Beloved African

I feel there is no long term future for the white man in this country unless he learns to live comfortably with the black. To that end, I find myself more and more interested in the education of the black instead of white. Letter from John Hammond, Plumtree, Rhodesia 1935

Beloved African is a powerful love story, tested and strengthened in adversity. John Hammond was one of Rhodesia’s great educators - beloved by black and white alike. The pivotal role he played in early African education in that country is woven against a backdrop of increasing tension as he strode an increasingly political stage - fighting for the time he needed to educate his pupils to a point where they would be in a position to lead the new Zimbabwe with wisdom and integrity.

The story draws on the author’s mother Nancy Hammond’s precise memory for detail, on hundreds of letters written and lovingly preserved since the early 1900s as well as on a series of tape recordings with John, the Beloved African, 18 months before his death in South Australia in 1996.

The agonies of what subsequently occurred and the effect it had on John are described with candour and clarity. The book gives a not always popular view of what life was like to those who were determined to try and find answers but whose efforts were so often thwarted by political duplicity.