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Wednesday, March 8, 2017

Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight - An African Childhood

When she was three years old Alexandra Fuller moved with her parents and older sister from England to Rhodesia in 1972.  She remained there until 1981, when her family moved to Malawi and then on to Zambia.  Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight (#640) is her memoir of those childhood years spent in Rhodesia during its civil war, and after majority rule took effect there, other African nations.

Through Bobo's eyes (She didn't realize her name was actually Alexandra until she first went to school.) we see both the beauty of her adopted continent, and the life threatening  conditions of drought, poverty, and violence in contrast with the tight-knit society of the ex-pat community there. Her memories are in turn lyric, amusing, tense and appalling.  Physical discomforts are offset by the anodyne of constantly flowing alcohol.

Bobo herself seems to be fearless, handling the loading of weapons as a seven year old to protect their isolated farm as a matter of course.  But disease and accidents have a way of taking their toll, especially on her own family.  She and her surviving sister Vanessa had different ways of coping with the constant vigilance and isolation, as did their parents.  Dysfunctional as the faimily may have been, they did stick it out together.

An interesting perspective on a time and place I never thought much about before.  Recommended.

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