Gandoura

The story of Gandoura travels from England to Zambia and documents the facts about the Lenshina Rebellion, a religious cult formed just before Zambia’s independence, that issued passports to heaven for all their members, but was to end in massacre.


Peter Halley’s life turns to one of vocation when he leaves the army after the Second World War and becomes one of the White Fathers; missionaries to Africa, identifiable by their white gandouras. His childhood in England had been difficult, with the early loss of his mother and his father’s remarriage. There was an expectation that he should join his father as an architect, but the army’s call was stronger.


Becoming a White Father is not easy for someone who has experienced years of reasonable affluence. In giving up all material thoughts of comfort and eschewing the woman he has known since childhood Peter’s faith is truly proved.


He is sent to the mission in Abercorn, at that time in Northern Rhodesia, during a particularly difficult period. The Lenshina Rebellion is in full flow and many local people turn from the Roman Catholic Church to the Lumpa Church. Peter has particular experience of this through Chitalu, a girl who attends the mission school but whose family become followers of Alice Lenshina and the Lumpas.


Against this background the history of the Lenshina Rebellion and the battle of the United National Independence Party to gain independence for Zambia unfold; the characters of the story becoming swept along by these historical events.