AFRICAN TEARS - Catherine Buckle

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Résumé :
The next five minutes were an eternity. It was quiet, so quiet; I couldn't even hear the birds outside; all I could hear, was my heart pounding. And then it started, whistling, loud whistling and one voice shouting: HONDO, HONDO, HONDO! (War) Cathy Buckle, home alone at the time, locked herself in her study, sat on the floor and put her hands over her head. This was the beginning of seven months of anguish for a Zimbabwean family at the start of the new millennium. African Tears is the story of the invasion of Stow Farm in Marondera by war veterans and supporters of Robert Mugabe. A farm bought ten years after independence with the Government of Zimbabwe's approval and a Certificate of No Interest. African Tears describes Zimbabwe's descent into chaos and anarchy during the year 2000. Hundreds of farm invasions, horrific political violence against opposition supporters and government critics and the collapse of agriculture and food security.

Biographie:
Catherine Buckle was born in 1957 in Harare, Zimbabwe. She trained as a social worker at the University of Zimbabwe and graduated with a diploma in Social Work in 1979. She later trained as a Librarian and worked as the School Librarian and Head Counsellor at an Harare girls senior school. Catherine was the Estate Manager of a small conservation education game park - the Mukuvis Woodlands - just outside Harare for 9 years, where she was involved in raising baby elephants, crocodiles and general game and conservation management. In her spare time she is a writer and has four novels in print in Zimbabwe, two for children and two for teenagers. Since 2000 she has had two non-fiction books published on the crisis in Zimbabwe: African Tears, the Zimbabwe Land Invasions and Beyond Tears, Zimbabwe's tragedy. Catherine currently writes a weekly column for a UK daily newspaper under a pseudonym for her own protection. She also writes a weekly letter from Zimbabwe about events there. This letter is used by a number of media outlets - radio, newspaper and web sites, in South Africa, the UK, Canada and Australia. The letter is also published on her own website www.cathybuckle.com and read every week on a UK-based radio station SW Radio Africa. Catherine is divorced and has a son.