My Father Before Me: Memoirs of an Activist's Daughter

By Catherine Kanhema-Blinston

Seventy years after the establishment of Rhodesia by the European settlers, a little girl was born to an activist. Her father fought to establish a one man, one vote system. He was arrested and imprisoned for ten years. The girl was ecstatic to have her father back until she realized that he had become a stranger to her.

My Father before Me is a vivid journey through Catherine KanhemaBlinstons early life. It chronicles her life in the midst of poverty, war, and prison camps. Her happiest moments during her childhood were the fun, light-hearted times she shared with her big family and the bonds she formed with her siblings during her outdoor adventures. These pleasant memories create a sharp contrast to the instability faced by a young girl growing up as a political activists daughter.

• Language: English
• Publisher: AuthorHouse UK
• Release date: Sep 4, 2013
• ISBN: 9781481792974

Catherine Kanhema-Blinston

Catherine Kanhema–Blinston lived in Rhodesia in the sixties, after the Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain. She is a two-time platinum award winner (at the thirty-fourth and thirty-sixth international WorldFest film festivals in Houston, Texas). She worked for German TV as both an editor and a producer. She has made twelve wildlife films. After moving back to her home country, Zimbabwe, she lives with her husband. They are involved in the conservation of painted hunting dogs (Lycaon pictus) and other community conservation projects. She is the mother of three children.

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© 2013 by Catherine Kanhema-Blinston. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means without the written permission of the author.

Published by AuthorHouse 07/23/2013

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9299-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9298-1 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4817-9297-4 (e)

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Attempts have been made to get permission to include Richard West’s remarkably unbiased insight into the Rhodesian in hi publication the White Tribes Of Africa published in 1965 by Jonathan Cape, London.

Contents

Acknowledgements

Introduction

Chapter 1       1955: Beginning

Chapter 2       Building a Rhodesian Empire—Background to Conflict

Chapter 3       White Tribes of Rhodesia

Chapter 4       Parent-Teenager Conflict

Chapter 5       The Keep

Chapter 6       Days in School

Chapter 7       The Return of Monster

Chapter 8       Testing the Waters

Chapter 9       Days Ruled by Sharia Law

Chapter 10       Our Home, Our Little Prison

Chapter 11       The Attack

Chapter 12       The Arrival of Rhodesian Forces

Chapter 13       The Terrorists/Comrades

About the Author

About the Book

For my husband, Peter Blinston, and for our children:

Shannon, Simon, and Sam.

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Louise Nkomo, Jery Gotora and Tawanda Chimboza for their support and assurance.

I also must thank my mother, Marian Kanhema, for being the matriarch of my family and my brothers and sisters who protected me when I was still growing.

Thank you, Biscuit, for pushing me that last mile to write the book I had planned to write for over twenty-five years.

Special thanks to Richard West (author of White tribes of Africa).

Introduction

A friend of mine lost her farm a few years ago. She described to me what happened, how she and her husband lost everything they had worked for. They bought the farm just a few years before losing it to Zimbabwe’s land reform program. All their life savings had been put into the farm. Their main crop was tobacco.

We talked about Rhodesia, and she described the day she almost killed her baby while being shown how to use a gun. In a state of excitement, she accidentally touched the trigger and shot her bed—missing her baby’s head by just a few millimetres. Her husband, Jim, was on patrol when that happened.

I went on to tell my friend (who I call Biscuit) how I experienced Rhodesia, and she quickly asked me to write a book. I looked at her—a small, thin, chain-smoker of a woman—and thought, For you, I will do anything.

I went home and started writing the book about my mother, Marian; my father, Simon; our country, Rhodesia; and myself. The rest of the names mentioned in the book are just there to help my story make sense. This book provides a space for me to tell my story: living with my parents (and their stress) and navigating a childhood that I still appreciate.

As for my friend, I hope she will write a book for people like me who thought white people had a good life during our civil war After hearing her story, I felt as though white people lived in fear; fear of the Africans so much that they must have felt so exposed to danger. If one has to sleep with a loaded gun underneath his or her pillow, one is not free.

Chapter 1

1955: Beginning

Simon Kanhema had four children, all girls. He lived with his common law wife, whose name I have never known. Due to his desire to have a son, he talked to his next-door neighbour, Mr Jeremir. He told Simon about a woman who had two sons but was not married. The woman lived across the M’sengez River in the villages of Zvimba Tribal Trust Land (ZTTL).

Somehow, Simon won the heart of that woman—Marian Bhunu. He never told her he had four children.

Marian moved in with Simon, and she brought her six-month-old son Christopher. Her older son Charlie could not join her even if he wanted to. The border to Northern Rhodesia had been closed while he was visiting that country now known as Zambia with his father’s sister. He was six years old when that happened. He managed to come back to Zimbabwe in 1982 at the age of thirty-two, but by that time, he was married with two children of his own.

Marian was surprised to find another woman living with Simon—plus four little girls: Leah, Elizabeth, Gladys and Priscilla.

One morning, the woman who had four children with Simon woke up and left. She disappeared, leaving behind her four girls (aged six, four, two, and one). Marian suddenly had five children to raise. Fortunately, Simon’s mother was there to help. The girls actually moved in with their grandmother.

In 1956, my brother Bob was born. After that, my next brother Gordon Tapera was born (in 1958). My sister, Norgaitty, was then born a few years later, followed by my other brother Newton. After them, I was born—as was my other brother Bornwell (whom Simon called Bonaparte, after Napoleon).

Marian now had ten children to raise on her own. (Politics and hiding from the police took up most of Simon’s time—he started getting arrested and spending months in prison.)

My mother’s father was getting more and more worried that her daughter was living in poverty because her husband had fallen in love with politics. He kept threatening to take her back to his home where he could look after her.

To everyone around us, politics meant dealing with white people. We did not know any white people, however, so we just wanted to see them. We wanted to see what they looked like and what they could do. Unless they were missionaries, the white men were usually policemen or soldiers—both of which acted aggressively. White women were rare, but some were working as teachers in mission schools.

Simon got more involved in politics, and he co-founded the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) with Joshua Nkomo and many others. Most of the meetings were held in Highfield, a suburb of the capital, Salisbury (now known as Harare).

The children started school one by one. I remember my father washing my face and Bornie’s face in the mornings. I must have been about three or four years old. Through my eyes, Simon was a hybrid man who seemed stronger physically and mentally than anybody else in the surrounding area. He was both loved and feared by everyone. He was even fighting for what he called freedom—and doing that meant fighting the Rhodesian government. As a child, I did not know what freedom was but I remember how the idea of being free and that of getting our land back from the settlers got imprinted in all our minds.

Simon’s mother and siblings viewed Simon as an outcast. He was always getting arrested or being watched by the police, and having a family member labelled a criminal did not suit them. They said to him, Look, Simon, these people are doing wrong things to mankind. Just leave them alone. God will punish them. Just watch them with your eyes. For Simon, however, God and prayers were never good enough. He wanted fair voting; Black people were not allowed to vote unless they were millionaires; he also wanted women to be treated as adults after reaching the age of eighteen.

Night of the Locusts

My family always liked to tell me about the day I was born, my mother’s sisters especially. Here’s what they told me:

When Simon was being questioned and cautioned