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‘An eloquent statement, one of the strengths of this account of a nation’s tragedy is that Doris Lessing evokes not sadness but laughter. She describes this as “the marvellous African laughter born somewhere in the gut, seizing the whole body with good-humoured philosophy. It is the laughter of poor people”.’ TLS
‘Innumerable conversations - of Africans, among them poets and teachers and cooks; of whites, some of whom have “taken the Gap” to South Africa then returned, disillusioned - contribute to Doris Lessing’s picture of the new Zimbabwe. Enthralling, significant and provocative.’ Independent
‘“African Laughter” conveys a country and its people more completely than any other book I have read. It is filled with stories, anecdotes, newspaper cuttings , poems, obituaries, songs, even Doris Lessing’s synosis for a film - the cumulative effect is extraordinary. As well as a remarkable immediacy, the narrative has an irrepressible physical vigour which reflects perfectly the vitality of the Zimbabwean people.’ Daily Telegraph
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Writing inspired by four visits to Zimbabwe, her childhood home, from the winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature 2007, Doris Lessing.
n the 1980s and early 1990s, Doris Lessing made several visits to her homeland, Zimbabwe, a country from which she had been banned for twenty-five years for her opposition to the government of what was then white Southern Rhodesia. Mingling memory and reportage in vivid detail, Doris Lessing pays passionate and profound testament to an extraordinary country, its landscape, people and unquenchable spirit. ‘African Laughter’ is both a shrewd and perceptive protrait of a modern African state emerging from its bloody and terrible colonial history, and a candid and moving insight into the mind of one of this century’s finest writers.
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Unlike most biography based books on the country, many of which have been written about, or prominently featuring the war years (Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa or Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood as examples), Lessing focuses on the birth and formative days of Zimbabwe, documenting four of her visits between 1982 and 1992. She also takes a much more positive perspective of the new country than the other writers, and fortunately writes about the period before the real 'collapse', where encouraging stories were not hard to find.
Her long term historical perspective (having grown up there before WW2 and stayed till 1956, when she was expelled for her political views) provides some unique insights, such as how the landscape, animal density and attitude towards the bush changed over time. She also takes a much harder look at the faults of the previous regime than writers growing up in the country later could do, uncovering some of their blind spots, including some completely unrealistic expectations placed upon a young country, with a completely untrained and inexperienced leadership. This is especially so, when it comes to the race relations.
On top of that, the four visits show very different stages of evolution in the country, and make for a very interesting historical chronicle of development, with both clear progress and development on some fronts, as well as accompanying slides into corruption, incompetence, etc.
Lessing does criticize certain aspects of how the country operated under Mugabe and is by no means blind to the problems but largely focuses on both the difficulties and the successes - her wanting the country to be a success often shows through in the book, which may be endearing to some readers, and frustrate others (she does seem to overlook rather a lot on occassion).
Overall, if you read only one book on the topic of Zimbabwe / Rhodesia, I would probably advise you to take Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa or Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight: An African Childhood (or some of the later work by the same authors) but if you have a broader interest in the topic or region, Lessing's book is a wonderful complement to those, providing some really interesting additional insight.
That said, there is only a loose thread of continuing story that flows through the entire text. Granted, she's documenting her travels, but it seems a bit more perspective (or a more involved editor) could have helped give the book a bit more flow. I'd recommend it quickly to those interested in an authentic look at Africa, but probably not for those looking for a casual read during lunch breaks.
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