Journalist Marnix de Bruyne has shed new light on the post-war wave of Dutch immigration to Rhodesia with his new book, We moeten gaan. Nederlandse boeren in Zimbabwe (‘We Must Go: Dutch Farmers in Zimbabwe’).
Why did so many people emigrate from the Netherlands in the fifties? Why did hundreds of them choose to settle in what was then called Rhodesia, today’s Zimbabwe? And why did so many of them stay after 1965, when the country was led by a white-minority regime, faced an international boycott and was engulfed in a bloody guerrilla war?
De Bruyne attempted to answer these questions through a recent seminar at Leiden University’s African Studies Centre. The university has rather handily made a recording of the seminar available online.
Daar’s ook ’n interview (in Nederlands) met Mnr de Bruyne in Mare, die koerant van die Universiteit Leiden.
(Dave: hierdie post is vir jy!)
The question isn’t why they would have stayed under Smith; there was still some hope then.
The question is why any might still be there, when the future holds nothing but despoliation and death.
Beste Cusack!
Dankie vir die artikel oor hierdie boek … nou moet ek dit koop!
My familie het in 1969 na Rhodesië (Suid-Rhodesië) teruggekeer nadat hulle vertrek in 1964 uit van Noord-Rhodesië (Zambië). Gelukkig vir hulle, hulle het ‘n ander 11 mooi jare daar voordat hulle die skrif aan die muur gesien het.
Avdb …
Dawie van der Bliksem
Remunj
Republiek van Limburgië
G v H: Yes, I should have clarified: the ‘why they stayed’ refers to after 1980 and the Dutch families that stayed in Zimbabwe.
Dave: Pleisir!