Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Discussion about Wilbur Smith's Ballantyne series

Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby masvingo » Fri Apr 29, 2011 3:57 pm

Wilbur Smith uses the Ballantyne novels, particularly Men-of-Men, and Angels weep, to tell the story of Rhodesia. Several of his characters are based on one or more historical figures.

Wilbur Smiths character Fuller Ballantyne marries Hellen Moffat. = The explorer David Livingstone married Mary Moffat.

WS says Zouga Ballantyne is so named because he was born on the banks of the Zouga River. = David and Mary Livingstone’s son William was nick-named Zouga within the family, because he was born on the banks of the Zouga River in 1851.

WS refers to The Zouga River as being in Khama’s Land. = The Zouga is a seasonal river, now known as the Boteti or Botetle, in Botswana. Khama was a tribal chief of the Bamangwato, in what was then Bechuanaland. At independence one of his descendants Seretsi Khama became the 1st President of Botswana. Hence Khama’s land.

WS character Ralph Ballantyne :- 1st Primeminister of Rhodesia, buried beside Rhodes, & Great Grandson of Robert Moffat (Although WS twice refers to Ralph as Robert Moffat’s Grandson. and only once as Great-Grandson)
= Hybrid of two actual people:
Charles Patrick John Coghlan :- 1st Prime minister of Rhodesia, buried beside Rhodes.
Howard Unwin Moffat :- 2nd Primeminister of Rhodesia, Grandson of Robert Moffat.

WS. Zouga writes a book called ‘Hunters Odyssey’. = Fredereck Courtney Selous wrote ‘A hunters wanderings in Africa’

WS. Zouga leads Roosevelt on Safari. = Fredereck Courtney Selous lead Roosevelt on Safari.

WS. Tom Harkness gives Zouga a map to a gold field. = Thomas Baines wrote ‘The Gold fields of South & East Africa’ which contained a map in a pocket in the cover.

WS. Robyn Ballantyne wrote ‘Trooper Hackett of Matabeleland’. = Olive Schreiner wrote ‘Trooper Peter Halket of Mashonaland’.

WS. Jordan Ballantyne becomes secretary to Cecil Rhodes. = Philip Jourdan was secretary to Cecil Rhodes.

WS. Ralph forms a company called Rholands (Rhodesian Lands) = This is obviously a play on Lonrho (London Rhodesian). This shows that Wilbur Smith has a sense of humour as Lonrho was run from 1962 to1993 by Roland Rowland, better known as ‘Tiny’ Rowland.

There are loads of other parallels which I will add as I remember them.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby tedd » Sat Apr 30, 2011 12:35 am

Fantastic Masvingo - that is a very fine analytical answer to the question by Caity in The Courtneys posts.
I have picked out various incidents and characters which relate to some real-life person or incident e.g. Wolhuters knifing of a lion, some of Baines life incidents and Livingstones also but you have done a great job which is worthy of permanent highlighting by the Forum - I look forward to more of this detailed approach.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby Stu » Sun Nov 06, 2011 2:55 pm

In the novels we have the Ballantyne Scouts. In real life there was an elite military unit known as the Selous Scouts.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby Spock » Mon Nov 21, 2011 12:37 pm

I forget which book-but it was the one where Robyn Ballantyne's missionary husband died on the patrol(based on fact). One of the patrol's scouts was named "Burnham" which was the real life name of the scout on that patrol.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby Stu » Wed Nov 23, 2011 2:00 pm

Spock wrote:I forget which book-but it was the one where Robyn Ballantyne's missionary husband died on the patrol(based on fact). One of the patrol's scouts was named "Burnham" which was the real life name of the scout on that patrol.


Yes, the patrol did happen in real life. It was lead by Allen Wilson.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby tedd » Wed Nov 23, 2011 7:21 pm

JeffW's book Sons of Africa also includes this incident and Burnham - the Shangani Patrol as it is known has been the subject of several books and is an interesting read.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby jeffw » Thu Nov 24, 2011 3:35 am

Hi Tedd - Burnham died the year I was born - 1947 - have copy of 'Scouting on Two Continents', signed and dedicated to a friend of his in Burnham's own handwriting. I'm a sucker for nostalgia, keep up the good work and interesting references.
ps. do you recognize the picture behind my ugly mug - hanging on the wall?
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby tedd » Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:54 am

Hi all - Oh yes, I overlooked mentioning the painting that sits on the wall behind JeffW in his profile vignette - it is Wilson's Last Stand by Allan Stewart and is an artist's impression of the last hours of the Shangani Patrol. Jeff has used poetic licence in his book Sons of Africa - there were 33 or 34 killed in the actual battle none of them named Goddard. The three who escaped the massacre comprised two yanks and an Australian - there was much conjecture as to whether they were cowards who left their comrades to their fate.
Another incident (a true one) in Jeff's book refers to the 'gift' of gold sent by Lobengula to Rhodes which was taken possession of by a couple of rogue pioneers - their ending as depicted in Jeff's book is fitting.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby jeffw » Mon Nov 28, 2011 5:32 am

Hi tedd - have written you into my next book; 'Empress Gold'. Will take you out if you think I'm taking liberties. Only good things said. Works really well. Hope you give me the 'thumbs-up'. :lol: If not will delete.
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby tedd » Mon Nov 28, 2011 8:19 pm

A hero at last!!! I must tell my heirs and successors to get hold of JeffW's books now - they're sure to become best sellers - but I think they'll do that without any help from me.
I really enjoyed Sons of Africa - as I said before - it's an original story line and the incidents are original and authentic too - certainly no plagiarism here.
My comments are trivial - I found the book too short, and I think there were too many short chapters too.
At the beginning I thought that there could have been more explanation especially about Goddard Senior being up in Rhodesia - how and why his family managed to 'lose' him up there and had to go looking for him. And also in the first few chapters I thought there were too many similes but this seemed to even out later. My wife has just yelled to me to get moving -I'm just dashing off to have my old age driving test - over 85s have to do them annually here. Wish me luck!! See yah!!
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby tedd » Mon Nov 28, 2011 10:30 pm

Passed - home and hosed!!
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Re: Historical references in Men of Men & Angels Weep

Postby jeffw » Tue Nov 29, 2011 2:04 am

Thanks Tedd - will go ahead - please send email with your real names - improvising at the mo. Oh, and thanks for the pointers. Will try to do a better, more in depth job this time. Hamba gashle! :lol:
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