Motohuma the Firehead ~ A Novel

 Poppet, the flame-haired heroine of Motohuma the Firehead was born in Rhodesia in 1970, just before the start of the terrorist war there. She is raised by her black nanny, Milllie and her increasingly deranged alcoholic father, Adrian. She is told that her mother is dead but strange scars on her legs, a recurring nightmare about being carried into a house fire, the fact that she alone has red hair when her brother and father are so dark, and an awareness that many things are kept from her cause her to question everything. In spite of this her childhood is spent in the paradise called Rhodesia, as it was before Robert Mugabe came to power.The book is peppered with descriptions of the raw beauty of the place and the uniqueness of the people.

 She spends a lonely childhood isolated from the world, and visited only by her brother William during school holidays. Her friends are the animals, birds and plants of the farm, and as a result she is gauche and naive.

 Life on the farm becomes increasingly difficult after Mugabe comes to power, and her father descends further into alcoholism.  One terrifying night she is attacked by a young black man who calls himself a war veteran, and between them, William and Poppet kill the man and dispose of the body in the farm dam. After a vicious fight with their father both William and Poppet decide to leave the farm.

 Millie then explains to Poppet that Adrian is not her real father and she was born on a neighbouring farm. She tells her that she has grandparents in London who believe her to be dead in the house fire that killed her mother. Poppet goes to England in February wearing a thin cotton dress, sandals and a light cardigan.

 In England she starts a new life, but one haunted by the murder of her attacker, the betrayal of her 'father' and brother, and the loss of her paradise. Poppet becomes an exile from the place she loves but fears. She wallows in self-pity, believing herself to be the only person she knows to be so confused about her identity, her family and her home. She gives free rein to her temper and her insecurity, damaging herself and her grandparents.

 When her father, Adrian dies in Zimbabwe, Poppet is compelled to return with Simon, the man who now loves her, to attend the funeral. Poppet and Simon experience an Ndebele funeral and see the ruin of Poppet's beloved country.

 Poppet finds a journal that Adrian has written for her explaining what life was like for him during the war years on the farm, and that he had a passionate love affair with her beautiful and doomed mother. He is not sure, but he thinks Poppet may have been his child, and he explains why he took her from the house fire and passed her off as his own daughter. Poppet finally finds forgiveness for him, and for herself. She comes to terms with the strange upbringing that she had, and she finds peace concerning the murder of her attacker.

 Motohuma the Firehead is about Paradise lost, about exile and the loss of innocence. It evokes an Africa that has passed now, and it relates the effect that the very special place that was Rhodesia had on the lives of all who lived and loved there.