| I should admit a degree of self-interest on
this one (basically an explanation of this site, let alone my general
Afrophilia). My great uncle, who I met in Zimbabwe in 1981 on a trip to
Vic Falls (memories of men in v. short shorts, toting lots of guns -
this was quite soon after the ceasefire, and whilst we were there there
was a murder just a few doors down. No wander he slept with a gun under
his pillow) had been editor of The Rhodesia Herald. At a time when Smith
was trying to cover-up censorship by getting papers to print non-stories
rather than anything too revealing, or against the party-line, he would
deliberately leave areas which had been removed blank, to make it
clear that this censorship had taken place. Naturally, this did not
go down too well, but nothing was done. Generally, journalists in Rhodesia had quite a tough time of it.
Usually having to perform their military service at some point, they
would then have to follow the troopies out, possibly even
on an external. Some of them (most notably ) broke with tradition,
by not only carrying weapons, but being prepared to use them.
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