THE P RTAL
February 2017 Page 6
The Struggle Continues
Mgr Robert Mercer has been reading a good book
Naturally enough , the Middle East crowds Zimbabwe out of the media , apart from an occasional report on ITV . Here ’ s a book written by an evangelical Presbyterian barrister raised and still living in that country , which should be widely read . The atheist journalist , Matthew Parris , another Zimbabwean , wrote an enthusiastic column about the book in the “ Spectator ” of 17 / 9 / 2016 .
Other white Africans have given us readable accounts of their PID ( post independence depression ), such as Michael Auret in “ From Liberator to Tyrant ”, Peter Godwin in “ Mukiwa ” and Judith Todd in “ Through the Darkness ”, but David has been generously endowed by the Spirit with the theological virtue of hope . I confess to being an admirer of his .
When we first met , David was a junior partner in a respectable legal firm which provided Matabeleland diocese with its chancellors and registrars , who of course never charged us fees . He was a fun loving , rugby playing , newly wed , not at all my image of an elder of the Kirk . His speciality came to be justice and human rights .
An archdeacon had been taken by the secret police and might or might not be tortured ; a parishioner had indeed been so maltreated ; young men had been pulled off a bus and summarily executed by soldiers , their bodies inexpertly buried on Anglican land .
We were not the only ones seeking David ’ s help : great queues formed at his chambers , Christians of many denominations , people of no faith , members of different political parties , individuals devoid of politics .
His case load was a wearying weight of atrocity , corruption , crime , horror , injustice and even , when it came to the massacre of the Matabele people , of genocide . Because of all this work which he did as for God ( Colossians 3,17 ), several attempts have been made on his own life . He writes about such experiences without any purple prose or self-glorification .
A happy aspect of life in Bulawayo was ecumenical cooperation and harmony , with Quakers and Seventh Day Adventists involved . When it came to drought relief , human rights or approaches to government , believers worked together . If Roman Catholics came to take the lead in much of this , it was because they had the money and the personnel .
David ’ s own evangelical faith was no barrier to friendship with heroes like Archbishops Henry Karlen and Pius Ncube and their Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace , whose devastating report , “ Breaking the Silence ”, never got much attention .
For all too brief a time there was a coalition government of Mugabe ’ s party and the opposition , the Movement for Democratic Change . Its remarkable minister of finance pulled Zimbabwe out of its status as a failed state with worthless currency . David became a cabinet minister , responsible for education and sport , and made some headway with reviving schools .
The book is not all woe , woe . There are accounts of an idyllic childhood in a country of natural beauty and benign climate , bachelor booze ups , a happy marriage , an inspiring interview with Nelson Mandela , cricket matches and the time his small daughter nearly had her arm eaten by a lion .
“ The Struggle Continues : 50 Years of Tyranny in Zimbabwe ” by David Coltart Published in Johannesburg by Jacana
Available from Amazon , 647 pp , index , photos .