Mike Bellis

Two Suitcases Mike Bellis

European settlers in colonial Africa did not have an easy time, depending on what they came with. Theirs' was a life of adventure, hardship, homesickness, disease and sometimes, war.

The title is Two Suitcases because that is what most Europeans arrived in Africa with, and subsequently left with. Two Suitcases; Colonialism Crumbles, tells the stories of two normal families with different aspirations, beliefs and backgrounds, one family being British and one being Afrikaans, and their experiences in Southern Africa. The story covers the Boer War to settling in Rhodesia, through the First World War and the hardships of the Great Depression followed by the Second World War. And then, Ian Smith signs Rhodesia's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from Great Britain.

Much of the Two Suitcases trilogy has been inspired by three great writers, Wilbur Smith, James Mitchener and Stuart Cloete. Watch out for Two Suitcases - Part Two; The Leap into Uncertainty, covering Rhodesia's UDI and Bush War years, followed by Two Suitcases - Part Three; Descent into Darkness, covering the birth of Zimbabwe under Robert Mugabe to the present day.