Roses under the Miombo Trees
A memoir by Amanda Parkyn (then Lloyd) set in 1960’s colonial Southern Africa with chapters on her life in Abercorn. Based on the letters she wrote home to her parents in England, it covers significant events in Rhodesia’s history as uniquely witnessed through the eyes of a young housewife.
As a young English bride, Amanda finds herself in 1960’s Southern Rhodesia, where Ian Smith’s Rhodesia Party is soon to be elected, and subsequently in Abercorn at the northernmost tip of Northern Rhodesia as it is about to be granted its independence.
The memoir describes the carefree enjoyment of a privileged white lifestyle in the African sunshine, the fun and resourcefulness of communities making their own entertainment and the support and friendship of young wives and mothers far from ‘home’. But it also uncovers a young woman’s hidden unease at the foreignness of it all, of being white among black Africans, and Amanda as narrator must face her young self’s casual racism and colonial attitudes.
https://rosesunderthemiombotrees.wordpress.com/
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Link to NRZAM Ian Singer's website that has numerous documents on the history of the country including
The Northern Rhodesia Journal
The New Guide to the the Little Known Waterfalls of Zambia Volume II
To preview the book click on this link
WHOLESALE DISTRIBUTOR - SALES & ENQUIRIES -ZAMBIA & INTERNATIONAL
Gadsden Books +260 977841643. PO Box 32581
3779 Chilubula Close, Olympia Park, Lusaka
Contact: Fay Gadsden gadsden@zamnet.zm
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Novels set in Zambia
Buy now from
http://ruthhartley.com/books/
Description
Heart of Darkness and Lust for Life collide as the Cold War in Africa gets hot. Lara, the artist, loves both Oscar, a suave, older entrepreneur, and owner of the Tin Heart Gold Mine and Tim, a journalist seeking truth. This is a dramatic story, about vibrant, intriguing characters passionate about art, love, the making of money and the African bush, whose lives become entangled in war and politics. How well do we ever know the people we love?
The Tin Heart Gold Mine opens in 1985 with Lara and Oscar, lovers in the wilderness of Chambeshi, surrounded by beauty and hidden danger. It immediately switches to London in 1988, where Lara’s past love for Oscar is threatening her marriage to Tim.
The Tin Heart Gold Mine is a fast-moving novel, providing an intense portrayal of an artist’s life in London and painting the landscape and politics of an African country in colourful and truthful detail. It will appeal to fans of contemporary fiction, as well as those who enjoyed Ruth’s first novel, The Shaping of Water.
A Note From the Publisher
Born on an African farm in 1943, Ruth Hartley attended Art School in Cape Town. She has travelled back and forth between the UK and Africa over her life, spending her most recent years travelling throughout Europe. She now lives in France. Her first novel, The Shaping of Water, was published by Matador in 2014.
Tanvi Bush’s Witch Girl
“Through a unique blend of issues such as witchcraft, AIDS activism, religious extremism, Tanvi weaves together a thrilling narrative with vivid descriptions and unforgettable characters.”
Tanvi Bush’s 'Witch Girl' can be ordered from the African Book Collective in UK www.Fishpond.co.uk and Amazon.com for worldwide and Modjaji Books for South Africa) The electronic version is due soon.
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Ruth Hartley's "The Shaping of Water"
A character-driven tale of three couples in Lusaka and Siavonga whose ideals and dreams founder on the rock of political realities in Central Africa.
Available from: http://www.troubador.co.uk/book_info.asp?bookid=2441 and http://www.bookdepository.co.uk, (the latter post-free) also Amazon, WH Smith and Waterstones and from many bookshops and libraries.
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Just Published: Callum Christie's Goodbye Colonialism, Farewell Feudalism
“ His comments are often wonderfully perceptive and Irreverent”.
Pamela Shurmer-Smith in The Overseas Pensioner.
At long last I’ve brought my abridged letters into a book that I hope will interest many people who have lived and worked in Northern Rhodesia/Zambia and, perhaps, to those who have not.
I have inserted sections which explain the political situation which I found in Northern Rhodesia when I arrived in 1959 and its turbulent history over the succeeding three years until the country stood on the threshold of Independence. Not everyone will agree with my interpretation of these events, but at least they are consistent with the views I expressed in my letters written as these events were unfolding.
I also explain briefly how the colonial administrative system operated in theory and in practice; there is much reference in my letters to the extensive foot and landrover tours which I and my fellow officers did in order to visit all corners of our huge district. And having spent the whole of my first tour of three years in Barotseland, apart from two months in Northern Province during the 1961 troubles, my letters and commentary explain the particular circumstances of working in a feudal African kingdom. I don’t disguise my impatience with the British and Barotse establishments for their concern to maintain the status quo and their lack of foresight in recognising the inevitability of Independence in the very near future.
The book is printed in colour. In addition to the front and rear covers there are over 60 photos, most of them in colour, throughout the text. As far as possible they are placed to illustrate points as they arise in the text, such as the Queen Mother’s visit to Barotseland in May 1960. 320 pages with 4 maps.
The price of the book is £14.99 including p&p in the UK and is available from me direct at PO Box 3843, Glasgow G62 9DB and via the internet at mc1284@gmail.com.
PS Some of my readers will have known me as Malcolm but those who knew me after my marriage will know me by my family name of Callum which I have used as the author’s name.
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Accomodation in Mbala
For those who wish to revisit old haunts there is now a rest house on the shores of Lake Chila
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Lake-chila-lodge-mbala/291999877598366
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Some useful websites
Northern Rhodesia Journal
http://www.nrzam.org.uk/NRJ/NRJIndex/NRJindex.htm
or
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Until some recent research by Mary Mbewe Mazimba and others it was generally forgotten that Abercorn/Mbala was home to some 400 Polish refugees during the Second World War
see:
http://kresy-siberia.org/hom/element/english-refugee-camps/abercorn-northern-rhodesia/
https://www.academia.edu/4279386/Mbala_In_history
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stationarynomads/3789603051/
Other Polish Camps in East Africa have brief descriptions in
and
http://www.dpcamps.org/poland.html
lists the following camps.
“In mid-1944, East Africa hosted over 13,000 Polish citizens. They settled in transit and permanent camps in the British colonies of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanganyika. In Uganda, the camps were located in Masindi and Koya on Lake Victoria. In Kenya, they were located in Rongai, Manira, Makindu, Nairobi, and Nyali near Mombasa. In Tanganyika, the largest settlement was Tengeru (4,000 refugees) and smaller camps were located in Kigoma, Kidugala, Ifunda, Kondoa, and Morogoro.
South Africa, South Rhodesia, and North Rhodesia also became the home of Poles. The largest of these settlements were: in the Union of South Africa Oudtshoorn; in North Rhodesia Abercorn, Bwana M'Kubwa, Fort Jameson, Livingstone, and Lusaka; in South Rhodesia Digglefold, Marandellas, Rusape, and Gatooma.
In Africa, Polish schools, churches, hospitals, civic centers, and manufacturing and service cooperatives were founded and Polish culture prospered. African radio stations ran programs in the Polish language and there waseven a Polish press. In South Africa alone there were 18 Polish schools with about 1,800 students in attendance.” [dpcamps.org/Poland]
Mentions Abercorn Camp as the Switzerland of Africa!
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For a more academic view of the European experience in Northern Rhodesia see
Remnants of an Empire: Memory and Northern Rhodesiaís White Diaspora
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Marian Gamwell's recollections of her work during World War II - Audio File.
From the Imperial War Museum's audio collection
British ambulance driver with Scottish Women’s Hospital in France, 1914-1915; ambulance driver with First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in Belgium and France, 1915-1918; Commandant served with First Aid Nursing Yeomanry in GB, Middle East and India, 1940-1946.
http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/80000498
Publications of the Rhodesiana Society
http://www.rhodesia.nl/rhodesiana/indexrhosoc.html
A good article on British and German Naval Operations on Lake Tanganyika during the First World War
http://eagle.orgfree.com/cdferree/tanganjikasee/tangan.html