A sort of cousin-in-law has just lost his glamorous looking English mother, who stayed on in her husband's Zimbabwe ranch after he died, looked after by devoted black servants.
He - the cousin-in-law, a good friend of mine - will now have to go down there and tidy up, sell the property and bung the faithful retainers out of the selling price (it won't be anywhere near real market value of course).
Many will look askance at the brutal immorality of colonialist land theft. It seemed all right at the time though if you didn't look too closely. Imperialism has its defenders even among the imperialized. And it was a fairly brief period seen against the sweep of real history.
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>> A sort of cousin-in-law has just lost his glamorous looking English mother, who stayed on
>> in her husband's Zimbabwe ranch after he died, looked after by devoted black servants.
My grandfather and step-grandmother had a couple of Zimbabwean ranches. No idea what has happened to them, now they have passed away.
He wouldn't let us come and visit because of the troubles.
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In my Africa-hacking days I knew some Zimbabweans in London.
On the whole they were horrible fellows. Herself couldn't stand them. Nevertheless, one was a sort of friend whose obituary I wrote for the Grauniad (200 quid, a pleasant surprise).
Robert Mugabe, their leader, is seriously awful too in my opinion. Back in the day though I was always being scolded for saying things like that.
Last edited by: Armel Coussine on Thu 16 Jul 15 at 20:02
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When I first moved to Sussex I was fascinated, but ultimately horrified, to read about Nicholas van Hoogstraten. It would appear that he's in Zimbabwe now.
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>> Nicholas van Hoogstraten.
Oh good God. Yuck...
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I've heard white Rhodesian and white Russian used as metaphors for that detached feeling some people have whose only real country ceased to exist many years ago. It's an odd sensation I can for some reason emphasise with, though for no practical reason.
It's just an appealing, rather romantic, notion.
Franz Lehar's brother was an officer in Austria-Hungary. After 1918 he refused to acknowledge citizenship of any of the successor states - he claimed to have no country, he was a servant of the (Holy Roman) Emperor. Already about 100 years out of date by 1914.
A bit like the Greek speakers dotted around the eastern Mediteranean who claim to be Byzantine, not Greeks.
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>> I've heard white Rhodesian and white Russian used as metaphors for that detached feeling some
>> people have whose only real country ceased to exist many years ago.
>> It's just an appealing, rather romantic, notion.
Lots of the former around here, Cliff. Known as 'whenwes' for obvious reasons.
Very much a grass-is-always-greener sort.
Being superceded now by the 'pre-1994' mob, who sit around all day bemoaning the 'new' South Africa, and blaming everything on 'them'.
Ok, so the present government are a bunch of corrupt incompetent clowns, but one must consider the state of the nation prior to Mandela's release - it wasn't all milk and honey, what with sanctions biting, boycotts in sport and entertainment and technology, inflation rampant, a very limited range of goods available on import, political instability, terrorism against the white population on the up and up, conscription and subsequent 'camps' for all men disrupting the economy etc etc etc
South Africa was a good place to be in the early 80s. IF you were white. But the late 80s, it wasn't so sunny.
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Last of the line... - Westpig
