BOOK REVIEWS59Wild Places of Zimbabwe By Dick Pitman. Bukwayo, Books of Zimbabwe,1980, 192pp.5 ZS11.30 (h/b), Z$4.75 (p/b).Ivory, Apes and Peacocks By C. Emily Dibb. Bulawayo, Books of Zimbabwe,1981, 272pp., Z$ 11.50 (h/b), Z$4.70 (p/b).The Valley of Tantalika By Richard Rayner. Bulawayo, Books of Zimbabwe,1980, 165pp., Z$11.50 (h/b), Z$4.70 (p/b).Call-of-the-marsh: Life with a Rasemji By Jill Wylie. Bulawayo, Books ofZimbabwe, 1979, 302pp., Z$ 11.50Today's writers on African wildlife are faced with an enormous challenge.Wildlife is recognized as one of the continent's greatest assets, yet it is beingdestroyed at an unprecedented rate. The relentless growth of the humanpopulation, together with environmental degradation, drought and poverty, isplacing many species in jeopardy and we can expect to see a number of thembecome extinct in the near future.Tragically, most of Africa's inhabitants are unaware of the glory anduniqueness of its wildlife, and of how little time there is left. In Zimbabwe a wholegeneration is growing up without any contact with wild creatures, for many ruralareas now have little or no wildlife; the National Parks are too expensive orinaccessible for the bulk of the population, whose knowledge of wildlife willcome only from books. The wildlife author is faced with the problem of writingbooks that will kindle an interest in their subjects, without being earnest and dullon the one hand or trivial and anthropomorphic on the other.The four books reviewed here range from the serious to the light-hearted. In asense, they all fail to meet the objectives of stimulating a general interest in wildlifebecause the authors all come from a small segment of Zimbabwe's populationand the experiences they relate cannot be shared by the majority. They all serve toemphasize how desperately this country needs good, Black writers on wildlifewho can make people aware of their heritage and awaken a desire to save it. All ofthe books under review describe events and ways of life that no longer exist andthis gives them a special poignancy and interest, but we still need books dealingwith the contemporary problems of wildlife in this country.Dick Pitman attempts to do this and discusses the various problems faced bythe great wild areas of Zimbabwe. His book is an account of a trip to some ofZimbabwe's most spectacular and inaccessible wild areas in an unpredictable andcartankerous Land Rover. It was written in 1979, when the liberation war wasdrawing to a close, and the most interesting aspect is his description of the waystaff of the Department of National Parks lived during those troubled times. I wasa member of the Department then and I especially enjoyed reading about peopleand events that I knew or knew of.His love of these wild areas comes over very well and he manages to capturethe special qualities of living and working in them. The zest and enthusiasm ofpeople doing arduous, sometimes dangerous and often ill-rewarded work iswell-described. The time that the author writes of could be considered a high-water mark in the history of wildlife management in Zimbabwe because the60BOOK REVIEWSrelative isolation that the country had been in prior to this meant that we had notbeen fully exposed to the problems affecting wildlife elsewhere in Africa.Dick Pitman discusses these problems in some depth and gives graphicdescriptions of the effects of poaching. This discussion seems a little naive now, inview of the ferocity of the poaching campaign against our wildlife that is nowtaking place. At the time this book was written it seemed impossible that ourblack rhinoceros population could be decimated as it has been. If the spirit ofresourcefulness that is described in the book still exists, then there is some hope.C. Emily Dibb is the daughter of one of Zimbabwe's earliest wildlifephotographers and her book describes an enchanted childhood on a ramblingproperty on the outskirts of Bulawayo, surrounded by domestic and wild animalsof all kinds. I read the book with nostalgia since I grew up in a similarenvironment in the Matopos and knew many of the people she writes about. Thisnostalgia was combined with sadness though, because few children today will beable to share these experiences.She has a gift of characterization of people and animals and her description ofthe Toppies' evening chorus is one of the best I have read. Perhaps adults alwaysseem larger than life but her book contains accounts of many seemingly eccentricpeople Š which is how I remember the Bulawayo of my youth. I especiallyenjoyed the story of the filming expedition to Gorongoza for it summarizes thedifficulties and excitement of doing things only a few years ago, things that nowseem easy. Travelling by car Š and there are some nice car stories in this book Šsymbolizes for me how tamed Zimbabwe has become: and how it is the dullerfor it.In The Valley of Tantalika, Richard Rayner has written a story about thehand of man as seen through the eyes of the animals, in particular Tantalika theotter and a small group of impala. I find such books too improbable to be able toenjoy them and it is certainly difficult to write a good book in this vein.Nevertheless, Rayner has written a rather moving story which draws attention tothe plight of the animals when man decides to take a hand in their world. If such abook can remind people that all development schemes involve the destruction ofnatural habitats it will have served a valuable purpose.I am not sure what it takes to write a good book about, a dog; 1 think highadventure, hard men, hard dogs and a harsh environment are essentialingredients. Catt-of-the-marsh is a story of a Basenji, no doubt an. unusual dog,which was the author's pet for some thirteen years. The book includes somevignettes of country life in Zimbabwe during the 1960s and of encounters withwild animals, but I soon tired of Call-of-the-marsh (for such was the dog's name).Surely Jock of the Bushveld or White Fang never had to worry about such'ho-hum' things as being dosed for worms? This book is written in the form of adiary which I found irritating at first, infuriating somewhat later, and it ultimatel>ruined the book for me. If it had been written in a narrative style with lessattention to daily trivia it would have been a much better book.University of ZimbabweB. E. MARSHALL