Light on a dark canvas: Love and risk in Africa - Wendy Brown

I first met Neville in a chance encounter at a fireworks display when I was a sixteen-year-old schoolgirl. He was a lean and lanky farmer with laughter in his eyes and a warm smile in his strong confident voice. A few weeks later, he shared his dream to have a farm of his own one day. Not just an ordinary run-of-the-mill farm, but one with a large river running through it.

Our parents were surprisingly accepting. "We like him; you can't tell that he is a South African," observed my parents approvingly while Neville's parents said to him, "She's very nice; you wouldn't know that she's English."

In 1967 we moved onto seven thousand acres of virgin bush that went by the name of Chimbada Ranch. It was love at first sight.

Another fourteen years were to pass before Wendy Brown and her husband Neville were able to buy the farm of their dreams,one with all the water and potential they had wanted. More than twenty years later, after the start of Zimbabwe's land invasions, they lost it. Her story gives a firsthand, fresh and sometimes surprising perspective on turbulent times and reveals the beauty of the country, the strength of the community and the resilience of the human spirit.

Through the trauma she discovers that it is possible to lose and yet win, to be defeated and yet triumph, to carry no burden of bitterness and be free to move on. Her story carries the enduring message that courage, caring, love and laughter shine light in the darkest of times. It shows the difference made by tolerance and forgiveness and how life can be celebrated in spite of its blows.