African Dawn Read online

  Tony Park was born in 1964 and grew up in the western suburbs of Sydney. He has worked as a newspaper reporter in Australia and England, a government press secretary, a public relations consultant, and a freelance writer. He is also a major in the Australian Army Reserve and served six months in Afghanistan in 2002 as a public affairs officer. He and his wife, Nicola, divide their time between their home in Sydney and southern Africa, where they own a tent and a Land Rover. He is the author of seven other novels set in Africa: Far Horizon, Zambezi, African Sky, Safari, Silent Predator, Ivory and The Delta, and co-author of three biographies, Part of the Pride, with Kevin Richardson, War Dogs, with Shane Bryant, and The Grey Man, with John Curtis.

  www.tonypark.net

  Also by Tony Park

  Far Horizon

  Zambezi

  African Sky

  Safari

  Silent Predator

  Ivory

  The Delta

  Part of the Pride, with Kevin Richardson

  War Dogs, with Shane Bryant

  The Grey Man, with John Curtis

  AFRICAN

  DAWN

  TONY

  PARK

  THE MASTER OF ADVENTURE

  First published 2011 in Macmillan by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Limited

  1 Market Street, Sydney

  Copyright © Tony Park 2011

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning or by any information storage and retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

  National Library of Australia

  Cataloguing-in-Publication data:

  Park, Tony, 1964–

  African dawn / Tony Park.

  9781742610139 (pbk.)

  Zimbabwe—20th century—Fiction.

  Africa—Fiction.

  A823.4

  Typeset in 11/15 pt Birka by Post Pre-press Group, Brisbane

  Printed by McPherson's Printing Group

  Cover design by Deborah Parry Graphics

  Illustrations by Deborah Parry Graphics

  Cartographic art by Laurie Whiddon, Map Illustrations

  Papers used by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd are natural, recyclable products made from wood grown in sustainable forests. The manufacturing processes conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

  These electronic editions published in 2011 by Pan Macmillan Australia Pty Ltd

  1 Market Street, Sydney 2000

  Copyright © Tony Park 2011

  The moral right of the author has been asserted.

  All rights reserved. This publication (or any part of it) may not be reproduced or transmitted, copied, stored, distributed or otherwise made available by any person or entity (including Google, Amazon or similar organisations), in any form (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical) or by any means (photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise) without prior written permission from the publisher.

  This ebook may not include illustrations and/or photographs that may have been in the print edition.

  African Dawn

  Tony Park

  Adobe eReader format 978-1-74262-778-6

  EPub format 978-1-74262-780-9

  Online format 978-1-74262-777-9

  Macmillan Digital Australia

  www.macmillandigital.com.au

  Visit www.panmacmillan.com.au to read more about all our books and to buy both print and ebooks online. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events.

  For Nicola

  Glossary

  Baas – Afrikaans for ‘boss’. Common form of address for a white man, by a black man, in Rhodesia.

  Batonka – Tribe indigenous to the Zambezi valley, displaced to higher ground when the Zambezi River was dammed and the newly formed Lake Kariba started filling in 1958.

  British South Africa Police (BSAP) – Originally the police force of Cecil John Rhodes's British South Africa Company, the BSAP retained its name as the police force of Southern Rhodesia (later Rhodesia) until the formation of Zimbabwe in 1980.

  Bru – Slang for brother or mate (from Afrikaans).

  Bulawayo – Second largest city in Zimbabwe, located in Matabeleland. The name Bulawayo comes from an Ndebele word meaning ‘place of slaughter’ or ‘place where he kills’.

  Central Intelligence Organisation (CIO) – The secret police and intelligence service of Rhodesia and, subsequently, Zimbabwe.

  Chimurenga – Shona word for ‘struggle’. Zimbabwean history identifies at least two Chimurengas – the First Chimurenga of 1896–97 when the Shona and Ndebele took up arms against white settlers, and the Second Chimurenga of 1964–1980 (also known as the Bush War). Some veterans of the liberation struggle described the seizure of white-owned farms from 2000 onwards as the Third Chimurenga.

  Chimurenga name – A nom de guerre adopted by pro-nationalist guerillas during the Second Chimurenga (Bush War).

  China – Mate, from the Cockney rhyming slang ‘China plate’.

  Gandanga – Shona word for a guerilla or freedom fighter, also used by white forces (plural: magandanga).

  Gook – Derogatory term used by US soldiers for Vietnamese civilians or Vietcong fighters during the Vietnam War; subsequently applied to black Rhodesian guerillas by whites. It was probably brought to Africa by American Vietnam veterans who joined the Rhodesian security forces.

  Government of National Unity (GNU) – Following disputed presidential elections in March 2008 and protracted negotiations, a GNU was formed on 13 February 2009. The GNU confirmed Robert Mugabe as President of Zimbabwe, and MDC-T leader, Morgan Tsvangirai as Prime Minister, with ministerial posts shared between ZANU–PF and the MDC factions.

  Gukurahundi – Shona word meaning ‘the rain that washes away the chaff’; the term given to the brutal suppression of the Ndebele people following ZANU's majority showing in the elections which created Zimbabwe. While ostensibly aimed at ZIPRA rebels, military operations by the Zimbabwe army's North Korean-trained 5th Brigade reportedly resulted in the deaths of thousands of civilians.

  Harare – Capital of Zimbabwe (formerly Salisbury, Rhodesia).

  Joint Operations Command (JOC) – Co-ordinating body overseeing military and security operations in Rhodesia during the war, and subsequently in post-independence Zimbabwe.

  K-Car – Killer car, a Rhodesian Air Force Alouette helicopter gunship, usually fitted with a 20 mm cannon.

  Karanga – A grouping of the Shona tribe, from the Masvingo (formerly Fort Victoria) area. The Karanga made up the majority of recruits to the Rhodesian African Rifles, the predominantly black regular army battalions of the Rhodesian Army.

  Matabele – White colonial pronunciation and spelling of the Ndebele tribe and language.

  Matabeleland – The area covering west and south-west Zimbabwe, and the provinces of Matabeleland North and South; home of the Ndebele people.

  MDC – Movement for Democratic Change – Main party in opposition to Robert Mugabe's ZANU–PF. The MDC was formed in 1999 by former secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions, Morgan Tsvangirai. The party subsequently split into two factions, the MDC-T (headed by Tsvangirai), and MDC-M, lead by Arthur Mutambara.

  Mtengesi – Shona word for ‘sell-out’ – someone who sided with the white government during the Bush War or, later, with the MDC or other opposition to ZANU–PF.

  Mugabe, Robert Gabriel (1924–) – Prime Minister, then President of Zimbabwe since 1980.

  Muzorewa, Bishop Abel (1925–2010) – Leader of the
United African National Council (UANC), and Prime Minister of the short-lived Zimbabwe–Rhodesia, a multiracial government formed in 1979 as part of a doomed internal settlement proposed by Ian Smith.

  Ndebele (see Matabele) – Second largest tribe in Zimbabwe, descended from the Zulus of South Africa.

  Nkomo, Joshua (1917–1999) – Founder and leader of the National Democratic Party, which subsequently became the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU). Nkomo was Vice President of Zimbabwe from 1987–1999 after ZAPU merged with ZANU to form ZANU–PF.

  Oke/ouen – Slang for man (from Afrikaans).

  Operation Noah – Rescue of wildlife stranded by the damming of the Zambezi River in 1958–1964 to form Lake Kariba. More than six thousand animals were saved by game department officers and volunteers.

  Pioneer column – Force raised by Cecil John Rhodes and his British South Africa Company in 1890 to annex parts of modern Zimbabwe before the Germans or Portuguese could lay claim to the territory.

  Porks – Derogatory rhyming slang term for Portuguese, from ‘pork and cheese’.

  Rhodesia – British colony founded by and named after Cecil John Rhodes. The name was officially adopted in 1895 and subsequently changed to Southern Rhodesia. The country renamed itself the Republic of Rhodesia after unilaterally declaring independence from Britain in 1965, following Britain's refusal to grant independence without majority rule. The name was changed, briefly, in 1979 to Zimbabwe–Rhodesia under a multiracial government, then to Zimbabwe in 1980.

  Rhodesian African Rifles (RAR) – Regular army unit of the Rhodesian Security Forces consisting of black African soldiers and noncommissioned officers, and white officers.

  Rhodesian Front (RF) – Formed in 1962, and headed by Ian Smith from 1964–1979, the RF was the governing political party in white-ruled Rhodesia until the forming of the ill-fated transitional government of Zimbabwe–Rhodesia.

  Rhodesian Light Infantry (RLI) – All-white regular army unit of the Rhodesian Security Forces.

  Salisbury – Capital of Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe).

  Selous Scouts (Skuz'apo) – An elite multiracial unit of the Rhodesian Security Forces, named after the big-game hunter Frederick Courteney Selous. Black African Selous Scouts dressed in enemy uniforms and operated in tribal areas, tracking and ambushing guerillas. The scouts boasted the highest kill ratio of any Rhodesian unit.

  Shona – The majority tribe of Rhodesia/Zimbabwe.

  Sithole, Reverend Ndabaningi (1920–2000) – Founder of the Zimbabwe African National Union (ZANU) in 1963, later overthrown by Robert Mugabe.

  Smith, Ian (1919–2007) – Prime Minister of Rhodesia and leader of the Rhodesian Front Party from 1964 to 1979. Smith orchestrated Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Britain in 1965.

  Southern Rhodesia African National Congress – A pro-independence and black majority rule political organisation which lasted from 1957 until it was banned by the white Rhodesian government in late 1958.

  Terr – Terrorist; term used by whites for black guerillas/freedom fighters.

  ZANLA – Zimbabwe African National Liberation Army – The military wing of ZANU. Predominantly Shona, ZANLA's members were trained and advised by communist China and operated during the Bush War from bases in Mozambique.

  ZANU – Zimbabwe African National Union – Predominantly Shona nationalist political party, founded in 1963.

  ZANU–PF – Zimbabwe African National Union–Popular Front – Formed in 1987 with the merger of ZANU and ZAPU, ZANU–PF, headed by Robert Mugabe, was the dominant political party in Zimbabwe until the emergence of Morgan Tsvangirai's opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

  ZAPU – Zimbabwe African People's Union – Predominantly Ndebele nationalist political party.

  ZESA – Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority – Also commonly used slang term for electricity in Zimbabwe.

  Zimbabwe, Republic of – Formerly Southern Rhodesia, the Republic of Rhodesia, and Zimbabwe–Rhodesia, the Republic of Zimbabwe, formed in 1980, takes its name from the Shona-speaking Kingdom of Zimbabwe, which flourished from 1250 to 1450 from its stone-built capital of Great Zimbabwe, near Masvingo (Fort Victoria).

  ZIPRA – Zimbabwe People's Revolutionary Army – The military wing of ZAPU. Predominantly Ndebele, ZIPRA's members were trained by Russia and operated from bases in Zambia.

  ZUPCO – Zimbabwe United Passenger Company – Bus operator in Zimbabwe.

  PART ONE

  Rhodesia

  1

  Southern Rhodesia, 1959

  Makuti learned to swim almost as soon as he learned to walk. He didn't know that he wasn't born to enter the water; he just followed his mother in and did what she did.

  The rain had been falling all his short life. Makuti couldn't know it – how could he – but it was not supposed to be like this. It was not meant to pour down so heavily from the skies, at this time of the year. It was not natural.

  His first steps were in the mud and he tried as best he could, on his short legs, to keep pace with his mother who was terribly stressed. She walked in circles and Makuti's path was made harder because he had to lift his little feet in and out of the ever-deepening footprints his mother was pounding into the sticky slime.

  When she stopped abruptly, Makuti skidded and bumped into her legs. He fell over and, instead of scrambling to his feet, enjoyed the peace of lying there for a moment, wallowing in the cloying mud. When he tried to stand, he slipped and rolled some more, and found that he enjoyed it.

  His mother turned and looked down at him. She snorted and stamped her foot. He dragged himself upright again – the brief moment of play over.

  Makuti was hungry. Although he was already walking, it would be some time before he was weaned – such was their way – so he sought out the solace and nourishment of his mother's teat. She brushed him aside and, hurt, he stumbled and sloshed after her. The rain started again and spattered his back. He was tired, hungry and cold.

  His mother shook her head. She was starving too. The ring of their forlorn footsteps grew shorter each day, as the rain continued to fall and the river continued to rise. In the days before she had given birth, Makuti's mother had exhausted herself climbing higher and higher up a hill, which had now become an island. Although they were safe from the rising waters up here on this rocky outcrop, there was nothing to eat and the new mother was half-crazed with hunger.

  Thunder rolled down the valley and lightning ignited the night sky. Makuti's mother walked to the floodwaters' edge and waded in. And Makuti, not knowing any better, plunged in joyfully behind her and started to swim.

  *

  ‘Bejane!’

  Paul Bryant raised a hand to shield his eyes from the glare of the morning sunshine on the still waters. The lake was the same molten silver as the hazy sky and it was virtually impossible to discern the horizon. Paul pulled the battered pair of binoculars from their worn leather case to see what fourteen-year-old Winston Ngwenya was pointing at.

  ‘Well spotted, Winston. It's a rhino all right.’

  ‘There are two.’

  Paul moved the focusing wheel and saw the youngster was correct again. Bobbing behind the first horned head was a little dark blob. ‘A calf.’

  ‘Ah, but the mother will be trouble, baas.’

  ‘Dad, let me see.’

  ‘Steady, George!’ Paul lurched as his son inadvertently shifted the outboard engine's tiller in his haste to catch sight of the swimming black rhinoceroses, but regained his balance. He smiled to show George he hadn't meant to chastise him, just to warn him.

  George set the throttle to neutral and the wooden dinghy slowed. Long-limbed and angular, with his father's height and his mother's blonde hair, George had the awkwardness of adolescence and the promise of manhood competing for control of his every move and word. Paul smiled as he handed his son the binoculars.

  Winston, kneeling at the bow, reached out a hand to steady his friend, but George brushed it away. �
�I'm fine.’

  It was amazing what a difference a year could make, Paul thought. Winston's body was filling out quickly and he was almost a man. His voice was breaking and his movements around the boat were self-assured and confident. Bryant thought of the African boy as a second son, almost. He was the firstborn child of his good friend Kenneth, who taught in the black township of Mzilikazi, on the outskirts of Bulawayo, back home in Matabeleland.

  Kenneth and his wife, Patricia, had two more children after Winston, a girl and a boy, Thandi and Emmerson. All three of their children were healthy and strong, which was something to give thanks for.

  ‘I see them, Dad,’ George said. ‘Too bad Mom can't be here.’

  Paul nodded. He, too, wished she were here with him, instead of back on the farm, way out near the Bechuanaland border.

  ‘Go, Paul. For God's sake, please go – you're driving me bloody mad,’ she'd urged him. They'd tried for a second child after George had been born, back in 1946 after Paul had come back from the war, but Pip had miscarried. Then, thirteen years later, at the age of thirty-nine, she had told him the news that she was expecting what the Afrikaner farmers living in Rhodesia called a laat lammetjie.

  This, however, was no late lamb. It was a tiny human life that Philippa was carrying. Paul had been adamant that Pip should stop work around the dairy and spend more time indoors resting. They'd had fights over it, but she'd stood up to him, telling him that she would not live her life in fear – not even of another miscarriage. He'd seen in her the same fierce independence and stubbornness she'd shown as a volunteer policewoman during the war, when they'd first met.

  When the call had gone out from the Rhodesian Game Department in the early days of Pip's pregnancy for volunteers to help with a massive operation aimed at saving wildlife stranded by the rising waters of the newly created Lake Kariba, they had gone as a family to camp near the growing but still primitive township that had sprung up near the dam construction site.

  The three of them had known bugger all about how to save wild animals from drowning when they'd arrived five months earlier, but since then they had learned how to corral and drive impala, kudu and waterbuck into the lake, then shepherd them towards the mainland. They had plucked deadly mambas and irate cobras from waterlogged trees and rescued a host of smaller creatures then transported them by boat to the new banks of the swelling Zambezi River.