When a Crocodile Eats the Sun

Suffice it to say that I've been on a bit of an African kick these days.  Sort of in the manner of a do-it-yourself African Lit. course, only from home.  I can't help myself though.  It is a whole new (and incredibly fascinating) world to me.  I've slowly been making my way down the continent -- first Eritrea, then Ethiopia, and I've just finished my first book on Zimbabwe: When a Crocodile Eats the Sun by Peter Godwin.

This book is superb.  And reading it was a complete eye-opening experience for me.  All at once it was educational, jaw-dropping, tragic, and, at moments, incredibly heartening. 

Peter Godwin (who now resides in NYC) is a white man of British and Polish descent, and he was raised in Zimbabwe.  His book is not only his family's story, but also the story of his country throughout Robert Mugabe's rule.  (Mugabe is obviously still in office today, but good grief -- when will that man kick the can?!)

Mugabe came into power in 1980 after the war of independence ended.  Almost immediately after, the country began to spin into horrific chaos.  Zimbabwe went from being the largest economy in Africa, to one of the poorest and most decimated.  Over a twenty year period, nearly half the population (it has been estimated) left Zimbabwe.  Farms were ruthlessly overtaken, and white farmers were either brutally murdered or displaced.  This was all done in the name of a government sanctioned land re-distribution.  At the same time, unemployment levels soared, poverty levels soared, corruption soared, and the inflation rate jumped to almost 1000%.  Basic essentials like gasoline and milk became scarce and virtually impossible to obtain.  And the life expectancy rate dropped rather shockingly -- it went from 56 years in 1980 to 34 years in 2004.

In his book, Godwin tells the stories of the people who have been so greatly impacted by this political regime, his own family included.  The book begins and ends with the same scene, his father's funeral pyre.  The rest of the book is the story of the last few years leading up to his father's death.  A year or so before his father dies, he learns that his father is not, in fact, who he knows him to be.  Godwin and his sister are told that his 'Britishness' was essentially an assumed identity.  Instead he was a Polish Jew who left Poland for England right before WW2 began.  His mother and sister (Godwin's grandmother and aunt) were both murdered in Treblinka, and he never sees his father again.  Shortly after the war, George (Godwin's father) and Helen (his mother) emmigrate to Africa.

With Zimbabwe falling to pieces and the truth about Peter Godwin's family coming to light, When a Crocodile Eats the Sun becomes a story of both displacement and endurance.  Or, rather, it becomes a story of what people are capable of enduring when given no other choice.  I loved it.  I'm so glad I read it.  And I fully intend to pack my copy in my suitcase and give it to my dad, the next time we are out for a visit.