General - Zambia / Mozambique:BushveldNET

Layout Table~~~~11298~11298~~

General~Zambia / Mozambique~~~11298~11299~~

A Baboon Pinched My Potty - Paul Reason~A small boy steps out of a mud hut a short distance from the Victoria Falls in Africa. He is thousands of miles away from leafy England where he was born. That boy is me. There are flying boats and steam locomotives, one of the drivers of which has a pet baboon that blows the train’s whistle. Join me, as I learn about the strange superstitions and customs of the tribal people – where witchdoctors prescribe magic potions and young girls are sold into marriage. Danger is never far away. A man is chased on his bicycle by a charging elephant and a couple have to escape from an angry hippopotamus. Share my memories of life and friends, my joys and sorrows and the unforeseen events that would later change my life.
Vanguard Press Oct 2007. ISBN 9781843863779, Paperback 211 pages.~~A Baboon Pinched My Potty|ISBN 9781843863779|~11298~11629~~

Chaya Four One - Hugh Chare~In 1969 a young mining engineer sets out for a new job in Zambia. He experiences love, death, elation, anxiety and learns about himself through the behaviour of others. James Martin, with a newly won degree in mining engineering, leaves Southampton for a country that only gained its independence five years before. The book attempts to relate the impressions gained during thefirst year of living in a new country.
Trafford. 364 pages. Quality trade paperback (softcover).
NOTE - see 'Special Offers' section at bottom of this page~Trafford
ISBN 1-4120-8959-X
Softback
364 pages

Chaya Four One is an expression that evokes memories for anyone who worked in the underground mines of Zambia. It simply means, "Hit Four One" and comes from the bell codes used by the onsetters, the men that contolled where the mine hoist was directed to next. Four One was the code for the surface, so particularly on pay days and holidays, men from any particular level were anxious to get to the surface and by- pass all other stops. So the cry chaya four one, chaya four one was heard a lot!

It is 1969 and James Martin, with a newly won degree in mining engineering, sets out to take up employment in Zambia, independent for just five years after British rule. He takes the boat from Southampton to Capetown then motors upcountry through South Africa and Rhodesia to Zambia. He befriends another engineer, Tom, who with his wife, Rita, is also traveling to the same mine.

Together James and Tom go through the training and early assignments given to new learner officials, as the junior bosses are so nicely labeled. James meets his future wife, Katrina, and through her is introduced into another part of the local society that is apart from the expatriate society he naturally is part of.

Throughout his first year on the mine, James learns that there is more to running an operation than his degree course ever taught him, particularly when it comes to people and their foibles, prejudices and outlook. He learns that much of what is held to be true about the different racial and ethnic groups he meets is untrue and that, in the final analysis, people are people - good and bad.~Chaya Four One|ISBN 141208959X|~11298~11940~Great North Road~

Just Off the Great North Road - Hugh Chare~A follow-on from 'Chaya Four One' above.
In 1972 a young mining engineer is offered the opportunity to start a new mine which he takes and then has to overcome many obstacles along the way, including un-timely complications that materialised due to the Rhodesians closing the border with Zambia. This mine is located near the Great North Road in theMkushi District - an area better known for its tobacco and maize farms and in the late 1970's for the camps of the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), an organization that they will encounter a few times.
Trafford 2008. ISBN 1-4251-6815-9. 274 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover).
NOTE - see 'Special Offers' section at bottom of this page~Trafford
Softback
364 pages

It is 1972 and James and Katrina Martin set off for a well earned month of vacation from Zambia to South Africa and England. They return to find that James is to be offered an opportunity to start a new mine away from the Zambian Copperbelt, an opportunity that he takes. They travel to the Mtuga operation which is located just off the Great North Road in the Mkushi district of Zambia. The mine is sited on old workings from the 1920's and is being re-opened as a surface mine. The Mkushi District is better known for its tobacco and maize farms and in the late 1970's for the camps of the Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA), an organization that they will encounter a few times.

Life is complicated when the Rhodesians close the border with Zambia and Zambia retaliates, potentially stranding all their new mining machinery outside the country. They must formulate a plan to get everything to the mine and the operation started on time and to budget. Things are further complicated by corporate politics and rivalries that create problems along the way.

Although now married for almost three years, James and Katrina continue to discover each other and their romance and desire for one another is as strong as ever. They take every opportunity they can to be away and alone together in the more remote parts of Zambia.~Just Off the Great North Road|ISBN 1425168159|~11298~11895~great north road, zambia~

Land of the Long Grass - Marina Maxwell~A story based on facts - Central Africa 1880-1920. After a Basutoland battle, young Harrison Clark has a prophetic encounter with a dying chief. Later, erroneously thinking he has killed the husband of the girl he loves, he flees his home and heads for the lands north of the Zambezi. After an exciting series of adventures with his friend Nwata, Harrison reaches the Zambezi where he becomes chief Changa-Changa and rules a vast area. He has a dangerous affair with Bonita, wife of the slaver Matakenya, but he also still loves the white missionary, Venetia. Although Harrison rids the country of the scourge of Matakenya and other slavers, his rule is finally ended when Cecil Rhodes usurps his claims. Torn between two cultures, Harrison is forced to choose between loyalty to his people and his love for Venetia. This is a masterful novel - an evocative story of adventure, love and a quest for belonging. A blockbuster in the 'old fashioned' traditions of Michener and Ruark.
ISBN 0620260874, Covos Day 2000. Paperback 444 pages,~~Land of the Long Grass|ISBN 0620260874|~11298~11301~~

Love Never Fails - Shirley Downing~Coleen survives living in Africa. Three times she loses homes: to marching Ants, to Mau Mau, to Apartheid. Three times she loses love. Against all odds, love does survive. How?
ISBN 1412056349, paperback, 310 pages.~Trafford 2007
ISBN 1412056349
Paperback
310 pages.

About the Book

Newlywed Abe and Hope move from South Africa to Northern Rhodesia. Abe's job is with the newly formed Copper mines. This is still an undeveloped land, so they have to cope with wild animals, as well as sicknesses such as smallpox and polio. Then there is the constant battle with rebels. Their confrontation with the Mau Mau cause them to move back to South Africa. In time they have four children, the eldest being Coleen.

-Growing up in Africa, Coleen had an unusual life.-

As a child, she remembers being forces from their home because of marching ants. Another time her father had to reverse the family car for several miles because of elephants that refused to move. Her pet was a monkey, that always sat under her hat.

As an adult she committed the sin of falling in love with a colored man. This forbidden love set the course for the rest of her life. It had far reaching effects, even costing some people their lives. She marries twice, each ending in disaster. South Africa's apartheid laws threaten to tear her family apart. How does she survive with one black child, one colored child and two white children in this land of separateness?

Remember...Love Never Fails.

About the Author

Shirley was born in South Africa, but brought up in Northern Rhodesia. She attended school in Kitwe, after graduation, she worked for the copper mines. Her dream was to be a missionary - finally she started this work, and spent a number of years traveling across the bush land. She, or members of her family or friends, either witnessed, or experienced many of the events in her book. Shirley now lives a quieter life. in North Carolina, U.S.A. She spends time with her children and grandchildren, while teaching in a small private school.~Love Never Fails|ISBN 1412056349|~11298~11562~~

The Genealogy of the PURCHASE Family in Britain and Southern Africa~The Ancestors of Harvey Spurgeon PURCHASE (1906 - 1968) and the Descendants of James PURCHASE (1689/91 - 1723/4)
A fascinating book covering fourteen generations of the extended Purchase family. The Purchase ancestors from England were related to Rev. Charles Haddon Spurgeon from London and were missionaries to Southern Africa. They settled in Northern Rhodesia and raised their families under very primitive conditions. In addition to instilling Christian principles into local Africans, they taught them common farming and building skills. The descriptions of confrontations with wild animals and interactions with native Africans are at times riveting. Successive generations of Purchases spread out all over the world.
ISBN 9781435710139. Paperback, 189 pages.~~The Genealogy of the Purchase Family|ISBN 9781435710139|~11298~11825~~

The Train of Salt and Sugar - Licínio de Azevedo~First edition originally published in Portuguese as Comboio de Sal e Açúcar

"Those who attacked the train were terrible.
But, at times, those who defended it were even worse"

The Train of Salt and Sugar is to Mozambique what The Kite Runner is to Afghanistan. Out of every conflict situation comes a myriad of stories, stories about people, set against the backdrop of war. During the bitter and protracted Mozambican civil war there are many such stories, but none so courageous nor so passionate as that told in The Train of Salt and Sugar.In northern Mozambique, a convoy of three trains, loaded with supplies, three garrisons of soldiers and over 600 passengers left on a journey of 341kilometers west, towards Malawi. The book takes its title from a woman, Mariamu, who plans to trade her supply of salt, a rare commodity, for sugar, an even rarer commodity, in Malawi, thus enabling her to feed her children in the coming year. The harrowing journey is as colourful as its passengers-civilians and soldiers alike. A fragile love is born amid the death- between a young nurse returning home and a soldier who's tasked with protecting her. A despicable officer whose behaviour repulses; insightful railwaymen and an unseen enemy whose numerous and varied attacks leave the passengers terrified, exhausted and dying of thirst-these are the protagonists.

Pre-order - due for release in June/July 2007. Please allow up to 5 weeks before dispatch.~30 Degrees Publishing
Second edition (First edition published in Portuguese as Comboio de Sal e Açúcar
Original translation by Mugama Matolo
ISBN 978-1-920143-12-1
Softback
198 x 130mm
approx. 200pp

"Those who attacked the train were terrible.
But, at times, those who defended it were even worse"

The Train of Salt and Sugar is to Mozambique what The Kite Runner is to Afghanistan. Out of every conflict situation comes a myriad of stories, stories about people, set against the backdrop of war. During the bitter and protracted Mozambican civil war there are many such stories, but none so courageous nor so passionate as that told in The Train of Salt and Sugar.

Mozambique, after many years of war, first for their independence against the Portuguese and then against each other during the civil war, was left a desolate wasteland; with little or no infrastructure and a starving population. Trains seldom ran, the tracks had been sabotaged and the probability of enemy attacks was very real. Yet on a misty morning in the town of Nampula, in northern Mozambique, a convoy of three trains, loaded with supplies, three garrisons of soldiers and over 600 passengers left relative safety, destined for Cuamba, a town 341kilometers to the west, bordering Malawi. The book takes its title from a woman, Mariamu, who plans to trade her supply of salt, a rare commodity, for sugar, an even rarer commodity, in Malawi, thus enabling her to feed her children in the coming year.

The harrowing journey is as colourful as its passengers-civilians and soldiers alike. A fragile love is born amid the death- between a young nurse returning home and a soldier who's tasked with protecting her. A despicable officer whose behaviour repulses; insightful railwaymen and an unseen enemy whose numerous and varied attacks leave the passengers terrified, exhausted and dying of thirst-these are the protagonists.

Licínio de Azevedo arrived in Mozambique in 1977 in order to work in the National Film Institute researching stories of the War of Independence, to serve as the basis for feature film scripts. The first piece of research he did for the Film Institute resulted in his first book Relatos de Povo Armado (Tales of the Armed People) which told real stories found in the field during three months in the Moeda Plains in the north of Mozambique; the first region to be liberated in the war. Later he began to make films using the same creative technique of mixing the narrative styles of factual and fictional storytelling. In his documentaries he uses the dramatic structure used for fiction. His fictions are always based on fact. The Train of Salt and Sugar is the result of the same creative process~The Train of Salt and Sugar|ISBN 9781920143121|~11298~11452~~

With Sword and Chain in Lusaka: A Londoner's Life in Zambia 1948-1972 - Richard Sampson~A Londoner's life in Zambia and why he was ordered to issue plans for action against RAF planes and British Troops. It was February 1961 and the Central African Federation, consisting of Nyasaland (now Malawi), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) and Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was in a state of crisis......
This book, a personal memoir, provides much detail about Lusaka in the third quarter of the twentieth century, woven around the story of the author's life there. The commentary on business, political, municipal and military incidents occurring as the country moved out of its colonial past into a newly independent African-governed life as Zambia makes valuable and entertaining reading.
ISBN 1-55369-398-1.2002, Paperback, 210 pages.~~ With Sword and Chain in Lusaka|ISBN 1553693981|~11298~11307~~

Special Offers~~~~11298~11941~~

Special collection discount: Chaya Four One / Just Off the Great North Road - Hugh Chare set~Order both of Hugh Chare books - Chaya Four One' together with the sequel - 'Just Off the Great North Road', and get a 15% discount off. Plus a further 5% discount if you order more than one set.~~Select items||Chaya Four One (Disc. price)|ISBN 141208959Xset|Just Off the Great North Road (Disc. price)|ISBN 1425168159set|~11298~11942~Fireforce, Selous Scouts~

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