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Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa

by Peter Godwin (Goodreads Author)

4.22 of 5 stars 4.22 · rating details · 1,364 ratings · 138 reviews

The Barnes & Noble Review
January 1998

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa is the story of Peter Godwin's experiences growing up in Rhodesia. He recounts the story of that country's violent transformation into Zimbabwe, as well as his own personal metamorphoses from privileged boy to reluctant soldier to investigative journalist.

Godwin's story begins, "I think I first realize

...more The Barnes & Noble Review
January 1998

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa is the story of Peter Godwin's experiences growing up in Rhodesia. He recounts the story of that country's violent transformation into Zimbabwe, as well as his own personal metamorphoses from privileged boy to reluctant soldier to investigative journalist.

Godwin's story begins, "I think I first realized something was wrong when our next door neighbor, Oom Piet Oberholzer, was murdered. I must have been about five then. It was still five years before the real war would start." The Godwins enjoyed a typical genteel existence in 1960 rural Rhodesia, their household including a "garden boy," a "cook boy," and a nanny. Peter's father managed a wood- and sugarcane-processing plant. His mother, a rural government doctor, was often called to pronounce deaths or conduct autopsies, for which she brought along her "assistant," five-year-old Peter, who was responsible for shooing away the flies.

Godwin's plans for attending college were squashed when he was drafted into the Rhodesian army and assigned to the "Anti-Terrorist Unit," which proved to be an important experience in his life. When he later looked at himself, he saw a man "coursed through with anger and despair. It was the face of someone who would kill an unarmed civilian for withholding information." Disturbed by what he had become, Godwin left Rhodesia after he got out of the army, only to return in 1981 as a journalist. Rhodesia was now Zimbabwe, and the "terrorists" he had reluctantly fought against were now the country's rulers.

Godwin reported on theutterbrutalities in Zimbabwe and the fate of Matabeleland, a black minority region in Zimbabwe. He described the army style of interrogation, in which "before they even began to question you, they would break one wrist," and wrote about the old mines where bodies of the dead were buried. When Godwin's writings received worldwide attention, the Zimbabwean government tried to discredit him, and he received numerous death threats, escaping the country just hours before the police came looking for him.

Mukiwa is not only a memoir but also a compelling adventure story that tells a personal saga that needs to be heard.

(less)

Paperback, 432 pages

Published November 30th 2004 by Grove Press (first published 1996)

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Sep 19, 2008 Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars

Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It’s a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad,...more Peter Godwin certainly has a story to tell. It’s a story of an idyllic, if unusual childhood, a disrupted but eventually immensely successful education, military service and then two careers, one in law, planned but aborted, and then one in journalism, discovered almost by default. Listed like this these elements might sound just a bit mundane, perhaps not the subject of memoir. When one adds, however, the location, Rhodesia becoming Zimbabwe, the result is a deeply moving, in places deeply sad, as well as quite disturbing account of a life lived thus far. Mukiwa, by the way, is Shona for white man.

The setting for Peter Godwin’s early years was a middle class, professional and, crucially, liberal family living in eastern Rhodesia, close to the Mozambique border. I had relatives in that same area, near Umtali and Melsetter, and they used to do exactly what the Godwins did regularly which was to visit the Indian Ocean beaches near Beira. We used to get postcards from there every year, usually in the middle of our north of England winter. Envy wasn’t the word…

Peter Godwin’s mother was a doctor and this meant that his childhood was unusual in two respects. Not many youngsters in white households had liberal-minded parents and even fewer helped their mothers conduct post mortems. Unlike most mukiwa, Peter Godwin had black friends. He learned the local language and got to know the bush. He also grew up close to death and then lived alongside it during the years of the war of independence. He describes how the war simply took over everything and labels himself as a technician in its machinations. It’s a telling phrase, admitting that he did not himself want to fight anyone. Like everyone else, he was caught up in the struggle, required to actively perpetrate the violence and that is what he did.

His education was disrupted. His family life was effectively destroyed. And how he managed to keep his sanity during the period I have no idea. He served most of the period in Matebeleland alongside other members of the Rhodesian armed forces and police who were not, to say the least, as liberal as he was. So in some ways he was already doubly a foreigner in that he was working in an area where he could not speak the language and was accompanied by fellow countrymen with whom he shared no beliefs or ideals. And yet he had to fight.

I have never served in a war and hope I never will. But my relatives from the same area as Peter Godwin were also called up into national service and also fought the war. I had not seen them for fifteen years or so when we met after they, along with many thousands of others, as recorded by Peter Godwin, had already fled south. But for them also memories of war were deep and resented scars. It was a bloody and dirty war where, if you were lucky, you could at most trust your closest colleagues. It was a vicious conflict at times and left everyone angry. No-one won. Everyone suffered.

Having eventually achieved the education he sought, Peter Godwin attempted to launch a legal career. But then, almost by default, he became a reporter. After independence, he learned of atrocities perpetrated by the Zambabwean army in the area where he had served during the war. He investigated. He reported. And then, on advice, he fled.

But he did eventually return to all of the areas he knew and the last part of the book is a moving and deeply sad account of how little he recognised in the places he loved as a child. But within this, there is a moment of hope as he meets a former freedom fighter and, with humour and new friendship, the two of them realise that they had not only been enemies, but had actually been two commanders trying to kill one another on opposite sides of the same skirmish.

But in the end, Peter Godwin is changed man, and his home and homeland, at least as he had experienced them, were no more. War had changed everything and everyone. No-one won. (less)

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Jun 20, 2007 Christa rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: recommend

My boyfriend's Dad grew up in Zimbabwe about the same time as this author and gave this book to my boyfriend(Pete) as the closest example of how his life was growing up. Pete gave it to me after watching me try to read a series of autobiographies on the same subject which just weren't that great.
Godwin is a journalist and writes in the journalist style I can never decide if I like, but it's an interesting book and offers tons of info on Zim in the 70s.
My Dad recently returned from South Africa a...more

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Dec 22, 2012 Mikey B. rated it 4 of 5 stars

This book is divided into three sections. The first is about the author’s upbringing in what was then Rhodesia – the relationship to his parents and sister, schooling – the normal kind of stuff – except with a Rhodesian angle. There is a slowly escalating violence, but white Rhodesians continue to believe in the bubble they inhabit – unable to view life outside of this paradigm.

The writing throughout is matter-of-fact and reads well, almost like a novel. The second section concerns his recruitme...more

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Sep 09, 2012 Alistair rated it 5 of 5 stars

Brilliant memoir of life in Rhodesia as it entered the civil war that ended in the deposing of Iain Smith and white rule .

There are three parts . The first about the author's youth and is largely an evocation of the sounds , smells and magical world of Africa with its dangers and exhilarating landscapes .

The second part deals with the war and the transition to black rule

The third with his return as a rebellion in Matabeleland is ruthlessly and bloodily put down by the Mugabe led majority govern...more

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Mar 26, 2010 Joan Colby rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very well-written and engaging memoir which is part the experience of a white boy in Africa and part a coming of age story. Godwin was born in Rhodesia to a father who was a factory manager and a mother who was a doctor. Both were idiosyncratic characters who embodied the British ideal of the stiff upper lip. As a child, Godwin frequently accompanied his mother on her medical rounds which included some revolting autopsies done in the field. He was sent to boarding school at the age of 6 which...more

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Jun 15, 2009 Juliet Wilson rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: biography

This is a memoir of the author's childhood, adolescence and parts of his adulthood spent in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). I visited Zimbabwe twice between 1990 and 1992 when I lived in Malawi (including a number of the places featuring here) and although I knew some of what happened there in the 1960s - 1980s, I was interested to find out more. This is a stunning book, heartbreakingly sad in its cataloguing of wartime atrocities and life in a country torn apart, but sometimes also very funny (especia...more

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Jul 04, 2011 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Godwin wrote Mukiwa as three "books" within a book. The first tells of his childhood and youth in colonial Rhodesia as it was crumbling and guerrillas were becoming progressively more active. The second book relates the period of his required national service, which he entered with considerable misgiving. He chose to serve in the police force rather than the military, although the distinction between the two was increasingly blurred. The final book begins with his return home, after several year...more

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Apr 04, 2012 Caleb rated it 4 of 5 stars

Engrossing book about growing up in white Rhodesia, told through the eyes of a young man who still wrestles with finding his place in the history of it all. Godwin brings the people and history of Zimbabwe alive: from the opening scene of the book, when a white farmer is murdered by guerrillas; to his own coming of age in an uncertain time; to his compulsory service in the Rhodesian special forces during the long and bloody civil war that finally brought Ian Smith's government to its end; to the...more

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Feb 26, 2012 Julie rated it 4 of 5 stars

I finished reading this book in the same week the sad news about the death of journalist Marie Colvin hit the news. Peter Godwin is a white man who grew up in Rhodesia, seemed to have a lovelly middle class childhood with his father a company boss and his mother a community Doctor, then the trouble starts when it is decided to end white rule and establish a new Government. I was a teenager at the time and dont remember much about it, we looked at it in black and white, oh yes the country is Afr...more I finished reading this book in the same week the sad news about the death of journalist Marie Colvin hit the news. Peter Godwin is a white man who grew up in Rhodesia, seemed to have a lovelly middle class childhood with his father a company boss and his mother a community Doctor, then the trouble starts when it is decided to end white rule and establish a new Government. I was a teenager at the time and dont remember much about it, we looked at it in black and white, oh yes the country is African and ruled by the whites so yes they should leave and hand it back to the black Africans, what a simplistic view we had, no regard for the whites who had lived and worked their for generations. The truth was far more complicated and you dont just have black agains whites but tribal loyalties and virtually everyone against everyone. Peter finished his education and wanted to go to uni but was conscripted into the police, he writes about coming across whole villages slaughtered for supporting the wrong side, people blown up by land mines, what a harrowing excistance for a young man. He finally gets out and goes to uni comes back to his homeland as a fully fledged journalist, by now it is Zimbabwe, under black rule and the whole world thinks everything is hunky dory,but is it ? He hears rumblings about mass executions and i guess we would nowadays call it ethnic cleansing a sadly all to familiar phrase,in the west of the country. He goes to that part of the country to seek out the truth and finds out it is true , the bravery of someone who could do that when life is regarded as so cheap and he would have been shot on sight for even being in that location is astounding. He breaks the story to the western world, of course it is denied by the government hierachy and western journalists invited to visit various sites, obviously natives are dragged out to tell how good life is and how the stories are all lies, knowing if they speak out of turn a horrific death will follow not just to them but their families.More examples of bravery and unsung heroes the people who risked certain death to actually speak the truth to the journalists. The story broke and Peter had to get out of the country fast before he was imprisoned. He was exiled for many years working as a journalist in various countries. I look forward to reading more of his work in the near future,and his return to Zimbabwe at a later date.(less)

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Dec 31, 2011 Brittany Kubes rated it 3 of 5 stars

A “mukiwa” is a fig that is the same color as white people. Peter Godwin wrote a memoir about being a mukiwa in the changing African country of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. In a quick read, Godwin writes about (1) his pleasant childhood growing up in the African wilderness, (2) being a disillusioned police officer during the Rhodesian Bush War, and (3) investigating, as a lawyer and journalist, Zimbabwe war crimes. I don’t mean to be jaded, but at times African war destruction tales can get rather uniform...more A “mukiwa” is a fig that is the same color as white people. Peter Godwin wrote a memoir about being a mukiwa in the changing African country of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. In a quick read, Godwin writes about (1) his pleasant childhood growing up in the African wilderness, (2) being a disillusioned police officer during the Rhodesian Bush War, and (3) investigating, as a lawyer and journalist, Zimbabwe war crimes. I don’t mean to be jaded, but at times African war destruction tales can get rather uniform when capturing the rape, torture, child soldiers, destitute conditions [see: What is the What (Sudan); A Long Way Gone (Sierra Leone); We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families (Rwanda)]….BUT I enjoyed this book because the focal point was unique, which was the effect such political turmoil had on the life of a whitey in a country that was fed up with white colonials.

[BRIEF HISTORY LESSON for context…] The memoir was during the time colonial Rhodesia became independent Zimbabwe in the Rhodesian Bush War, a conflict that included 3 different players: the Rhodesian government under white Ian Smith, the rebel Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army under Robert Mugabe (ZANU), and the rebel Zimbabwe People’s Revolutionary Army under Joshua Nkomo (ZAPU). As colonial rule was ending all over Africa, the white Rhodesian gov issued a Unilateral Declaration of Independence (UDI) from the UK (stating they refused to become a multi-racial democracy and white rule would continue to govern). Economic sanctions by the UN & the war ensued. After 15 years of fighting amongst the 3 players, Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and Robert Mugabe became leader.

Godwin led an idyllic childhood before the announcement of the UDI by Ian Smith. It was simple and pleasant reading about his fabricated perspective of himself as a child. I particularly liked when he “lectured importantly” to Portuguese soldiers about the dangers of African wildlife; decided Africans died of rare diseases like leprosy or from magic spells, while white settlers rarely/never died; and discussed talking to his dying great aunt, but being uninterested because he “had just seen snow for the first time and wasn’t in much of a mood for old people with bony hands and parchment skin.”

As a trained police officer for the Rhodesian government during the war, it was interesting to see that police corruption is ever present. When Godwin was being trained, department made it known that legally, an officer had to shout “stop” three times before shooting a fleeing perp. Accordingly, officers were taught how to speed shout, “I’mpliceoffcer. Stostostop!” so that one could shoot legally in less than two seconds. Also interesting how irrelevant this slight infraction became when police began following suit of guerrilla forces and destroying/abusing/exploiting citizens. Aside from a gradual slippery slope of soldiers beginning to abuse citizens in war (just like guerrillas), this might also be blamed on the justification by Rhodesian soldiers that civilians were more scared of guerrillas than of the government, and would obey the unit that frightens them into submission.

Once Zimbabwe was born, Godwin returned from his education in Europe to document destruction. I wished there was more detail on his travails being a lawyer in an effective dictatorship. This was the shortest part of the memoir, and we disappointingly only saw a couple pages dedicated to his firm’s representation of 7 commanders accused of plotting a coup against the government. After 28 days of trial, all were found innocent of treason, but were nonetheless returned to indefinite custody under “Emergency Regulations” that allow a gov to detain people the gov maintains may be threatening. Law in dictatorships is not legal.

Initially, the title (“a white boy in Africa) annoyed me…then I realized it was apropos (as titles usually are after reading), and the annoyance may have just been that I felt even whiter than normal reading this on a train in the Pilsen neighborhood. I’ll be really interested to read When A Crocodile Eats the Sun, which is the sequel to this book - it covers Godwin’s post-war life during the reign of Robert Mugabe, who liberated his country from white oppression and then began to ethnically cleanse the country. That will be good.(less)

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Sep 14, 2012 Shelley rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoir, favorites, africa

The best memoirs not only render a life, but also a unique time and place. I can't think of a memoir that has done this more beautifully than Peter Godwin's Mukiwa, the first installment in his Rhodesia/Zimbabwe trilogy. By now, I've read all three, and this one is not only my favorite within the trilogy, but definitely my new favorite memoir, and quite possibly one of my favorite books. As a work of creative non-fiction, it's deeply personal, yet unsentimental. It's meticulously crafted and lit...more The best memoirs not only render a life, but also a unique time and place. I can't think of a memoir that has done this more beautifully than Peter Godwin's Mukiwa, the first installment in his Rhodesia/Zimbabwe trilogy. By now, I've read all three, and this one is not only my favorite within the trilogy, but definitely my new favorite memoir, and quite possibly one of my favorite books. As a work of creative non-fiction, it's deeply personal, yet unsentimental. It's meticulously crafted and literary, yet still honest and raw. It's a kind of bildungsroman, set against the backdrop of a crumbling Rhodesia, yet it's so much more than a coming-of-age story.

Divided into three books, Mukiwa tells the story of Godwin's rather charmed childhood in Rhodesia, his experiences as an adolescent serving faithfully, yet begrudgingly, in the national police force during the war, and his return to Zimbabwe as an adult, as he tries to make sense the choices he's made, the tragedy that has afflicted his family, the dissolution of Rhodesia and the lingering deleterious effects of colonialism.

It's difficult to choose a favorite section, as they each contribute uniquely to the big picture of his life; however, I just can't praise the first section enough. In it, Godwin captures all the poignancy of childhood - any childhood - as well as the magical quality of his own very strange and wonderful life growing up in Africa. In reading this first section, I was reminded of a theme that Sandra Cisneros grapples with in her vignette "Eleven" - this idea that each year of our lives represents a self that doesn't melt into our current self as we go from birthday to birthday, but that, rather, the little eight year old self is still there, hidden away "Russian-doll style" within the nine year old self, which is still lurking inside the ten year old self, and so on, all the way up to our current age. The honesty and tenderness with which Godwin recounts his childhood years resonated quite deeply with the way I saw the world as a child - albeit, a very different world. His writing made me feel as though that former child is still very much a part of my current self. Children are simultaneously naive and perceptive, irreverent and compassionate - like the child who laughs at a drunken homeless man when he falls over in the alley, and then weeps bitterly when she learns he has no family to go home to and no bed to lie down in at night. As though he were some Freudian psychoanalyst, Peter Godwin so expertly draws that child out so that you are suddenly seeing the strange and hilarious characters of his own youth in that deliciously flippant, yet painfully tender, light, so unique to childhood. As he recounted events, I often found myself stifling what I worried was inappropriate laughter, only to find myself in tears on the very next page. And, as dark and tragic as this memoir is, there are a few memorable moments of levity and ironic humor.

It's late, and I feel like this review is descending into cheesy madness really fast, so I think I may stop. It's very difficult to capture in words every feeling I have about this memoir. It's too good!(less)

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Feb 20, 2012 Lobsang Tak rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: read this book especially those who like to read different tribes of people living together.

Before reading this book I have any idea about former Rhodesia and now Zimbabwe.
Mr.Godwin's memoir of those childhood years in Africa are very uncommon to us.
This book is also quite terrible between war time and later years...Remarkable!
"Mukiwa"It was Isaac who told me why we were called Mukiwa.He picked a wild fig and held it up.It was a pale pinkish colour.'It is called Mukiwa,'he said,same colour like you.'
Like above sentence Mr.Godwin had explained many local words in English with examples o...more

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Oct 26, 2010 Veronica rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: non-fiction, mooched

A very interesting read. I don't know how atypical Peter Godwin is; the son of liberal/progressive parents in rural Rhodesia, he grew up accompanying his doctor mother to road accidents and post-mortems, and his black nanny to Apostolic church meetings where he was the only white. The first part of the book, covering his childhood until he leaves school, is both touching and funny.

Part 2 is an abrupt change of scene, covering the 18 months or so he spent after school as a young conscript in the...more

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Nov 29, 2012 Babak Fakhamzadeh rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: memoires, history, sub-saharan-africa

Peter Godwin grew up in Rhodesia during the end of white rule and Mukiwa is a personal narrative; a testament to Africa and a memoir as seen through the eyes of a child becoming a young man amidst civil war. Spanning 1964-1982, from when Godwin was a boy of six in Rhodesia to when he returned to Zimbabwe as a journalist covering the bloody transition back to black rule, Godwin personalizes a difficult era in southern African history with clarity, intelligence, humor, empathy, and sharp prose.
If...more

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Jun 20, 2009 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars

Godwin writes of his upbringing from childhood in what was then Rhodesia, in the sixties, through the time when he ended up fighting in the Rhodesian army against the terrorists. A compelling insider's view of the tragedy of the disintegration of Rhodesian society, both black and white, up to and beyond the establishment of Zimbabwe. Godwin writes well, and without exaggeration, which makes his story all the more horrifying. Of course, the disaster continues today. Godwin's point of view is hum...more

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Jul 23, 2007 Val Johnston rated it 5 of 5 stars

Great story by a great author relating a funny but sad story of a crumbling little Country.

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May 01, 2012 Shanrina rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, colonialism, zimbabwe, memoir

A very interesting look at what's now Zimbabwe in the 20th century. I didn't know a whole lot about it (or, unfortunately, about Africa in general--it's something I'm trying to work on) but I never really felt lost or confused. Godwin did a good job explaining things and keeping things clear.

I also really respected the way it felt like he was trying to be even-handed--he said in the beginning of the book that he was going to try to focus on what happened, even when it made him look bad, and I wa...more

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Dec 20, 2010 Penny Grubb rated it 5 of 5 stars

It is of course a memoire, not a history, but one of those accounts that provide such a valuable first hand account of something that relatively few people experienced and loads of people knew about. None of which would have carried me through, had it not been such a good read. I found it very compelling and easy to read, part of its charm being that it comes across as such an honest account. Maybe it is, maybe it isn't - who am I to judge - but I'm certain there's more honesty in this book than...more

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Sep 24, 2009 Elie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, non-fiction

I was surprised by the searching, honest tone of 'Crocodile in the Sun', Godwin's more adult memoir about being white and progressive in a decomposing Zimbabwe. 'Mukiwa' is good for what it is: a story of how Godwin got that way, including how he wrestled with his identity through Zim's war for independence -- which he fought on the wrong side of. I have time for books like this because they explore the conundrum of being white in post-colonial Africa and feeling "from" here in one way or anothe...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Diane rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa-africans-african-americans

In Mukiwa, Godwin tells the story of his childhood and young adulthood in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe in the 1960s through 1980s. Rather than reflect back on his life, for the most part Godwin tries to tell the story of his early years in the voice of a child. Later, he tries to capture the voice of a young man in the army seeing violence he cannot stop. He is generally successful in this approach.

Godwin’s parents were progressive but still were part of the white, genteel establishment. His father managed...more

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Feb 14, 2013 Sue rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: africa, zimbabwe, memoir

Peter Godwin grew up in Rhodesia. His father was a land manager and his mother was a doctor. The book is an account of his experiences growing up white in the years before the war which resulted in blacks taking power and the country changing to Zimbabwe. As a young adult, he had to serve his time in military service and was part of the police force as the unrest grew. Later he worked as a reporter for the London Times and exposed some of the war atrocities. He was banned from the country for s...more

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Jan 02, 2012 Gwen rated it 5 of 5 stars

I didn't want to enjoy this book but became engrossed in spite of myself. After reading his book, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun, (which is about his return to Zimbabwe as an adult to care for his aging parents), I found the author to be pretentious - a free lance writer living in NYC and visiting Africa to see his parents and special writing assigments. However, after reading about his childhood and years serving in the army during Rhodesia's civil war, I was impressed that Peter Godwin survived...more

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Nov 15, 2010 Megan Costello rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, africa, memoirs, my-favorites, non-fiction

Firstly, I would like to say how many funny moments are in this book; I laughed a lot. Godwin really understands how to draw a picture up in the readers mind, and make you feel every emotion he felt. A reader who enjoys reading about: adventure, the act of a person seeking justice, or just trying to educate the public on revealing the truth should really read this book.

"Mukiwa" is memoir of a boy journeying to a man, in the midst of a civil war in Rhodesia, and the struggle after Rhodesia ends,...more

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Oct 04, 2011 Joanna rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction, biography-memoir, passport, bookish-2011-summer, rws-2011-fall, 2011-read

I read Mr. Godwin's two memoirs backwards -- I started with When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa, which tells of his later life, then moved on to this book. I really enjoyed reading Godwin's perspective on Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. He was born there and grew up in white-run Rhodesia. While his parents were fairly liberal for British settlers, Godwin nonetheless grew up in the segregated and racially divided colonial society and gives a clear presentation of the realities of that setting.

At...more

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Dec 04, 2012 Babak Fakhamzadeh rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: sub-saharan-africa, memoires

Peter Godwin grew up in Rhodesia during the end of white rule and Mukiwa is a personal narrative; a testament to Africa and a memoir as seen through the eyes of a child becoming a young man amidst civil war. Spanning 1964-1982, from when Godwin was a boy of six in Rhodesia to when he returned to Zimbabwe as a journalist covering the bloody transition back to black rule, Godwin personalizes a difficult era in South African history with clarity, intelligence, humor, empathy, and sharp prose.

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Oct 04, 2012 Tania rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books

This book was written in three parts:
1. A description of his African childhood.
I don't think it was the author's intention, but I felt very sorry for this lonely little boy. I had to remind myself that this was a different time, and that children were raised with much less fuss.
2. His time fighting in the Rhodesion war.
Imagine figting a war that you don't believe in. Putting your life on the line for a war you know can't be won.
3. His time as a lawyer and investigative reporter in Zimbabwe....more

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Jan 12, 2010 Julie rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read the author's book "When Crocodile Eats the Sun" which I liked a bit better. Still this is a very interesting look at the violent transition of Rhodesia to Zimbabwe and what it meant for all the people living there, white and black. Peter Godwin's family experienced the heartbreak of living in Africa as it devolved into civil war. I appreciated his unique perspective as a white child growing up in Africa.

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Oct 20, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: general-history

I read this book about 10 years ago, and found it to be one I couldn't put down. It is actually three books in one, about the author in three different phases of his life -- uncomprehending child, national serviceman during the Rhodesian war, and journalist after Zimbabwe's independence. It really gives an insight into the lives led by that disappearing species, the white African.

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Jul 17, 2011 Perrin rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mukiwa was a book that I put off doing other things, to read. Laundry? Tomorrow. Have to go to work? I'll be a few minutes late. Mr Godwin led a life that, while fraught with violence, many would have chosen over a "normal" or maybe a more "mundane" existence. But reading this book will get one as close to the real thing as is safely possible.

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May 13, 2011 Pam Mezaraups rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read When the Crocodile book of this trilogy first and absolutely loved it. This book was good and affecting but not the power punch of the second book. This shows Peter Godwin growing up in Rhodesia and some of it... Rhodesia, USA, Finland...coming of age are similar stories. This book was particularly gripping when it became Rhodesia and Peter...clearly a place, a life, a country deeply loved. His time in the army, his sister's death, his undertanding of the people he lives with and eventual...more

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About Peter Godwin

"Peter Godwin was born and raised in Africa. He studied law at Cambridge University, and international relations at Oxford. He is an award winning foreign correspondent, author, documentary-maker and screenwriter.

After practicing human rights law in Zimbabwe, he became a foreign and war correspondent, and has reported from over 60 countries, including wars in: Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe...more "Peter Godwin was born and raised in Africa. He studied law at Cambridge University, and international relations at Oxford. He is an award winning foreign correspondent, author, documentary-maker and screenwriter.

After practicing human rights law in Zimbabwe, he became a foreign and war correspondent, and has reported from over 60 countries, including wars in: Angola, Mozambique, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Somalia, Congo, Ivory Coast, Sudan, Bosnia, Kosovo, Kashmir and the last years of apartheid South Africa. He served as East European correspondent and Diplomatic correspondent for the London Sunday Times, and chief correspondent for BBC television's flagship foreign affairs program, Assignment, making documentaries from such places as: Cuba, Panama, Indonesia, Pakistan, Spain, Northern Ireland, the Philippines, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, the Baltics, and the Balkans as it descended into war. His film, The Industry of Death, about the sex trade in Thailand, won the gold medal for investigative film at the New York Film Festival.

He also wrote and co-presented a three part series 'Africa Unmasked' for Britain's Channel Four. He has written for a wide array of magazines and newspapers including Vanity Fair, (for which he was a 2009 finalist for the Michael Kelly award) National Geographic, New York Times magazine and Men’s Journal.

He is the author of five non fiction books: 'Rhodesians Never Die' - The Impact of war and Political Change on White Rhodesia c.1970 - 1980 (with Ian Hancock), Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa (with photos by Chris Johns and foreword by Nelson Mandela), The Three of Us - a New Life in New York (with Joanna Coles) and Mukiwa, which received the George Orwell prize and the Esquire-Apple-Waterstones award. When a Crocodile Eats the Sun - a Memoir of Africa, won the Borders Original Voices Award, and was selected by American Libraries Association as a Notable Book winner for 2008.

He has taught writing at: the New School, Princeton and Columbia. And he is a 2010 Guggenheim Fellow."

http://petergodwin.com/about/(less)

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Books by Peter Godwin

When a Crocodile Eats the Sun: A Memoir of Africa

The Fear: Robert Mugabe and the Martyrdom of Zimbabwe

Wild at Heart: Man and Beast in Southern Africa

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BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195788.Mukiwa?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1328822315l/195788.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/195788.Mukiwa?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa by Peter Godwin[/url]

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa

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