Northern Rhodesians Worldwide
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Biographies
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Wild Goose: The Life and Death of Hugh van Oppen.
By Colin Baker. "Wild Goose" is the name given to the many thousands of Irishmen who left their native land and, like the wild birds, migrated to other countries, to fight as mercenary soldiers in foreign armies after the Battle of Aughrim and the Surrender of Limerick in 1691. The Wild Goose was adopted in the 1960s as the symbol, flag and shoulder badge of members of 5 Commando fighting in the Congo. One of the mercenary officers in 5 Commando was Hugh van Oppen. In this biography, Colin Baker examines the extraordinary life — and death — of a remarkable and extremely colourful man. After schooling at Oakham, where he was an outstanding swimmer, accomplished cricketer and undistinguished scholar, and a year as a trainee tobacco planter in Southern Rhodesia, from where he was returned after destroying the estate owner's lorry by fire, van Oppen joined the British Army. He was court martialled at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and sent to Korea, where he fought at the front line and spent many convivial hours at the Norwegian sergeants' mess, and later Egypt, where he worked as a press officer. Leaving the Royal Tank Regiment in 1956, he joined the Northern Rhodesia Police, where he commanded a riot squad platoon, almost killed a fellow officer of whose behaviour he disapproved, and resigned just before being dismissed. He then served in the Federal Army with the Royal Rhodesia Regiment during the 1959 State of Emergency in Nyasaland, and played the key role in quelling the most serious riot there, at Nkata Bay. The book fully examines the detail of this deeply tragic and traumatic event. Nyasaland was followed by overt intelligence-gathering work along the Northern Rhodesia-Katanga border and clandestine operations in Katanga itself and elsewhere in the Congo for the federal government. Following a precarious and unsuccessful period in business in Rhodesia, he returned to England where he found life distinctly uncongenial. He went first to Holland and worked as a stevedore in the Rotterdam docks and then to South Africa where he took up trawler fishing with an incompetent crew in an unseaworthy boat. He then spent several sponsored months in the USA, lecturing on the evils of communism in Africa and lobbying politicians to do something about it. Virtually penniless on his return to South Africa, he joined Colonel Mike Hoare's 5 Commando in the Congo. He proved himself a gifted leader and military commander, but was killed just before he was due to take over as commanding officer of 5 Commando. The author examines in detail each of these phases in van Oppen's fascinating life and concludes with an analysis of his constant search to prove himself, his relationships with women, his right wing political stance, his tendency to embroider many aspects of his life and career, and, finally, his death. Colin Baker, Professor Emeritus at the University of Glamorgan, specializes in the post-war political history of Central Africa, primarily Nyasaland-Malawi, and is the author of nine books in this field, including the biographies of Nyasaland's last three governors, and over a hundred articles in learned journals. He is currently working on the biographies of Sir Richard Turnbull, last Governor of Tanganyika, and of John Archer, one time Regimental Sergeant Major of the 1st Battalion, King's African Rifles, in Nyasaland. "Wild Goose: The Life and Death of Hugh van Oppen", is published by Mpemba Books, ISBN 0 9542020 0 7, soft back, pp. xix, 274, three maps and fourteen photographs. Ordering options include through the Web at Amazon.co.uk (link below) or direct from the publisher as follows: Mpemba BooksPrice: £10.50, plus p&p (UK £1.50, air mail to Europe £3, air mail to other countries £5), Sterling cheques or Sterling banker's drafts, payable to "Mpemba Books". This book not available from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the UK. 
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The Great Betrayal -- The Memoirs of Africa's Most Controversial Leader.
By Ian Douglas Smith. Smith, the white prime minister of Rhodesia who engineered the country's unilateral independence from Britain in 1965 and led resistance to the black majority until Zimbabwe was born of post-civil war negotiations in 1979, has written an unrepentant, heavily detailed account of his leadership. He proceeds from the posture that the black majority, significantly rooted in traditional culture, should be "gradually" brought up to "standards of Western civilization." He condemns outside countries that "arrogant[ly]" applied sanctions against Rhodesia and associates black opposition more with communism than nationalism. He claims that "our black people" had the best education, health, housing, services, etc. in Africa, not acknowledging the gap between white and black Rhodesia. He refers to black "terrorists" while downplaying the cruelties of Rhodesia's armed forces. Yet Smith makes some points. He offers inside details of negotiation, including pressure from South Africa. His title refers to the hypocrisy of the British Commonwealth, which imposed sanctions on Rhodesia while many of its other members were one-party states. And he reminds us that Zimbabwe's black-run Mugabe government has steadily flouted democracy. (Publishers Weekly Book Review -- to be replaced by my own when I get the chance.) Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. Get more information or buy this book from Indigo in Canada. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the UK.
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Rhodes -- The Race for Africa.
By Antony Thomas. One of the few books on Cecil Rhodes that conveys the "contemporary mind and contemporary methods" of a man who, by 1896, at the age of 42, had gained control of the world's diamond supply, built a second fortune in gold, added two countries to Queen Victoria's empire, and became prime minister of the Cape Colony. The outlines of his spectacular career are well known: the sickly youth who went to South Africa for health reasons; understood the need to organize the chaotic diamond diggings; had his imagination fired by his travels to the north; used his wealth first to fool and then to conquer the Matabele; and is almost brought to ruin when he tries a similar coup against the Boers in the Transvaal. Thomas's account strikes a judicious balance between Rhodes's ruthlessness and amorality on the one hand, and his remarkable capacity to win people over to his side on the other. The same man acted to conceal the outbreak of smallpox at his mines and to strip black voters of their rights; and yet, when it was in his interests, he made all-out efforts to capture the non-white vote and, in perhaps the most sublime act of his career, went unarmed with a small party into the midst of the rebellious Matabele, who had killed large numbers of settlers, and persuaded them to make peace. Not the least of Thomas's achievements is to negate the (largely latter-day) suggestions that Rhodes was homosexual. The charge against Rhodes, Thomas believes, is that he "squandered his great gift," his ability to "reach out to others, whatever their race, sex or background, and inspire them with a great sense of purpose." This may go too far: The late 19th century was not notable for liberal conceptions of race relations. But if Thomas (whose Masterpiece Theatre version of Rhodes's life will air this fall) is not finally convincing in this judgment, he does manage to restore the relevance of a remarkable man. -- (Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.) Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. Get more information or buy this book from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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The Last Trek -- A New Beginning: The Autobiography.
By F.W. de Klerk. On April 27, 1994, millions of South Africans stood in mile-long queues for hours to cast their votes in the country's first democratic election. F.W. de Klerk, the last apartheid president, must have known his party would lose and that he was effectively handing the power of the volk to the African National Congress and its leader, Nelson Mandela. De Klerk's motivation for writing The Last Trek appears to be to show this surrender of power as the act of the country's "great reformer." The book is also an attempt to reassure the volk that this is not the end for them -- merely a fresh challenge. De Klerk was brought up as an Afrikaner nationalist and his view of the world was shaped by racism. He unapologetically tells how, as a young man, he was impressed with Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd's plans to create separate black homelands and was relieved when Nelson Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. Throughout the time he was a nationalist parliament member, minister, and later president, de Klerk insists, he did not know about his government's reign of terror and its attendant massacres and death squads. (Though he was a "compassionate reformer" and lawyer, it seems unbelievable that he did not try harder to find out if the allegations were true.) He does apologize for apartheid crimes--but urges they should be seen in context of the cold war and his political background, as well as in comparison with other nations: a weak apology, indeed. The Last Trek offers interesting insights into de Klerk's mind, but its most interesting material may well be its description of how his relationship with Mandela deteriorated, leading to the collapse of the coalition government--an event that angered de Klerk's colleagues because it caused a rift in the party and eroded international confidence in multiracial government. (Amazon.com Book Review.) Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. Get more information or buy this book from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa.
By Peter Godwin. Peter Godwin grew up in Rhodesia during the end of white rule. While his Rhodesians Never Die is a historical account of that time, Mukiwa is a more personal narrative -- a testament to Africa and a memoir as seen through the eyes of a child becoming a young man amidst civil war. Spanning 1964 - 1982, from when Godwin was a boy of six in Rhodesia to when he returned to Zimbabwe as a journalist covering the bloody transition back to black rule, Godwin personalizes a difficult era in South (sic) African history with clarity, intelligence, humor, empathy, and sharp prose. (Amazon.com Book Review.) Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. Get more information or buy this book from Indigo in Canada. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the UK.
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Bwana -- Go Home.
By Bob Hitchcock. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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Kenneth Kaunda, Zambia Shall be Free.
By Russell Daniels. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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Kenneth Kaunda.
By Philip Brownrigg. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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End of Kaunda Era.
By J.M. Mwanakatwe. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the UK.
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Zambia's President, Kenneth Kaunda.
By Florence T. Polatnick. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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Two African Statesmen: Kaunda of Zambia and Nyerere of Tanzania.
By John Charles Hatch. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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Qenneth Kaunda of Zambia: The Times and the Man.
By Fergus MacPherson. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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The Political Philosophy of President Kenneth D. Kaunda of Zambia.
By M.A. Ranganathan. No review available. Get more information or buy this book from Amazon in the US. This book not available from Indigo in Canada. This book not available from Amazon in the UK.
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