I read a piece of non-fiction called SALLY IN RHODESIA by Sheila MacDonald, set in 1910, which mentioned how Rhodesian women were considered ‘fast’ because of the novel VIRGINIA OF THE RHODESIANS. I was naturally agog and have been looking for this book for two years. I finally found an amazing edition on Ebay. It’s so old I cannot figure out its year, but it’s some time 1903-1911
It tells the story of a young woman living in Rhodesia in the late 1890s, and is (I assume) based on the real experiences of the author, who was a young woman living in Rhodesia in the late 1890s. Especially dramatic is the period she spends barricaded into the town that is now Mutare in 1896. I know this as the period of the first Chimurenga (i.e., uprising against the colonialists), and assumed they were all terrified/traumitized/etc. Apparently no: they were mostly drinking gin, cheating on their husbands, and gossiping?!?
On reflection though, I can’t deny this does sound pretty Zimbabwean, especially when it comes to the gin and the gossiping. Every day she says ‘brings five fresh scandals,’ and this sounds pretty close to Harare today. The story itself was kind of a melodramatic romance, pretty silly, but I enjoyed it. I googled the author and found out she had a completely amazing life. I can’t get into it all – it involves the Boer war and bigamy and New York and suicide – but I did find out she was actually an extremely successful author of 22 books, many of which were made into silent films! And they’re all available online, so I didn’t even need to go on Ebay. But I’m so glad I did!