Madhinga Bucket Boy - the memoirs of a native African boy

For my beautiful mother and in memory of my dad.

About the Book
Madhinga Bucket Boy
From Boyhood in Colonial Rhodesia to Manhood in Zimbabwe
A Native Son’s Story
by
Philemon Matibe
Amid the evils of apartheid, a quest for humanity; against the terrors of tyranny, a cry for freedom. In one of the most
compelling memoirs to emerge from modern Africa, the renowned political exile recounts his experience in the former
“breadbasket of Africa,” from growing up in white-supremacist Rhodesia to speaking out in Mugabe’s Zimbabwe.

From his “accidental” birth in 1967, Matibe brings to life his boyhood with the spare eloquence and easy humor of the tales
told around his village campfire. He commemorates the clutch of an affectionate family in an oppressive society. He marvels as
his parents make the necessary compromises with a brutal, all-powerful system without compromising their honor. And he
recalls his brief infatuation with a charismatic young revolutionary named Mugabe—until his
uncle’s ultimate sacrifice points him to a more authentic meaning of freedom.

The enormities of apartheid and civil war give way to epiphanies of liberation and selfknowledge. But his country’s liberators
soon turn despots. And when the brief flowering of Zimbabwean independence is extirpated, Matibe trades in his plow for
politics. His challenge to Mugabe’s rule brings him into conflict with Webster Shamu, who threatens, then evicts Matibe (and
now serves as a minister in Mugabe’s murderous regime).

Timeless as fiction, urgent as witness, Madhinga Bucket Boy is a searing tale of racism, revolution, and redemption. A
testament to the enduring verities of love and land, it stands apart from the recent deluge of African memoirs, documenting a
native’s experience of the Zimbabwean story. The barefoot boy who once carried water to his village now seeks to unleash the
waters of freedom for his country.

""Until Lions have their own historians the tales of the hunted shall always glorify the hunter", African Proverb.