Hamba Gashle is the inside story of white society in colonial Southern Africa during the 1950s and 1960s. Ian Hassall's edgy memoir provides a vivid and disturbing depiction of childhood and family life against a background of racial exploitation, political change and the disintegration of his white community. Written as a diary from childhood through to early adulthood, the deceptively simple style provides a sense of immediacy, building a vivid picture through apparently unconnected events. The child narrator arrives in Northern Rhodesia from England aged four. Soon after, his parents...