Book Review : Soldier Blue by Paul Andrew Williams

 

Soldier Blue is a must read. I found this book somewhere and being from Zimbabwe I decided to take a look. And the book got me hooked from the first page. It is about a young white man who is forced to fight in the Rhodesian bush war in the 70s. I lost the book and I wish I still had it. It is a journey into a not so distant past where the author paints a picture so vivid you feel like you are walking in his shoes as he goes off into the bush to fight for Rhodesia.

In retrospect the Rhodesian bush war was a pointless war. The Rhodesians were trying to prevent the inevitable. Demographics is destiny and the tiny Rhodesian population could not hold the tide of Africans wanting "freedom" forever. It was only a matter of time before Rhodesia would become Zimbabwe. Thousands of people perished fighting a lost cause and the book Soldier Blue illustrates how pointless the war was.

The book got me thinking about a lot of things. 44 years after the collapse of Rhodesia, Zimbabwe the traumatised nation born from the ruins of Cecil Rhodes' project is a global laughing stock and a pariah. Ian Smith has been vindicated and he now stands as the prophet doom. Wherever Smith is, whether in heaven or in hell he is shaking his head saying, 'I told you so.'

But Rhodesia was never truly a place, it was an idea. It was the spirit of carving out civilisation out of the wilderness. It was the courage to fight barbarism. Rhodesia was like Constantinople, a city on a hill surrounded by dark forces. 

Today Rhodesia is spoken about in glowing terms. Memes and videos are made about it. Books and TV shows are created about the nation of Rhodesians.  And today western Europe is stuck in the same place Rhodesia was in the 70s, at the precipice of an enormous crossroad.

At the end of the day Rhodesians made one too many mistakes.

First mistake, feeding the Africans and watching their population explode

After the 1896 Rebellion, instead of feeding and educating the Africans they should have begun mass immigration of Europeans akin to what America did in the 1920s. What were Rhodesians thinking, letting their erstwhile African enemies increase their population while whites became a minority. The same mistake is happening in Europe today.

Second mistake, not joining South Africa

In 1923 Rhodesians were offered the opportunity to join the Union of South Africa but they declined. 

Third mistake, Rhodesians were too greedy for land

300 000 Rhodesians did not need the whole country. They wanted everything and ended up with nothing. They could have cut up the country into Rhodesia for whites, Mthwakazi for Ndebeles and Zimbabwe for Shonas. Just imagine if Rhodesians had taken Vic Falls, Hwange and Kariba. Today Rhodesia would be a tourist mecca and a paradise.

Fourth mistake, Ian Smith wasn't ruthless enough

Ian Smith should have been more like Stalin and less like Czar Nicholas. If he had eliminated Mugabe and his gang of terrorists, Zimbabwe would be better off.

But what is done is done and Rhodesia is dead and buried. All we can do is read books like Soldier Blue and reminisce on the good old days when Rhodesia was the bread basket of Africa. The take away lesson here is that nothing lasts forever, in the end all we have is memes and memories.