Harmony and Discord in Africa

Memories of Childhood in Southern Rhodesia

In 1949, newlyweds Tom and Angela Huleatt-James left war-torn Europe for a new life in Africa. Fleeing the grey skies of post-war Britain, they were attracted to the idea of farming in Southern Rhodesia and determined to work there for a better future.
In this book, their son Mark tells the story of their adventures in Africa and his childhood and education in Southern Rhodesia. This was the time when European hegemony in the area was at its zenith. The difficult years of the Great Depression and World War II were over and an agricultural and commodities boom was under way. Europeans in Southern Rhodesia felt confident and increasingly prosperous. Against a backdrop of the history of the country and the culture of its indigenous peoples, Mark Huleatt-James details his memories of being a young child in this period – from a love of wildlife to the social life enjoyed by Europeans at the time. The education he received at Ruzawi and Peterhouse schools set him on the path to a long and successful legal career. Notwithstanding calls for independence and gradually growing unrest, the family continued to farm their land and to play their part in the colonial community.
Providing a unique portrait of the final years of empire in Africa, this book is an enlightening and entertaining read.