Bound for Africa

Bound For Africa is the story of one man’s introduction to Africa at a time when much of the continent was in the grips of Cold War skirmishing between the free world and opposing communist forces of China and the Soviet Union. The author, frayed from three years of service in the Vietnam War, travelled to Africa intending to become a rural policeman in a quiet area of what was then Rhodesia. The counterinsurgency war flared soon after, a conflict which bore many of the same characteristics of the country he had just left. Asked to train new police recruits, Hubbard explains his assimilation into the force and Rhodesian society and tells of the challenges and satisfaction of leading and training young Africans – while providing an insider’s view of how the war was fought in the early days. Bound for Africa is a very personal story that recounts the frustrations living in the shadows of a political settlement which always seemed to be just beyond reach and the attitudes and spirit of the broad racial mixture which formed the national security forces. It will appeal to readers with an interest in the history of what is today Zimbabwe, a less-known chapter of a tragically unsuccessful war.