SCATTERLINGS OF AFRICA
by Peter Davies
Born and raised in Africa, Peter Davies served as a territorial soldier in Rhodesia from 1963 to 1975. He saw action, and took part in captures and interrogation.This gave him insight into terrorist minds, many of which were successfully encouraged to ‘turn’ and fight alongside Rhodesia’s soldiers against their former comrades. Davies wrote his novel, “Scatterlings of Africa,” using his own recollections of how the
war was fought, and how it affected Rhodesia and its people.After almost fifteen years of war, Rhodesia fell under the grip of Marxist dictator Mugabe who changed its name to Zimbabwe in 1980. But Scatterlings of Africa takes him back to December 1972 in Rhodesia’s Zambezi Valley. At that
time, the Valley was full of animals that were wild and free – it was what was known as a ‘protected hunting area’, not one of the relatively tame ‘game reserves’ that most people see. He had many encounters with lions, elephants, buffalo and other big game in addition to all the usual smaller stuff like wart hogs, antelope, etc. in this beautiful but wild part of the Valley. Scorpions, tsetse fly and other nasty insects abounded and there was abundant bird life.
Sadly, a civil war was getting underway, and the Zambezi Valley; Rhodesia’s north eastern border with Zambia and Mozambique, was the route insurgents used to gain access to the more populated areas of Rhodesia up on the highveld.
In 1965, Rhodesia’s government had declared independence from the United Kingdom. Radical
black African politicians were not satisfied with the slow progress being made by the mainly white Rhodesian government towards universal franchise. Their demand was ‘one-
man-one-vote’.Rhodesians had watched this happen in all the other former colonies of Africa and saw that once that happened, future elections – if they took place at all – were rigged in favour of the incumbent African government. When they discovered that they were worse off than they had been under colonial rule, black African electorates were unable to change their black African governments. It had turned out to be a case of one-man-one-vote… once. Mass murder, corruption and economic disaster became the norm for independent Africa.Back in Rhodesia, the frustrated radical black politicians soon became exiles and set up external military wings; a bit like radical Muslims and Al Qaeda today. These Rhodesian terrorist organizations were funded by the West; yet trained and armed by the Soviet Union and Communist China. Like the modern fanatics of Islam around the world today, terrorist insurgents set about trying to indoctrinate the peaceful black peasant populations of Rhodesia. Those who did not join the ‘cause’ were intimidated, tortured and sometimes killed. That is why the author – along with many others – was a civilian soldier and hunting
terrorists in the Zambezi Valley during the 1960s and 1970s. Peter Davies'' book is a novel, and all the characters are fictional; but the events are based on what he saw and experienced during those years of war. By December 1972, the war is beginning to hot up. Civilian soldiers are increasingly being called upon to leave their families and careers to fight terrorists ‘in the bush’. Unlike most of his compatriots, protagonist Lieutenant Ron Cartwright prefers his life as a soldier. But things are changing ck home. His wife, Angela, desperately unhappy about her husband’s obsession with the war feels neglected and becomes involved in an illicit romance with her long-lost cousin, Mark. Cartwright is suspicious and trouble brews; he’s a hard-bitten, tough soldier by choice and not a man to cross… There’s a dramatic end involving all four of the main characters.Cartwright is a hard man. Working as an accountant is no match for the comradeship and excitement of the military. A pretty wife and even limited involvement with three small female children is a mixed blessing and rather boring by comparison with life in his beloved wilds of Africa. The terrorists are bad guys but a good excuse to get away from it all. But atrocities committed by one particular insurgent group turns Ron from general hatred of all terrorists to an obsession with one in particular – led by Comrade Captain Gadziwa, a proud but ruthlessly cruel guerilla. This gets Cartwright into serious trouble with his Army superiors. In the end the two of them battle it out in hand-to-hand combat.
Peter Davies has written this book from his heart.He loves Africa and he visit it from time to time..He said:there’s an old saying; “you can take the man out of Africa, but you can’t take Africa out of the man”. " Africa is in my blood, my very bones; so yes, I do visit from time to time. It’s such a beautiful place. I get depressed with the dirt and poverty now though; it was never like that when I lived there. But the game reserves are still wonderful. I loved going on safari in the Okavango Delta in Botswana a few years ago. And South Africa is a huge country that still has much of its infrastructure intact – and the scenery there is wonderful. On the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia is the mighty Victoria Falls – one of the original seven natural wonders of the world."
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