Interview _ Group Captain Peter Petter-Bowyer

Peter Petter-Bowyer was born in 1936 in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia (now Harare, Zimbabwe).

He joined the Royal Rhodesian Air Force in 1957 and was a senior operational pilot during Zimbabwe's war of independence. He was also instrumental in designing and producing a range of aeronautical weapons systems that were used in the conflict. In 1980, with the advent of President Robert Mugabe’s rule, Petter-Bower retired as group captain.

His autobiography, Winds of Destruction (30° South Publishers, 2008) has been described as "a unique account" of service in the Rhodesian Air Force.

In this email interview, Group Captain Peter Petter-Bowyer talks about the concerns which informed his writing.

When did you start writing?

In 1984, I started recording the story of my life for my family. However, in 2000, friends read what I had written and persuaded me to expand the information as nobody had yet written an autobiography that covered the Rhodesian post-WW2 story of the Rhodesian forces and the political issues leading to the Zimbabwean era.

I ignored all the work I had previously recorded and, in January 2001, simply started from the beginning of my life in 1936 and kept going until the time I left Zimbabwe in 1983.

Why did you leave?

Having fought communism for 13 years, I had no desire to remain in a Marxist one-party state.

I moved to South Africa in early 1983 because my air weapons development work and operations knowledge were needed there. Settling in was not difficult because I was working and living amongst Rhodesians and English South Africans (i.e. not Apartheid Afrikaners).

What sets your book apart from the writings of others who grew up and lived in the same environment?

Mine was a unique situation. However, the big difference is that I made a record whereas others did not.

What were the biggest challenges that you faced?

All my diaries had been destroyed so I was almost wholly reliant upon my own memory.

I realized that some details may have been corrupted by time and that my own recall of any particular situation might differ from others. Nevertheless, I knew the essence of my story to be honest and correct — so I simply told of things the way I remembered them.

How and why were the diaries destroyed?

Upon gaining power, Robert Mugabe and his ZANU PF cohorts became paranoid about the security of their personal positions. This led to the implementation of laws that ensured white Zimbabweans were denuded of personal weapons, military paraphernalia and any Rhodesian documentation that might be used against ZANU.

Having handed in my own weapons in 1980, I took the precaution of destroying all my diaries. My book reveals some of the reasons why such hasty action was taken but I have lived to regret dumping 20 diaries into the septic tank of our Harare (then Salisbury) home. In hindsight, I realise that I should have buried them deep for later recovery. Nonetheless, the consequence of my error is that my book is, for the most part, written from memory.

Do you write everyday?

I wrote almost every day during working hours (my own business) and in the evening. Probably averaging six hours per day.

Which aspects of the work you put into Winds of Destruction was most difficult?

Memory was the most difficult aspect, particularly in remembering names and dates.

If it took too long to run through the alphabet to recall a name, I simply ran a dotted line … to be dealt with later. This worked fine.

What did you enjoy most?

I enjoyed the fact that I was able to remember my life in an amazingly ordered sequence. I also enjoyed sharing amusing stories along the way.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

Receiving thanks and complements for the quality of my story from diverse individuals from all over the world (including Russia). This let me know that I was right to expose Rhodesia for what it really was.

Who is your target audience?

Primarily I wrote for Rhodesians. However, my book has attracted a great deal more interest from politicians and historians than I expected.

Given that Rhodesia no longer exists, who are the Rhodesians? Where are they? What are their hopes and dreams?

Believe me, Rhodesians are very much alive. I was born, raised and served as a Rhodesian. Like me, those who came from any place in the world and accepted that they were Rhodesians have continued to call themselves Rhodesians. The country’s name changed but not the fact of our nationality and patriotism.

Today Rhodesians are spread throughout the world and most who are able to work are doing well for themselves. Yet, almost without exception, their memories dwell on the joys of the life they experienced in Rhodesia.

Many black people who are old enough to remember also hanker for the days before Mugabe when jobs were plentiful, stomachs were full and their families were healthy and well provided for with proper schools and good medical services.

What are your views on what is happening in Zimbabwe at present? Do you think the situation will improve?

We fought a war to prevent precisely what is happening now. Admittedly, it took almost 20 years to occur whereas I thought it would take 10.

Mugabe was well-schooled in Marxism and has followed strictly the line “gain power then hold it forever by all means whether fair and foul”. He knows the world will not act against him and only fears that his armed forces may turn against him and his junta. Hence his militia thugs and Chinese Army forces sited north of Harare.

The [main opposition, Movement for Democratic Change] MDC can do absolutely nothing by following their democratic line. Only a disgruntled army can dislodge the present government. Rising levels of starvation and death have no effects on the fat cats in power. But the underpaid army is often hungry and soldiers hate the suffering of their families. I see this as the only hope of removing Mugabe and his junta, other than the death of Mugabe. But in that case the Junta may very well take over government in its present form.

How would you describe your writing?

Winds of Destruction is an autobiography which is the vehicle I used to tell of my involvement as an operational pilot with the Rhodesian Air Force, army, special forces and police and also to explain the political issues as they appeared to me.

I wanted to record the Rhodesian situation as I knew it. In so doing, I sought also to counter world-wide misconceptions of Rhodesia as created by British politicians and the media which, in turn, had been heavily influenced by world conditions arising from the Cold War.

What was the Rhodesia situation?

We wanted to retain government in responsible hands. Colour of the government was expected but at a sensible pace.

What were some of the misconceptions about the situtation? And, how did they come about?

Communist propaganda was amazingly effective during the Cold War. Added to communist propaganda were the socialist leanings of the British Labour party and its liberal media.

The world was persuaded that Rhodesians were racist supremacists dedicated to the retention of power in white hands. This was induced communist and socialist propaganda. Anyone who knows that we were governed by the 1961 Rhodesian Constitution will know that we desired to abide by the entrenched clauses that bound us to ‘unimpeded progress to majority rule’.

We knew that it was essential to retain government in responsible hands as we moved cautiously and sensibly to an eventual government majority of educated and experienced black people. The failure of African governments to our north was all too obvious. But our whole outlook was totally different to South Africa’s Apartheid system which we detested.

Yet, the USSR persuaded the west and its media to think otherwise. They did this to induce forced majority rule rather than allow a progressive move towards black government because that would destroy their need for broken down governments quickly. Their solution was to induce in their surrogates the need for ‘Immediate majority rule’. The British government extended this in Rhodesia’s case by demanding NIBMAR (No Independence Before Majority Rule)

As in all its actions to gain world power, the communists used other people to fight and bleed for them. In all situations, they knew that they were promoting unsuitable people to take power by force so as to destroy western and Islamic influence (in our case to destroy Britain’s colonies). In particular, they recognised that those countries overrun by their surrogate allies would ruin their countries through greed, inefficiency and corruption. This the communists welcomed because it would facilitate a bloodless take over when things got out of hand.

Well, Africa moved in the direction the USSR had hoped, but their form of communism failed and broke up even what they had achieved. In the meanwhile, the patient Chinese communist style continues in working slowly and quietly to bring about Chinese control of Africa. By 2050, they need to have found space for over 300 million Chinese people. This will be achieved by the surreptitious and progressive assumption of power from useless black politicians.

I have been saying, for over 40 years, that all of Africa will become a major component of the Chinese Empire. This can be seen already and will have full effect before 2050. Already the Chinese have gained control of some of Zambia’s copper mines and imported Chinese workers rather than use black workers. They ignore protests of the blacks who have lost their jobs and only pay the Chinese workers half of what the blacks would expect. In Zimbabwe, Mugabe has already given away mines and land which the Chinese will man with their own people at low cost. Similar things are occurring in Zaire and other African countries. The writing is on the wall but the blacks cannot see what is coming. Real racist oppression is on its way to the poor ordinary black folk.

This article was first published by OhmyNews International.

[Interview] Gabriela Folgar de Shea

Gabriela Folgar de Shea was born in El Progreso Guastatoya, a small town in Guatemala. When she was 26 years old, she moved to Canada and settled in the city of Edmonton, Alberta.

Her first book, Angels Along My Path Of Thorns (Trafford Publishing, 2007), came second place in the best biography category in the 2008 International Latino Book Awards.

In this email interview, Gabriela Shea talks about her writing.

Who would you say has influenced you most?

Definitely, my husband. He knew about my story soon after we met, and for over a period of twenty-five years he every-so-often would mention that this is a great story that has to be written.

How have your personal experiences influenced your writing?

Everything in my book is related to my personal experiences.

I decided that it was best to be direct and write in the first person. I also decided to dispense with pseudonyms and to use the correct names of all of the personalities in the book.

When did you start writing?

I started in July 2004. My husband had convinced me that my story would interest many people.

We started with a lot of research about the different options available in the publishing business and decided to use a POD (publish-on-demand) service for various reasons: First, to save time and energy, for we both hold down full-time jobs, leaving not too much time to write query letters and to search for agents; second, we live in a remote area as far as the literature scene is concerned and did not have connections that could advocate and connect us with a mainline publisher (in Canada, the popular press mostly resides in Toronto, more than three thousand kilometres from Edmonton); and third, we had to consider our ages, for we felt that we did not have time to wait years for answers to query letters and manuscript submissions, which we had heard quite often happens for new authors.

Who is your target audience?

I did not focus on a particular target audience and judging from the content of the e-mails I have received, my book has been read by people from many different walks of life. At this precise time I am translating the book into Spanish for the Latin American market.

Do you write everyday?

I find it very hard with my full time job to be consistent with taking the time and do some writing everyday. However, during the weekends I try to make up for lost time, trying to balance my weekend time with other commitments such as family and friends.

How many books have you written so far?

Angels Along My Path of Thorns is my first book.

My story takes place in Guatemala, Central America and describes the events of my childhood; the finding of my first love; the happy times while attending college; the suffering; the horrible events that happened to me when I was fifteen years old; the meeting of the angels who saved and guided me; and finally, my return to normal life with a career, and a wedding to the father of my two sons.

The story is written in a style with lots of dialogue.

How long did it take you to write the book?

It took me over three years to write the book and to have it edited. However, during those three years much research was being done: the maps were drawn, many of the photographs were taken, the design for the cover was made, and the interior design of the book was accomplished.

My book was published in May 2007 by Trafford Publishing. My husband and I decided to do go with the self-publishing idea after reading about the struggles and disappointments of many writers who had tried to get published through mainline publishing companies.

The advantages we have with the POD method is that we own the rights to the book and we got the book out on the market.

The disadvantage is that a self-published book does not get the same media attention as do the books published by mainline publishing companies; in fact, it is nearly impossible to be reviewed in the book sections of the established press. We think, this is sad, for the quality of writing and story are not taken into consideration and the world of literature is poorer as a result.

It is also very difficult to have one's self-published book placed in bookstores, mainly because one cannot meet the return policies that have become traditional in the publishing world. But thankfully, the advent of the Internet book stores and Internet publicity sites have dramatically changed the book industry and have allowed authors to choose a different route. The consumer is now better off too, because he has direct access to to all available books.
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Which aspects of the work you put into the book did you find most difficult?

Having to put into words the negative aspect/actions of my family and going back to relive the tragic events of my ordeal.

In relation to my family, it was hard because we do not like to admit or to disclose that our family was dysfunctional.

In relation to the events of my ordeal at the age of fifteen, that was very difficult to describe because the actions committed against me were horrible, barbaric, and traumatic.

Which aspects of the work did you enjoy most?

To reminisce about the good times of my adolescence when I attended college and where I met my first love. It was a happy time.

What would you say has been your most significant achievement as a writer?

It has made the relationship with my husband and children much stronger.

I have received much feedback from readers about how my story has made an impact in their lives. When I hear this, I feel that the time and effort have all been worthwhile.

What are the biggest challenges that you face?

I have not found a real big challenge. However, trying to find the best ways to sell and promote my book is time consuming, but I have not let that become an overwhelming challenge. My husband and I are finding ways to deal with it.

This interview was first published on OhmyNews International.

Related article:

"Gabriela Shea: About Angels Along My Path of Thorns and Her Experience", AllTheseBooks.com, April 23, 2008.

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