to the Bushmen.
As highlighted earlier, in as much Stiff and his kith and kin try to divide the Zimbabweans, they have realised they are stronger together as a unit and will not let the white man dictate what they do.
Stiff takes the reader through the pungwes; meetings where the freedom fighters educated people on the values of the liberation struggle and why they had to support the war.
True to my initial fears on letting the white men tell the black man’s story Stiff insinuates that locals were harassed by the freedom fighters and forced to participate in the war and support the fighters.
“Just think, only 80 people out of 30 000. Now I know that we have more than 80 supporters around here,” said Simon Gumede, the party leader who had come from the then Salisbury to address a pungwes in Senga.
“We cannot allow that to continue. Therefore, you will take action to show them that they had better mend their ways.
“We will take action only against those people we know don’t support us.”
The story Stiff sells to the world is a biased version as it does not reflect the true events on the ground.
Blacks who took part in the liberation struggle are on record stating that they were not forced to take up arms or support freedom fighters.
Stiff highlights what he classifies as gruesome acts by the freedom fighters when they dealt with sellouts.
Every war has its own causalities, it is no secret the freedom fighters were forced to deal with sellouts, every war has sellouts that must be dealt with.
It is whites who committed atrocities during the struggle, Chimoio and Nyadzonia massacres are some of the Rhodies worst brutalities.
It is time Zimbabweans begin to publish their experiences or others will narrate them on their behalf, distorted.