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Harwich, Christopher: Introduction by H H The Kabaka of Buganda: Forward by Lord Twining: Illustrated by Sefania Tunginie : Red Dust: Memories of the Uganda Police 1935 - 1955

London: Vincent Stuart Ltd, 1961

First edition, 8vo, 8¾" x 5¾", near fine condition, in a very good unclipped (21s) dust jacket small tears to top edge - jacket now in protective sleeve, original black clothboards with gilt blocking to spine, 156 pages, index, b/w illustrations by Sefania Tunginie, neat ink previous owners name to front paste-down under d/j, blurb by Elspeth Huxley, obituary of Harwich hand typed (presumably by previous owner) loosely laid. -------------"There is a great saga to be written about the various colonial forces, each one different, some under-staffed and ill-paid. It will be pieced together, if it is ever compiled, from recollections of officers like Christopher Harwich who for twenty years carried out his duties in Uganda, a country he came to love with a devotion which makes his pages glow with remembered happiness. He loved it both for its natural beauties and for its human interest: for such men as Ochwur, the wily and resourceful Acholi sergeant who followed him from station to station; as Samwiri, the wise, dignified witch doctor who could make (or forecast) rain and cure many sicknesses; as Okadi the priest, who told him of a native religion certainly as noble as our own, and perhaps more effective. "For lovers of adventure there are vivid tales of leopards and crocodiles; for connoiseurs of the bizarre, incidents with hyena-men, warrior ants and the 'walking dead'. There are also thoughtful passages about the effects of our civilisation on tribal society and about the shortcomings of our much-vaunted system of law as applied to people to whom very little of it makes any sense at-all. Christopher Harwich is no uncritical law-enforcer and his attitude towards prisons, witchcraft and spear-blooding warriors reveals him to be humane, tolerant, open-minded and full of understanding for Africans caught up in an alien system of life and law which often contradicts their deepest convictions." Author Christopher Harwich was born in London in 1909 and, after an expensive but ineffective education in London and on the Continent, was thrown onto his own resources at the age of sixteen. For some years he worked in a City shipping office, ekeing his pittance out by night work in a theatre (about which he says that it at least enabled him to learn something of the art of drama), and flying with 601 Squadron as an Air Gunner. In a moment of inspiration on his twenty-first birthday he joined the Palestine Police. There he remained until transfer to Uganda upon promotion to commissioned rank. In Uganda he commanded various police districts, mostly in the bush, where he had ample opportunity to study, to learn to know and finally to love the African. Just before the last war he was appointed Assistant Director of Security and Intelligence, later commanding the Police at the capital, Entebbe, where for two years he was also Aide de Camp to the Governor, Sir Charles Dundas. He was invalided home in 1944, but was back in Uganda again within a year. In 1948, whilst on leave, he was seconded to the Gold Coast Police for special duty in connection with the Gold Coast disturbances at that time. The following year he returned to Uganda where he remained until 1955.

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