Debrah Anne Nixon

Wars of the Weavers Debrah Anne Nixon

Wars of the Weavers is Deirdre's memoir. Deirdre was born in Bulawayo in 1965, a week before Prime Minister Ian Smith cut the Rhodesian state's ties with Britain by declaring Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Deirdre is the first of three children born to Beverley who lives with her husband in the house next door to her parents, Nana and Grandpa Weaver. The Weavers are a white Rhodesian family living out their lives in Bulawayo, often gripped by the growing tensions and fears in the land. Beverley, wrapped up in her own problems looks to Grandpa and Nana and to her siblings for the support she needs in raising her children. In the Weaver family, she is the impulsive and irresponsible one; her twin, Dolly, has limited intellectual abilities. Stella is the consistent, stable sister; Dawn, the one with unconventional, rather too-liberal views of the world. Robbie, the young brother is pressured by his father to leave off his reckless, youthful behaviour and volunteer for army service. The small details of family life - its joys, its strains - are played out against the background of the rumbling civil war building in Rhodesia. Socio-political commentary leaks from media broadcasts filtering into the Weaver home, from the bar banter in white social circles and from the ways in which lives are affected and relationships sundered, by the call on white citizens to defend their government's position.