Edmund Katso was born in Umtali, Southern Rhodesia in 1953, the year that the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was formed. At the time, less than 450 Africans were eligible to vote in the Federal elections. Two years previously, the discriminatory Native Land Husbandry Act forced rural black families to reduce the number of cattle they could own.

In his childhood, Edmund’s parents overcame many obstacles to provide for their five children in and around Sakubva township. About the time Ian Douglas Smith declared UDI Ed Katso was thrust into a pioneering role as one of the first dozen or so black scholarship boys in an elite private school, Peterhouse in Marandellas (now Marondera). The ‘winds of change’ were blowing across Africa and the Federation collapsed. Nyasaland had gained independence under a black majority government to become Malawi, and Northern Rhodesia transformed overnight and became Zambia. It was a time when African political leaders such as Joshua Nkomo, Ndabaningi Sithole, Robert Mugabe and hundreds others were being held in detention camps because of their political views

In this account, the thirteen-year old Edmund Katso experiences the ‘us’ and ‘them’ syndrome, discovering for the first time that there were people in this world who hated him for no other reason other than the colour of his skin.

Meantime, African leaders had made their commitment to an armed struggle against the regime. The Chimurenga war of liberation meant that more and more of Edmund’s friends from Sakubva township were abandoning their studies and crossing the border to Mozambique to join the guerrilla war. Rhodesia was hit by economic sanctions imposed by the United Nations and supported only by apartheid South Africa.

While petrol rationing and shortages prevailed, the challenges for the black scholarship kid were to gain grudging respect for his academic and sporting abilities. By the time Edmund completed his A levels, he was known at school as ‘Choc-ice because I was chocolate brown on the outside, but white inside. I didn’t mind because I thought it meant that I now belonged.’

Katso studied at Bristol University in England between 1973 to 1977 and graduated with a Joint Honours degree in Biology and Education. This was an opportunity to continue trailblazing work as the first black schoolmaster in a multiracial Rhodesian school environment. There was a lot to prove and his experiences will be the subject of a second book currently in preparation. Ed plays a lot of chess online and enjoys watching all those other sports on TV that he played during his school days.

Since independence, Edmund Katso has followed up vast documentary and oral sources in order to gain a personal perspecave of the country’s history. This first volume is desaned for his son Daniel who was born and brought up in Germany. Ed married Elke in 1999 and they live in Wuppertal, Germany. They return to Zimbabwe whenever possible to catch up with family and friends.