Description
An Uncomfortable Narrative: Reflections on the Rhodesian Experience 1971-1980 – Joseph Mahoney
An e-book version can be purchased from here.
This book takes the reader through the last turbulent decade of Rhodesia’s existence. It traces the author’s aristocratic European upbringing, the forces which drove him to Rhodesia at 17, and his years as a game ranger in the remote northwest. As a former stick-leader in the famous Rhodesian Light Infantry from 1977–1980, he gives a unique perspective of the war from an outsider who adopted the country and the cause. This book is an expose of the emotional stress and legacy that intense and sustained combat bestows on young soldiers. It critically reflects on key political and
military decisions made, laying bare the lies, half-truths and manipulations of a Government clinging onto power and a doomed ideology, and addresses the forgotten black and white rural communities that, forced into impossible situations, bore the brunt of the horrors of the conflict.
“… A powerful, page-turning account of a life of purpose, war, resilience, African wildlife, and the human spirit that will leave you inspired …”
Patrick Armstrong, Patron, RLI Regimental Association
Carina Lafite –
The author manages to explain the bloody transformation of Rhodesia to Zimbabwe in three unique ways : compelling language, ruthless honesty about his own experience as a fighter in the army and an amazing capacity to reflect without judging. A must read for anyone who follows politics worldwide.
Rob Marsh –
An Uncomfortable Narrative is the first book by a former combat soldier that puts the Rhodesian Bush War, the politics, the mistakes and the intransigence of the ruling party in Rhodesia into perspective. The author’s assessment of the time is accurate and well researched, presented logically and clearly, backed up by solid facts and is courageously honest in his description of the long-term effects it had on him. It gave me an insight I never had before and helped resolve many issues that had troubled me since 1980.
Dr. Rolf D. Baldus –
I have read a good number of books on the civil wars in Rhodesia and the other countries in Southern Africa, which ultimately all led to majority rule. “An Uncomfortable Narrative” is different and provides fascinating, but also thought-provoking reading on the topic. It can therefore be recommended to anybody interested in Rhodesian history, the politics of decolonization, the personal experiences of men at war and working through trauma 50 years later.
A young man from the European high nobility drops out of school. In the old days, particularly in European countries with colonies, the attitude in such cases was often: “We’ll send him to Africa; otherwise, he’ll go off the rails here, whereas down there, it won’t matter.” Yet he left of his own accord. He had tossed the works of Sartre and Camus into the wastebasket, turning instead to Ernest Hemingway, Robert Ruark, and Wilbur Smith. Like many in the aristocracy, he had been hunting on his family’s estate since childhood. A life as a hunter awaited him in Africa—specifically, in 1971 Rhodesia. The hippie persona was traded in for that of a game warden. He wanted to become like Joseph Mahoney—an adventurer figure from one of the African novels (Gordon Davis’s *Hold My Hand, I’m Dying*) that he had devoured: hard living, heavy drinking, womanizing, and bush savvy.
“Joseph Mahoney” has now also become the pseudonym under which he wrote his own book. He did indeed find adventure in the bush—initially among buffalo, lion, and elephant—but later in a way he hadn’t expected: serving as a foreigner in the Rhodesian Light Infantry. This was an elite unit fighting the bush war against the black guerrillas of ZANU and ZAPU. For 2 ½ years he was in combat. As a rapid Fire Force, they were lifted wherever guerillas were found. Daily fighting, sometimes several contacts per day. There was much killing until after a bloody and brutal civil war the guerillas succeeded with the help of Russia, China and neighboring African states. In January 1980, he survives a helicopter crash and witnesses peace and majority rule on crutches.
In his fighting days the author believed what Ian Smith had to say about Rhodesia’s Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Later he realized that he had been a victim of propaganda. The war with many lives lost was not about saving civilization and Christianity and fighting communism, it was about saving an exploitative system and maintaining the privileges of a small white minority. The war was from the beginning unwinnable and there was no plan anyway. The reader feels how long it has taken the author to work through his memories of a war that was unjust and has cost many lives. He writes: “I recognize that the rationale for having fought can only be understood within the context of the time and my writing is in no way a critique of others who have fought. It is entirely my story, written to gain inner peace through better understanding. That I remain a proud ex-member of the fabulous Rhodesian Light Infantry has never been an issue for me.”
(title of book in text edited – 4.8.26)
Dr. Ludwig Siege –
I recently came across an interesting book about Rhodesia/Zimbabwe. The title is *An Uncomfortable Narrative: Reflections on the Rhodesian Experience, 1971–1980*.
The author is Joseph Mahoney. This is obviously a pseudonym, since a character named Joseph Mahony is the central figure in John Jordon-Davis’s famous book on Rhodesia, *Hold My Hand, I’m Dying*.
Reading it, the significance of the title became clear to me, and I could understand why the book evokes mixed feelings and reactions within the Rhodesian exile community.
As a member of the Rhodesian Light Infantry, the author was involved in a multitude of combat missions, sometimes two per day. He also describes shocking incidents that are not typically found in books about war—at least not in accounts written by combatants themselves.
The author takes a very critical view of Prime Minister Ian Smith and the “Unilateral Declaration of Independence,” of which Smith was the main protagonist. He quotes Smith as saying that the UDA had brought the Rhodesians 14 additional happy years. This is obviously nonsense: between 1965 and 1979, roughly one in five Rhodesian settlers emigrated. Those who remained in the country—especially the farmers—suffered more and more from the war as the guerrilla forces led by Joshua Nkomo and Robert Mugabe continued to infiltrate the country. Many lost their lives; the others were forced to barricade themselves with weapons on their farms. Travel was only possible in armed convoys. The author writes that soon every Rhodesian had someone to mourn among their acquaintances and relatives.
Joseph Mahoney demonstrates that the Rhodesian army never had a chance of winning the war. It was far too small and far too isolated from the local population. This isolation, in particular, he writes, was the reason why the white settler community in Rhodesia was fighting a losing battle from the outset when the “winds of change” (Harold MacMillan, 1960) began to blow.
As is always the case in such situations, “stab-in-the-back” myths circulated: England and South Africa had betrayed Rhodesia, and the war was nothing more than a communist plot. Mahoney dispels this nonsense.
During the 1980s I spent four years in Zambia—formerly Northern Rhodesia—and was able to observe firsthand how a peaceful transition to majority rule could take place. Rhodesia under Ian Smith, however, had chosen war, with all the negative consequences for the population and the soldiers on both sides.
The author does not hesitate to admit that he emerged from the war severely traumatized. He shares this with many Rhodesians of African and European descent. However, he belongs to the so-called “Soutpiels” (Salt Tails). South Africans, especially those of Dutch descent, use this term—half in jest, half pejoratively—to describe those who have one foot in southern Africa and the other in Europe, Australia or North America, home of many of Rhodesia’s diaspora: the “pimmel” (piel) is then figuratively dangling in the salt water.
Joseph Mahoney thus had the chance to build a new life for himself outside of Rhodesia. He studied, earned his doctorate, and subsequently worked in leading positions in international conservation. However, his wartime experiences never left him, and anyone who knew him knew he didn’t shy away from recounting them. I very much hope that, through this book, he has managed to unburden himself of some of the trauma—to the extent that such a thing is even possible.
As for the book itself: it’s superbly written, gripping from the first page to the last, and an absolute must-read for anyone interested in Africa.
Published by TSL Publications, Great Britain, ISBN 9781917426633
Paul Harris –
It is rare that I devour a 355-page book from cover to cover in just three days, but Joseph Mahoney’s An Uncomfortable Narrative: Reflections on the Rhodesian Experience 1971–1980 held me completely captive. I was there. From 1975 to 1977, I covered the Bush War as a photojournalist for The Rhodesia Herald, capturing images and stories tailored to feed the propaganda expected by a predominantly white readership. Rhodesia was, in so many ways, an extraordinary country, and I loved my time there. Yet, every day I was in the field, I found myself haunted by a single, inescapable question: What is the end game? How could 300,000 whites possibly expect to decide the fate of—and indefinitely rule over—seven million Black citizens, not a single one of whom had a vote? Mahoney’s book finally gave me the brutal, definitive answer I was looking for: there was no end game. The highest echelons of power had no practical, long-term plan to transition Rhodesia into a prosperous, equitable, multiracial society. Instead, a minority government clung to a doomed ideology, waging an unwinnable war that cost thousands of lives and ultimately fractured the nation beyond repair. Are you listening Mr Trump ?
michael seiller-tarbuk –
page turner! Deeply covering the bright and dark side of post/colonial life in changing africa!
Reg Percy –
I thoroughly enjoyed this read.
I’ve read many personal Rhodesian Bush War stories these past few years but none that offered these thought-provoking perspectives and moved me to ponder at length…… “what might have been”.
I am Rhodesian born to Rhodesian born parents; we “took the gap” (“the chicken run”) at the height of the war in the late ’70’s shortly before independence.
As a privileged white youth blindly caught up in the prevailing sentiment of the day, I was consumed by guilt that I did not do my two years National Service……these days I consider myself very lucky to have avoided it.
Reflecting on the shift in my own perspective over the years, I identified strongly with the author’s non-mainstream perspectives which are very well presented in what is indeed “an uncomfortable narrative”.
This is also just a good yarn about a young foreign-born bloke who was so enamoured by Rhodesia that he “adopted the country and the cause”.
Serving initially as a National Parks Ranger and subsequently as a full-time soldier during the height of the war with an elite airborne assault unit, the Rhodesian Light Infantry.
While he writes of his time as a soldier, he makes no attempt to glorify the war and relates the psychological impact the war had on his life.
It provided me with lots to think about and be grateful for.
Ann Rabb –
An Uncomfortable Narrative: Reflections on the Rhodesian Experience 1971-1980 by Joseph Mahoney was a deeply emotional and cathartic experience for me. As a wife and mother who spent those grueling war years running our family farm entirely on my own while my husband was away on continuous call-ups with the security forces, this book felt like a long-overdue validation of a an extremely painful history.
Mahoney writes from the true perspective of an RLI stick-leader but his emotional honesty and willingness to look past the formidable military bridges the gap between the front lines and the home front. He speaks raw uncomfortable truths. A heavy burden was placed on our soldiers, the families and the rural communities. We were captives trying to be loyal to our beloved land and yet we were bearing the brunt of this terrible conflict based on political manipulations.
This book is an incredibly honest telling of what this war cost the human spirit and the heartbreaking reality of all the people who were caught up in this period of history. I highly recommend An Uncomfortable Narrative to anyone wanting to understand what it felt like living through this traumatic Rhodesian experience.