Colonial white boys in Zimbabwe: John Eppel’s autobiography is a welcome book, but a difficult read

Nhlanhla
Dube,


University
of
Cape
Town

Zimbabwean
writer

John
Eppel’s
literary
career
has
always
been
defined
by
one
peculiar
trait.
He
publishes
fictional

work,
in
stark
contrast
to
the
majority
of
the
country’s
other
white
writers
who
have
fetishised
the
autobiographical
mode.

During
the
post
2000s
period,
white
Zimbabwean

narratives
of
crisis
which
focused
on
the

land
reform
programme
gained
an

international

following.

Zimbabwe’s
liberation
struggle
was
fought
primarily
over
the
land
question.
In
colonial

Rhodesia,
racist
apportionment
of
fertile
land
meant
that
the
black
majority
was
removed
from
productive
farmland.
The
land
reform
programme
sought
to
correct
this
historical
injustice.

Eppel’s
focus
on

novels,

poetry
and

short

stories
explains
why
he
is
rarely
ever
mentioned
with
autobiographical
writers
such
as

Peter

Godwin,

Alexandra

Fuller,

Judith
Todd
and

Douglas
Rogers.

His
shift
to
the
autobiographical
mode
with

A
Colonial
Boy:
Sketches
of
My
Life
Before
Zimbabwean
Independence,
1950-1980
from
indie
publisher

Pigeon
Books,
invites
those
of
us
who
are

scholars
of
his
work
to
re-interrogate
his
writing.

The
literary
sketch

In
A
Colonial
Boy,
Eppel
takes
the
reader
through
his
early
days
in
South
Africa
and
Swaziland
and
his
arrival
in
Southern
Rhodesia
with
his
family.
In
the
prologue,
he
sets
up
the
context:

For
this
collection
I
wanted
to
write
about
the
comic
side
of
my
life
as
a
Rhodesian,
and
the
sketch,
as
a
literary
genre,
seemed
more
appropriate
than
a
conventional
autobiography.
Although
the
sketch
has
a
pedigree
going
back
to
the
16th
century,
my
interest
in
it
was
sparked
by
Charles
Dickens’
first
published
book

Sketches
by
‘Boz’.

Eppel
is
an
English
teacher
and
literary
critic.
Literary
analysis
even
informs
some
of
his
fictional
characters.
One
gets
the
sense
that
he
intends
to
make
A
Colonial
Boy
Dickensian
in
gravity,
scope
and
quality.

The

literary
sketch
is
an
uncommon
mode.
This
complicates
our
understanding
of
how
Eppel
tries
to
deliver
his
life’s
story.
Sketches
are
meant
to
be
brief
chronicles
of
particular
events
which
are
not
usually
connected
to
a
larger
story.
It’s
doubtful
that
the
linear
timeline
of
a
human
life
can
be
accurately
represented
through
the
literary
sketch.

The
randomness
of
the
sketch
as
a
stylistic
method
does
not
adhere
well
to
the

classical
image
of
the
autobiographer
as
a
“self-interested
individual
intent
on
assessing
the
status
of
the
soul”.
This
becomes
apparent
when
Eppel
moves
quickly
from
sketch
to
sketch
without
giving
full
details
and
reflection
on
the
incidents
being
invoked.

Even
when
writing
this
book
review,
it
is
difficult
to
give
you,
the
reader,
an
accurate
idea
of
what
Eppel
has
to
say,
on
reflection,
about
his
earlier
years.
The
scenes
(or
sketches)
do
not
demonstrate
a
unity
of
purpose.
Rather
than
Eppel
saying
“this
is
what
happened
in
my
life
and
I
would
like
you
to
know
about
it
so
that
you
get
to
know
me
better”,
the
reader
gets
“this
is
what
happened
on
a
random
day
in
a
particular
year
in
colonial
Rhodesia,
so
make
of
it
what
you
will”.
To
be
fair,
Eppel
does
warn
the
reader
in
advance:

What
you
will
find
in
these
pages
is
a
series
of
anecdotes
about
me
from
toddlerhood
to
my
early
thirties.

Fine.
But
what
is
the
point
of
this
randomness?

My
reading
is
that
it’s
an
attempt
to
introduce
narrative
detachment
–
in
the
same
way
as
an
author
would
create
distance
between
themself
and
their
character.
The
problem
is,
this
is
not
a
novel.
There
should
not
be
a
border
between
the
narrator
and
the
protagonist
in
self
life
writing.

White
men
and
war

Of
course,
Eppel
might
have
good
reason
for
wanting
to
create
narrative
detachment.
Other
white
Zimbabwean
writers
have
seen
their
autobiographical
writings
affect
their
daily
lives.
David
Coltart’s

memoirs,
for
example,
generated
much

discussion
over
his
role
in
the
Rhodesian
security
forces.
He
was
one
of
the
many
white
men
required
to
undergo
compulsory
service
by
the
white
minority
government.

In
his
sketches,
Eppel
gives
very
brief
details
about
his
time
serving
in
the
armed
forces.
Ever
the
renegade
with
a
problem
with
authority,
he
describes
his
time
in
the
Rhodesian
army
as
“eight
weeks
of
institutionalised
hell”.
The

Chimurenga
war
was
fought
by
black
nationalists
in
order
to
bring
about
democracy
and
black
majority
rule.
Eppel
essentially
acknowledges
that
morally,
he
was
on
the
wrong
side
of
that
war.

Eppel
is
also
aware
of
how
the
literary
establishment
has

labelled
his
work
as
Rhodesian
racist
rhetoric.
This
is
a
charge
Eppel
scholars
like
myself
have
tried
to
fight.
Regardless,
Eppel
wisely
refuses
to
elaborate
on
his
operational
activities
in
the
war:

I
was
involved
in
one
contact,
near
a
post
on
the
Mozambique
border
called
Vila
Salazar.
I
have
recorded
this
contact
in
poetry
(confessional)
and
in
prose
(satirical),
but
there
is
no
place
for
it
on
these
pages.

The
political
considerations
Eppel
had
in
mind
when
writing
these
sketches
prevent
the
reader
from
gaining
a
non-fictional
account
of
his
wartime
experience.

Autobiographies
can
come
in
the
form
of
an

apologia.
This
is
often
a
memoir
written
by
politicians
at
the
end
of
their
careers
to

defend
certain
policy
positions
they
took.
By
avoiding
the
military
issue,
Eppel
wisely
moves
away
from
turning
these
sketches
into
an
apologia.

A
welcome
book
but
a
difficult
read

A
Colonial
Boy
is
a
welcome
book
for
Eppel
scholars
such
as
myself.
It
does
a
lot
to
connect
the
man
to
his
fiction.
However,
I
struggle
to
see
its
relevance
to
the
general
readership.

Avid
readers
of
fast
paced
white
Zimbabwean
autobiographies
will
likely
lament
the
lack
of
action
in
these
sketches.
They
will
probably
abhor
the
sketch
form
itself.
There
are
no
clear
villains
here.
The
thematic
identifiers
that
define
white
Zimbabwean
autobiography
are
absent.
There
are
no
enduring
images
of
black
Zimbabwean
suffering,
no
corruption,
no
racial
violence,
no
farms
taken,
and
no
white
people
beaten
up.

Perhaps
though,
this
is
the
point
Eppel
is
trying
to
make.
A
life
well
lived
should
not
have
to
be
a
spectacle.

Nhlanhla
Dube,
Postdoctoral
Research
Fellow,
Department
of
English
Literary
Studies,


University
of
Cape
Town

This
article
is
republished
from

The
Conversation
under
a
Creative
Commons
license.
Read
the

original
article.