Description
Heather is a young New Zealand woman, Joe is a Ugandan. They meet at Victoria University, fall in love and marry. In 1969, full of optimism, they return to Uganda to live.
Heather takes charge of a poverty-stricken nursery school, determined to make a place for herself in her new country. But Idi Amin is beginning his ruthless rise to power. Law and order crumble. Joe narrowly escapes the death squads, and soon the couple are drawn into a world where fear and terror become the norm, where friends disappear and bodies are washed up on the shores of the lakes. Into this chaos their three children are born, a source of joy to them both. But the pressure on their relationship is intense, and increases as Joe drifts back into the familiar ways of his culture.
Heather Benson’s remarkable account of her years in Uganda is both the story of a marriage and the story of a country in crisis. Gripping, and often terrifying, it takes us through six years of an extraordinary life, and offers a unique insight into the nightmare politics of a regime which the rest of the world long chose to ignore.
Heather Benson returned to New Zealand at the end of 1975. She now lives with her children in Wellington.
Paperback, 243 pages. First edition. SCARCE. In excellent preloved condition with the exception of a surname neatly written at the top of the first page.