Douglas Rogers

When President Robert Mugabe announced his plans reclaim Zimbabwe land from white farmers, it was not an idle threat. All across the landscape, white-owned properties and farms were first taken by decree then by force. People were arrested or even murdered and lives systematically destroyed, piece by piece and acre by acre. Douglas Rogers was born and raised in the Zimbabwe countryside with vibrant and industrious parents. His father had been a lawyer and his mother raised four children while writing a cookbook called "Recipes for Disaster." Together they ran a game farm and tourist lodge called Drifters. By the time Mugabe was in office Ros and Lin's children had grown and moved away. Douglas was a journalist in Europe. When Mugabe's people threatened their property Douglas urged his parents to leave and when that didn't work, he realized their struggle would make for a good memoir. By documenting the political strife on an extremely personal level, he would reach a wider audience and shed more light on the corrupt situation in his homeland. As the country slid into uncontrolled bankruptcy, Rogers' parents struggle to keep their lives as normal as possible. Even when their resort was taken over as a brothel, their fields turned to pot (literally), and diamond dealers camped in their lodges. With shotgun in hand, they made light of the growing danger on their doorstep. How long can they keep their land?… (plus d'informations)

For whatever reason, this was not the book I thought it was going to be. I thought it was going to encompass more of a travel angle using Zimbabwe as the backdrop and Drifters Backpacker Lodge as the setting, but those ended up being the central characters of a Shakespearean tragedy instead.

This story is a narrative of one family's struggles as well as one nations struggles pitted against that same nation. And a sad story it is. If you love depressing, then here is your book!

Unlike the reviews I looked at prior to picking up a copy, I failed to see much humor in the painful economic collapse of Zimbabwe. The domination of the powerful over the weak is another subject that I am not entirely enamored with. Sure, there was much to chuckle at but overall everything else was too sobering for it to last more than half a second or so. Or you could say, yeah sure, I too make light of life when reality is purely hellish.

Anyway, this is a well-documented tale of a chunk of time in Zimbabwe's history, roughly the years 2000-2008. The chaos and injustice is mind-boggling as is the stupidity of the leadership whose designs contrived the chaos and injustices. (We see much of the same thing happening today in the United States.)

I essentially had a hard time reading it. I thought it would be a fun read, and while a good book I found myself disappointed, there wasn't much to enjoy.

I probably shouldn't knock it as much as I am because the memoir is well told from all sides; from the author who is a native Zimbabwean but now more-or-less an outsider to all the insiders who were combatants on all sides during the long, long war for independence. Zimbabwe is unique in that all of the proxy wars brought about by the Cold War, theirs is the only war won backed by China and not by the US or Russia. By default then, Robert Mugabe and Zimbabwe have been labelled "Communists," but if they had been backed by the US in the struggle then they would have been labeled a puppet government of Uncle Sam. It's that simple.

Tangential, but a decade or so before this story starts I was held up at a land border crossing trying to get into Zimbabwe. There were 6 of us, but I was the only one hassled at immigration and prevented from crossing. It had happened to me before when traveling, it's your unlucky day and you encounter the one subhuman with just enough power to hold sway. It doesn't matter what the rules or regulations or policies are, but in a corrupt system any single person can use what little power they have to make others' lives difficult. I used to call it being a third world authority figure, but we've seen that more and more in the new millennium with the US military and US police forces so that's an unfair designation. In any case, I was in a no man's land. But fortuitously one person in our group happened to know someone in that border town, on the Zimbabwe side. Calls were made, a bank bond was issued to immigration (like I might abscond or stay in Zimbabwe for the rest of my life!!!), I managed to cross the border, a morning or half a day was wasted, and then later we all sat down for some beers. Part of that whole story is that this guy's parents were attacked and killed during the war... and now he was back farming to feed Zimbabwe. I can only presume that his farm was taken during the land invasions outlined in Rogers' book.

Zimbabwe, a tragedy. The Last Resort, a tragedy. Tragic all around...

Oh, I almost forgot. I was going to rate this as 3-1/2 stars, but gave Douglas Rogers the benefit of the doubt. The other problem with the book is that it ended before the story ended. I guess after 5 years or whatever it was time to wrap it up and call it finished. But the story was not finished so it ended quite abruptly. The big story was Zimbabwe and its economic collapse, but told through the Rogers family there was more to that story that never got told, almost mid-sentence... "the end." It wasn't the best ending, let's put it that way.… (plus d'informations)

Quite a few white Zimbabweans have published memoirs and commentaries in the last few years. Many, like Rogers, are no longer living their, but experience it through their parents and their childhood friends. What makes Rogers' book stand out, in my opinion, is his journalist's understanding of the importance of objective facts and research to examine the compelling stories of white and black Zimbabweans, and his balanced and nuanced attention to the current political situation. This is not a "golden times" reminiscence, nor is it a white liberal guilt fest. It is an intelligent examination laced with humor and vivid description. Rogers doesn't sugarcoat his own feelings or reactions, which makes me empathize with him and trust him as an observer.… (plus d'informations)