Book 14 – “The Africa House” by Christina Lamb

Stewart Gore-Brown fought and distinguished himself in WW1 and at the end of the conflict he wanted to have a house and an estate for himself and, ideally, for the woman he loved. In The Africa House by Christina Lamb the author tells the story of the very English house that he built in a remote area in Northern Rhodesia and his efforts to found a dynasty in the country.

Gore-Brown could be seen as typical of his time in some ways and ahead of it in others. He believed in beating his servants and in the supremacy of the white man. He thought that the local people should have power to rule themselves but that they should be guided by their colonial overlords. He imagined that he and his family would have the right to the land he claimed for ever and that they would be able to sustain a British lifestyle despite the fact that the estate never made any real money. He was a well-meaning man but with rigid views and was exacting of his servants, colleagues, friends and relatives.

The love of his life was his aunt Ethel who was already married. He wanted her to come out to Africa and work with him. She seems to have returned some of his feelings and subsidised the African adventure but she never left her husband – she also persuaded him against marrying Lorna, a young woman for whom he had a great affection. Over twenty years later he met and married Lorna’s orphaned daughter (also called Lorna) thinking that she could be moulded into a helpmate and companion – this did not end well.

This is a fascinating book about an interesting man. With the modern eye you can see that he was almost completely deluded in thinking that he could live all his life in a foreign country and build his own version of England in Africa. He had an amazing sense of white privilege and belief in European supremacy. He was also hard-working and prepared to champion the cause of the local people even when that made him unpopular in some circles. This is a well written biography which illuminates a particular type of thinking and shows us the complexity of the man and his ideas.