An African Childhood

Alexandra Fuller, author of Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood and Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier, grew up on several farms in southern Africa. Her father sided with the colonial government in the Rhodesian civil war and was often away fighting black guerilla factions. Her memoirs tell of a white family clinging to lives in Africa as Rhodesia became Zimbabwe and illustrate how turmoil and injustice in society distort the lives of families and individuals. Alexandra Fuller was born in England and in 1972 moved with her family to a farm in Rhodesia. After that country's war for independence in 1980, the Fullers moved first to Malawi, then to Zambia. In 1994, she married and moved to Wyoming, where she currently lives and writes. Her recent book is The Legend of Colton H Bryant, the story of a boy who comes of age in the oil fields and open plains of the American West. Part of the World Affairs Series: Why Should We Care?