In these days of social media blogs and
vlogs, it is highly unusual that an ordinary businessman writes a book about
his experiences – even if it is of a time and place of extraordinary events.
Such books are usually the domain of politicians and historians whose
first-hand experiences are limited and much influenced by others.
What Derrick Swain’s Gold Cufflinks
does is to present a picture of transitional Africa – Zambia in particular – as
it moves from colonial to national rule. While the news media’s view of the struggle – or “bloody birth” as the media had
it – was focused on political, faction and tribal leaders, Swain’s account is
from the perspective of a young executive in a division of a British trading
conglomerate, managing wholesale and retail distribution in Zambia for eight
years from 1969.
This was a period of the transfer of
assets and management from erstwhile colonial organisations to newly
established local authorities and the integration of local nationals into
management positions. At the same time, the best of these companies were
modernising all aspects of management, personnel, stock control and supply
chains, and coping with enormous difficulties resulting from profligate
economic policies of new governments.
While these matters do not appear to be
the subject of a fascinating book, Swain makes it so by focusing on the people
he met and their personal relationships. As anyone who has been in business
eventually learns, you don’t work for companies, you work for people – and
those people can turn up later, enriching (or complicating) life.
What is refreshing is that in his focus
on people, he very seldom talks about nationality, let alone colour, race or
tribe. His concern is whether someone is honest and can do the job, and he
appears to have attracted – and trained – many who rose to the occasion.
Inevitably – and joyfully – the book
includes some wonderful scenes of African life and nature. His descriptions of
travelling the vast distances by road and air with natural and manmade
obstacles are amusing and frightening. Whereas Zambia was relatively stable,
Rhodesia and other surrounding countries were in various stages of turmoil and civil
war. Commercial activities, travel and personal safety were all affected by the
inevitable fallout.
These fears of personal safety are
leavened by countless amusing anecdotes, barbecues, pool parties, golf, card
games and romance. Swain meets and marries his wife and has two children during
his time in Zambia, and we see how their otherwise normal progress is affected
by conditions completely alien to us.
The aura of empire and the history of
colonial life pervades the book, but never in an exploitational or
master/servant way. (Indeed, Swain’s strong Christian faith informs his
attitudes and judgements, and while he mentions his faith in passing, he is
never preaching). Rather, the colonial experience is one that was shared by all
who worked in the British colonies while struggling to hold to values and
beliefs in often hostile environments, mediating
between the reality on the ground and the demands of the London office, and
coping with an extreme sense of isolation.
Such was the material that Somerset
Maugham used for his short stories two generations earlier, and Swain shows
that human nature has not changed. The incidents he relates are sometimes hilariously
uplifting, yet deeply ironic and tragic and could well be incorporated within
Maugham’s pages.
The second part of the book deals with the
author’s move from Zambia to St Lucia where he ran a recently acquired trading
company, which included an ailing department store. While many of the
challenges were comparable to his African experiences (logistics, staff
training, theft, local politics and the London office), Swain noted to a friend
that “it was easier to get alongside West Indian culture” than it had been to
take on the Zambian way of life. He continued, “I sometimes felt that our
Zambian staff, at all levels, saw work as a means of life support and
betterment, for many St Lucians work got in the way of living and was a
necessary but unwelcome burden on their time.” A British friend rightly
comments that this split could also be found back in the United Kingdom.
The eponymous “gold cufflinks,” in the
shape of the island of St Lucia, were
presented to him by staff at his office farewell before his return to England.
This is a fascinating, thoughtful and amusing
book that should be on the reading lists of anyone interested in those times
and places, and the experiences of those involved.
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