'African Laughter' is a portrait of Doris Lessing's homeland. In it she recounts the visits she made to Zimbabwe in 1982, 1988, 1989 and 1992, after being exiled from the old Southern Rhodesia for twenty-five years for her opposition to the white minority government. The visits constitute a journey to the heart of a country whose history, landscape, people and spirit are evoked by Lessing in a narrative of detailed scenes. Swooping from the verandahs to the grass roots and back again, noting the kinds of changes that can be appreciated only by one who has lived there before, Lessing embraces every facet of life in Zimbabwe from the lost animals of the bush to political corruption, from AIDS to a communal enterprise created by poor rural blacks.
Description:
'African Laughter' is a portrait of Doris Lessing's homeland. In it she recounts the visits she made to Zimbabwe in 1982, 1988, 1989 and 1992, after being exiled from the old Southern Rhodesia for twenty-five years for her opposition to the white minority government. The visits constitute a journey to the heart of a country whose history, landscape, people and spirit are evoked by Lessing in a narrative of detailed scenes. Swooping from the verandahs to the grass roots and back again, noting the kinds of changes that can be appreciated only by one who has lived there before, Lessing embraces every facet of life in Zimbabwe from the lost animals of the bush to political corruption, from AIDS to a communal enterprise created by poor rural blacks.