Book Review: Featured by thephraser

The Zambezi Trilogy – Book One – The Horns by Jill Baker

I finished The Horns on a Thursday, and that Friday, the day I set aside to review the book, Mugabe died. The news hit me like a wave full of debris – no joy, no relief, no anger – it thudded me on to a shore that was no longer there. Robert Gabriel Mugabe appears in The Horns, but only towards the end of this first book in the trilogy.

 The novel (1939 -1966) is set in the land between the Zambezi and Limpopo Rivers, known today as Zimbabwe. It follows the lives of four pre-school friends on their separate paths to adulthood, each of them rushed into a future that they, like their country, cannot resist.

My assumption is that the author, Jill Baker, is the only female and white child in this young group. In the book her name is Carol, and the others are her friends, each based on real childhood friends, and through their lives and her own she mixes autobiography with story to explore the beginnings of Zimbabwe.

She writes with great care – I think her father would have approved:

“Dad always said, “Compare as many pieces of written research and articles as you can find about a particular action or time. As many as possible. Read them, understand that every one of them will be written with the pretty undisguised bias of the writer, but each will contain some almost identical components. Those will be the truths. Find them, harvest them, use them.”

 The book’s four guides each have a parent or guardian employed by the colonial administrative system in the south of the country – it is why they become friends – but circumstances, and their lives, change fast. By the end of the book each is in a new setting: one is a farmer’s wife; another, a rural businessman; one, a legally trained government development officer; and the fourth a Russian-trained member of the ‘armed struggle’.

As the differences between the four widen, the country itself begins to tear apart, both nationally and internationally, with its people trapped in the middle.

It sounds dramatic, and it is, but the telling is restrained, built carefully on original sources – many are new to me, even though I was born in the country and schooled in its capital.

The oral storytelling style of the book slows the pace of the tale and forces the focus on to the bones it digs up.

“Lobengula made an apt comment when he said, ‘The chameleon gets behind the fly, remains motionless for some time, then advances slowly and gently, first putting forward one leg and then another. At last, when he is in reach, he darts his tongue and the fly disappears. England is the chameleon and I am that fly.'”

 The paragraph below is from a question and answer session that covers several chapters. In the book it’s part of a conversation between Carol, her father and her friends – it’s a lesson in many ways, with more information than action, all carefully laid out in black and white.

Angus let him speak, then said quietly, “We’ll certainly talk about that tomorrow Jabu. It’s a pivotal point in the whole settlement of this country. There are more exaggerations, distortions, untruths and lies about that one episode than almost anything else.”

 Snatches are also shown of what is happening in the lands far removed from the great rivers of Zimbabwe.

“In 1884 the German Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck, invited 13 European nations plus America to take part in a conference in Berlin to ‘work out joint policy on the African continent’.” 

More follows of course, but balanced from many sides within the story, and condensed into steady, well-informed discussion that’s easy to follow. I read, I learned, and I was fascinated … and I knew that the man who died in Singapore, on 6 September 2019, was bound to appear.

He does, not far from the end:    “He was a compelling speaker. He talked of the exciting developments in Ghana since 1957 and of the benefits of Marxism and its care for the oppressed povo. He said the word ‘proletariat’ was too long to remember, but both the word ‘povo’ and ‘proletariat’ meant the same thing – the poor people who work, work, work and never make enough money. His name was Robert Mugabe.”

A few chapters later the book ends abruptly in a farm store, some six months after Rhodesia issues its unilateral declaration of independence from the United Kingdom.

I know – and I don’t know – what comes next. Already I feel a raw frustration mixed with dread … but I want to read on, and I hope many other Zimbabweans will get the chance to do so too.

These stories are part of our history, and The Horns is a rare chance to see many viewpoints brought together. Thanks to Jill Baker for setting them down.

 The Zambezi Trilogy – Book One – The Horns by Jill Baker
This paperback edition published in 2019 by Vivid Publishing, a division of Fontaine Publishing Group
P O Box 948, Freemantle
Western Australia, 6959
ISBN 978-1-925846-37-9

Copyright Georgie Knaggs & The Phraser 2019

reader reviews

Martin McGhee:         Purchased the Kindle version yesterday and am totally engrossed, enthralled and envious of your skills. Your dialogue is very real, which isn't always easy as I am sure you are more than aware of and the clever 'jump cuts' in your narrative flow puts The Horns up there with one of the best books of Africa I have read in many years. Eat your heart out Wilbur and you, Mr Ruark, look to your bushlore laurels

Kennedy Mavunganidze: You have a gift of writing and telling the story. I have learned a lot after reading your book and in my view you have captured what I believe is a reflection of the whole history. More importantly, you were using Shona and Ndebele words appropriately. You might as well think of turning the book into a movie …!

Heather Thorne:    Aaaaahhhh maaaaaaaiweeeee, I’m so enjoying your book. Devouring it. And I’m only about a third of the way through.  And oh my word, I’ve edited many southern African history books that describe the battle formation of the horns – but I’ve never actually felt it in my bones – and the zhiii of the spears must have been terrifying. 

hetta2 5.0 out of 5 stars the sadness of Zimbabwe November 19, 2018 Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase if you love Africa you must read this
beautifully written from personal experience and historically accurate
the author was born and grew up in Southern Rhodesia with a keen eye for the nuances of the time
thorough research revealing such facts as Cecil Rhodes was a mentor to the Africans and they wanted to work for him
I look forward to books 2 and 3

aidan lane 4.0 out of 5 stars A great read! 7 October 2018 Format: Paperback Verified Purchase The craft of Jill Baker in fusing thoughts of real-life historical characters with those of very plausible current characters was great. She has the very great art of remaining credible throughout. In so doing she kept me ever-anxious to get on to the next stage...as I still am. She left off in book one just as I arrived to live in Rhodesia/Zimbabwe for 42 years - I will then await with bated breath for books 2 and 3 which I know will be great reads too.

Tracy Pereira       Amazing raconteur- incredible author with so many wonderful memories of beloved Zim that gives life to a historical fiction tale

Di Russell: I would like to let you know that I have read both of your books and found them so interesting. I learnt so much from The Horns with the very early days regarding King Mzilikazi and Lobengula. So looking forward to the next one.Your Mothers book was enthralling and fascinating.

Scott Hatfield: My good friend in Yandina, Joe Hermann, kindly mailed me copy of your wonderful book, Beloved African, in 2003. Born in Southern Rhodesia in 1936 I lived every well-written episode in the book. John, your Dad, was a hero. 

Peter Winhall: I think Beloved African is terrific, and some of the published speeches from your late father are simply stunning!  Where else does one find the reality of those times expressed so clearly?  What a man; what dedication! What tough times!...   staggering .

The power of “ Beloved African”  apart from being a true love story, is that it gets across the enormity of the task of not only creating the infrastructure, but actually educating the indigenous natives in an endeavour to bridge the gap and create a thriving and prosperous nation.  Perhaps it was an impossible task, bearing in mind that in 1890 there was no infrastructure and every piece of galvanised steel, every nut and bolt, and virtually everything one can imagine that didn’t come from an animal’s hide, or from  mud, grass or wood, had to be brought in by ox wagon from 1000 miles away! We, as ex Rhodesians,  often take huge criticism for what we didn’t do. “ Beloved African” explains the gigantic task the settlers were confronted with and just what some people did through unbelievable dedication.     

Jill Baker heading to Mandurah on her book tour of WA talking about ‘The Horns’

• Kaylee Meerton : Mandurah Mail

News

Jill Baker has led an exciting and inspiring life in countries all around the world.

A journalist for most of her career, she dabbled in production, presenting and documentary-making before becoming an author “by accident”.

On her latest venture, Jill is headed to Mandurah for one of five chats in WA about the recent release of her book ‘The Horns’. The historical fiction is the first in the Zambezi Trilogy, with the next two novels set to be released at a later date.

After the success of her debut book ‘Beloved African’ in 2000, the international author decided to document her childhood growing up in Southern Africa.

‘The Horns’ is a deeply personal account of being born into Southern Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, and follows the lives of four characters – Jabu, Prune, Themba and Carol.The group are best friends as children but are separated as teenagers before re-uniting again in adulthood to make sense of their country’s history.

Ms Baker said a lot of real life events inspired the plot. “It’s fiction but the characters are real and parts of their lives are real,” she said.“We grew up in a remote part of the country, so my three best friends were Matabele boys and we just mucked around as great mates until I went to boarding school.

“Those three boys, with their differences becoming almost irreconcilable as they grew older, makes this compelling and extraordinary – one of them went to Russia and came back as head of intelligence and number two in the Matabele army. The second one was keen on learning, he was a very bright kid, and he got scholarships to senior school and university and he ended up as Deputy Prime Minister in the coalition government with the ANC, when Prime Minister Ian Smith declared independence from Britain in 1965.

“Then the third one, was a really canny business man - caught between two very different worlds.”