Malachite and Mangoes

'Equality and freedom were the ideals of our generation and we’d arrived with Bob Dylan and Joan Baez songs sounding in our ears. We would be a part of the African revolution shaking off the mantle of colonialism. Not for us the injustices of the white regime still in power further to the south where Nelson Mandela and Jacob Zuma languished on Robben Island. We were the new generation of liberals, open to change and encouraging every sort of freedom.' The 1970s were a unique time in African history. Many thousands of British, South African, and Australian migrants started their working lives in Central Africa, and they continually had to readjust to major racial, social and economic changes taking place around them. Sara Dunn has written of her extraordinary drive from Edinburgh to Zambia in Appointment in Zambia (Matador, 2012), and this follow-up volume describes the realities of a life they had so eagerly anticipated. In the aftermath of a nearby mining disaster, they embarked on living and working amidst constantly changing challenges, surprises, delights and disappointments. Sara’s personal account of this tumultous period in Zambia’s history is a book for anyone interested in a different perspective on Central Africa, but also for any one of those thousands who began their families amidst the same post-colonial upheaval that Sara vividly describes.

Sara Dunn was born and brought up in Edinburgh. After driving overland to Zambia with her husband Ross in 1970, the couple settled down for two years in Chingola, followed by a year in Wimpole Street, then another year on a boat in London, and a further three years in Chingola. After Zambia they lived in: London; Kent; Staffordshire; Edinburgh; and Hampshire, moving each time with Ross’s work. Sara occupied herself with bringing up their three girls and found teaching work after every move. During this time they returned to Africa many times for holidays and work. Now retired, they live in Berkshire and Cyprus.