Over the July 4th weekend (2014) I received an email from a gentleman who had stumbled across my blog while researching PTSD. He had been reading Alexandra Fuller’s, Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier. Her book recounts stories of veterans of the Rhodesian war. He asked me for my thoughts on PTSD based on my experience in Rhodesia:
I found your blog trying to get background on events, news, and historical accounts of the conflict in northern Mozambique. I am reading Alexandra Fuller's book dealing with your compatriots who served in the RLI. The book is good, and likely some if fictionalized. As someone who experienced those conflicts, I am curious if you have read this book and found it to be accurate of what appears to be the PTSD issues many of these veterans are facing years later. Looking back, I don't have the experience of being born there to draw upon or growing up there. I find it remarkable someone like yourself made the journey, and now is in academia of all places. Best regards. I'll try to read more of your blog later.
While responding to his email, I thought to include these thoughts as an addendum to discussions of life in the army during the Rhodesian War. You will find the discussion as you page down to the end of the chapter 46 — “Paranoia Strikes Deep.”
