Rain Goddess

by Peter Stiff

This title is an explosive novel set in the highly volatile area of Senga on the North-Eastern border of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) in the mid 1960s and early 1970s. The powerful dram erupts as the British South Africa Police, later joined by the Rhodesian Army and supported by the Air Force, struggle against communist backed guerrillas who use violence and torture to intimidate tribesmen to follow their cause. They fight to restore peace - a peace that is governed as much by force of arms as by the tribesmens' faith in the uncanny predictions of their tribal spirit medium who communes with the spirit of the rain goddess.

Genres: Africa, Fiction

256 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[Kjetil Hvilen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great stuff for anyone interested in Rhodesia and military fiction in general. Too bad it is filled with typos and suffers from other cases of poor proofreading as well.

[Bart · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great read and shows a very interesting part of the Rhodesian Bush War. It shows the terror and suffering of the tribesman and the innocents during the war. The brutal tactics and harsh reality of the war on the ground.
Even though it is a fictional account it reads as true and is very good read. However, for a book named after the Rain Goddess she does not really appear in the book.

[Ruth · Rating 4 out of 5]

"""In the late 1960s to early 1970s Peter Stiff was a senior officer in the British South Africa Police, Rhodesia. Internal insurgency combined with major armed guerrilla incursions from Zambia had commenced, but the government played them down to the public at large. In an effort to maintain public morale/ignorance only the police, and latterly regular army soldiers, were deployed on counter-insurgency operations. The government was determined to avoid casualties amongst young national servicemen.Stiff did not subscribe to the view that the public should be kept in the dark. After resigning his commission in 1972 he wrote The Rain Goddess, a 'fictional' account of the bush war based on his own experiences and those of his former police comrades. It was impossible to write it as non-fiction because this would have carried the sanction of a prosecution under the Official Secrets Act. The Rain Goddess served its intended purpose and alerted an amazed Rhodesian public to the undeclared war then raging on its doorstep. The Rain Goddess was widely recognised as the classic book on the Rhodesian Bush War. "" Bushveld.net
"

[Viking Litespear · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little slow in starting, but an excellent, fictionalized, account of the war in Rhodesia.