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The 20th Century m'zuŋ u Scramble for Independent Africa
"Veni, Vidi, Vici ",Steti - ego adduxit inimici mei"

My mother got me my separate bag of potatoes. The institutionalised deference of
the African official made that possible.

These years introduced me to world politics. There were names and places that

previously had little meaning to me. I became aware of Julius Nyerere. An African leader
wanting to do things for his country in an African way. But this African way meant more

independence from the USA than the Americans liked. An independence that would lead to
less USA influence and fewer commercial contracts for infrastructure projects. And so

Nyerere, like many others at that time, became tarred with labels like socialist that at that

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time, most m'zuŋ u would equate to being Communist.
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Those years taught me much about m'zuŋ u expat life. My family, like others, would
spend their Sunday evenings watching old holiday movies on what we would nowadays
call a 'pop up' cinema, where the screen was a combination of sewn together white sheets.
Some summer days involved lazy cricket matches. Social life revolved about time in

embassies, particularly the embassy of the USA. If we visited homes, they were the homes

of embassy staff. Or shipping agents. Never having met a shipping agent in Hong Kong,
nor needed to, I quickly understood that access to imported goods depended on 'sucking

up' to shipping agents and their families. My role in this was to endlessly volunteer to build
fantastic Lego constructions for whichever child, no matter their age or gender, happened

to be part of that household.

Such was my introduction to Africa.

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