Memoirs of a journalist
2008-09-25
Lise Beyers
FORTY years of turbulent African history has just been released in book form, at the pen of veteran journalist Peter Hawthorne. This fascinating journey, The King’s Eye and John Voster’s Elbow, was launched on Friday evening at a function at the Breytenbach Centre in Wellington. Amongst highlights of Hawthorne’s illustrious career are his chronicles of the countdown to, and the actual first heart transplant in the world, the trial and incarceration of former President Nelson Mandela, and the events which led to his release from prison in 1990. Hawthorne started out as a cub reporter on Fleet Street, London, before heeding the call of Africa. Here he became a stringer for various London newspapers and found his way to the former Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe. That country was then also in the middle of a bloody civil war. An exciting flow of political events in South Africa, pointed Hawthorne’s nose for news in a southerly direction. He soon became a force to be dealt with in the world of journalism and eventually landed one of the most coveted journalistic positions of the time, as bureau chief for Time magazine in South Africa. Many years later, the semi-retired Hawthorne exchanged the hectic city life for the tranquillity of the vineyards and mountains of Wellington. And in this magnificent setting, he has been working on his memoirs which he has published himself. The King’s Eye and John Vorster’s Elbow is a fascinating journey through the modern history of South Africa. It takes an intimate look at the evolution of South African politics, which eventually led to democracy. Hawthorne describes how more than forty years ago he had thought that the most important event in his memoirs would be the hanging of Nelson Mandela. But, fortunately, he recalls, when the doors of the Palace of Justice opened on the final day of the Rivonia Trial on 11 June 1964, the voices echoed, “Life not death! Life not death!” Not only is Hawthorne’s book a mine of important political events such as this, but it also gives the reader a true feeling of what life was like in the bygone years of turmoil. Now at the mature age of seventy-something, Hawthorne is not sitting still quite yet. He often sails into the sunset, delivering talks of his journalistic experiences and the history of the African continent on cruise ships. And even though he covered some of the most important news events in modern times, there are many more which he would have liked to have covered, such as the events of 9/11 and the death of Princess Diana. For a true journalist, he says, wants to be at the heartbeat of breaking world news. “We covered political developments, independence days, rebellions, coups, big-game hunting, floods, drought - anything and everything that was news... famine and war and pestilence and a lot of destruction and death... and if we didn’t get there in time to record it, it was gone forever into Africa’s heart of darkness.”
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