Tommy Goes Home

Tommy Goes Home is the true story of a German family's amazing treck across Africa between hope and civil war.
Stiff, Peter
tommy-goes-home
978-919854-48-9
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Title: Tommy Goes Home
Author: Peter Stiff
Publisher: Galago
2nd edition. Cape Town, South Africa 2013
ISBN 978919854489 / ISBN 978-919854-48-9
Softcover, 17 x 24 cm, 255 pages, numerous b/w photos

Desription: Tommy Goes Home

Take Manfred Forster, a tough geologist who as a child fought in the battle for Berlin, was brought up in communist East Germany, and escaped to the West hours before the Berlin Wall clanked down like an iron curtain. Take his wife Karin, their teenage sons Frank and Uwe and their eight-year-old daughter Gabriella. Toss them, together with dogs, parrots, assorted livestock and a half grown lion called Tommy, into a Land-Rover with 100000km on the clock, and convoy it with a beaten up old Volkswagen. Send them overland from West Germany, through Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Angola, Zambia and Botswana to the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). During their journey Portugal erupts into military and civil rebellion and Angola is wrenched apart by tribal and Marxist private armies scrambling for the spoils of their late colonial masters. What happens is the essence of Peter Stiff’s fantastic second book.

Desription: Tommy Goes Home

Photographs
Foreword. How it all began
A life changing visit to the lion park a Gelsenkirchen
The Försters adopt Tommy the lion
A storm of complaints over Tommy being kept in the Förster's home
Through Germany, France, Spain and Portugal to Lisbon
Our sailing delayed by Portugal's coup
We set sail for Luanda, Angola
Chaos in Luanda Tommy sickens from the heat
We set off west into the interior
Dondo, Santa Comba, Nova Lisboa, Nhanc
Nhanc to Cuemba
Mud all the way
We run out of road and 'bundu bash'
Breakdown at Muhango
We meet UNITA
We entrain at Muhango and head for Luso
I meet UNITA leader Dr Jonas Savimbi at Luso
Luso to Henrique dc Carvalho
Portuguese civilians murdered
Brush with armed UNITA
We bump MPLA who threaten us with death
Tommy saves the day
On the road from Henrique dc Carvalho to Nova Chaves
Another MPLA roadblock and death threat
We arrive at Teixcira x de Sousa
Diamonds offered to recruit mercenaries in Germany
Teixeira de Sousa to Massabi
Brush with Cuban-led rebels
Massabi to Jimbi
More trouble with the MPLA Tommy gets us through
We cross into Zambia
Entry into Rhodesia refused
A temporary spell in Botswana
The Försters and Tommy settle on a farm near Bulawayo
Tommy was home at last in his native Africa