Under the skin: The death of white Rhodesia

by David Caute

Traces the political history of Zimbabwe from 1976 to 1980 and examines the development of the country's racial strife

Genres: Africa, History, Nonfiction

446 pages, Hardcover

First published February 24, 1983

Reviews

[Dan]

Excellent book. It's written in a mostly journalistic style with a few very well placed literary flourishes; I found it very easy to read and got through it in a couple days. The book is an assembly of interviews and reportage about the last few years of Rhodesia's existence and its transition into Rhodesia-Zimbabwe, and then finally Zimbabwe.

It's a wonderful antidote to much of the existing literature on Rhodesia, which is tainted by conservative white nostalgia; Caute really does get under the skin of Rhodesian society and lays bare all its problems. The fact that many of the other reviews on Amazon and elsewhere are from whining "whenwes" and thinly-disguised racists is a good sign -- as one would expect from an author of a monograph on Fanon, Caute depicts white racism and the economic domination of the vastly African populace in its full brutality.

He is certainly no apologist for either ZIPRA or ZANLA but he avoids simple, hypocritical moralism and puts their violence in its proper context: savage, racialised class war, where European landowners make fortunes off the labour-power of dirt-poor Africans, where the criminal Rhodesian armed forces and police kill scores more than the "terrorists" ever could.

Highly recommended to anyone with an interest in Africa or decolonisation. It seems Caute has a novel about Rhodesia too called "The K-Factor"; my mission is to now track that down...

[ErnstG]

This book appeared soon after the end of the war, and was one of the first complete accounts, written by a British academic turned journalist, with left-wing views. I read it in the mid-80s and thought it was quite good. In this I was mistaken, for a journalistic account ages poorly, a committed one perhaps especially so. It doesn't make for good or even readable history, even though I share many of the author's political views.

Of course I was a different man then, too.

I'm sure the facts are correct, but the book is marked by little insight into the social dimension. Not too surprisingly -- it seemed he had few worthwhile Black interlocutors, presumably because his colour would have made that impossible at that troubled time. And it doesn't seem that he tried to get any insight into the white community, which is equally understandable to anyone with even the faintest knowledge of the English class system. So what we are left with is the standard guerilla war -- historical and current grievances, a small unit conflict between young men terrorising and propagandising the population to support them, the various groups fighting each other, and a background of grandstanding politicians with little control over their men -- Algeria, Angola, Afghanistan against Russia and then America, Namibia, ISIS v all comers . . .

You can't blame the author for not having foreseen what subsequently happened in Zimbabwe; his scope is how Rhodesia got to be Zimbabwe. The last chapter notes what Mugabe does immediately after the election, which kicks off another story altogether.

[James]

Lots of facts, not that well written.