Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia

"The most stirring portion of his book...deals with the part which Mr. Selous himself played in suppressing the rising...and the various accounts he gives of the brave deed done by the little band...against the swarms of warriors." -Morning Post (London), Nov. 5, 1896
"Selous has so considerable a reputation relating to South Africa...the greatest interest attaches to his account ... of the last Matabele war...he was in the thick of it from the beginning; he played a plucky, determined part in all the proceedings." -The Graphic (London), Nov. 7, 1896
"Selous in reference to the battle in which he was wounded mentioned that many of the Matabele warriors behaved in the bravest manner possible." -The Yorkshire Herald, Feb. 6, 1894

What personal role did famous South African Big Game hunter Frederick Courteney Selous play in defending settlers during the Matabele uprising in 1896?

In 1896, Frederick Courteney Selous (1851-1917) published a narrative of Matabele war titled "Sunshine and Storm in Rhodesia."

In introducing his book, Selous writes:

"What I have written as it were historically regarding the events which have lately taken place in Matabeleland may, I think, be received as a simple and unadorned statement of fact, for where I have had to go outside my own personal experiences, my information has always been obtained at first hand and checked by the corroborating accounts of others who were also eye-witnesses of the events described. As to any conclusions I may have arrived at from given facts, they may be right or they may be wrong, but at any rate I claim the right to express my opinions frankly and fearlessly as long as they are my honest convictions."

The Second Matabele War, also known as the Matabeleland Rebellion or part of what is now known in Zimbabwe as the First Chimurenga, was fought between 1896 and 1897 in the region later known as Southern Rhodesia, now modern-day Zimbabwe. It pitted the British South Africa Company against the Matabele people, which led to conflict with the Shona people in the rest of Southern Rhodesia.

In March 1896, the Matabele revolted against the authority of the British South Africa Company. The Mlimo (or M'limo, or Umlimo) the Matabele spiritual leader, was credited with fomenting much of the anger that led to this confrontation. He convinced the Matabele and the Shona that the settlers (almost 4,000 strong by then) were responsible for the drought, locust plagues and the cattle disease rinderpest ravaging the country at the time.

About the author:
Frederick Courteney Selous, (18511917) was a British explorer, officer, professional hunter, and conservationist, famous for his exploits in Southeast Africa. His real-life adventures inspired Sir Henry Rider Haggard to create the fictional Allan Quatermain character. Selous was a friend of Theodore Roosevelt, Cecil Rhodes and Frederick Russell Burnham. He was pre-eminent within a group of big game hunters that included Abel Chapman and Arthur Henry Neumann. He was the older brother of the ornithologist and writer Edmund Selous.

Dettagli