John Eppel launches A Colonial Boy

BULAWAYO poet, critic and writer John Eppel on Wednesday launched his 25th book — A Colonial Boy a series of sketches, photos, and poems about his life in Zimbabwe before Independence in 1980.

The book, published by Pigeon Press, was launched at the Mound, Girls’ College.

“This is my 25th book and it’s a series of sketches, photos, and poems about my life in Zimbabwe before Independence in 1980.

“The sketches, I hope, are amusing, while the poems are a little more serious. It starts with some of my earliest memories around the age of three and ends in my early 30s,” Eppel told Standard Style.

Eppel said he wanted to memorialize his nuclear family during the relatively brief time they spent together.

“A white kid growing up in Rhodesia had no idea of all the negative associations of colonialism. I enjoyed making fun of myself. When people stop laughing (and crying, of course), they stop being human and start being robots," he said.

“I wanted to memorialise my nuclear family during the relatively brief time we spent together. My poems are the same, of course. They have all been published elsewhere. My prose moves away from satire into good-natured comedy.”

Asked if the book had a targeted audience, Eppel said “I never target an audience. I write for myself and the few who don't nd me objectionable.”

As part of his books, Eppel has penned a protest poetry book Pressed Flowers: Poems of Resistance which has 60 poems featuring tyrants and their victims from Rhodesian times to the present and was published by Mwanaka Publishers in Zimbabwe.