Rhodesia-beginning to end - Paperback

by M. Ahlgren (Author), Ron Morkel (Author)

Rhodesia--beginning to end is a historical trek seen through the eyes of the white pioneers who tamed the wilderness of what is now Zimbabwe and whose descendants struggled for life amidst African rebellion. A fascinating, fact-filled read, this book transports its audience to a different place and time that sets the stage for understanding the uniqueness of central Africa.

Author Biography

RON MORKEL was born and raised among the white agricultural community of Rhodesia. He descends from pioneers whose industry and hard work brought western-style civilization to the lands sparsely populated by Matebele and Shona tribes people. He spent his youth surrounded by seemingly endless, empty vleis and rocky hills teeming with wildlife that his forebears taught him to respect and care for. He felt a happy and mutually beneficial symbiosis with the local natives, some of whom became like family. The locals derived employment from the mines and ranches of the white Africans. All the while, rumbles of rebellion were brewing among the native population as firebrand politicians like Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe preached overthrow of the white-run government. Their tactics of terror sparked civil war, whipped by outside influences with their own motivations. When Prime Minister Ian Smith declared independence from Great Britain, the world turned against Rhodesia, and the white population felt abandoned to defend their homes and way of life alone. The unrest began as an inconvenience to the author, but it overtook and forever changed his life and the country he loved. He now lives peacefully in the mountains of North Carolina, and his children have settled in the Pacific Northwest. The corruption, violence, suffering, and precipitous decline of conditions in Zimbabwe continue to torment him.