Rating: 
Summary: Brings back great memories
Review: It is like reliving my childhood again. A truly great read.
Rating:
Summary: Brings back great memories
Review: It is like reliving my childhood again. A truly great read.
Rating:
Summary: Godwin's Memoir a Classic
Review: Mukiwa is one of the most compelling books I've come across in recent memory and should be considered requisite for anyone interested in the history, current affairs and future of Zimbabwe/Rhodesia and Southern Africa. Godwin is an incredibly gifted writer who paints a series of remarkably vivid canvases in this memoir of his life in Africa. In searching the net for reading material prior to a recent trip to Zimbabwe and South Africa I came across the title, but although I did have the opportunity to read Graham Boynton's, Last Days of Cloud Cuckooland, I didn't get around to locating a copy of Mukiwa. This proved fortunate for me however, as I found a paperback copy Godwin's book on a dusty, stationer's shop shelf in Chiredzi, a small town not far from many of the places described in the author's recounting of his early youth in Zimbabwe's Chimanimni Mountains. I could not have begun the book at a better time during my holiday. One day, on returning from a morning's excursion to the Birchenough Bridge with friends, I sat down with the book after lunch and was delighted to find myself reading the author's description of trips to the same area as a young boy on holiday with his family. Tears pricked my eyes as I read the familiar description of Africans, wearing threadbare clothing and brilliantly hopeful smiles , stepping up to the side of the road attempting to entice potential customer in passing vehicles that never seemed to stop. They're still trying to sell the pods of cream of tartat fruit and it broke my heart to remember their faces. Many times during my reading of the book, I put it down for a moment or longer, feeling so moved by the power of Godwin's narrative. Mukiwa is so well written that I could have easily finished it in a day, but I didn't want it to end and frequently read and reread sentences, paragraphs or whole sections not wanting to miss a word, a phrase or a nuance. I've always been considered a voracious reader, but have become impatient with literature over the past several years and had thought that it was, perhaps, due to an intollerance or inattentiveness that came with age or too many lost brain cells. I'm grateful to Mr. Godwin for dissproving that notion to me. Obviously, it's just been too long since I read something that was the equal of the classics of my youth---unfortunately anyone with access to a word processor can write a book today and often does. Mukiwa was my constant companion during the last few weeks of my trip, as I read some whenever I had the chance, never allowing myself to be rushed though---I wanted to savour each page. I finally finished it, with appropriate regret, on the homeward leg of my trip from Capetown to Miami. Everywhere I went people, strangers and aquaintances, who saw what I was reading had comments or questions about the book. Strangers in the aisle, queing to leave a plane would gesture toward it and say, "That's a wonderful book." People I met would ask me where I was in the story or what I thought of it. Mukiwa is so well crafted that it seems to strike a chord with everyone who reads it, especially those who've grown up in our spent time in southern Africa. One delightful professional guide, hunter/naturalist whom I had the occasion to see every day for over a week enquired regularly as to my progress with the book. Finally, one day we were discussing the book and I was asking him questions about his own childhood in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe and what similarities their childhood shared and and he said, " I met him you know, Peter Godwin." I was immediately entranced and wanted to know, of course, what he was like and, most importantly, I asked, "Was he what he seemed to be in the book?" To which my friend replied, emphatically and enthusiasticly, "Exactly." Reportedly he was funny and nice and had all sorts of wonderful stories and my friend's face was wreathed in smiles as he described the meeting at a nearby community where the author was attending a family wedding. I smiled just as delightedly as I listened, enthralled and just a little envious. Peter Godwin is someone I'd like to meet too. I'm searching for a copy of his other book and have already purchased a second copy of Mukiwa---I want one copy for myself just in case mine doesn't come back to me.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining story--to those who would know no better.
Review: Oh sure, I expect votes for this review to be minimal; that doesn't phase me one bit. But the truth, the essential, untwistable truth is this: Zimbabwe is an occupied country. This is something the author fails to give proper weighting to. People of European descent own most of the land, and the best land at that. Think about it: do negro folk own most of the land in Europe? Yes, indeed there are the well-worn arguments ... the "White" farmers "bought" the land, that the nation would starve without their food-producing skills etc. But in actual fact, having lived in Zimbabwe and elsewhere (I was not born there), and having caught eerie glimpses of how the world is REALLY run, I'd say that any genuine progress by African blacks in modern times will meet with subtle & invisible sabotage from the highest levels of power. The argument that Mugabe is an inept/corrupt leader: No African leader with genuine aims to improve the lot of his people would ever be allowed to see the light of too many days. Lumumba of The Congo was one such sincere leader. His sincerity was rewarded by death; a Belgian police chief based in the Congo boasted of having dissolved Lumumba's body in an acid bath. Do you think Mugabe--always the pragmatist--would not be aware of this? Better a bad leader, one who allows certain interests (those at the highest levels of power) to have their way with his country & it's resources, than to be "good" (but dead) leader. People of Zimbabwe, Black or White, do not believe for one minute the "official" news that portrays leaders of Western countries as being so terribly upset with Mugabe. These are just illusions; the realities are much stranger. Regarding the White farmers with legal ownership of the land; yes, I have certain sympathies for them (though like most Southern African settlers, they are an arrogant and unlikeable bunch. People from my country (Australia) and elsewhere who have visited and mingled with S.African settler communities will know full well what I mean.) What I can point out to the settler farmers is that they are also pawns in the game. If they (or their parents/grandparents etc) legally bought the land from the British government, it is the British government who should meet their compensation & whatever other needs. I guess the British Government sees such settler-farmers as too valuble as pawns & spies to arrange resettlements of these farmers to other countries. Apologies for such a downcast view, and statements that reduce this book as a candy-coated fairy tale of a comfortable life somewhat disturbed by having to do Army Service. One more note: my opinions are NOT typical of MOST white Australians, who would be just as disdainful for peoples colonised by Anglo folk.
Rating:
Summary: Straight to the heart of White Rhodesia/Zimbabwe
Review: Peter Godwin's Mukiwa is probably one of the greatest written treasures to come out of white Africa. Thoroughly entertaining and wonderfuly written, Godwin provides a very detached yet informative account of his life in Rhodesia to the independence wars, and finally to his recollections in the newly independent black run Zimbabwe. Watch for his interpretation on his view of white policy and politics, as well as the adventures of travelling with his mother (the local medical Doctor)through the hot terrorist ridden regions of Rhodesia. Excellent and popular read, and upon personal opinion, the best autobiographical read to have come out of Southern Africa
Rating:
Summary: I was a white girl in Africa
Review: Peter's story was my story, except that I wasn't conscripted into the bush war - thanks to heaven that I was a GIRL. My male cousins were in the Rhodesian war. They both were killed in horrible ways. I wept almost constantly as I read this book, but I could not stop reading. I gave the book to my mother and she cried too. Maybe if you weren't there in Rhodesia at the time of this story, it might not affect you as much. But we were and it did. Our farm was ambushed several times and we would have been murdered in our beds, except for quiet heroes like Peter. He writes with total honest reality. You can smell the bush through his nostrils. I still think a lot about Peter's very evocative life story and realize with gratitude, "But for the grace of God..."
Rating:
Summary: Youth in Southern Africa
Review: Reading this book was a wonderfully rich and poignant way of stepping back through my own childhood and youth. As an adult living in the United States who lived a very similar lifestyle in Southern Africa, it is a cleverly written account of British colonial childhood innocence giving immediate way to the destruction of civil war where purpose and meaning are not always clear to those on the front lines until much later on in life. In an enlightening way, Peter's narration articulates my own youth. I look forward to reading more of his books, and I look forward sharing my background with others close to me through him.
Rating:
Summary: Simply Incredible!
Review: Superbly written and masterfully crafted. Godwin presents his material, at first, through the eyes of innocence then slowly transforms these images in the face of war and murder in his homeland. I recommend this book to anyone with an interest in African History or wanting to read a great book. I could not put it down once I started reading it.
Rating:
Summary: THIS BOOK IS WELL WRITTEN GARBAGE
Review: The writer makes the native Africans out to be stupid--needing the guiding hand of a European like him. He makes no mention of the mess made to a country by British colonialism. The destruction of a people and a culture; the destruction of the natural order of things in which they all lived. Well written it is indeed, but well-written clap-trap. And for that reason, it will never gain that status of immortality that a true writer should aim for in writing a book. Here is a lawyer who decided to write a book. And his work is not true to to portraying the truth--not true to the act of writing itself.
Rating:
Summary: Powerful memories
Review: This book brought back to life a critical point of my own life -- a visit to Rhodesia in 1976 and two years as a journalist working for the Bulawayo Chronicle (1978-80) as the war ended and Rhodesia turned to Zimbabwe. His images extended my perceptions both before and after. The African experience transcended any other life experiences because it brought so many elements of the human condition into such stark contrast, so suddenly. Godwin's book captures these experiences and frames them clearly. A wonderful book!
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