My Passage To Africa.

This is my true account of a journey to Southern Africa with two of my friends in 1971. (approx 25,000 words). With candid honesty it deals with the hopes, fears, experiences and mistakes of three naive young men living away from home for the first time. It also provides an insight into the lost world of another era; living with servants; the absurdities of the apartheid regime and the often-farcical workings of a foreign fire brigade. The world has changed incredibly in the intervening years, so I hope -- and believe -- that this tale will interest, amuse and amaze the reader. ..... I'd given the others strict instructions that if anything DID happen to me, my body was not to be FLOWN home, because I've always been scared of flying. Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was physically 2 hours ahead of Britain, but effectively it was 50 years behind. ..... I was instructed that I shouldn't be too familiar with my black colleagues, and not to talk to them as if they were white. ..... the black Rhodesians were extremely humble and polite but childlike in many ways, so should NOT be confused with the streetwise African-Caribbeans who we know so well in Britain or USA. Unbelievably, one of the black firemen was usually ordered to go first to test the safety of the procedures and equipment. The one who was chosen would often be petrified with fear, but his desperation to keep such a relatively well-paid job would always overcome his terror. ..... the Kawasaki motorcycle was so suicidally fast, we nicknamed it 'The Kamikaze'. ..... I had to phone my senior officer to confess that I'd lost my fire tender and crew. He swore several times: "They're probably in ******* Zambia by now!" Our houseboy polished our pans until they gleamed. Unfortunately for us, he'd never heard of Teflon coatings. ..... these aggressors apparently couldn't perceive that they were hastening the end of their privileged and idyllic lifestyle. ....... "the winds of change blowing through Africa" were blowing up to storm-force.

• | Author: Brian C. Rushton
• | Publisher: Independently published
• | Publication Date: Oct 26, 2017
• | Number of Pages: 199 pages
• | Language: English
• | Binding: Paperback/Biography & Autobiography
• | ISBN-10: 1549853198
• | ISBN-13: 9781549853197